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2020/2021

Modern and Contemporary East Asian History

Code: 101542 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500244 East Asian Studies OB 3 2
2504012 Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Chiao-In Chen
Email:
Chiaoin.Chen@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

Specifically, this subject requires prior knowledge obtained through the following subjects: History of Asia, Premodern History of East Asia.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The purpose of this subject is for students to learn about and analyse the history of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan) from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. The subject covers fundamental historical events, as well as historical and cultural relations and interaction between the countries in question.

Competences

    East Asian Studies
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Developing self-learning strategies.
  • Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  • Following the characteristic code of ethics of the professional practice.
  • Having interpersonal skills.
  • Knowing and comprehending the pre-modern, modern and late modern history of East Asia.
  • Knowing, understanding, describing, analysing, and assessing the history, thought and literature of East Asia.
  • Producing innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Respecting the gender equality.
  • Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups.
  • Working in teams in an international, multilingual and multicultural context.
    Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture
  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Demonstrate skills that facilitate teamworking.
  • Recognise the bases of the history of East Asia in general and China in particular, and interpret the historical and cultural relations and interactions between Europe and Asia.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Use techniques for compilation, organisation and use of information and documentation with precision.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Describe, analyse and valorise the history, thought and literature of East Asia.
  2. Develop critical thought and reasoning and know how to communicate them effectively in both your own and in a third language.
  3. Develop strategies for autonomous learning.
  4. Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  5. Developing self-learning strategies.
  6. Ensure quality standards for your own work.
  7. Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  8. Evaluate the result obtained in the process of searching for documentation and information and to update knowledge of the history, literature, language, thought and art.
  9. Explain the explicit or implicit code of practice of one's own area of knowledge.
  10. Following the characteristic code of ethics of the professional practice.
  11. Having interpersonal skills.
  12. Identify and describe the processes and events of pre-modern, modern and contemporary history.
  13. Identify the need to mobilise cultural knowledge to be able to translate.
  14. Know and understand the pre-modern, modern and contemporary history of East Asia.
  15. Knowing and comprehending the pre-modern, modern and late modern history of East Asia.
  16. Knowing, understanding, describing, analysing, and assessing the history, thought and literature of East Asia.
  17. Make document searches in the languages of East Asian countries.
  18. Possess interpersonal skills.
  19. Producing innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  20. Recognise the need to mobilise cultural knowledge to be able to interpret.
  21. Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  22. Respecting the gender equality.
  23. Use different tools for specific purposes in the field of history.
  24. Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups.
  25. Working in teams in an international, multilingual and multicultural context.

Content

I: Modern History in Asia. Introduction

Topic 1. China: Qing Dynasty (1644-1842)

Topic 2. Japan: Togukawa authority (1534-1868)

Topic 3. Korea and Taiwan:

  •  Korea: Joseon Dynasty (1394-1720)
  •  Taiwan: Ming Dynasty and the government of the Qing Dynasty

II: Occidental Imperialism in Asia and its influence in each country

Topic 4. China Nineteenth Century (1850-1900):

  •  The Opium Wars and the Manchu monarchy reforms
  •  The peasant rebellions (the Taiping, Boxer and Nien)

Topic 5. Japan Nineteenth Century (1868-1910):

  •  Meiji Ishi, the modernization of Japan and the Japanese imperialism

Topic 6. Korea and Taiwan under the Japanese imperialism ruling

 III: Nationalism in East Asia (Great War) and the Bolshevik influence

Topic 7. China twentieth century:

  •  The Self-Strengthening Movement and the collapse of the Qing dynasty.
  •  The 1911 Revolution and the Republic: chaos and failure.
  •  The Movement of 1919 and the Age of the Warlords (1920-1930).

IV: Between Wars

Topic 8. China Twentieth Century:

  •  Two Chinas: Chinese Guomindang (GMD) China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) until the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
  •  The coalition front against Japan GMD and CCP.

Topic 9. Japan Twentieth Century:

  •  Japan between 1920 and 1941: the advance on Manchuria, the development of Japanese fascism and Japanese imperial plan.

V: The Second World War in Asia (1937-1945)

Topic 10. The Second World War in China

Topic 11. The Second World War in Japan, Korea and Taiwan

VII: Cold War (1947-1991)

Topic 12. The Second Chinese Civil War (1946-1949)

Topic 13. The Korean War (1950-1953)

Topic 14. China Maoism (1949-1976):

  •  Installation of the People's Republic of China (1949-1952)
  •  The first Five-Year Plan (1953-1957)
  •  The Hundred Flowers Campaign (1956-1957)
  •  The Great Leap Forward (1958-1965)
  •  The Cultural Revolution (1965-1976)

Topic 15. Japan and Korea (1952-1989):

  •  Economic development and political stability
  •  South Korea: the dictatorship of Park Chung-hee (1962-1979)
  •  North Korea: Kim Il-sung (1948-1994)

Topic 16. Vietnam and Taiwan (1955-1988):

  •  Vietnam War (1955-1975)
  •  Taiwan: the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek (1949-1975) and Chiang Jingguo (1975-1988).

VIII: From the end of the Cold War in Asia until today (1991 -present)

Topic 17. China's post-maoism:

  •  The Limits of reformism of Deng Xiaoping (1979-1997) and the events of Tiananmen (1989)
  •  The China Jiang Zeming (1993-2003)
  •  Hu Jintao and the departure of the socialist market economy (2003-2013)

Topic 18. South Korea and Taiwan from the 90's:

  •  The Asian economic crisis (1997)
  •  The struggles on the street: the process of democratization in South Korea and Taiwan.

Topic 19. Japan from the 80's:

  •  The financial and real estate bubble (1980-1990)
  •  The long economic recovery
  •  The earthquake disaster and Fukushima nuclear crisis (2011)

Methodology

- Lectures.

- Debates and discussions.

- Reading and understanding historical texts.

- Learning to compile historical information.

- Conducting reviews and drafting analytical papers.

- Individual study.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 50 2 10, 15, 16, 4, 19, 21, 22, 11, 25, 24, 7
Type: Supervised      
Exercise, essays, tutorials 25 1 15, 16, 5, 3, 4, 19, 21, 7
Type: Autonomous      
Study, papers reading 63 2.52 10, 8, 15, 14, 16, 1, 5, 4, 2, 9, 19, 12, 13, 20, 21, 23, 7

Assessment

Assessment is continuous. Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing tasks and tests. Task deadlines will be indicated in the course schedule on the first day of class. All activity deadlines are indicated in the subject's schedule and must be strictly adhered to.

- Exams: 30% 

- Group assignment: 40% 

- Individual assignment: 30%

Related matters 

The above information on assessment, assessment activities and their weighting is merely a guide. The subject's lecturer will provide full information when teaching begins. 

Review 

When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer. 

Missed/failed assessment activities 

Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for. 

The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities. 

Classification as "not assessable" 

In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript. 

Misconduct in assessment activities 

Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the students involved will be given a finalmark of “0” for the subject. 

Students may not retake assessment activities in which they are found to have engaged in misconduct. Plagiarism is considered to mean presenting all or part of an author's work, whether published in print or in digital format, as one's own, i.e. without citing it. Copying is considered to mean reproducing all or a substantial part of another student's work. In cases of copying in which it is impossible to determine which of two students has copied the work of the other, both will be penalised. 

More information: http://www.uab.cat/web/study-abroad/undergraduate/academic-information/evaluation/what-is-it-about-1345670077352.html

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Exams 30% 4 0.16 10, 8, 15, 14, 16, 1, 5, 4, 2, 9, 19, 12, 23, 7
Group assignment 40% 2 0.08 10, 8, 15, 14, 16, 1, 5, 4, 2, 9, 17, 19, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 11, 18, 25, 24, 23
Individual assignment 30% 6 0.24 10, 15, 16, 5, 3, 19, 21, 23, 7, 6

Bibliography

GENERAL

-          CHESNEAUX, J.: Asia Oriental en los siglos XIX-XX, Editorial Labor, Nueva Clío, 1977.

-          HOLCOMBE, C.: A History of East Asia, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

CHINA

-          BELTRÁN ANTOLÍN, J.: Los ocho inmortales cruzan el mar. Chinos en Extremo Occidente, Edicions Bellaterra, Barcelona, 2003.

-          BOLINAGA, I.: La China de Mao. Del mito a Tiananmen, Anaya, Madrid, 2013.

-          BREGOLAT, E.: La segunda revoluión china, Destino, Barcelona, 2007.

-          CHESNAUX, J. y BASTID, M.: China. De las Guerras del Opio a la Guerra franco-china, 1840-1885, Vicens Vives, Barcelona, 1972. 

-          ESHERICK, J. W.: The Origins of the Boxer Uprising, University of California Press, 1987.

-          ESTEBAN RODRÍGUEZ, M.: China después de Tian’anmen. Nacionalismo y cambio político, Edicions Bellaterra, Barcelona, 2007.

-          FISAC, T. y TSANG, S. (eds): China en trasición. Sociedad, cultura, política y economía, Edicions Bellaterra, Barcelona, 2000.

-          GELBER, H.: El dragón y los demonios extranjeros. China y el mundo a lo largo de la historia, RBA, Barcelona, 2008.

-          GERNET, J.: El mundo chino, Crítica, Barcelona, 2005.

-          GUILLERMAZ, J.: Historia de Partido Comunista Chino, Ediciones Península, Barcelona, 1970.

-          KAROL, K. S.: La Xina de Mao, Materials, Barcelona, 1967.

-          MACFARQUHAR, R. y SCHOENHALS, M.: La revolución cultural china, Crítica, Barcelona, 2009.

-          OLLÉ, M.: Made in China. El despertar social, político y cultural de la China contemporánea, Destino, Barcelona, 2005.

-          MORENO GARCÍA, J.: Historia del mundo Contemporáneo, Akal, Madrid, 1994.

-          SCHIROKAUER, C y BROWN, M.: Breve historia de la civilización china, Edicions Bellaterra, Barcelona, 2006.

-          SNOW, E.: China: la larga revolución, Alianza, Madrid, 1974.

-          SPENCE, J. D.: En busca de la China moderna, Tusquets Editores, Barcelona, 2011.

-          RÍOS, X.: China pide paso. De Hu Jintao a Xi Jinping, Icaria, Barcelona, 2012.

JAPAN

-          BEASLEY, W. G.: La restauración Meiji, Editorial Satori, Gijón, 2007.

-          CHARTRAND, R.: Japanese War Art and Uniforms, 1853-1930, Schiffer, 2011.

-          HANE, M.: Breve historia de Japón, Alianza, Madrid, 2011.

-          GORDON, A.: A Modern History of Japan. From Tokugawa Time to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2009.

-          GOTO-JONES, C.: Modern Japan. A very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2009.

-          HENSHALL, K.: A History of Japan. From Stone Age to Superpower, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

-          JUNQUERAS I VIES, O., MADRID I MORALES, D., MARTÍNEZ TABERNER, G., PITARCH FERNÁNDEZ, P.: Història de Japó, UOC, Barcelona, 2011.

-          KINGSTON, J.: Contemporary Japan. History, Politics and the Social change since the 1980s, Blackwell Publish, 2011.

-          KINGSTON, M.: The New Asia Hemisphere, Public Affairs, New York, 2008.

-          MIMURA, J.: Planning for Empire. Reform Bureaucrats and the Japanese Wartime State, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2011.

-          MUTEL, J.: Japón, El fin del shogunato y el Japón Meiji, 1853-1912, Vicens Vives, Barcelona, 1972.

-          SCHIROKAUER, C., LURIE, D. y GAY, S.: Breve historia de la civilización japonesa, Edicions Bellaterra, 2006.

KOREA

-          CUMINGS, B.: Korea´s place in the sun. A modern history, Norton, New York y London, 1997.

-          FEFFER, J: Corea deNorte, Corea de Sur, RBA, Barcelona, 2004.

-          HALBERTAM, D.: La Guerra Olvidada. Una historia de la Guerra de Corea, Crítica, Barcelona, 2008.

-          KIM, Djun-kil: The History of Korea, Greenwood Press, Wesport, Connecticut & London, 2005.

-          PRATT, K.: Everlasting Flower. A History of Korea, Reaktion Books, London, 2006.

-          YANG, E.: Corea. Historia de un proceso de reunificación, Catarata, Madrid, 2007.

TAIWAN

-          LU, Y.: Taiwan, Historia, política e identidad, Edicions Bellaterra, Barcelona, 2010.

-          RÍOS, X.: Taiwán, el problema de China, Catarata, Madrid, 2005.