(O)219 980 6981
Email: dchenlin@iun.edu
Website: dchenlin.pages.iu.edu
Office hours: by appointment
Objective
This course covers China from 1949 to the present, including its cultural, social, political, economic, developments. It focuses on China's transition from a revolutionary, Communist regime that was preoccupied with political movements to gradual transition to a market economy, with consequent social, cultural, economic, and political changes. It will also pay special attention to the issues facilitating and hampering recent Chinese economic and political reforms, and offer some tentative Discussions of the future.
Required Readings:
The following required readings are available from the IUN campus Barnes & Noble Bookstore; you may also purchase them through online venues such as amazon.com.
Chang, Leslie. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China. Spiegel & Grau, Reprint edition, 2009.
Yang, Rae. Spider Eaters: A Memoir. U of California Press, 1998.
Other required readings are online in Canvas Syllabus.
Goals of this course include:
This course fulfills General Education principle II "Breadth of Learning" at Indiana University Northwest.
Learning Materials Available via Canvas:
Requirements:
I. Weekly writing assignments: Answers to the questions are to be posted on Canvas assignments, with links in the Canvas syllabus.
II. Two take-home papers(first paper: 20 percent; second paper: 10 percent; drafts for each paper: 10 percent)
You will use the built-in paper topics in the syllabus, under the schedules for the 9th, 11th, and 15th, 16th weeks. You are required to use both in-class readings and one or two outside sources for the first paper, and write a review paper for the second take-home paper assignment. The papers are to be submitted via Canvas Assignments. The first take-home paper, 10-12 pages, will be submitted first as a draft. It will be revised and resubmitted in week 11 by incorporating my comments and comments from your classmates. The second, review paper, about 5 pages, should be submitted as a draft in week 15, and after incorporating comments from me and your fellow classmates, resubmitted in week 16. The due dates are as indicated on the syllabus.
III. VoiceThread
VoiceThread assignments are online class participation: comments or questions about the weekly content through recorded or written messages.
Method of grading: all grades are assigned in percentages, which will be tabulated at the end of the semester and converted to letter grades. The averages of your take-home papers and of your weekly writing assignments will be taken to represent the grades for your take-home paper and weekly writing assignment. The conversion is as follows: 97 and above: A+; 93-96.9: A; 90-92.9: A-; 85-89.9: B+; 80-84.9: B; 75-79.9: B-; 70-74.9: C+; 65-69.9: C; 60-64.9: C-; 55-59.9: D+; 50-54.9: D; 45-49.9: D-; 44 and below: F. Grade distribution is as follows:
Weekly writing assignments: 35 percent
Two paper drafts: 20 percent
First take-home paper: 20 per cent
Second review paper: 10 per cent
VoiceThread: 15 per cent
Extra credit for open discussion: 3 percent
Extra credit for course evaluation: 1 percent
Web Resources:
Asia for educators (Columbia University's award winning website for primary and secondary school teachers)
Class Schedule:
Week 1 (Jan.10-16)
2. Creating " Socialist consciousness:" through mass campaigns. Yang, chaps.1- 6. Online reading: Early Campaigns in the 1950s. Notes.
3. Mobilizing the masses to catch up
with the West. Yang, chaps.7,8, 11. Online reading: the Great Leap Forward. Notes Outline.
Discussion question 1: What were the campaigns for and what kind of changes do you think the Communist regime wanted to produce in China? Discuss the contradictions in China's modernizational program.
Week 2 (Jan.17-23)
1. Educating the socialist youth. Moral education. Notes
2. The new socialist woman. Yang, chaps.9, 10. Online reading: Women in China. Notes. Outline
Discussion question 2: Give your interpretation of Chinese moral education, including its goal and effectiveness. How does the example of women show the impact/limitation of such education?
Week 3 (Jan.24-30)
1. The Cultural Revolution: the Red Guards. Yang, chaps.13- 15. Online reading: The Cultural Revolution. Notes.
2. Integrating the rural and urban social classes. Yang, chaps.16-19. Online reading: Reeducating the youth in the countryside.
Discussion question 3: The Cultural Revolution was a populist movement initially spearheaded by the Red Guards who were then sent to the countryside. Assess the goal of the CR and the treatment of the Red Guards in different stages of it.
Week 4 (Jan. 31-Feb.6)
1. The household registration system. Dutton, 77-111. Notes.
2. Communist China's social structure: The work unit. Dutton, pp.42-61. Notes.
Discussion question 4: Comment on the Communist regulated economy through the household registration system and the work unit.
Week 5 (Feb.7-13)
1. China's decision to
reform. Online
reading. 2. The connection between the work unit and tradition, and changes in
the work unit. Dutton, 203-227. For a view of the traditional Chinese siheyuan, and traditional housing
layout as well as the interior of the courtyard, refer to this part of the
University of Washington website on Traditional
Chinese Homes Notes
2. Market economy, corruption, and
social protest. Required online reading: "The Chinese Protests of 1989: The Issue of Corruption." Optional readings: The Gate and the Square (video
clips and images) Notes
Discussion question 5: How do you understand China's reform and the social protest against the corruption associated with its market economy?
Week 6 (Feb.14-20)
1.The new age of labor: rural migration and the transformation of Chinese cities. Chang, chaps.1-5.
2. Education, old and new. Chang, chaps.7,9.
Discussion question 6: Comment on the changes in China, e.g. internal migration versus household registration, self-sought versus assigned jobs, rural to urban migration, Communist moral education versus informal career education.
Week 7 (Feb.21-27)
1. Struggles and changes in life and work for the migrant worker. Chang, chaps.8,10, 13.
2 The contours of one factory girl's struggles for work and purpose of life in a city. Chang, chaps.12, 15.
Discussion question 7: How well are the factory girls adapting to factory work and urban life? Can one say the gap between rural and urban China is finally bridged?
Week 8 (Feb. 28-Mar.6)
Worker activism in China. Required reading: "Global Capital, the State, and Chinese Workers : The Foxconn Experience." Optional readings: In China, human costs are built into an iPad. How the U.S. lost out on iPhone work.
Discussion question 8: Do the protests over the Foxconn incidents indicate the migrant workers are aiming higher than before?
Week 9 (Mar.7-13) First take-home paper draft due
Watch the following 2019 award-winning documentary American Factory, and build an argument and discussion of China's reform and development into the "Fatory of the World." Based on your knowledge of the early Communist years and China's reform and transformation, comment on Chinese style of reform, factories, and how Chinese values and practices are perceived in America, as shown in the clash between the Chinese and American managements in their approaches to labor in the documentary American Factory. The paper should be 10-12 pages, typed and double spaced. The draft grade counts as a weekly assignment grade.
Week 10 (Mar.14-20) Spring break. No class.
Week 11 (Mar.21-27)
First take-home paper due at 10:59 pm on Sunday Mar.27. Please leave two comments on your classmates' drafts by Thursday Mar. 24, and incorporate comments from me and your classmates in your final paper.
Week 12 (Mar.28-Apr.3)
1. Freedom of speech, and the internet, the case of Google in China. Required readings: 1.Internet Ideology War; 2. Google, China in internet scuffle; 3.Google Stays in China. And Baidu Keeps on Winning.
2. Freedom of speech on the internet in China. Online reading: "Defending the Authoritarian Regime Online: China's Voluntary Fifty-Cent Army."
Discussion question 10: How do you assess the level of free information flow and free speech in China?
Week 13 (Apr.4-10)Linking China's border regions and China's neighbors: The Belt and Road Initiative
Required online readings: One Belt, One Road: A Historical Perspective."2.China's western frontier. Online reading: "Xinjiang, Central Asia, and the Implications for China's Policy in the Islamic World."3. China's maritime relations with its neighbors in the South Pacific. Online reading: "Rising Chinese Influence in the South Pacific.
Discussion question 11:Assess China's Belt and Road Initiative and how it would help both governing China's borders such as Xinjiang, and relations with China's neighbors in Central and South/Southeast Asia.
Week 14 (Apr.11-17)China's environmental issues
1. The Great Leap Backward. 2. China's Next Revolution. 3. China's plan to cut coal and boost green growth.
Discussion question 12: Assess China's pursuit of high economic development and environmental improvement.
Week 15 (Apr.18-24)Five-page review paper draft due.
Week 16 (Apr.25-May 1)Review paper due.