Office Hours, 706 Kaneff Tower: Tuesdays 11:00 AM-12:00 or by appt.

This course examines the modern evolution of Asian countries with special emphasis on imperialism and the rise of nationalism. With distinctive political, cultural, and socio-economic traditions, Asian countries shared the experience of western imperialism’s expansionist pressures. Those traditions helped mold the varieties of nationalistic responses to that intrusion, culminating in the independence struggles which, in the post-1945 era, created the modern nation states of today’s Asia. The three stages - traditional paradigms, imperialism’s influence, and nationalism’s struggles - provide the framework for our survey of modern Asian history.

You may purchase these texts through Amazon.ca or other book sellers. PDF versions of all the readings are posted on E class.

Borthwick, Mark, Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia,
(3rd ed., Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998).
Chang, Iris, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
(New York: Penguin, 1991).
Strunk, William Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition
(New York: Pearson Longman, 1999).

All articles are available through Eclass or through the York University Library databases such as Jstor, Proquest, Scholars Portal, or other databases.

Assignment 1 Secondary Source Review 500 5 %
Assignment 2 Primary Source Review 800 10%
Fall Exam Identifications and Short Essay 800 20%
Assignment 3 Historiographic Debate 1000 15%
Assignment 4 Review Essay 1000 15%
Winter Exam Identifications and Short Essay 800 20%
Tutorial Participation 15%

The lectures provide overviews of various trends throughout the history of modern Asia. There are two hours of formal lecture per week that supplements your readings in the course textbook, Borthwick’s Pacific Century (online), as well as other books and articles. In weekly tutorials, we discuss the content of lectures and assigned readings.

All written work will be evaluated on the content and the quality of the writing. Please submit double-spaced, printed copies of your assignments to your tutorial leader on their due dates. As a rule, late work will not be accepted except in cases of DOCUMENTED medical or family emergency.

The course will provide critical reading, writing, and analytical skills as well as refine oral and written communication.

Description of Assignments

1. Secondary Source Analysis of the Indian Rebellion of 1857: Given a secondary source chapter and two cartoons published in Punch magazine in 1857, analyze the role of “Victorian women” in the formation of “British India.” Limit: 500 words.
2. Primary Source Analysis of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and Boxer Rebellion (1900-1901): Write brief analyses of the Treaty of Shimonoseki and the Boxer Protocol. Please write no more than 400 words concerning each reading. Limit: 800 words.

3. Historiographic Debate: You will write a critical analysis of Iris Chang’s Rape of Nanking, examining the content and nature of the main debates concerning her work as well as the perspectives of her academic critics, Joshua Fogel and Daqing Yang. Please conclude with your own assessment. Limit: 1000 words.

4. Review Essay: You will write an essay that reviews secondary sources on a topic of your choosing concerning a historiographic debate regarding modern Asia. Please include a bibliography. Limit: 1000 words for essay, no word limit on bibliography.