This course interrogates the utility of the conceptual categories "empire" and "nation" in analyzing the modern history of East Asia and beyond. Chronologically, we will cover the collapse of the Qing empire, the arrival of Western industrial powers, the rise of the Japanese empire, the emergence of nationalisms in East Asia, and the ascent of China in contemporary geopolitics. In the final section of the course, we will move beyond the anthropocentric approach and the identity paradigm to explore the meanings of "empire" and "nation" in the context of the material and planetary turns.