Course Description
A survey of the history of urbanism in East Asia through five cities: Han and Tang Chang’an, Song Kaifeng, Ming-Qing Beijing, and Tokugawa-era Edo, and their transformation into contemporary megacities. Readings will focus on the lives of everyday people, exploring the urban experience through visual and material culture.
Athena Title
East Asian Cities
Prerequisite
Any 2000-level HIST course
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This discussion-driven seminar is an introduction to urbanism and urban life in premodern and modern East Asia. For case studies, we will examine five cities: Han and Tang Chang’an, Song Kaifeng, Ming-Qing Beijing, and Tokugawa-era Edo/Tokyo, and their transformation of the latter two into contemporary megacities. Readings will focus on the lives of everyday people, exploring the urban experience through visual, material, and literary culture. Designed to teach critical thinking skills and the historical method, two analytical essays will require students to closely examine primary sources in translation. A take-home midterm will require students to synthesize the first half of the course material, and a final 10-page paper will require students to do original primary-source research.
Topical Outline
1. Han-dynasty Chang’an: foundations of Chinese urbanism 2. Tang-dynasty Chang’an: cosmopolitanism and the world city 3. Heian’era Kyoto: Chinese templates for the first Japanese city 4. Song-dynasty Kaifeng: the early-modern urban revolution 5. Ming and Qing-dynasty Beijing: imperial megaprojects and everyday life 6. Tokugawa-era Edo: Japanese patterns of urbanism and commercialization 7. Contemporary Beijing: Post-1949 interventions in the urban landscape 8. Contemporary Tokyo: Post-war interventions in the modern megacity