This course focuses on the historical development of Southeast Asia since the coming of European powers with special reference from the nineteenth century. It examines and discusses how the historical development of the Southeast Asian region had been affected by colonialism, nationalism, communism, and regionalism. Certain specific themes like modernization, the legacy of Japanese occupation, and the process of nation-building in Southeast Asia will also be discussed.

Learning Outcome

The expected learning outcomes include:

1. The students can trace the historical development of Southeast Asia and explain the factors that shaping the modern history of Southeast Asia since the nineteenth century when it marked the rise of colonialism.
2. The students will be able to identify major characteristics of the historical development of modern Southeast Asia, with special reference to the impacts of colonialism, nationalism, communism and regionalism on the modern history of Southeast Asia.
3. The students should be able to get more familiar with and review critically the literature on history of modern Southeast Asia in order to conduct independent research studies in this area.

Tutorial: 30%
Online Discussion: 20%
Take-Home Exam: 50%

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at here.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic
• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment. 
• Students are fully aware that their work may be investigated by AI content detection software to determine originality.
• Students are fully aware of the AI approach(es) adopted in the course. In the case where some AI tools are allowed, students have made proper acknowledgment and citations as instructed by the course teacher.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.

The copyright of the teaching materials, including lecture notes, assignments and examination questions etc., produced by staff members/ teachers of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) belongs to CUHK. Students may download the teaching materials produced by the staff members/ teachers from the Learning Management Systems, e.g. Blackboard adopted by CUHK for their own educational use, but shall not distribute/ share/ copy the materials to a third-party without seeking prior permission from the staff members/ teachers concerned.