Bachelor of Arts (BA) - The University of Hong Kong

201HIST2026.Interpreting Japanese history through movies (6 credits)(This course is also offered to second and third year non-BA students for inter-Faculty broadeningpurposes.)This course will view films, mainly Japanese and some Western, and study the interpretations ofJapanese history and tradition present in the films. In addition to being a historiographic exercise, thecourse will examine popular attitudes toward the past.Assessment: 100% coursework.HIST2027. The foundations of international trade and finance in the modern world (6credits)(This course is also offered to second and third year non-BA students for inter-Faculty broadeningpurposes.)The modern economic world of international trade and finance is the result of developments which tookplace in Europe from the early Renaissance through to the Industrial Revolution. This course willexamine the foundations of these developments focusing particularly on the pre-modern industrial baseof Europe, the change in European trading patterns from a Mediterranean to an Atlantic dominanceduring the Renaissance, the growth of banking and other financial institutions in the early modernperiod, and the role of urbanisation as a background to the major economic advances which took placeduring the Industrial Revolution. This course is open to students from all faculties.Assessment: 75% coursework, 25% examination.HIST2029.The West's perception of China (6 credits)The West has long had a fascination with China and all things Chinese. From the earliest contactsbetween China and Europe until the Opium Wars of the mid-19th century most Europeans perceived theChinese Empire as a sophisticated and advanced civilization which rivalled the kingdoms of Europe forwealth, scientific knowledge, military power and political stability. This course will examine the West'sfascination for China from the earliest times through to the early modern period and the height ofEurope's taste for 'Chinoiserie'. It will also seek to explain why Europe's attitude towards Chinachanged from the middle of the nineteenth century.Assessment: 75% coursework, 25% examination.HIST2030.From dependencies to dragons: economic history of twentieth-century SoutheastAsia (6 credits)(This course is also offered to second and third year non-BA students for inter-Faculty broadeningpurposes.)In 1900, most of Southeast Asia lay under colonial rule, with its economy predominantly based onagriculture and the export of primary products to the West. A century later, the region included some ofthe fastest-growing economies in the world (like Singapore), as many countries moved throughimport-substitution industrialisation (ISI) to export-oriented industrialisation (EOI) and beyond. Alongthe way Southeast Asia experienced the Great Depression, the Japanese occupation, and, with thecoming of independence, a choice between capitalism and socialism. In this course we examine thiscentury of change -- and attempt to analyse the lessons that might be drawn from it.Assessment: 75% coursework, 25% examination.