India, China, Japan, and Africa: From the Medieval to the Modern World

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India, China, Japan, and AfricaFrom the
Medieval to the Modern World
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The Mughal Empire

• Babur (1483-1530), Akbar (1542-1605)
• India as center of civilization
• Religious freedom (Islam, Hindu)
• Urdu language
• Artistic blend of Hindu, Persian, and Islamic
  elements

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Mughal Art

• Visual Arts
• Book illustrations, miniatures
• Secular
• Realistic scenes from courtly life
• Persian influences
• calligraphy

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Akbar and the Elephant from The History of Akbar
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The End of Mughal Rule and the Arrival of the
British

• British East India Trading Company
• India as Jewel in the Crown of Britain
• Controlled by British government by 1849

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The Rise of Nationalism

• Indias National Congress Party
• Activism for self-rule
• Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)
• Satyagraha non-violent civil disobedience

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Chinese Culture Under Imperial Rule

• Centralized government (1368-1911)
• Relatively untouched by Western influence until
  the 17th century
• Incredible population growth
• Poverty, political unrest, and, ultimately,
  revolution

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The Arts Under the Ming Dynasty

• Political, economic stability
• Cultural enrichment
• Confucianism
• New literary genres
• Hua-Pen
• Novels
• Stage plays

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The Arts Under the Ming Dynasty

• Landscape paintings
• Human form in natural setting
• Artistic attitudes
• change within tradition
• No distinctions between major art forms
• Painted ceramicware called China

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15th century Ming Dynasty painting
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A Ming Vase
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The Qing DynastyChina and the Western Powers

• Western Trade and Chinese Independence
• Opium War (1839-1842)
• Internal rebellions weakened government
• Tai Ping Rebellion, Boxer Rebellion
• Republican Revolution
• Sun Yat-sen
• Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Tse-tung

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The Art and Culture of Japan

• Shintoism
• Worship of the spirits of nature
• Imperial cult worship of emperor and his
  ancestors as divine
• Drama
• No plays in which dancers enact dramatic stories
  with ritual and slapstick

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The Art and Culture of JapanThe Edo Period

• Japanese versions of landscapes
• Gentler colors, heightened abstraction
• Influence of Western art
• Peacocks and Peonies (1176)
• Woodblock art
• Hokusai Katsushika (1760-1849)

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A study in the balance of opposites image and
empty space. The empty space mirrors the wave
water and sky are balanced, as in the Chinese
yin/yang symbol below
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The Art and Culture of JapanThe Edo Period

• Bashos Haiku
• Zen Buddhist reflections
• Crucial detail of landscapes
• Composed of three lines of five syllables, seven
  syllables, and five syllables

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Humanities 1500 A Haiku

• Powerpoint beaming
• eastern cultures bright display
• while students write notes

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The People and Cultures of Africa
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The Spread Of Colonialism European powers seized
control of the African continent from the 17th to
the 20th century. In the 20th century Africans
took back, through political action and
revolution, political and military control of the
continent.
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Religion, Art and Society in Early Africa

• Common cultural inheritance
• Basic languages
• Animist beliefs
• Functional sense of art
• Not pure aesthetic objects, as in West
• Traditional rather than innovative
• Oral traditions
• Reverence for elderly, ancestor worship
• Emphasis on family, community
• Evolution of powerful kingdoms

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African Literature

• Negritude
• Leopold Senghor (1906-1989)
• A reassertion of African identity and culture in
  an age of colonialism
• African vs. Western language
• Thomas Mofolo (1875?-1948) first novelist to
  write in native language
• Chinua Achebe (b. 1930) writes in English for a
  Western audience