Syllabus blogging 3 \u2013Modern China<\/p>\n
Not as much to say about this. This is an upper-division course for majors and non-majors, and one I teach every few semesters.<\/p>\n
The books are<\/p>\n
-Schoppa, R. Keith. Revolution and Its Past: Identities and Change in Modern Chinese History<\/i>. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall\/Pearson, 2011.<\/p>\n
If you are going to use a textbook this is a good one. I go back and forth on using one,\u00a0 but this one has a nice theme (identities) and does not cost too much.<\/p>\n
-Edgerton-Tarpley, Kathryn. Tears from Iron: Cultural Responses to Famine in Nineteenth-century China<\/i>. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.<\/p>\n
I am really glad that some stuff is starting to come out that helps with the 19th<\/sup> century. For a long time I put Soulstealers<\/i> in here, which is a fine book for this slot. Two slots really. An early in the course book and a serious monograph. (I always like at least one of those in an upper-division course.) There are probably a few other things that would fit here.<\/p>\n -Qian, Zhongshu, Jeanne Kelly, and Nathan K Mao. Fortress Besieged]<\/i>. New York: New Directions, 2004.<\/p>\n I also like using a novel in a class like this. This one is both funny (to what extent the students will see it that way is an interesting question) and important and a good window into at least part of the society of the Republic. I have used Rickshaw <\/i>here (which was o.k.) and Family<\/i>, (which did not work as well.) I have high hopes for this<\/p>\n -King, Richard, and Zhun Li. Heroes of China\u2019s Great Leap Forward: Two Stories\u202f; [\u201c A Brief Biography of Li Shuangshuang\u201d, \u201cThe Story of the Criminal Li Tongzhong\u201d]<\/i>. Honolulu, Hawaii: Univ. of Hawai\u02bbi Press, 2010.<\/p>\n And some primary sources and something from the Communist period. I\u2019ve used this before and it worked well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The general model is the same as the old syllabus below. In most of my standard upper-division classes I am moving towards providing them with a selection of book chapters\/journal articles and having each of them read one each week (or most weeks), and then a few times a semester write an analysis of one of them. In theory this allows them to read about whatever interests them most. There are a number of places in here where I would like to figure out a better reading, but it general I am pretty happy with the approach.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n