Explaining change: How and why had Japanese perceptions of themselves and their relationship to the West changed in the half century since the Meiji restoration? What elements of continuity in Japanese traditions are evident in these visual sources?
Making comparisons: Based on these visual sources and the documents about “Changing China,” how might you compare Japanese and Chinese perceptions of the West by the end of the nineteenth century? What accounts for both the similarities and differences?
Distinguishing modernization and Westernization: Based on a careful reading of Chapter 19, including the documents and images, do you think that technological borrowing (modernization) requires cultural borrowing (Westernization) as well? Was it possible during the nineteenth century to modernize while avoiding the incorporation of Western culture at the same time? What do the examples of China, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan suggest about this question?