a 2 page outline of a paper you could write in response to one of the three essay prompts listed below. You are not writing a paper, you are writing down your outline for a paper. You may draw on sources from any of the three modules about China (from the 19th century to present) for this assignment.
- Modernity Theme
It has been an argument of this class that modernity in East Asia has not simply been “Westernization,” a process of implantation into East Asian society of Western values and practices. Rather, we have argued that while Western values and practices have often been used as models or sources, the social transformation known as modernization has been carried out by Asians themselves in accordance with their own agendas. Write a short essay analyzing how modernity, or the process of modernization, has been understood by specific authors in at least three sources from across the twentieth century. What does it mean to be “modern” or to “modernize?” What elements of society require or have succumbed to modernization? What are the costs of not modernizing (or of modernizing) and who bears them? Who will benefit?
