ASIAN 6663 - Sino-Vietnamese Studies

(crosslisted) HIST 6663

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with ASIAN 3363/HIST 3363.

K. Taylor.

This course will introduce students to recent scholarship about the historical, cultural, and linguistic relationship between the Chinese and the Vietnamese peoples. Nationalist thought has given rise to widely accepted myths and cliches that are not supported by evidence. Students will learn how the terms “Chinese” and “Vietnamese” are used anachronistically; why, despite historical evidence, the idea of unrelenting Sino-Vietnamese hostility has become fashionable in modern times; how the extensive Sino-Vietnamese overlap affects contemporary regional security issues; and what makes the shared Sino-Vietnamese realm of ideology, politics, government, religion, and social organization such a stable element in Asia despite apparent problems. (SC)