JWST 11.03 The History of Jews in China
This course moves away from a Eurocentric lens of Chinese and Jewish history by uncovering a lost and global history of Chinese and Jewish encounters, from the early Sino-Middle Eastern-European interactions and through missionary and colonial endeavours in the late 19th and the first half of the 20th century, and then to China and Israel’s relationship in the late 20th and 21s century. It situates China and the Jews in global and national historical narratives as imagined spaces and communities; ancient civilizations and cultures; as inspirations of European Enlightenment and as anti-images of European modernity; models of and space for nationalistic as well as revolutionary projects, as well as the Chinese and Jewish re-imaginations. Emphasising methodological issues and disciplinary dialogues, this course encourages students to reflect on the historical and political conditions of knowledge production while training students in innovative and boundary-crossing modes of inquiry.