Assessment

Reading Quizzes (10%)

Weekly quizzes (best 8 of 9 eligible weeks: Weeks 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13) to be completed on Canvas by the end (23:59) of Sundays. The first quiz is due Sept. 20, for the readings listed under Week 3. The multiple-choice quizzes are not meant to be onerous but are intended to encourage students to review the assigned materials before our weekly meetings. Collaboration and the use of translation or AI tools are not permitted, and late submissions are not accepted.

Discussion Posts (15%)

One post (150–200 words) per eligible week, submitted through Canvas by the end (23:59) of Sundays in anticipation of our weekly sessions. Eligible weeks are Weeks 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13 (9 weeks in total); only your best 8 will count toward your grade, so one missed week will not affect your grade. For each post, please:

• provide at the top two quotations (each as short as a sentence or as long as a passage) from the weekly primary sources (items marked with *) that are especially pertinent to the focus question of the week (these will not count towards your word limits, but please be mindful not to quote from the editor/translator’s introduction);
• explain how the quotations (to be selected from two different documents, with the exception of Week 11), together or separately, could help answer the focus question of the week.

The key to this short exercise is to pay attention to who the speakers of the quotations were and to what extent the speakers’ views were representative.

Your first post is due on Sept. 20 for the primary sources listed under Week 3. Whenever possible, please provide page references for the quotations selected — e.g., (Wang Tao, p. 38), (“An increased Chinese community of great importance…,” p. 23). Late submissions will not be accepted. Please do not edit your original posts once they have been submitted, but you may “reply” to them if you need to make changes. As with the reading quizzes, collaboration and the use of translation or AI tools are not permitted for this assignment.

Attendance/Participation (10%)

Students are expected to attend and participate actively in all weekly sessions. Active participation includes asking questions, responding to peers, and contributing to both whole-class discussions and breakout groups. Please consult the Support section if circumstances require you to miss a class.

Newspaper Column: A Week in Hong Kong (5+15=20%)

Approximately 1,250 words per column (one submission per group, not per student); word count for groups of three to be set in consultation with the instructor. Groups of two, or three where necessary, will be formed in class on Wednesday, Sept. 23. Draft (5%) due by the end of Friday, Oct. 16; final (15%) due by the end of Friday, Oct. 30 (through Canvas; 4/100 points per day late).

Transport yourself back in time. You and your partner(s) are columnists for a local English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, and your job is to write a joint weekly column commenting on the week’s events. Your (hypothetical) column is not intended as a summary of what happened; rather, it should provide insightful comments on some aspect of Hong Kong society for a particular week (see examples). You might, for instance, follow the developments of a news story and offer your readers a broader context to make sense of it; alternatively, you might find the advertisements in the newspapers more interesting and choose to write about the consumer culture of the time. The possibilities are (almost) endless.

For this assignment, choose a week any time before 1966. Each member of your group is responsible for one newspaper from Old HK Newspapers, reading every issue that newspaper published during your chosen week. For daily papers, this typically means close to 7 issues; note that not all runs are complete, so read whatever is actually available. If your assigned newspaper is a weekly, a single issue won’t give you enough to work with — in that case, use two different weekly newspapers covering the same week instead of one. (For example, a pair with one member using weeklies would work with 3 newspapers in total rather than 2; a trio in the same situation, 4.) If a newspaper has no coverage at all for your chosen week, choose a different newspaper or adjust your week slightly. To see the complete copy of a newspaper on a particular day, input the date in the format “yyyy-mm-dd” in the search box. If you are able to read Chinese, you are encouraged to make use of both Chinese- and English-language newspapers. Students may also choose to use the South China Morning Post (1903–) as one of their newspapers. Those interested in the period when Hong Kong was under Japanese occupation should consult with the instructor on how to proceed; UBC does have access to Hongkong News (1941–1945), but its usage needs to be approached with special care.

In addition to making references to the news articles or advertisements found in the newspapers, your column should include references to at least two primary sources (three for groups of three)—one per group member—drawn from the assigned readings (or, if necessary, from the unassigned documents from David Faure’s A Documentary History of Hong Kong: Society).

Your column should, like all good newspaper columns, have a clear point of view. Be mindful that you are a columnist living at your chosen time: you have no knowledge of what would happen next. Imagination is encouraged, but historical sensitivity is a must.

Dividing the work. Each group member takes primary responsibility for drafting the portion of the column built from the newspaper and primary source they were personally responsible for. Write the opening and closing—where the column needs to read as one unified voice—together, and do a final editing pass as a group to unify tone.

For your final submission, be sure to include a title for your column, a one-line biography for each group member’s assumed columnist identity, and append at least two relevant images or screenshots from the newspapers per group member (at least four total for a pair, six for a trio).

Accountability note. Alongside your column, each group member submits a brief note (a few sentences; not counted toward the word limit) stating (a) which newspaper issues they personally read, and (b) which part of the column they primarily drafted. This is checked for completion, not graded for quality.

Further instructions for submission and citation to follow.

Midterm Checkup (5%)

Individual meetings (about 15 mins.) scheduled across Oct. 19–23. Come prepared to discuss a primary source of your choosing from the term so far, and to share a brief update on your newspaper column.

Annotated Bibliography: A Research Question (20%)

Preliminary question and candidate list due by the end of Friday, Nov. 13 (checked for completion, not graded for quality). Final bibliography due by the end of Friday, Dec. 4 (through Canvas; 4/100 points per day late). Word count: annotations ~75–100 words each; comparative paragraph ~250–300 words; verification note ~100–150 words.

Historians start with a question, then find out what’s already been written about it. This assignment asks you to practice that process, using AI as a research aid while learning where it can mislead you.

1. Frame a question. Choose one of the course’s weekly topics and pose your own “how” or “why” question—more specific than that week’s own focus question.
2. Generate candidates with AI. Ask an AI tool for 8–10 secondary sources (books, chapters, journal articles) related to your question. Keep a record of your prompts.

Checkpoint (Nov. 13): Submit your research question and AI-generated candidate list. This is checked for completion only, not graded for quality—the goal is to make sure you’re on a reasonable track before you invest time in verification and writing.

3. Verify everything. Check each source against the UBC Library catalog. Include only sources you’ve personally confirmed.
4. Select and narrow. Choose the 5 most pertinent verified sources, all locatable through the UBC Library catalog. At least 3 must be secondary; up to 2 may be primary instead. No more than 2 of the 5 may be full-length monographs—favor articles and chapters.
5. Describe your verification process. Briefly describe how you verified your sources (what you checked, and how), and specifically flag any AI-suggested sources that turned out to be fabricated, misattributed, or irrelevant.
6. Write the annotations. For each source: (a) its argument, (b) its evidence base, (c) one sentence on what surprised you or complicated your question.
7. Compare and synthesize. One paragraph: where your 5 sources agree, disagree, or talk past each other, and how together they help answer your question.

Citations. List each of your 5 sources in Chicago (Notes-Bibliography) style, and cite specific page numbers whenever you reference a source’s argument or evidence within your annotations.

How much to read: articles and chapters in full. For monographs, the introduction, conclusion, and one substantive chapter closely, plus the bibliography and table of contents for the rest—this is how historians size up sources efficiently. Monographs are capped at 2 so you can read closely across all 5 without being stretched thin.

Final Exercise (20%)

Due by the end of Dec. 19 (through Canvas; 4/100 points per day late). The final exercise asks you to reflect on the full breadth of material covered in this course, connecting what you have learned to a broader regional or global pattern, question, or debate—returning to this course’s central claim that Hong Kong’s history has repeatedly intersected with, and helped shape, the major currents of the modern world. It consists of two components: a written reflection and a short video (2–3 minutes) explaining the reasoning behind it. Please submit your written reflection through Canvas, with a link to your video included in the document; do not upload the video file separately. Further instructions, including the required structure and grading rubric, will be provided later in the term.

Virtual Exhibition (40%; Optional)

(in lieu of the Annotated Bibliography and Final Exercise)

About 3,500 words in total (excl. bibliography). Proposal due by the end of Friday, Oct. 9; final exhibition due by the end of Friday, Dec. 19 (through Canvas; 4/100 points per day late).

Select 8–10 images or videos that together tell a story about the transformations and/or continuities of Hong Kong. Each item should be accompanied by roughly 150–200 words explaining its context, content, and significance. The project must also include a well-referenced framing essay of approximately 1,500–2,000 words, setting out the exhibition’s overall argument and significance.

Students interested in pursuing this option must seek approval from the instructor and submit a proposal by the end of Friday, Oct. 9.