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History of Asia

Code: 101520 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500244 East Asian Studies FB 1
2504012 Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture FB 1

Contact

Name:
Josep Puigsech Farrās
Email:
josep.puigsech@uab.cat

Teachers

Chiao-In Chen Hsieh
Miguel Angel del Rio Morillas

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

None.


Objectives and Contextualisation

'History of Asia' is a subject that formed part of: East Asian Studies bachelor's degree program and Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture bachelor's degree program. This subject contains six ECTS credits. It focuses on historical and cultural interaction between Europe and Asia and the main social and cultural processes derived therefrom. The course examines the foundations of the discipline of history, historical and cultural relations and interaction in Asia, and the main social processes and cultural phenomena.


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.
  • Having interpersonal skills.
  • Knowing and using the information and communication technology resources (ICT) in order to collect, produce, analyse and present information related to the East Asian Studies.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
  • Students must know and comprehend the pre-modern, modern and late modern world history, especially the Asian history.
    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.
  • Demonstrate the capacity to work autonomously, engaging in self-analysis and self. Criticism.
  • 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 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.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Assessing the obtained results in the information search process in order to update the knowledge about history.
  2. Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
  3. Demonstrate knowledge of the key concepts and theoretical frameworks of history.
  4. Demonstrating knowledge about key concepts and theoretical frameworks of history.
  5. Develop critical thought and reasoning and know how to communicate them effectively in both your own and in a third language.
  6. Develop strategies for autonomous learning.
  7. Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  8. Developing self-learning strategies.
  9. Ensure quality standards for your own work.
  10. Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  11. 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.
  12. Explain the explicit or implicit code of practice of one's own area of knowledge.
  13. Having interpersonal skills.
  14. Identify and describe the processes and events of modern and contemporary history.
  15. Identify and describe the processes and events of modern and contemporary history.
  16. Identifying and describing the modern and late modern historical processes and events.
  17. Identifying and describing the pre-modern historical processes and events.
  18. Possess interpersonal skills.
  19. Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  20. Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
  21. Use basic terminology for history.
  22. Use different tools for specific purposes in the field of history.
  23. Using different tools for specific purposes in the field of history.
  24. Using the basic terminology of history.
  25. Weigh up the impact of any long- or short-term difficulty, harm or discrimination that could be caused to certain persons or groups by the actions or projects.

Content

Introduction. What is history? Historical science. The construction of the social demand of an awareness of the past. The evolution of historiography. The story in the contemporary world: between legitimating narrative and academic discipline.

1. Asia? Europe? Relativity of geographical and political concepts. A brief introduction of how the Asia world was seeing through the Europocentric lens. The interpretation and understanding of how Western world have learned Asia History until nowadays.

2. The major Asian cultures and civilizations before European arrival. Introduction to Asian different scenarios: China and India.

3. Fascination East. Traders, travelers, adventurers and pirates: between literature and hunger of economic expansion. Eastern European myths about reality. The real presence of East West.

4. The European attack on Asia (XVI-XVIII). Europeans and the Silk Road. Colonialism and imperialism. From private companies to public conquests.The first missionaries in Japan and China.

5. China, Japan and India (XVI-XIX Centuries). China: Ming (1368-1644), Qing (1644-1911) and the Opium Wars. Japan: Tokugawa (1600-1868) and the Meiji Regim (1868-1912). India: Mughal dynasty to the British Raj (1526-1858).

6. East Asia in the XX century. The founding of the Republic of China (1912); the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945); Japan: from the Taishō era to fascist Japan (1912-1945).


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Classes led by professor 45 1.8 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 24
Type: Supervised      
Exercises prescribed learning 5 0.2 5, 7, 9, 10, 20, 23, 24
Reporting, practices and work 15 0.6 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 21, 23, 24, 25
Type: Autonomous      
Individual study and reading of texts. Writing papers. Preparation of oral comments and seminars. Research Bibliographic information 75 3 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 24

This subject mainly involves lectures, reading and understanding historical texts, learning to compile historical information, conducting reviews and drafting analytical papers, and individual study. All activity deadlines are indicated in the subject's schedule and must be strictly adhered to.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Integrate Project 30% 2 0.08 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 16, 17, 24, 25
Practical History Tasks 40% 6 0.24 1, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24
Writting exams 30% 2 0.08 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24

Continuous assessment

Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing various tasks and tests. These activities are detailed in the table at the end of this section of the Study Guide.

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.

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. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for. In case of retaking, maximum grade will be 5.

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 student involved will be given a final mark of “0” for the subject. Assessment activities in which irregularities have occurred (e.g. plagiarism, copying, impersonation) are excluded from recovery.

Activities:(Comprehensive project: 30%; Written tests: 30%; Historical practical work: 40%)

Single assessment

This subject may be assessed under the single assessment system in accordance with the terms established in the academic regulations of the UAB and the assessment criteria of the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.

Students must make an online request within the period established by the faculty and send a copy to the teacher responsible for the subject, for the record.

Single assessment will be carried out in person on one day during week 16 or 17 of the semester. The Academic Management Office will publish the exact date and time on the faculty website.

On the day of the single assessment, teaching staff will ask the student for identification, which should be presented as a valid identification document with a recent photograph (student card, DNI/NIE or passport).

Single assessment activities

The final grade for the subject will be calculated according to the following percentages:

Written test (develop concepts), 30%; quiz, 30%; work with exposition, 40%.

Grade revision and resit procedures for the subject are the same as those for continual assessment. See the section above in this study guide.


Bibliography

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY

HOLCOMBE, Charles, Una historia de Asia Oriental. De los orígenes de la civilización al siglo XXI, Ciudad de México, Fondo de Cultura Econónimca, 2016.
KRUGMAN, Paul, El internacionalismo "moderno". La economía internacional y las mentiras de la competitividad, Barcelona, Crítica, 1997.
LIVI-BACCI, Massimo, Historia mínima de la población mundial, Barcelona, Ariel, 1990.
RODINSON, Maxime, Islam y capitalismo, Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1973.
SCHIROKAUER, Conrad & BROWN, Miranda, Breve historia de la civilización china, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra, 2006.
SCHIROKAUER, Conrad, LURIE, David & GAY, Suzanne; Breve historia de la civilización japonesa, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra, 2014.
SELLIER, Jean, Atlas de los pueblos del Asia meridional y oriental, Barcelona, Paidós, 2002.
TAKAHASHI, Hachiroemon Koachiro, Del feudalismo al capitalismo. Problemas de la Transición, Barcelona, Crítica, 1986.

PERSPECTIVES AND VISIONS OF THE WORLD BETWEEN THE EAST AND THE WEST

GOLDEN, Seán, Multilateralismo versus unilateralismo en Asia: el peso internacional de los 'valores asiáticos', Barcelona, Ediciones CIDOB, 2004.
LACH, Donald F., Asia in the making of Europe, Chicago, University of Chicago Press (3 vols.), 1970-1994.
LOUI, Kam, "Los valores asiáticos y la internacionalización del confucianismo", en Seán Golden, ed., Multilateralismo versus unilateralismo en Asia: el peso internacional de los 'valores asiáticos', Barcelona, Ediciones CIDOB, pp. 173-195, 2004.
SAID, Edward W., Orientalismo, Barcelona, Debate, 2002 [ed.revisada 1997].

ASIA UNTIL THE 18TH CENTURY

GRUNEBAUM, G.E., Von, El Islam. Desde los orígenes hasta el comienzo del Imperio otomano, Madrid, SigloXXI, 1989.
GRUNEBAUM, G.E.,Von, El Islam. Desde la caída de Constantinopla hasta nuestros días, Madrid, Siglo XXI,1990.
HAMBLY, Gavin, Asia central, Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1977.
HANE, Mikiso, Breve historia del Japón, Madrid, Alianza, 2000.
KAMENAROVIC, Ivan P., La Chine Classique, París, Les Belles Lettres, 2002.
KENNEDY, Hugh, Las grandes conquistas árabes, Barcelona, Crítica. 2007.
LEE, Thomas H.C., ed., China and Europe. Images and influences in sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, Hong Kong, The Chinese University Press, 1991.
MAALOUF, Amin; Les Croades vistes pels àrabs, Barcelona, Edicions de 1984, 2000.
METCALF, Barbara & Thomas, Historia de la India, Cambrigde University Press, 2003.
VILLIERS, John, Asia sudoriental. Antes de la época colonial, Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1980.

WESTERN IMPERIALISM AND THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT IN THE CONTEMPORARY ERA

BRENDON, Piers; The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997, London, Vintage Books, 2007.
FIELDHOUSE, David K., Los imperios coloniales desde el siglo XVIII, Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1984.
HEADRICK, Daniel R., Los instrumentos del imperio. Tecnología e imperialismo europeo en el siglo XIX, Madrid, Alianza,1989.
HOBSBAWM, Eric., Historia del Siglo XX, Barcelona, Crítica, 1995.
JUDD, Denis; EmpireThe British Imperial Experience from 1765 to the Present, London, Phoenix, 1996.
MARTÍNEZ CARRERAS, J.U.; Historia de la descolonización, 1919-1986: las independenciasde Asia y África, Madrid, Istmo, 1987.
MOMMSEN, Wolfgang J., La Época del Imperialismo. Europa, 1885-1918, Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1971.


Software

No software will be used. 


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan/Spanish first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 2 Catalan/Spanish first semester morning-mixed