GEH

Tut = 10%
Book review (by W12) (< 1000 words, suggested books) = 30%
Project (story on cultural borrowing) = 20%
Assess 1 W6 (open book) = 15%
Assess 2 Last day of sem W13 (take home essay) = 25%
LECT 1:
Tanaka meets Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in china 1972 to work to
normalize relations between the 2 countries
Pork Barrel Relations (giving a useless incentive)
Zhou gives Tanaka a gift of HALF of a quote
Great empires do bad things (more powerful, worse)
1. Ppl think china can only "borrow" not "create", but cultural borrowing
can be a creative process, NOT COPY BUT CREATE when ppl borrow
2. Globalization, in a broad sense, is not new, sped up of an older process
3. Cultures not superior or inferior, just different preferences and choose
where you stay
4. All cultures are hybrids: No such thing as "pure" culture (but some ppl
BELIEVE it as pure)
5. All cultures are dynamically changing, no static/stagnant
Japan & China:
Lots of water as barrier, but not too much, hence can travel via boats to
cultural borrow/TRADE (ideas, books, technologies etc.)
e.g. Ganjin/Jianzhen; buddhist priest tried travelling from C to J 6 times
(finally succeeded on 6th)
e.g. Mongol Invasions
LECT2:
HiSTORY OF CHINA & JAPAN
CHINA:
ZHOUQIN- unified period
SIX DYNASTIES-falling apart, battles; Start of Japan and China
kingdoms beginning to have contact
(Chinese envoys travel to Japan to observe culture; Japan envoys travel to
China bringing them slaves and bringing back tech(technologies how to
write/build AND TECHNIQUES OF GOVT)/artefacts); Japan begins to
adapt Chinese lang and writing

SUI/TANG-Lots of contact China to japan and rest of the world; Japanese

loves Tang Dynasty poetry (some say non-comparable); Japanese
scholars serve in Tang bureaucracy (cosmopolitan)
SONG-Reunification; More contact; Chi newer styles of poetry don't
catch on (Tang is easy and regular);Devt of neo-confucionism that unites
East-Asian cultures for thousand years (The confusionism we know now
is Song dynasty confusionism but not original)
YUAN-(short dynasty, not even a century) Mongolian empire powerful
and ruled Chinea; Rs(formal) between Japan and Mongolian empire
broke down; Only end of 14th century before rs became better (almost 1
century)
MING-Closing of China to "threats" from rest of world (ending of
openess); (Jap has always avoided being under China empire)
QING- Not much contact with Japan(Jap closes contact w rest of world
but not to China/Korea/Dutch because deemed no threat, but still
limited); Many educated china ppl go Japan; Trade with Nagasaki (IMPT
IN TRANSLATING BORROWING); Sino-Jap War (Jap won first time)
20th CENTURY- Chi Revolution (prolly not over today - Umbrella
Association(?) in HK); Jap first "Asian" country to be model (defeat
Russians) (Model but also ENEMY to China)
JAPAN:
PERIOD OF CONTINENTAL CULTURAL IMPORTATION- Chi first
descriptions of Jap, Chi tech (writng, govt tech, religions) transferred to
Jap
NARA- first stable established Jap capital (built chi style); Open and
Cosmopolitan city
HEIAN- Comparatively closed (Jap realises it learned enough from
China);Flowering native Jap culture; Jap diaries written in native lang but
still continued use of classical Chi; Chi style govt tech withering
KAMAKURA- Religious influences (Buddhism importance)
MUROMACHI- Japan seemingly part of china imperial/empire (MING);
Much intellectual contact (Japanese travel to china and influenced by chi
studies); Tea drinking in zen temples (long periods of time) to stay awake
EDO- Early-modern Japan; Closed but trade with China v impt, Dutch
bring in more technological conventions to Jap and tell them everyone in
British except them is evil; Increasing Neo-confucian society
MEIJI- Meiji restoration, Japan modernization takes off to survive, Open
up to trade
20th CENTURY- resisting American/etc.. Japanese imperialism; MUCH
INTERACTION BTW BOTH
Q. Where will the 2 countries go from here?

LECT 3:
When we look at a culture that's not our own, we understand/observe it
through our own cultural lenses, can be misunderstood
Prince Shotoku: he said we're equal (Japan and China), respect us/Japan,
China unhappy
Abe no Nakamaro passed the "China" exam and became prominent and
good friends with..
Jianzhen/Ganjin: fails 5 times to go to japan and even got blind. In the
past, have to go China to get ordained and be a priest. Until his travel
there
Kukai: from a humble origins/background, went to China and back
End of the envoys (1894): No point gg to China because Japan has
already learned what it can. No more envoys but we have traders crossing
the sea for profits e.g. tea, books, copper and sulfur, swords...
The Muromachi period: Ashikaga shogunate 1336-1573 cultural things
begin towards end of this period e.g. tatami mats, tea ceremonies
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu: Mongels try to conquer Japan twice, unhappy
relations so he tries to reunite two imperial courts, title of king from Ming
(dk exact reasons why), gained alot in terms of trade and political power
because China willing to trade with him/Japan and he got rich, ppl
suspect he tryna overthrow Japan and bring his entire family as the
imperial but he died before succeeding
Q: Introduction of Chi cultural, political and economical elements to
Japan. How did Japan engage with these elements? How different is this
kind of engagement from present day encounters with other cultures? compare to your own cultural experiences

LECT 5:
Language is diverse for a number of reasons, pick up new words,
creole/pidgins and jargon
e.g. English/German/French has changed alot... but when we match these
genetically related languages and trace back to a proto-language
the daughter languages share vocab/grammar,etc..
code-switch between standard and colloquial/dialect language (e.g.
singlish and english)
e.g. Chinese is a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family
Sino-Tibetan: 300 languages, 2 major branches (Tibetan/Burmese and
Sinitic - Sinitic made up of "Han" languages of China aka chinese
dialects HK/TC...)

*Languages not mutually intelligible, Dialects are MI.

Why hokkien a dialect? 1. Hokkien speakers use chinese char to write. 2.
Politics of Chi culture make it impt to speak chi than dialects (but Hokk
not mutually intelligible with mandarin?? they can't communicate like MI
dialects so it's not rly a lang or dialect! Middle)
Sanscript, Arabic, Latin, Classical Chi are one of the most effective form
of communication across human history
Japanese (#3 most spoken lang today but unknown family, dk where it
came from)
Number of theories: mix of Austronesian lang? an early form of
continental Korean?
Jap inflects (need to have tenses like Eng... e.g. read = yomu (present)
yonga (past)) while chi doesn't
Jap polysyllabic (more than one syllable e.g. WA-TER vs. SHUI)
Jap grammar is particles (e.g. I ate rice OR rice ate me BOTH
ACCEPTABLE TECHNICALLY as long as right particles, altho not said
this way), Chi on word order
Jap writing/orthography hardest but country with best literacy rate
HENCE, JAP AND CHI NOT GENETICALLY LINKED, RADICALLY
DIFF.
(Jap, like eng, are more flexible. Chi characters are a good fit for Chi but
not Jap - Adapting was hard e.g. Initially, very cumbersome system! 60
readings for merely one modified word)
2 different syllabaries, either one is enough: Katakana (Blockish) and
Hiragana (Cursive). Any foreign loan words in Katakana, Numerous
variants for Hiragana. In practice now, syllabaries combined with Chi
char and borrowings.
This lang cross borders and created methods to read classical chi
TAKEAWAYS:
1. Everything written in Jap is derived from Chi writing - Chi characters
provide basis for jap
2. Ppl try to interpret and read classical chi in Jap. So now they can
understand and read classical texts but can't speak normal chi
J and C not related languages,
Chi char for chi (GOOD), Chi char for jap (NOT GOOD)
*Yet eventhough linguistically unrelated, nut through CREATIVITY,
managed to modify chi for jap and tap into grand cultural history
Chi writing adapted to write jap, Chi texts parsed into Jap