Meeting Times Supplemental Readings Main Texts Requirements Topics Resources Note on Academic Integrity
Room M T W2 Th F Bev 125 10:15 - 11:40 9:35 - 11:00 8:00 - 9:15 12:20 - 1:45 8:00 - 9:25
Ian Buruma, Inventing Japan: 1853-1964 (New York: Modern Library, 2004)
Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Thunder From the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia (New York: Knopf, 2000)
James Kynge, China Shakes the World: A Titan’s Rise and Troubled Future – And the Challenge for America (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
1. Overview and Context
The 1997 economic crisis: causes, impact and aftershocks
Chinese civilization as a pillar of East Asian societies
Countries surveyed: China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Thailand, the Koreas, Taiwan
2. East Asia "Yesterday and Today"
Society, culture, ethos, recent history
3. Focus: Japan
1800s to the present: in 2007 the world's second largest economy
4. Focus: China
From Communism to "Leninist Corporatism" (Hutton) and rapid growth
5. Challenges
Treatment of women, environmental degradation, corruption, autocracy
6. Conclusions
(Accessible via ProQuest only through NMH Library on NMH Virtual Desktop)
Asia (General) North Korea China South Korea India Taiwan Japan
"America's Fear of China," and "Lost in Translation: China and U.S. Trade," both articles from the Economist, May 19, 2007
David Brooks, "Follow the Fundamentals," New York Times Op-Ed piece, Nov. 27, 2007
"Peace Breaking Out (Japan and China)," The Economist, April 7, 2007
"Gold From the Storm" (on the 1997 Asian economic crash), The Economist, June 30, 2007
Kent Calder, "China and Japan's Simmering Rivalry," Foreign Affairs, Mar/Apr, 2006
Victor D. Cha, "Winning Asia: Washington's Untold Success Story," Foreign Affairs, Nov.-Dec., 2007
James Fallows, "Be Nice to the Countries that Lend You Money," The Atlantic Online, December, 2008 -- A Chinese banker advises Americans to begin living within their means.
"Leapfrogging or Piggybacking: Technology in China and India," The Economist, Nov. 10, 2007
Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press, "Superiority Complex, The Atlantic Monthly, Jul/Aug, 2007 (on a possible nuclear arms race between the U.S. and China)
Somini Sengupta, "A Bump in India-U.S. Rapport: Defining 'Ally,'" New York Times, Aug. 23, 2007
BBC Profile of Shanghai (May 7, 2007)
"A Workers' Manifesto for China," The Economist, Oct. 13, 2007
"Beware of Demob," The Economist, Nov. 10, 2007 (on social unrest in China sparked by veterans of the armed forces)
Gordon Chang, "China After 30 Years of Reform," Forbes (four part article posted Dec. 19, 2008)
"China," National Geographic Magazine, May, 2008 -- Special issue devoted entirely to China
"China's Great Game in Asia, The Economist, March 31, 2007
"China's Next Revolution," The Economist, March 10, 2007
"Confucius Makes a Comeback," The Economist, May 19, 2007
Rowan Callick, "The China Model," The American Online, Nov/Dec, 2007
Joseph T. Chen, "The May Fourth Movement Redefined," Modern Asia Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 1970
Elizabeth C. Economy, "The Great Leap Backward?," Foreign Affairs, Sep/Oct, 2007 (on environmental degradation in China)
James Fallows, "China Makes, the World Takes," Atlantic Monthly, Jul/Aug, 2007
Elaine Kurtenbach, "China's Tallest Building is Topped Out," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept. 16, 2007
David M. Lampton, "The Faces of Chinese Power," Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb, 2007
John Lee, "China's Syndrome of Lawless Growth," The Australian, Oct. 20, 2007
Mark Leonard, "China's New Intelligentsia," Prospect, March, 2008
Louis Menand, "Chaos Under Heaven," The New Yorker, Mar. 12, 2007 (review of a new book on President Nixon's 1972 trip to China
"Nanking Massacre" (primary source document), Paul Halsall, Modern History Sourcebook
Ross Terrill, "In Beijing, Orwell Goes to the Olympics," New York Times Op-Ed Piece, Aug. 22, 2007
"The Mandate of Heaven" (excerpts from the Shu Jing)
Mao Tse-Tung, Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan (March, 1927)
Tony Saich, "China in 2006: Focus on Social Development," Asian Survey, Jan/Feb, 2007
On the voyages of Zheng He, see: Nicholas Kristof, "1492: The Prequel," New York Times Magazine, June 6, 1999 (PDF format) See also Kristof-WuDunn, chp. 2.
Ashton Carter, "America's New Strategic Partner?,"Foreign Affairs, July/August, 2006
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, "India's Middle Class Failure," Prospect, Sept., 2007
Gurcharan Das, "The India Model," Foreign Affairs, July/August, 2006
Gurcharan Das, "The Next World Order," (Op-Ed piece) New York Times, Jan. 1, 2009
Sumit Ganguly, "Will Kashmir Stop India's Rise?," Foreign Affairs, July/August, 2006
Pankaj Mishra, "Impasse in India," New York Review of Books, vol. 54, no.11, June 28, 2007
C. Raja Mohan, "India and the Balance of Power," Foreign Affairs, July/August, 2006
Martha C. Nussbaum, "Fears for Democracy in India," The Chronicle Review, May 18, 2007
Rowan Callick, "Make Way for Japan," The American, Jul/Aug, 2007
"No Comfort for Abe," The Economist, March 10, 2007
Keiji Hirano, "Japan Launches Digital Museum on 'Comfort Women,'" Kyodo News and BBC, Sept. 16, 2007
Joichi Ito, "In Japan, Stagnation Wins Again," New York Times Op-Ed piece, Sept. 18, 2007
"Nanking Massacre" (primary source document), Paul Halsall, Modern History Sourcebook
Norimitsu Onishi, "Why the Jury is Still Out," New York Times, Sept. 17, 2007
Gene Park and Steven Vogel, "Japan in 2006: A Political Transition," Asian Survey, Mar/Apr, 2007
Articles on Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa
Peter Hogue, The Kurosawa Story, Film Comment, Jan. - Feb., 1999, vol. 35, no.1
Michael Wilmington, Akira Kurosawa: 1910-1998, Film Comment, Jan. - Feb., 1999, vol. 35, no. 1
Online Guide to Seven Samurai Read at least the "Introduction" and the "Film Notes," Part IV.
The Koreas: "It'll cost you," The Economist, Oct. 6, 2007
"Pyongyangology: North Korea," The Economist, July 7, 2007
Andrew Scobell, "Notional North Korea," Parameters, Spring, 2007
"Subprime but Booming: North Korea," The Economist, Nov. 24, 2007
The Koreas: "It'll cost you," The Economist, Oct. 6, 2007
Jongryn Mo, "What does South Korea Want?," Policy Review, Apr-May, 2007
North-South Summit (Oct. 2007)
Bruce Cumings, "Kim Jong-il Confronts Bush and Wins," ZNet, Oct. 23, 2007
Gavan McCormack, "North Korea and the Birth Pangs of a New Northeast Asian Order, ZNet, Nov. 5, 2007
Yun-Han Chu, "Taiwan in 2006: A Year of Political Turmoil," Asian Survey, Jan/Feb, 2007
"Taiwan President Says UN Referendum Will Not Change National Title," BBC, Sept. 15, 2007
Requirements (see also Policies and Evaluation Criteria)
1. Participation in class discussions and other activities, such as debates, news reports, and responses to films (20%).
2. Readings in texts (see Active Reading Guide), reading notes, and frequent writings (in class and for homework) based on readings. You will be called upon often to read from your writings and reading notes as they will serve as the basis for the day's discussions. You must bring assigned materials to class. Texts will be read in the following order: Kristof and WuDunn, Buruma, Kynge.
3. Periodic short unit papers (1-2 pp.): focused, directed pieces the aim of which is to check your understanding of readings, discussions, and films.
4. A Book Review.
5. Successful completion of a Term Essay: independent work on an approved topic of choice within the bounds of the course that will include research throughout the term, oral reports to the class, a shorter (initial) paper on your topic, and a six to ten page research paper (20% of final grade). See Term Essay page for deadlines and complete information.
6. Command of recent regional history and current events and trends (See Historical Highlights) as demonstrated in an open book exam during the final week of the course (5%).
IMPORTANT NOTES APPLYING TO WORK SUBMITTED IN THE COURSE:
1. Review the material on "Academic Integrity" in the School Handbook, especially the paragraph on "Plagiarism." Documentation (footnoting - click here to review how to construct footnotes ) is your most effective safeguard against charges of plagiarism. Train yourself never to cut and paste material from computer files, with the exception of the occasional direct quotation (which should always be surrounded by quotation marks and footnoted). Material you take from other sources and paraphrase (render in your own words) must also be footnoted. A good benchmark to use is to insert a footnote after every quotation and insert at least one footnote per paragraph.
2. Use only web material from universities, published journals, and other sources that have undergone rigorous editing or peer review and that are widely recognized in academic circles for quality scholarship and authority. You may not use Wikipedia as a cited source in any papers submitted in this course (more on this in class). A final reason to be careful about documentation (footnoting and bibliography) is that it authenticates your evidence and lends authority to your paper: i.e. it proves that you did not just make up your evidence; you got it from expert sources. The more expert those sources are, the more authority, weight, and persuasiveness your own paper will carry.
