on history

I'm taking a history class this semester and it's called "East Asia in the World: 1500-2000". When I first saw the title, I didn't think too much of it. And then people started to comment on how long the time period is. I had taken a history class sophomore year and that was a really good class. It was about WWII so it was a much shorter period of time. We mostly talked about human emotions and motivations. But in this class, we talk a lot about dates, important events, international relations, politics, and economics. I would much rather focus on human emotions and hear stories about people's daily lives. But running through all the centuries in one course also has its advantages.

You really get the whole picture. This class is mostly about China and Japan and how their relationship with the rest of the world changed as we move into the modern era. When we started in the 1500, Ming dynasty in China, I don't think any of us had much thought about where this class was going. But now that we're talking about the 20th century, I've come to realize how useful it is to be able to see the bigger picture. Ming dynasty, Qing dynasty, Opium War, Taiping Rebellion, Boxer Rebellion, rise of Chinese Nationalist Party, Sino-Japanese Wars, Chinese Communist Party.... it all makes sense. I have a such better knowledge of China (and Japan's) modern history. Back in high school, I kept wishing that we could skip all this old stuff and get into more modern stuff. But the 1970s, 80s, 90s don't make any sense by themselves. History is not about what happened, it's about how and why. The events themselves are just secondary. I've also realize that it's not a simple cause and effect. Everything's much more complex when you start looking at how things happen, the motivations, the context, the emotions. I think I just like complex things.