University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Department of Economics

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Department of Economics

296-193-Sem 002 Freshmen Seminar Fall 2004

Economics of East Asia

This course is designed to survey the modern economic growth and development of East Asian countries, particularly Japan, China, and Korea. There has been growing interest in the region as the economic power of the region and the relationship with the United States grew stronger. This course takes a rather broad perspective in analyzing the economic developments. Geographical, social, cultural, and political aspects will also be considered.

As a freshmen seminar, this course will try to teach study and research skills through discussions, public speaking, internet research, and paper writing. Hands-on learning experience will be emphasized throughout the course. The course aims to develop self-learning, class discussion, basic computer skills, and good study habits. Attendance and class participations are crucial. Students are expected to show up to the classes with proper preparation. Late submittals of homework would be only accepted with appropriate excuses.

Instructor

Name: Mr. Sunwoong (Sunny) Kim, Ph.D.

Office: Bolton 844

Telephone: 229-6924

E-mail:

Class: M, W, 9:30-10:45 am, Bolton B72

Office hours: M, W, 10:45 am -12:30 pm or by appointment

E-mail would be the fastest and most convenient way to communicate with me in other times.

Requirements

Students are required to attend all classes (i.e., attendance is mandatory). If you skip more than two classes, 1.5 points will be deducted for each class you skip. Homework should be handed in on the due date. Late submittals of homework would be only accepted with appropriate penalty. There will be several assignments throughout the course. Please pay attention to their due dates. The final grades will be determined according to the following proportions.

Attendance 25 points

Homework 50 points

Term paper 15 points

Class participation 10 points

Term Paper

The term paper should more than ten and less than fifteen typewritten pages. Students should talk to the instructor for possible topics. See the course schedule for deadlines for submitting a draft and the final version.

Grading

A (94 points and above), A- (91-93), B+ (88-90), B (85-87), B- (82-84), C+ (79-81), C (76-78), C- (73-75), D+ (70-72), D (67-69), D- (64-66), F (63 and below)

Note

Information on Economics Department policies on participation by students with disabilities, accommodation for religious observances, academic conduct, complaint procedures, grade appeal procedures, and other standing policies (e.g., sexual harassment, incompletes) is available in main offices of Economics Department located in Bolton 868.

Internet Resources

South Korea (Republic of Korea) and

North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)

Frank Hoffman of Harvard University

http://www.fas.havard.edu/~hoffman

Society of Korean American Scientists

http://www.skas.org

Oxford University (United Kingdom)

http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/korean-studies/

Monash University (Australia)

http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/nksc

McGill University (Canada)

http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/eas/asialink/ksstudy.html

Japan

Duke University

http://www.lib.duke.edu/ias/eac/japanesestudies.html

International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Japan)

http://www.nichibun.ac.jp

University of Michigan

http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs

University of Florida

http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/japanese/jap.html

Wellesley College

http://wellesley.edu/Internet/japanese.html

China (People's Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic of China)

University of California - Berkeley

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/CCSL/

University of Melbourne (Australia)

http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/asian/chihp.html

National Bureau of Asian Research

http://www.nbr.org

University of Florida

http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/chinese/chinese/chi.html

University of Texas

http://link.lanic.utexas.edu/asnic/countries/taiwan

COURSE SCHEDULE

1. Introduction - Getting to know each other and East Asia

Countries in East, Southeast Asia, and Pacific Rim

China (People's Republic of China), Taiwan (Republic of China), Japan, South Korea (Republic of Korea), North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Fiji, Papua New Guinea

2.  Visit peer mentoring center, library, and/or computer lab – HW (Homework) #1 due by the next class.

3.  HW(Homework) #2 - Discussion on current events

Geography of East Asia

4.  Geography of East Asia – HW#3 (a group project) – HW#4 is due by the next class

5.  HW #5 - Travel report – Individual presentations in class

Eastern Asian Languages and its Romanization – HW #6 is due in 2 weeks

6.  Chinese (Mandarin) language

7.  Japanese language

8.  Korean language

Eastern Religion and Philosophy – HW#7

9.  Confucianism

10.  Taoism

11.  Buddhism

Basic economic concepts and models for economic growth

12.  Basic economic concepts – HW#8

13.  Models for economic growth and development – HW#9

Major modern events in East Asia – Individual or Group projects

14.  HW#10 – China and Taiwan (Since the Opium War)

15.  HW#11 – Japan (Since the Meiji Restoration)

16.  HW#12 – Two Koreas (Since the annexation to Japan)

Individual presentations on term paper

17.  Presentations on the term paper. Each student should distribute one-page written proposal to the class. – HW#13

Homework, Readings, and Class Resources.

1.  Send an e-mail to me (1 points) – Just say HELLO. Tell me about what you expect to get out of this course.

2.  Current events (2 points)

Bring a current newspaper or magazine article on any subjects about East Asia, and be prepared to talk about it in class for three minutes.

3.  Identify the following in East Asia. (3 points) – Team project

a.  Major (most important 4-8) cities.

b.  Their average temperature in January and August.

c.  Annual rainfall

d.  Major highways and railroads.

e.  Major mountains, desert, and rivers.

4.  Virtual travel plan (2 points)

Imagine that you are given US $4,000 to travel East Asia in two months. Prepare the travel plan. You should submit the plan via e-mail to me. The plan should include your itinerary showing the airfare quote, expected cost of ground transportation, lodging and meal.

Check out the on-line travel site such as www.expedia.com, www.travelocity.com, or www.orbitz.com in addition to airline homepages.

5.  Travel Report (3 points)

Pretend that you have just finished your trip based on your travel plan. Report your trip to the classmates in 5 minutes. You can use any material you want, pictures, books, postcards, slides, powerpoints, or anything. The presentation will be graded by your peers. 4 for excellent, 3 for good, 2 for fair, and 1 for poor. You will not be able to give all 4's and all 1's. Your average should be 3.

6.  Write your names and bring documents in East Asian languages (5 points)

a.  Bring pages of any documents in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, respectively. You should be able to tell the class what they are, and what they are about.

b.  Write down your name in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean on a piece of paper.

You may want to check out the on-line language sites:

Learn Korean online!

Monash University in Australia offers free courses on the Web http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/korean/centre/course/index.html

http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/korean/klec/
-- so do Arizona State University with Mr. Young Kyun Oh's Korean (http://www.learnkorean.com/index.asp) and Sôgang University (http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/) and the South Korean Ministry of Education on KOSNET (http://www.interedu.go.kr/).
Arirang TV also offers an online language course, Let's Speak Korean (http://www.koreantutor.com/), and J. D. Eisenberg wrote an online Introduction to Korean (http://catcode.com/kintro/) that you may want to check out.

Learn Japanese online!

Japanese-Online (http://www.japanese-online.com/)
Learn Japanese - Free! (http://www.thehaucks.com/learn.html)
LEARN JAPANESE ONLINE WITH THE JAPANESE TUTOR! (http://www.japanesetutor.com/)

Learn Japanese Online (http://www.laker.net/apoc/japanese/)
Learn Japanese on the Internet (http://www.georgetown.edu/users/caplanj/)
Japanese Language (http://japanese.about.com/mbody.htm)

Learn Chinese online!

Learning Chinese Online Page (http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/online.htm)
Chinese Characters and Culture (http://zhongwen.com/)
On-line Chinese Tools (http://www.mandarintools.com/)
StudyCell-Learn Chinese Online (http://imsp008.netvigator.com/learn/lang2.html)
Learn Chinese (http://www.minmm.com/)
ChinaSchool--Chinese for foreigners (http://chinese.chinaschool.net/learn/main.htm)
Learning Chinese Online Page (UC Davis) (http://philo.ucdavis.edu/zope/home/txie//azi/online.html)

7.  Group presentation on Eastern Philosophy and Religion (maximum 5 points)

Each team will prepare a presentation on one of the following philosophy or religion (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism)

8.  Economic Data gathering (maximum 7 points) - This homework is quite time consuming, and I urge you start the project as early as possible.

Collect the following information on People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Republic of Korea, and Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 (or most current) in spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel and e-mail it to me as an attachment. You may want to use one spreadsheet per country. This assignment will be time consuming, and you may not be able to get all the information in time. Do as much as you can, and the assignment will be graded according to the level of completion.

1.  Population

2.  GDP or GNP per capita

3.  the ratio of the value of export to the GDP

4.  percentage of people who finish high school education

5.  percentage of income earned by the top 10 (or 20) percent of the richest households

6.  percentage of workers who work in the primary sector (agriculture, mining, and forestry)

For the statistical information, try to check their central banks (e.g. Bank of Japan), national statistical offices (e.g., Korean National Statistical Office), United Nations Development Programme, The World Bank, IMF (International Monetary Fund), and the CIA factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/). You should try both internet sources and material at UWM library.

9.  Development Strategy (maximum 5 points)

Based on the lecture and the material that you may have obtained, prepare a short essay on how to make a poor country rich (3 type-written pages) with a proper paper format.

1.  W. Arthur Lewis - economic take-off, unlimited supply of labor, export as an engine of growth

2.  import substitution policy versus export promotion policy

3.  savings, investment and capital accumulation

4.  human capital investment and education

5.  social overhead capital or infra-structure

For the next three homework assignments, individuals or groups will make a supervised presentation for each country. For individual presentations, each student is required to prepare two-page handouts for the whole class. For group presentations, the whole class would be divided into three or four groups. (5 points maximum per assignment)

Reading: Conrad Schirokauer, A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilization, 2nd edition, chapters 16-22 (on reserve at the Golda Meir Library).

Also, check the country studies in Library of Congress website at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html and bubble link country studies at http://bubl.ac.uk/link/countries.html and Charles Amstrong’s Korean history guide. (http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/teachingaids/korea/korea_in_east_asian_and_world_hi.htm )

10.  China (People’s Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic of China)

a.  Opium War (1839-1842)

b.  Sino-French War (1884-1885)

c.  Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895)

d.  Sun Yat-Sen

e.  Kuomintang and Communist Party (1930-45)

f.  Rape of Nanjing (1939)

g.  Chinese involvement in Korean War

h.  Economic policies of Communist China (1948-65)

i.  Cultural Revolution (1965-69)

j.  Deng Xiao Peng's economic reform (1978- )

k.  Tiananmen Square Incident (June 4, 1989)

l.  Return of Hong Kong to PRC

m.  Difficulties of continuing economic reform (1990- )

n.  What are the major reasons for Taiwanese economic success

o.  SARS and Asian bird flu: epidemic and its economic effect

11.  Japan

a.  Shogun

b.  Samurai

c.  Meiji Restoration

d.  Commodore Perry: What is the main difference between China's responses to West's encroachment and Japan's responses?

e.  What was the samurai's role in the modernization in Japan since Meiji Restoration?

f.  Japanese imperialism

g.  Pearl harbor and the Great Pacific War

h.  American occupation

i.  What makes Japan's reconstruction after the World War II possible in such a short time period?

j.  Bubble economy (1985-1993)

k.  Sustained recession and slow economic reform – why?

l.  Difference between American firms and Japanese firms

12.  Korea

a.  Japanese annexation (1910-1945)

b.  Economic situation after Korean War in South Korea? (1953-54)

c.  Corrupt and dictatorial government of Rhee Sung Man (1950s)

d.  Park Chung Hee (1961-79) and his economic development plan

e.  Chabols (business conglomerates): why did such economic concentration occur?

f.  What are the major causes and effects of IMF crisis (1997-98)?

g.  Relationship between economic development and political development

h.  Sunshine policy

i.  North Korean nuclear crisis – 1994

j.  North Korean nuclear crisis - 2004

k.  Anti-Americanism in Korea

13. Term paper proposal (maximum 2 points)

Prepare a one-to-two page term paper proposal with the following format.

1.  Title

2.  Major idea

3.  Why the idea is important?

4.  How do you intend to do the research?

5.  Sample references and bibliography

The following are the titles of term papers submitted in Fall 2003 semester.

The effects of atomic bomb radiation on the human body

Park Chung Hee and his impact on South Korea

Take your last breath : Economic Effects of SARS

Japan’s economic descent into purgatory: A Chronology towards the Heisei era

Too many mouths to feed, too little food (China’s one child policy)

The rise of the red era in China

Comparison of the Great Depression and the IMF crisis

Pearl Harbor

Turmoil in Beijing (Tiananmen Square incident)

Bushido: The way of the Samurai

Economic growth in 20th century Japan

Peaceful solution to North Korean nuclear crisis

Reference

The following list contains useful books on the subject.

Allen, G. C., A Short Economic History of Modern Japan, Fourth Edition, St. Martin's Press, 1981. (HC462.A62 1981)

Amsden, Asia's New Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization, Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1989. (HC467.A629 1989)

Angresano, James, Comparative Economics, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.

Butterfield, Fox, China: Alive in the Bitter Sea, New York, NY: Bantham Books, 1982. (DS706 B79 1990)

Cheng, Chu-Yuan, China's Economic Development: Growth and Structural Change, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1982. (HC427.9 C52178)

Chow, Gregory C., Understanding China's Economy, River Edge, NJ: World Scientific, 1994. (HC426.9 C46 1985)

Chow, Gregory C., China’s Economic Transformation, Blackwell Publishers, 2002.

Dower, John W., Japanese History and Culture from Ancient to Modern Times: Seven Basic Bibliographies, 2nd ed., revised and updated, Princeton: Markus Wiener, 1995.

Gibney, Japan: The Fragile Super Power, Japan, 3rd rev. ed. Rutland, Vt. : Charles E. Tuttle, 1996 (DS821 G513 1979).

Haggard, Stephan, The Political Economy of the Asian Financial Crisis, Institute for International Economics, 2000.