Northeast Asia is in the midst of major transformations in our era, but the region has undergone significant political, social, and economic changes over the past century and a half. Developments in the region, including the rise of the People's Republic of China and ongoing efforts to resolve the crisis created by the last remaining corner of the Cold War - the division of the Korean Peninsula - have global implications. This course offers a new look at Northeast Asia that explores the modern histories of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam from the end of imperial autocracies in the nineteenth century to the rise of nationalism/nation-states in the early twentieth century to the emergence of anti-colonial and anti-imperial movements. The course also tracks the rise of radicalism in these spaces and in intellectual thought streams to examine how nationalism, Communism, Pan-Asianism, Fascism, and Liberalism all played important roles in shaping the countries of Northeast Asia under analysis in this course. As the title indicates, major themes that we examine include the following: empires, their frontiers, and their discontents; colonial modernities and the rise of nationalism; the legacies of the Asia-Pacific and Korean and Indochina Wars; the rise of Marxism and Communism in Northeast Asia; colonialism and anti-colonialist spaces in the region; internationalism and Northeast Asian intellectuals; Cold War architectures of Northeast Asia; migration and cultural interactions between the countries of the regions in the Cold War and post-Cold War eras; contemporary political and social issues in the region; and transnational popular culture icons and trends that have emerged in/from the region during our times.

This course's assessment regime aims to develop craft skills that are sought after by employers to conduct independent research in the professional workforce, and will help to nurture and guide the same skills for students who are considering Honors, postgraduate, and High Degree Research (HDR) study. Independent research skills and critical thinking are increasingly recognized by employers who are seeking distinguished graduates, and this course will offer students in programs across the Humanities and Social Sciences the opportunity to hone and develop such skills as part of their degree requirements or to enhance skills in other relevant programs as they near graduation.