HIST3461

This course is an introduction to the history of East Asia, especially China, Japan, and Korea, from antiquity to 1600. Through lectures and in-class discussions, we will explore major political, economic, social, cultural, religious, and intellectual developments. We will also consider the role of the peoples of the steppes and the Silk Roads in shaping the history of East Asia. The constant movements of people, goods, and ideas connected societies and cultures in East Asia together. At the same time, each developed distinctive historical trajectories with unique traditions. In this light, we will critically reflect on the conceptualization of “East Asia” as a unit of analysis as we traverse between the unifying themes and divergent trends that make the concept of East Asia at once illuminating and problematic. Finally, this course highlights how this seemingly distant premodern history continues to resonate in our times, especially as it is continuously reimagined, reinterpreted, and recreated in popular culture as dramas, movies, graphic novels, animations, and games.

00603

Every Fall