For Teachers: Teachers' Guide

What do we mean by "Modern"

Summary

In the second section Kenneth Pomeranz and Bin Wong focus on the concept of modernity. They begin by looking at the traditional European notion of modernity that emerged in the nineteenth century and its consequences for our understanding of the modern world.

• In the first video clip ("The Tyranny of the European Model"), Bin Wong also discusses how the European model of modernity makes it seem that potentially "modern" developments in China since 1000 cannot be considered modern because they do not fit with the traditional European model of modernity.
• Pomeranz and Wong ("Comparing Modern China and Modern Europe") then discuss how various traits associated with modernity came together in Europe in the nineteenth century. They argue that while this development -- the confluence of a series of separate factors associated with modernity -- has often been mistaken for the emergence of modernity itself, it would be more appropriate to interpret this development as a conjunction of separate traits, some new and some old.
• Following this argument, it becomes possible to define modernity in culturally neutral, rather than “European,” terms. Wong also stresses that it is important to recognize the emergence of traits associated with modernity in East Asia before their emergence in Europe.