This course explores the history, culture, and identities of Hong Kong from the port’s origins on the edge of empire in the early nineteenth century, through more than 150 years of colonial rule and the 1997 handover to China, to its postcolonial present. Its goals are to help students develop the language and tools to understand the metamorphoses of this most unusual metropolis as well as to further their skills in historical analysis. Few territories of Hong Kong’s size have intersected so consistently with modern history’s major currents\u2014empire, revolution, war, migration, capitalism, decolonization\u2014and fewer still have played as outsized a part in shaping them. This course encourages students to critically consider the territory’s multifaceted identities as well as to take into account the local, national, and transnational contexts of its extraordinary transformations.<\/p>\n
This course will be conducted in person, meeting twice weekly (Monday and Wednesday).<\/p>\n
Students are expected to have reviewed and reflected on the assigned materials prior to each week’s Monday session. Readings will include both primary and secondary sources.<\/p>\n
Monday sessions will consist primarily of lecture, introducing the week’s key themes. Wednesday sessions will build on this with further lecture and a tutorial component, in which we will discuss the assigned materials both as a class and in break-out groups.<\/p>\n
The skills you build in this course\u2014reading evidence critically, weighing competing accounts, and connecting a single place’s story to larger patterns\u2014are the same ones historians, journalists, policy analysts, and researchers of every kind rely on. By the end of the term, you should be able to:<\/p>\n
This course follows the grading practices<\/a> outlined in the Academic Calendar. For more details on the individual components, see the Assessment<\/a> section.<\/p>\n