Principal Module Aims

This module will enable students to access the rich variety of letters, memoirs, journals, newspaper reports, and translated archives that give detailed accounts of both Western and Chinese life in the Pearl River Delta. During seminars, we will have the opportunity to discuss broader questions fundamental to the Sino-Western historical relations, such as extraterritoriality, the technical and political issues of translation, and politico-economic aspects of these encounters and life in the Thirteen Factories. The module focuses on both micro and macro perspectives by asking the question how everyday politics in the port is connected to global history.

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of historical and theoretical interpretations of Sino-Western interactions, and key themes and debates in the studies of Canton in the context of global history.
• Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of literary and historical texts and their relationship to the history of China’s interaction with the West.
• Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to the history of Canton and the ways in which class, race, gender and individual relations intersect to complicate or override the state to state relations.
• Take responsibility to identify, design, and produce a coherent project on the history of Canton by creating content for a non-academic audience.
• Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to the study of China in global history.