Course Description

This course explores the encounters between China and the world beyond (indeed, the Chinese conceptualization of the “West” has evolved), assessing how different values and perspectives contributed to the various outcomes of historical events. Drawing on textual tradition, material objects, and visual culture, the weekly discussions will cover topics including the trade along the Silk Roads, the introduction of Buddhism and Christianity into China, the Opium War, and China’s modernization. We will also incorporate fieldwork trips into our inquiry. Students will learn to contextualize these cases in world history and consider the goals and perspectives of different historical players. The class will be divided into small groups to discuss or debate on why some cases resulted in a “success” (defined here as the fulfillment of the objectives the actors set out to achieve) and others in conflicts, as well as further hypothesize how different strategies could have contributed to alternative outcomes. The course aims to train students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills through these class activities.

Course Learning Outcomes

On completing the course, students will be able to:

1. Identify and describe important events in the cultural encounters between China and the West.
2. Recognize and explain the factors that had contributed to these cultural encounters.
3. Analyze the impact of these historical events and hypothesize alternative outcomes.
4. Apply the knowledge to their own environment and be able to find traces of cultural encounters in the everyday life of Hong Kong.

Offer Semester and Day of Teaching

First semester (Wed)

• Arkush, R. D., & Lee, L. O. (1989). Land without ghosts: Chinese impressions of America from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Berkeley & Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
• Brook, T. (2008). Vermeer’s hat: the seventeenth century and the dawn of the global world. New York: Bloomsbury Press.
• Fairbank, J. (1966). How to Deal with the Chinese Revolution. The New York Book Review.
• Huntington, S. (1993). The clash of civilizations? Council on Foreign Relations (Summer), 22-49.
• Lovell, J. (2011). Drugs, dreams, and the making of modern China. London: Picador.
• Peterson, W. J. (1994). What to wear? Observation and participation by Jesuit missionaries in late Ming society. In S. Schwartz (Ed.), Implicit understandings: observing, reporting, and reflecting on encounters between Europeans and other peoples in the early modern era (pp. 403-449). Cambridge University Press.
• Peyrefitte, A. (1993). The collision of two civilizations: the British expedition to China 1792-4. New York: Harvill.
• Qin, W. (2001). To the land of bliss. [Film: Documentary]
• Xie, J. (1997). The Opium War. [Film: Drama]

Course Co-ordinator and Teacher(s)