The cultures and traditions of all Asian societies are inseparable from their political, economic and cultural interactions with the rest of the world.

IAH 204: Asia and the World

Spring 2015: Professor Keith

Final Exam

Due date: Thursday, May 7, 5 PM, in hard copy (in my mailbox, room 241 Old Horticulture Hall) and electronically (Dropbox/D2L). NOTE: if you are not on campus on 5/7, D2L is OK.

Questions (please answer one):

1. The cultures and traditions of all Asian societies are inseparable from their political, economic and cultural interactions with the rest of the world. What do you feel have been the three most important legacies of these kinds of interactions for Asian societies?

2. “History doesn’t help us understand the present.” After this semester, you’re now well equipped to challenge this way of thinking. What do you think are the three most important things about the history of Asia that helps us understand Asia in the present?

3. You read three books this semester: a scholarly work of history, a novel, and a first-person memoir. By and large, each of these works focused on the lives and experiences of a single person. What are the strengths and limitations of each of these genres in helping us understand human experiences?

Formal Guidelines:

The final exam should be 5 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins. No title, cover page, or bibliography are necessary, and please do not restate the question at the top of the paper.

This is not a research paper. You are expected to answer the question using course materials only. If you are citing examples from lecture or film, you do not need to cite them directly. Just put them in. If you are citing from a course book, please do not use footnotes; instead, simply place the page number for the passage you are quoting in parentheses (as usual).

Please note that the parentheses come after the quotation, but before the punctuation mark ending the sentence or the phrase (comma, semicolon, colon, period, etc.).