Waiyee Loh
Associate Professor of World Literature
The British Empire in East Asia: Treaty Port Worlds
(AY 2026/2027)
Spring Semester
Week 1. Introduction
Britain and China: Empires Entwined
Week 2. Tea and Opium: The Gothic
Reading: Le Fanu, "Green Tea"
Week 3. Tea and Opium: Victorian Anxieties
Reading: Le Fanu, "Green Tea"
Week 4. Producing Opium in Bengal: Farmers
Reading: extracts from Ghosh, Sea of Poppies
Week 5. Shipping opium from Calcutta to Canton: Sailors and overseers
Reading: extracts from Ghosh, Flood of Fire
Week 6. Shipping opium from Calcutta to Canton: Lascars
Reading: extracts from Ghosh, Flood of Fire
Week 7. Trading opium in Canton: The British
Reading: extracts from Ghosh, Flood of Fire
Week 8. Trading opium in Canton: The Parsis
Reading: extracts from Ghosh, Flood of Fire
Week 9. The Opium War: British Indian soldiers
Reading: extracts from Ghosh, Flood of Fire
Week 10. The Opium War: The Manchu government
Reading: extracts from Ghosh, Flood of Fire
Week 11. The Opium War: Hong Kong Island
Reading: extracts from Ghosh, Flood of Fire
Week 12. Opium in the imperial metropolis: Dickens
Reading: extract from Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Week 13. Opium in the imperial metropolis: Illustrations
Reading: images of opium dens in 19th-century London
Week 14. Conclusion
Review of the course
End-of-term written examination during examination period
Fall Semester
Week 1. Introduction
Aftermath of the First Opium War: The Treaty Port System
Treaty Port: Yokohama
Week 2. Samurai Stories
Reading: Extracts from Mitford, Tales of Old Japan
Week 3. Old and New Japan
Reading: Extracts from Mitford, Tales of Old Japan and Mitford's Japan
Week 4. Yokohama Port Museum
Field trip to the Yokohama Port Museum
Week 5. Travel Writing
Reading: extracts from Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan
Week 6. Weird Tales
Reading: extracts from Hearn, Kwaidan
Week 7. Port City Pictures: Yokohama-e
Woodblock prints of Yokohama and “foreign countries”
Reading: extracts from Dower, "Yokohama Boomtown"
(Read sections "Boomtown," "Interactions," and "Internationalism")
Week 8. Port City Pictures: Yokohama-shashin
Photographic prints by studios based in Yokohama
Reading: extracts from "Early Photography of Japan," Harvard Library CURIOSity Digital Collections
(Read sections "Japanese Tourist Photography" and "Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese")
Week 9. Digital Humanities Exercise: Exploring the "Early Photography of Japan" Collection
Show-and-tell presentation
Treaty Port: Shanghai
Week 10. The International Settlement
Reading: Giles, “Two Women” from China Coast Tales (Part 1)
Week 11. Representations of the Chinese
Reading: Giles, “Two Women” from China Coast Tales (Part 2)
Week 12. Film Screening
Lee Ang, Lust, Caution
Week 13. Wartime Shanghai
Reading: Lee Ang, Lust, Caution
Week 14. Conclusion
Review of the course
Preparing for your Graduation Project
End-of-term written examination during examination period