Help!!! I don't understand what I'm supposed to do with the essay question. Can someone explain this in simper terms?

States and communities can respond in various ways to neighboring foreign or external cultures. They can absorb and adapt to new ideas, they can mount vigorous defenses against intrusion or invasion, or they can live quietly alongside those different cultures. Describe three cases from China, two from Japan, and one from Korea of varying responses to external influences. Give specific details and note the time periods in which those responses occurred. Vary the types of responses you cite—some can be the introduction of new religions, or new governmental structures, or new economic innovations (such as agriculture or metallurgy). Some can be military resistance or other types of responses (such as paying bribes) to military threats from outside. Please make sure there is variety; that is, of the six cases you write about, no more than two should deal, for example, with responses to the Mongols or two with responses to the coming of Buddhism, although I expect you to deal with those in at least one case each in your essay. Please also vary the time periods; you should not focus on one single dynasty for all three China cases or one period in Japanese history for both of the Japan cases.