ASIA 200 Introduction to Asian Studies
Protest and dissent in Asia

  The purpose of this class is to introduce you to the varieties of Asian societies and some of the different methodologies that are used to study Asia. We will do this by looking at case studies of different aspects of Asian society. The theme of the course is family and community, meaning that each of our topics has something to do with these topics. This is a fairly broad theme and we will use it to examine many Asian societies and different disciplinary traditions. While I will do my best to make the course as coherent as possible, a lot of the work will fall to you. There really is no single "Asia" and the boundaries  between disciplines are equally artificial. If you approach this as a class where you have to memorize and regurgitate a certain amount of information you will struggle and you will probably not enjoy it very much.  Instead it is probably better to look at the class as a chance to think about things in a number of different ways.

Professor Alan Baumler 216 Keith Hall; Office phone 357-4066 Office Hours MWF 10-11 and 1:15-2:15 and by appointment. e-mail baumler@.iup.edu
http://www.chss.iup.edu/baumler/index.html

Books

Apter, David E., and Nagayo Sawa. Against the State: Politics and Social Protest in Japan. Harvard University Press, 1986.

Multatuli. Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company. Penguin Classics, 1995.

Rosen, Nir. In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq. Free Press, 2006.

Spence, Jonathan D. Treason by the Book. Penguin (Non-Classics), 2002.

8/25 Colonialism and reform
    Max Havelaar is a very important piece of politcal polemic and also a good place to look at colonialism and what it has meant in Asia.
Selections from Ricklefs A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1300
Elson Sugar Factory Workers from Modern Asian Studies (on JSTOR)


9/8 Traditions of protest and control
    Spence's book is both about methods that governments used to repress dissent and traditons of dissent. We will look at both scripts that were available to Chinese people who were unhappy with their lot and how the imperial government tried to deal with them.

Li Sao

Spence, Jonathan D. Treason by the Book. Penguin  2002.

9/22 Protest and modern media

    Each of you will be doing a brief research project on dissent and protest in India, since thanks to the magic of the internet it is easy to read the Indian papers from here. We will talk some about contemporary Indian politics and society and start on the projects, which will not be due until the end of the semester

Readings from

Ganguly, Sumit, and Neil Devotta. Understanding Contemporary India Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003.

Stern, Robert W. Changing India: Bourgeois Revolution on the Subcontinent. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Times of India
Hindustan Times
Dawn
Indian Papers
Glossary

India Research


10/6 Iraq
Understanding any contemporary society is difficult and it is particularly difficult in times of crisis. We will try to understand how Asians and others are understanding the situation in Iraq by looking at the Rosen book and some on-line resources.

Rosen, Nir. In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq. Free Press, 2006.

10/20  Movies
Like Americans, lots of people in Asia get most of what they know about the past and their own society from the movies. We will be watching a couple of movies that we will select as a group and each of you will also do a presentation on a third movie that you watch on your own. We will discuss what films we will be watching early in the semester.

11/3  Protest in democratic societies Japan
"Normal" political protest in a democratic society draws on both cultural traditions of protest and modern technology. We will look at the Tokyo airport protests as an example of this.

Apter, David E., and Nagayo Sawa. Against the State: Politics and Social Protest in Japan. Harvard University Press, 1986.

Student presentations

Grades

Quizzes and class participation 15%
Two short papers 15 % each  
Movie presentation 15%
Protest paper 25%
Final exam 10%

-Each of you will write short papers on two of our four books. (Spence, Multatuli, Apter, or Rosen) You may write on whichever books you wish, and if you like you can write on more than two and toss out the low grades.
-We will have a brief final exam that will require you compare one or more of the units we did in the class.
-Any other assignments are part of your quiz grade.

-Attendance policy-- You are expected to come to class every day, but the point is not just to come to class, but to come having done your reading and being ready to talk about it.
-Academic dishonesty-- All students are required to abide by the University's policies on Academic Integrity, as found in the catalogue.