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

206HIST2047.A special seminar in history (6 credits)From time to time, the Department will offer special courses under this title. Students may find detailseach year in the departmental handbook.Assessment: 100% coursework.HIST2048.The history of young people in modern Europe (6 credits)Responses to and representations of young people provide a valuable insight into the values of thesociety and the culture which generated them. The aim of this course will be to compare changingexperiences of growing up with evolving representations of the life-stages used to identify the young(childhood, adolescence and youth) in nineteenth- and twentieth century Europe. It therefore considerswhat it has meant to be young in different times and places. Through comparison of experiences andrepresentations the course will reconsider the validity of terms used to describe the young, highlight thesocial, political and cultural motives for advancing different roles and representations young people andgenerate a broad insight into regional patterns of similarity and difference in the European history ofthis demographic group. This course aims to teach students the importance of the historical context inshaping young people’s lives by addressing variables such as class, gender and race. It will alsointroduce students to a variety of different methodological and theoretical approaches to the topic.Assessment: 100% coursework.HIST2049.Technology and social change: a history of everyday life (6 credits)(This course is also offered to second and third year non-BA students for inter-Faculty broadeningpurposes.)Ever wonder about the origins of everyday objects and the human side to dramatic technologicaldevelopments? This course will explore the history of science, technology, discovery and howeveryday life has been transformed. Students will have the opportunity to be history detectives andtrack down the origins and social impact of the things that make the modern world work.Assessment: 100% coursework.HIST2050.British sources relating to China, 1895-1949 (6 credits)For the greater part of the period China was subject to a form of encroachment so extensive andpervasive that it has been commonly referred to as 'semi-colonialism'. Until World War I Britain wasunquestionably the foremost colonial power in China. Despite its increasing preoccupation with theEuropean situation after the war, Britain retained considerable residual influence in China. As a resultof Britain's long and intricate involvement, a great wealth of British sources has been accumulated onChina. These sources emanate from different quarters and, individually and collectively, they shedimmense light not only on Sino-British relations but on China's internal situation.About one half of the course is made up of formal lectures outlining the major events, trends,developments in the crucial half century prior to the communist takeover in 1949: the revolutionary andconstitutional movements, 1895-1911; the 1911 Revolution; the Second Revolution, 1913; theMonarchical Movement, 1915-1916; the nationalist movement of the 1920s; Japan's invasion in the1920s and 1930s; the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945; and the Chinese Civil War, 1946-1949.The other half of the course comprises discussions and readings on the topics dealt with in the formallectures. The British materials used for discussion and reading are mostly from the following sources:Foreign Office China files, Foreign Office Japan files, Foreign Office Embassy and Consular files,missionary papers, Customs papers, company papers, and major English newspapers.Assessment: 100% coursework.