Postgraduate Course: The Introduction of 'Political Economy' into China and Japan, c.1850-1950 (PGHC11343)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Postgraduate (History, Classics and Archaeology) |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The course is designed primarily as an option for students taking the MSc in Intellectual History, but it is also open to students from other MSc programmes in the College of Humanities and Social Science, including part-time and visiting students.
This course will explore the process by which concepts of Western political economy were introduced into China and Japan in the late 19th and early 20th century, focussing on the translation of key political economy texts, the respective institutional settings for the dissemination of new concepts, and the resulting different economic paradigms in both countries in comparison. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | No |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
After successfully completing the course, students will be able to:
* demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the most important issues and themes in Chinese and Japanese intellectual history of the late 19th and early 20th century, especially in the field of political economy;
* independently identify and pursue research topics;
* exhibit an understanding of different conceptual approaches to the study of intellectual history;
* analyze and contextualize primary source material;
* arrive at independent, well-argued, well-documented and properly referenced conclusions in their coursework essay;
* demonstrate their skills in group discussion and oral presentations;
* demonstrate their written skills, their analytical and theoretical skills in coursework.
* prepare and present their work in seminars and workshops.
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Assessment Information
| Following School practice in the assessment of MSc courses, assessment will involve a paper of 3000 words. The essay will count for 80% of the final mark. Non-written skills will also be assessed, providing 20% of the final mark (10% for a presentation; 10% for contribution to classroom discussions). |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
By studying the introduction of concepts of Western political economy into China and Japan during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, students will develop an understanding of the globalization of ideas during the first wave of globalization. Given the importance of debates about economic development in the making of modern East Asian states, studying this process will also give students an increased understanding of the emergence of China and Japan as modern states. The course's focus on the respective translation and adaptation processes will allow students to question to what extent Western concepts are applicable to non-Western contexts, and to study the relationship between language and content with regard to concepts of political economy.
Since the course is largely thematic and structured along key themes in history and historiography, students are expected to acquire 'foundational' knowledge of East Asian history during the period under study, through general literature that will be identified for them. There is no non-English language requirement for this course; issues of translation will be studied through secondary literature, and by reading English-language translations of the works of Chinese and Japanese economists (cf. Bailey 1998 as an example). Methodologically, the course will focus on historiography and primary sources, developing the students' ability to contextualise the events and to hone their skills at employing and dissecting primary sources. The course will also familiarize students with the current methodological debates in the field of the transnational history of ideas.
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| Syllabus |
The course is designed primarily as an option for students taking the MSc in Intellectual History, but it is also open to students from other MSc programmes in the College of Humanities and Social Science, including part-time and visiting students.
1.Introduction: Translating Concepts of Political Economy
2.Theory 1: State and Economy
3.Theory 2: Protectionism and Free Trade
4.China 1: 'A Strategy to Make the Country Rich and Nourish the People': Western economics and late imperial Chinese statecraft
5.Japan 1: the Meiji Revolution and the influx of new ideas
6.Discussion of student paper outlines
7.China 2: Economic rhetoric and the Nationalist revolution: economics and Han nationalism
8.Japan 2: Economics of empire
9.China 3: China and the world economy after the Great Depression: protectionism, state-led economic development and nationalization
10.Japan 3: Statism and the War Economy
11. Presentation of student papers
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| Transferable skills |
On completion of the course, students will have the ability to:
o independently identify and pursue research topics;
o analyze and contextualize primary source material;
o arrive at independent, well-argued, well-documented and properly referenced conclusions in their coursework essay;
o demonstrate their skills in group discussion and oral presentations;
o demonstrate their written skills, their analytical and theoretical skills in coursework.
o prepare and present their work in seminars and workshops.
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| Reading list |
Indicative Bibliography
- Paul Bailey, Strengthen the country and enrich the people: the reform writings of Ma Jianzhong (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1998).
- Dunstan, Helen, Conflicting counsels to confuse the age: a documentary study of political economy in Qing China, 1644-1840 (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1996).
- Fukuzawa, Yukichi, The autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa (New York: Columbia University Press, 1966).
- Francks, Penelope, The Japanese consumer: an alternative economic history of modern Japan (Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
- Gerth, Karl, China made: consumer culture and the creation of the nation (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center; Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2003).
- Gramlich-Oka, Bettina and Gregory Smits (eds.), Economic thought in early modern Japan (Leiden, The Netherlands; Boston: Brill, 2010).
- Harootunian, H.D., Overcome by modernity: history, culture, and community in interwar Japan (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000).
- Horesh, Niv, Shanghai's Bund and beyond: British banks, banknote issuance, and monetary policy in China, 1842-1937 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).
- Howland, D., Translating the West: Language and Political Reason in Nineteenth Century Japan (2001).
- Leonard, Jane Kate, and John R. Watt (eds.), To achieve security and wealth: the Qing imperial state and the economy, 1644-1911 (Ithaca, N.Y.: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1992).
- Lin, Manhong, China upside down: currency, society, and ideologies, 1808-1856 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006).
- Liu, Lydia, Translingual practice: literature, national culture, and translated modernity: China, 1900-1937 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1995).
- Morris-Suzuki, Tessa, A history of Japanese economic thought (London; New York: Routledge, 1989).
- Schwartz, Benjamin, In search of wealth and power: Yen Fu and the West (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1964).
- Spence, Jonathan D., To change China: Western advisers in China, 1620-1960 (New York: Penguin Books, 1980).
- Sugihara, Shiro and Toshihiro, Tanaka (eds.), Economic thought and modernization in Japan (Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 1998).
- Sugiyama, Chuhei, Origins of economic thought in modern Japan (London; New York: Routledge, 1994).
- Trescott, Paul B., Jingji Xue: the history of the introduction of western economic ideas into China, 1850-1950 (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2007).
- Wang, Y.C., Chinese Intellectuals and the West, 1872-1949 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966).
- Wang, Zhaoping, Liang Chi-Chao and the introduction of western economic ideas into China (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1988).
- Zanasi, Margherita, Saving the nation: economic modernity in republican China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Introduction Political Economy China Japan |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Felix Boecking
Tel:
Email: felix.boecking@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Lindsay Scott
Tel: (0131 6)50 9948
Email: Lindsay.Scott@ed.ac.uk |
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