What Students Need to Know About China
From Mao to Now
Global
Classroom
Workshops
made possible
by:
Photo by Tese Wintz Neighbor
THE NORCLIFFE
FOUNDATION
National Council for the Social Studies
Seattle, Washington Conference 2012
A Resource Packet for Educators
And World
Affairs Council
Members
COMPILED BY:
Jennifer Lundstrem
Marissa Smit & Tese Wintz Neighbor
WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL
November 16, 2012
WHAT STUDENTS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CHINA:
FROM MAO TO NOW
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: THE MANY FACES OF CHINA ....................................... 2
Highlighting “Conversations” with James Fallows ............... 3
GEOGRAPHY............................................................................................... 6
Map of China ........................................................................... 6
CHINA: THEN AND NOW............................................................................ 7
CHINA-U.S. FACT SHEETS ......................................................................... 9
A Factual Overview ................................................................. 9
Travel and Exchange. .............................................................11
Environment.......................................................................... 12
The Economic Relationship ...................................................13
Government Partnerships .................................................... 14
WASHINGTON STATE TRADE WITH CHINA ........................................... 16
ONLINE INTERACTIVES AND STATS ....................................................... 17
UNDERSTANDING CHINA THROUGH CHINESE AND HONG KONG
SOURCES ............................................................................................... 18
WORTH CHECKING REGULARLY............................................................. 20
GENERAL CHINA TEACHING RESOURCES ............................................. 22
THE CHINESE LANGUAGE ....................................................................... 24
IN THE NEWS ............................................................................................ 25
Economics ............................................................................. 25
Politics ................................................................................... 28
U.S.-China Relations ..............................................................33
Environment...........................................................................37
Civil Society & Social Media .................................................. 43
Culture and Religion.............................................................. 46
PRIMARY SOURCES ................................................................................. 51
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ....................................................................... 53
TIMELINE OF MODERN CHINA 1949-TODAY ......................................... 56
TEACHING IN CHINA ................................................................................ 60
LOCAL CHINA-RELATED ORGANIZATIONS ........................................... 62
USING THIS RESOURCE
GUIDE
NOTE: Many of these
descriptions were excerpted
directly from the source website
Recommended
Resource
The Day After:
Common Core
Connection
Audio
Breaking Stereotypes
Charts and Graphs
Maps
Visual Media
Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Math
(STEM)
Lesson Plans/Educator
Resources
Educational Games
Mainland ChinaBased Source
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
1
INTRODUCTION: THE MANY FACES OF CHINA
Introduction to program and resource packet:
With China’s rapid economic development since Mao’s death in 1976, China has become an increasingly
complex and dynamic society. How can we integrate China into our teaching and situate China in a
global context? How do we support students to read behind the headlines, break down stereotypes and
misconceptions, and distinguish between fact and opinion? How can we explore global themes such as
sustainability using China as an example? From Mao to Now is a huge topic which cannot be covered in
one hour (nor in 66 pages!) But to start you on your way to approaching this dynamic and complicated
topic, we have compiled this resource packet. You can download the accompanying PPT at the
following website: http://www.world-affairs.org/programs/global-classroom/teacher-resources/
NCSS Speaker:
Tese Wintz Neighbor has traveled extensively around the world, especially Asia. Tese lived in China
from 1981-1983 working in Beijing as the English editor for China Pictorial magazine as well as teaching
English at Beijing University. Tese holds a Masters degree in China Regional Studies from the Jackson
School of International Studies at the University of Washington. She has worked as an adjunct Asian
history instructor at Seattle-area colleges and currently teaches an intensive East Asia Seminar class for
the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia, based at UW. She has led more than fifty educational
tours to Asia and has published articles in the Asia Wall Street Journal and Education About Asia; she has
also written numerous curriculums on China. Tese is the Senior Director of Professional Development
for the World Affairs Council’s Global Classroom Program, where she has worked since 1999.
Download other China-related resource packets from the World Affairs Council online:
http://www.world-affairs.org/programs/global-classroom/teacher-resources/
(Listed in chronological order.)
Including nine Resource Packets:








Chinese Gardens: A Gate to Understanding Chinese Culture (05/09/2012)
The Question(s) of Tibet (04/15/2011)
Exploring China Through Documentaries and Film (01/12/2011)
China’s Great Leap into the 21st Century (11/08/2010)
Who are the Uyghurs? Understanding China’s Silk Road Today (05/12/2010)
China Matters: Exploring this Diverse Land and People (02/03/2009)
The Green Olympics and After: China’s Environmental Challenge (04/24/2008)
Fueling the Future: Peace or Conflict? An Examination of Fossil Fuels, Development, and
Conflict with a Special Focus on China (03/12/2008)
And three Curriculum Based Assessments (CBA):



China Matters: Exploring This Multidimensional Land and People (08/01/2008) Why History?
Historical Research on Current Events, Middle School CBA. In this unit, students will examine their
preconceptions about China and learn about China's diversity.
China's Environmental Challenge (04/24/2008) Humans and the Environment, High School CBA. In
this curriculum unit, students will learn about China's current environmental situation and explore
the complex challenges facing the leadership and the peoples of this diverse land.
China: Factory of the World (03/12/2008) Technology through the Ages, High School CBA.Using
appropriate historical research practices, students will write an analysis of how a technological
change that occurred in history impacts our lives today.
All photos by Tese Wintz Neighbor.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
2
INTRODUCTION: THE MANY FACES OF CHINA
Highlighting “Conversations” with James Fallows
The following excerpt is from the book, China Airborne (2012) by China
expert and Atlantic national correspondent, James Fallows.
China—Land of Contrasts
...What is true in one province is false in the next. What was the exception last week is the rule
today. A policy that is applied strictly in Beijing may be ignored or completely unknown in Kunming or
Changsha. Millions of Chinese people are now very rich, and hundreds of millions are still very poor. Their
country is a success and a failure, an opportunity and a threat, an inspiring model to the world and a
nightmarish cautionary example. It is tightly controlled and it is out of control; it is futuristic and it is
backward; its system is both robust and shaky. Its leaders are skillful and clumsy, supple and stubborn,
visionary and foolishly shortsighted.
Of course there are exceptional moments when the disparate elements of China seem to function
as a coherent whole. Over a six-month period in 2008, the entire country seemed to be absorbed by a
succession of dramatic political and natural events. First, the pre-Olympic torch relay began its ceremonial
progression from Mount Olympus in Greece to Beijing and was the cause of nationwide celebration.
(“Happiness Abounds as Country Cheers,” read a banner headline in the China Daily.) The mood shifted
abruptly when the relay was disrupted by Tibetan-rights protestors across Europe, to the widespread
astonishment, horror, and soon, fury of people in mainland China—where the accepted version of Tibetan
history is that the territory has always been part of the Chinese nation, and that the people of Tibet should
be grateful for Mao’s having rescued them from the feudal tyranny of the lamas. Then, on May 12, 2008,
everything else vanished from the Chinese media when a devastating earthquake struck Sichuan province
and at least eighty thousand mostly poor people were killed. Three months after that, the opening
ceremony of the Olympic Games seemed to command attention in every part of the country and again
marked a shift of national mood.
…It can seem sensible to talk about a single cohesive-minded “China.” And when acting on the
international stage, or when imposing some internal political rules, the central government can operate as a
coordinated entity. But most of the time, visitors—and Chinese people too—see vividly and exclusively the
little patch of “China” that is in front of them, with only a guess as to how representative it might be of
happenings anywhere else. You can develop a feel for a city, a company, a party boss, an opportunity, a
problem—and then see its opposite as soon as you go to another town. Such observations may sound
banal—China, land of contrasts!—but I have come to think that really absorbing them is one of the greatest
challenges for the outside world in reckoning with China and its rise…
Fallows, James. China Airborne. NY: Publisher, 2012. 7-10. Print.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
3
INTRODUCTION: THE MANY FACES OF CHINA
…A constant awareness of the variety and contradictions within China does not mean suspending critical
judgments or failing to observe trends that prevail in most of the country most of the time. For instance, it
really is true that for most Chinese families, life is both richer and freer than it was in the 1980s, and is
immeasurably better on both counts than it was in the 1960s. It is also true that in most of the country, air
and water pollution are so dire as to constitute not simply a major threat to public health but also a serious
impediment to China’s continued prospects for economic growth. So some overall statements about “China”
and the “the Chinese” are fair. But because of the country’s scale, because of the linguistic and cultural
barriers that can make it seem inaccessible, and because of the Chinese government’s efforts to project the
image of a seamlessly unified nation, outsiders are tempted to overlook the rifts, variation, and chaos, and
talk about Chinese activities as if they were one coordinated whole. Therefore it is worth building in
reminders of how many varied and often conflicting Chinas there really are.
Outsiders have learned to stretch their mental boundaries when it comes to considering China’s
“scale” in one sense of that term; its billion-plus population, its numerous cities the size of Paris, its collective
appetite for commodities and products of all sorts, its influence on the world’s markets and environment.
The military analyst Thomas P.M. Barnett has come up with a vivid thought experiment to help outsiders
envision the advantages and challenges that come from China’s huge human scope: The United States and
China have about the same geographic area, although China’s mountainous and desert expanses mean that
it has significantly less arable land. But China’s population is about four times larger than America’s. To
match the challenge of human scale that confronts China, the United States would have to bring in every
person from Mexico, more than 110 million in all, plus the 200 million people in Brazil. Then it would also
need the entire population of Cuba, and the rest of the Caribbean nations, plus Canada, Colombia, and every
other country in North and South America. After doing that, it would be up to around one billion people. If it
then also added the entire population of Nigeria, some 155 million, and every person from the hypercrowded islands of Japan, 125 million more, it would have as many people as China—almost.
Feeding, governing, housing, and employing these vast numbers within the borders of the existing
fifty U.S. states would be an almost unimaginable challenge, especially preserving anything resembling open
space or wilderness. At the same time, all this humanity would mean that the resulting superstate could draw
on much greater reserves of talent in every field—scientific, athletic, artistic, and musical, entrepreneurial,
civic. Think of running for President in these circumstances. Think of getting into Harvard (as many Chinese
students now aspire to do). Those near-unimaginable strengths and the impossibilities of the situation are
China’s reality now. They explain the aphorism that has stuck with me since I heard it from a government
official in Shanghai in 2006. “Outsiders think of everything about China as multiplied by 1.3 billion,” he told
me. “We have to think of everything as divided by 1.3 billion.” Scale in this sense, as an indicator of variety
and contradiction, of occasional chaos and frequent difficulty of control, is at least as important as the sheer
weight of China’s influence on the world.
I have met people for whom “China” is the export factories surrounding Hong Kong and Shenzhen;
others for whom it is the Communist Party Schools and centers of related doctrine in Beijing. For many tens
of millions in the countryside, “China” is nothing more than the area they can reach by foot from their
farmhouses each day…
***
Previous praise for Fallows: “A shrewd observer of human foibles and political quagmires…(Fallows) gives us panoramic
views of China that are both absorbing and illuminating.” —Jonathan Spence, The New York Times Book Review
Fallows, James. China Airborne. NY: Publisher, 2012. 7-10. Print.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
4
INTRODUCTION: THE MANY FACES OF CHINA
Moyers & Company: James Fallows on Hopes for Obama’s
Second Term (11/9/2012)
http://billmoyers.com/segment/james-fallows-on-hopes-forobamas-second-term/
Includes his thoughts on what he views as the truth behind the
economic threat from China.
Book Excerpt: China Airborne (11/9/2012)
http://billmoyers.com/content/book-excerpt-china-airborne/
James Fallows newest book, China Airborne, takes a look at
Chinese ambitions, illustrated in part by China’s ambitious
commitment to building new airports. More than two-thirds of the
new airports under construction today are being built in China. In
this excerpt, Fallows discusses the Chinese government’s “Great
Firewall” — used to control and monitor Chinese internet users —
and how it might be holding the country back.
Wall Street Journal: Eight Questions: James Fallows, China
Airborne (6/11/2012)
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/06/11/eight-questionsjames-fallows-china-airborne/
In his new book China Airborne, national correspondent for The
Atlantic and instrument-rated pilot James Fallows assesses those
high-flying ambitions as a proxy for China’s economic and political
development. China Real Time recently caught up with Mr.
Fallows to discuss China’s obsession with building its own
commercial jetliners, the special economics of jet engine
technology, and why Americans have been successful in helping
upgrade China’s air travel system while struggling to do the same
in other industries.
The Diane Rehm Show: James Fallows, China Airborne
(5/10/2012) (51:40)
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-05-10/james-fallowschina-airborne
Last year, China announced plans to spend $250 billion to
jumpstart its aviation industry. Author James Fallows explored the
country’s potential for a modern aerospace industry in his new
book, China Airborne: The Dream of Aviation in Emerging China.
The Atlantic: Conversations
with James Fallows
Atlantic national correspondent
James Fallows recently returned to
the United States after a three-year
assignment in China. For this series,
he talks with Damien Ma, research
analyst at the Eurasia Group, about
the key issues confronting China in
the coming decade. 3-minute video
clips include:

What the Communist Party
Wants

“Our 5,000-Year-Old Culture”

Becoming Modern

If They Build It, Who Will
Come?

The Green Sputnik

China Is Number Two

Cornering the Green Market

Earth, Water, and Air

“China Has All their Eggs in
Our Basket”

The Story of the Century
http://www.theatlantic.com/specialreport/china-today/
Asia Society: China Boom, “China is Like a Raft in Category 5
White Water”
http://chinaboom.asiasociety.org/period/prospects/0/175
James Fallows is national correspondent for The Atlantic. He has worked for the magazine for more
than 25 years, based in Washington DC, Seattle, Berkeley, Austin, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and
Beijing.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
5
GEOGRAPHY
Available for educational use at www.johomaps.com (2005)
Understanding the Geography of China
http://www.aasianst.org/EAA/mccoll.htm
China not only has the world’s largest population (over 1.3 billion), but it also is an extremely large
country (more than 9.5 million square kilometers) with immense physical and cultural diversity. The
author of this article, Robert W. McColl believes that simply memorizing maps and map locations is not
geography. Understanding the interaction between a natural environment and various human and
cultural patterns should be the real objective. This resource provides information on different regions,
cities, diets, economy, and shelters and illustrates how people adapt differently in different
environments.
China Matters: Exploring this Multidimensional Land and People
http://worldaffairs.org/globalclassroom/curriculum/China%20MS%20CBA%20%2B%20Top%20Ten%20article.pdf
This unit features a vivid slide show with 100 images of China, divided into categories. Captions are
provided for teachers. Students will examine their preconceptions about China and learn about China's
diversity. The unit also includes a targeted resource list and a bridging document to help students get
started with the CBA “Why History?”
Asia Society: China Puzzle Game
http://asiasociety.org/education/students/games/china-puzzle
We give you clues. You put China together geographically. Up for the challenge?
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
6
CHINA: THEN AND NOW
POPULATION IN CHINA: 1979 vs. 2012
Category
China Then
China Now
Population
Urban Population
(% of total)
969,005,000 (1979)
19% (1979)
1,343,239,923
51%
Rural Population
(% of total)
81% (1979)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/17/us-chinapopulation-idUSTRE80G0DB20120117
1979 Population Distribution (as a
% of total population)
Population ages 014 (% of total)
Population ages
15-64 (% of total)
Population ages 65
and above (% of
total)
49%
Current Population Distribution (as a % of
total population)
Urban
Urban
Rural
Rural
36% (1979)
17.4%
59% (1979)
73.5%
5% (1979)
9.1%
1979 Age Structure (as % of total
population)
Current Age Structure (as % of total
population)
0-14
0-14
15-64
15-64
65+
65+
“In 1978, less than a fifth of China’s population resided in cities; by 2009, urban residents made up close to half the
population; and by 2030, the share is expected to swell to near two-thirds. That means about 13 million more urbanites
each year, or the equivalent of the total population of Tokyo or Buenos Aires.”
–World Bank Report China 2030 (http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/China-2030-complete.pdf)
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
7
CHINA: THEN AND NOW
QUALITY OF LIFE IN CHINA: 1979-2012
Category
China Then
China Now
Life expectancy at
birth
GDP (current U.S.$)
(in millions)
GDP growth (annual
%)
GNI per capita, PPP
(current international
$)
67 years in 1979
74.84 years
176,634.8 in 1979
7,318,449.3 in 2011
7.6% in 1979
9.3% in 2011
250 in 1980
8450 in 2011
5 in 1980
6.5 in 2011
Unemployment,
total (% of total labor
force)
Number of bikes in
Beijing
2.33 million in 1975
http://english.cri.cn/6909/2009/09/22/1721s51757
6.htm
Thirty years ago no private cars
were on the road in China. Now,
there are 60 million!
-Ambassador Jon Huntsman
Number of private
cars in Beijing
n/a
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/201202/17/content_14628019.htm
5.017 million cars
Literacy rate (age 15
and above)
79% (Adult men, 1980)
54.4% (Adult women, 1980)
92.2% in 2007
http://www.unescap.org/stat/data/statind/pdf/t8_
dec04.pdf
The share of Staterun Businesses
(SOEs) in GDP
There were only a handful of U.S.
News correspondents in China in
the late 1970s. … Today, there are
more than 150!
-Ambassador Jon Huntsman
Approx. 76% in 1980
Approx. 29.7% in 2006
http://www.palgravejournals.com/ces/journal/v50/n3/full/ces200831a.h
tml
http://www.uscc.gov/researchpapers/2011/10_26_11_Ca
pitalTradeSOEStudy.pdf
Sources (unless otherwise noted):
World Bank: www.worldbank.org/country/china
CIA Fact Book: www.cia.gov/library/pulications/the_world_factbook/geos/ch.html
PRINT AND ONLINE MEDIA IN CHINA’S CHANGING TIMES
“In 1978 China published 14,987 books; 20 years later the number was 130,613, a little more than twice
that of the United States… In 1978 China had only 32 television stations and about 70 radio stations.
By 1998, there were 3,240 television stations and 673 radio stations competing for the eyes and the
ears of the world’s largest audience.”
–Robert L. Keatley, The Role of Media in a Market Economy
(http://www.ncuscr.org/files/4.%20Role%20of%20the%20Media%20in%20the%20Market%20Economy%20%2819%29.pdf)
In 2002, there were just over 50 million internet users in mainland China. As of 2010, that had risen
to 457 million users.
–http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/whitepaper/china-internet-statistics/
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
8
CHINA-U.S.FACT SHEET: A FACTUAL OVERVIEW
A Factual Overview
CATEGORY
CHINA
UNITED STATES
Geography
Land area
Arable land
9,569,901 sq. km
14.86%
9,161,923 sq. km
18.01%
People
Population
Urban population (% of
total)
Population growth rate
0-14 years
15-64 years
65 years and over
Life expectancy at birth
Infant Mortality Rate
(per 1,000 live births)
Literacy rate (age 15
and above)
1,343,239,923
51%
313,847,465
82%
0.481%
17.4%
73.5%
9.1%
74.84 years
15.62 deaths
0.899%
20%
66.5%
13.5%
78.49 years
5.98 deaths
92.2%
99%
Economy and Trade
GDP (purchasing power
parity)
GDP real growth rate
GDP per capita (PPP)
GDP composition by
sector
Labor force
Labor force by
occupation
$11.44 trillion
15.29 trillion
9.2%
$8,500
Agriculture: 10.1%; industry:
46.8% services: 43.1%
795.5 million
Agriculture: 39.5%; industry:
46.8%; services 42.6%
1.7%
$49,000
Agriculture: 1.2%; industry: 19.2%; services: 79.6%
153.6 million (including unemployed)
Farming, forestry, and fishing: 0.7% manufacturing,
extraction, transportation, and crafts: 20.3%
managerial, professional, and technical: 37.3% sales
and office: 24.2% other services: 17.6%
9%
15.1%
Unemployment rate
6.5%
Population below
13.4%
poverty line
Note: In 2011, China set a new poverty line at RMB 2300 (approximately US $363; this new standard is significantly
higher than the line set in 2009, and as a result, 128 million Chinese are now considered below the poverty line).The
current U.S. poverty line for a single individual in 2011 is $11,484 (U.S. Census Bureau).
Agricultural products
World leader in gross value
Wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton;
of agricultural output: Rice,
beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish; forest
wheat, potatoes, corn,
products
peanuts, tea, millet, barley,
apples, cotton, oilseed; pork;
fish
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
9
CHINA-U.S.FACT SHEET: A FACTUAL OVERVIEW
CATEGORY
CHINA
UNITED STATES
Natural resources
Coal, iron ore, petroleum,
natural gas, mercury, tin,
tungsten, antimony,
manganese, molybdenum,
vanadium, magnetite,
aluminum, lead, zinc,
uranium, hydropower
potential (world’s largest)
13.9%
Coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates,
uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash,
silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber
Industrial production
growth rate
Industries
4.1%
World leader in gross value
Highly diversified and technologically advanced;
of industrial output: Mining
petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace,
and ore processing; heavy
telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food
machinery manufacturing;
processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining
armaments; textiles and
apparel; petroleum; cement;
chemicals; fertilizers;
consumer products; food
processing; transportation
equipment;
telecommunications
equipment*
*Key materials for China include iron, steel, aluminum, and coal. Consumer products include footwear, toys, and
electronics. The transportation sector produces automobiles, rail cars and locomotives, ships, and aircraft, as well as
commercial space launch vehicles.
Exports
Exports – partners
Imports
Imports – partners
Reserves of foreign
exchange and gold
Public debt as
percentage of GDP
$1.904 trillion: electrical and
other machinery, including
data processing equipment,
apparel, textiles, iron and
steel, optical and medical
equipment
US 20.03%, Hong Kong
12.03%, Japan 8.32%, South
Korea 4.55%, Germany
4.27%
$1.743 trillion: electrical and
other machinery, oil and
mineral fuels, optical and
medical equipment, metal
ores, plastics, organic
chemicals
Japan 11.2%, South Korea
9.3%, US 6.8%, Taiwan
6.84%, Germany 5.54%
$1.497 trillion: agricultural products (soybeans, fruit,
corn) 9.2%, industrial supplies (organic chemicals)
26.8%, capital goods (transistors, aircraft, motor
vehicle parts, computers, telecommunications
equipment) 49.0%, consumer goods 15.0%
Canada 19%, Mexico 13.3%, China 7%, Japan 4.5%,
$2.236 trillion: agricultural products 4.9%, industrial
supplies 32.9% (crude oil 8.2%), capital goods 30.4%
(computers, telecommunications equipment, motor
vehicle parts), consumer goods 31.8%
China 18.4%, Canada 14.2%, Mexico 11.7%, Japan
5.8%, Germany 4.4%
$3.236 trillion
$148 billion
43.5%
67.7%
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
10
CHINA-U.S.FACT SHEET: A FACTUAL OVERVIEW
CATEGORY
CHINA
UNITED STATES
Stock of direct foreign
investment at home
$781.8 billion
$2.571 trillion
Energy
7.069 million bbl/day
9.79 million bbl/day
421,300 bbl/day
1.004 million bbl/day
20.35 billion bbl
Communications
986.253 million
389 million
Transportation
Oil production
Oil consumption
Oil exports
Oil imports
Oil proved reserves
Mobile Phones
Internet Users
Airports
Roadways
9.023 million bbl/day
18.84 million bbl/day
1.876 million bbl/day
1.255 million bbl/day
20.68 billion bbl
279 million
245 million
497
3,860,800 km
15,079
6,506,204 km
Sources: CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
Travel and Exchange Between China and the United States
Statistics
Number of people flying
back and forth between
the US and China
Number of Chinese
studying in the US
Then
About 10,000 people PER
YEAR in 1979
Now
About 10,000 people PER DAY in 2012
(www.china-embassy.org/eng/sgxw/t979261.htm)
(www.chinaembassy.org/eng/sgxw/t979261.htm)
10,000 at undergraduate level
in 1985
over 158,000 Chinese students in 2012
(www.china-embassy.org/eng/sgxw/t979261.htm)
http://www.nber.org/chapters/c11599.pdf
Number of Americans
studying in China
Number of Chinese
working in the US
Chinese Foreign Direct
Investment in the US
US Foreign Direct
Investment in China
Over 24,000 American students in 2012
(www.china-embassy.org/eng/sgxw/t979261.htm)
366,500 in 1980
1,808,066 in 2010
(http://www.migrationinformation.org/US
Focus/display.cfm?id=876#1)
(http://www.migrationinformation.org/USFocus/display.
cfm?id=876#1)
$60.5bn in 2010
http://www.ustr.gov/countries-regions/china
Thirty years ago, there were 1,200
foreigners living in Beijing. Today, we
have 1,200—actually more than that—
Americans affiliated with the U.S.
Embassy alone.
-Ambassador Jon Huntsman
$1.bn in 2011
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/us/201105/18/content_12529925.htm
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
11
CHINA-U.S.FACT SHEET: ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES &
AGREEMENTS
CHINA
UNITED STATES
Chief Environmental Concerns
Air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur
dioxide particulates) from reliance on coal
produces acid rain; water shortages,
particularly in the north; water pollution
from untreated wastes; deforestation;
estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural
land since 1949 to soil erosion and
economic development; desertification;
trade in endangered species
International Environmental
Agreements
Party to: Antarctic-Environmental
Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
Species, Environmental Modification,
Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea,
Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical
Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands,
Whaling
Air pollution resulting in acid
rain in both the U.S. and
Canada; the U.S. is the largest
single emitter of carbon
dioxide from the burning of
fossil fuels; water pollution
from runoff of pesticides and
fertilizers; limited natural fresh
water resources in much of the
western part of the country
require careful management;
desertification
Party to: Air Pollution, Air
Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides,
Antarctic-Environmental
Protocol, Antarctic-Marine
Living Resources, Antarctic
Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Climate
Change, Desertification,
Endangered Species,
Environmental Modification,
Marine Dumping, Marine Life
Conservation, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution,
Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
*Note: The United States has signed, but not ratified the following agreements: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Biodiversity, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Hazardous
Wastes. This distinction not applicable to China.
ENVIRONMENTAL STATISTICS
Renewable internal freshwater resources per capita (cubic
meters)
Annual freshwater withdrawals, total (% of internal
resources)
Improved water source (% of population with access)
Improved water source, rural (% of rural population with
access)
Improved water source, urban (% of urban population with
access)
Improved sanitation facilities (% of population with access)
Improved sanitation facilities, rural (% of rural population
with access)
Improved sanitation facilities, urban (% of urban population
with access)
CHINA
UNITED STATES
2123.3
9208.7
22
17
77 (2004 data)
77
100
100
95.7
100
44 (2004 data)
100
28
100
69
100
Sources: CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
12
CHINA-U.S. FACT SHEET: THE ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP
This map illustrates the value of exports to China from each American state.
A Comparison of the U.S. and China
by Population
China
Fast Facts: Chinese-American Trade
USA

Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP)
basis that adjusts for price differences, China in
2012 stood as the second-largest economy in the
world after the U.S., having surpassed Japan in
20o1.

The dollar values of China’s agricultural and
industrial output each exceed those of the U.S.;
China is second to the U.S. in the value of services
it produces. Still, per capita income is below the
world average.

China is the foremost source of America’s
imported goods, but is only the third largest
market of goods produced in the U.S.

In terms of the total volume (imports and exports)
of trade, China is 2nd in the ranking of America’s
economic partners, accounting for 13.5% of total
trade.
Arable Land in the U.S. and China
(In sq. km as % of total land area)
China
USA
A Comparison of the GDP
(Purchasing Power Parity in
Trillions of Dollars) of the U.S. and
China
China
USA
CIA World Factbook and http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/toppartners.html
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
13
CHINA-U.S. FACT SHEET: GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS
A SUMMARY OF SOME RECENT PARTNERSHIPS AT THE GOVERNMENT LEVEL
American
Chinese
Purpose of Partnership
Date
Source
Committee/
Committee/
Established
Organization
Organization
http://www.navy.
The focus was on bilateral
Sept. 17,
mil/submit/display
U.S. Navy
Chinese
interoperability in detecting,
2012
.asp?story_id=696
43
People’s
boarding and searching suspected
Liberation
vessels as well as the ability of both
Army (Navy)
Chinese and American naval assets
to respond to pirated vessels,
particularly off the coast of Somalia.
http://www.state.
Urban Search and Rescue (USAR)
May-June,
gov/r/pa/prs/ps/20
USAID
China
training aimed at improving USAR
2012
12/07/194891.htm
Earthquake
capacity of Indonesia and other
Administration Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) member states.
http://www.state.
The TYF facilitates the exchange of
June 2008
gov/r/pa/prs/ps/20
U.S.-China Ten Year Framework information and best practices to
12/04/187736.htm
(TYF) for Energy and
foster innovation and develop
Environment Cooperation
solutions to the environment and
energy challenges both countries
face. Agencies in each country
implement TYF, which include action
plans on the protection of air, water,
wetlands, nature reserves,
transportation, electricity, and
energy efficiency. There are 15
public-private “EcoPartnerships”
between U.S. and Chinese
organizations.
http://www.state.
U.S. National
National
The development of South Sea Real- 2012
gov/r/pa/prs/ps/20
Oceanic and
Marine
Time Tsunami Forecasting
12/07/194891.htm
Atmospheric
Environmental Capabilities.
Administration Foecasting
(NOAA)
Center, State
Oceanic
Administration
(SOA)
American
Chinese
Purpose of Partnership
Date
Source
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
14
CHINA-U.S. FACT SHEET: GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS
American
Committee/
Organization
U.S.
Delegation
headed by the
Federal Energy
Regulatory
Commission
China
Committee/
Organization
Chinese
delegation
attended the
event hosted
in the U.S.,
headed by the
State
Electricity
Regulatory
Commission of
China (SERC)
FDA
Supported by
the United
States (and
Australia)
Proposed by
China
In 1979, the U.S. Embassy issued 4,700 nonimmigrant visas for Chinese citizens to visit
the United States, of whom 770 were
students. Last year, our Embassy and
consulates throughout the country issued
nearly half a million non-immigrant visas to
Chinese citizens and 77,000 were students.
-Ambassador Jon Huntsman
Date
Established
The Asia Pacific Energy Regulator
Forum is voluntary in nature and will
provide an on-going opportunity to
facilitate the sharing of information
on regulatory and policy practice and
experience in the Asia Pacific region,
with a view to informing the
development and application of
appropriate best practice regulatory
and market arrangements.
August,
2012
https://www.ferc.g
ov/aperforum/index.asp
Regulation of food production in
China to accord with American
health and safety regulations.
2008 with
the opening
of the first
FDA office
abroad in
Beijing
September,
2007
http://usatoday30.
usatoday.com/ne
ws/washington/20
08-11-19chinafda_N.htm
The Asia-Pacific Network for
Sustainable Forest Management
aims to promote and improve
sustainable forest management and
rehabilitation in the Asia-Pacific
region through capacity building,
information-sharing, regional policy
dialogues and pilot projects.
http://www.daff.g
ov.au/forestry/inte
rnational/fora/asia
pacific_network_f
or_sustainable_for
est_management
_apfnet
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
15
WASHINGTON STATE TRADE WITH CHINA
This map displays Washington State’s Exports to Asia colored according to value.
China is the state’s
largest trading
partner in the region!
Permission pending from
http://www.trade.gov/data.asp
This pie chart displays a breakdown of
Washington State’s
Exports to China by industry.
Fast Facts on Washington State
Trade

Washington’s single largest export by value is
aircraft parts and airplanes (see the ‘transportation’
section of the pie chart at left).

Washington’s largest trading partner is Canada,
followed by China.

Washington is 5 in the ranking of U.S. States by
total exports.

In 2011, Washington exported a total of $64.8 billion
in goods and services.
th
http://www.choosewashington.com/data/trade/Pages/default.aspx
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
16
ONLINE INTERACTIVES AND STATS
China’s Global Reach Investment Interactive
http://www.heritage.org/research/projects/china-global-investment-tracker-interactive-map
China's investment overseas is increasingly important to the United States and the international
community. The China Global Investment Tracker created by The Heritage Foundation is the only
publicly available, comprehensive dataset of large Chinese investments and contracts worldwide
beyond Treasury bonds. Details are available for almost 500 attempted transactions – failed and
successful – over $100 million in all industries, including energy, mining, transportation and banking.
International Trade Administration Data and Analysis
http://www.trade.gov/data.asp
the International Trade Administration (ITA) strengthens the competitiveness of U.S. industry,
promotes trade and investment, and ensures fair trade through the rigorous enforcement of our trade
laws and agreements. ITA works to improve the global business environment and helps U.S.
organizations compete at home and abroad.
FEATURED RESOURCE: Gapminder
http://www.gapminder.org/
Gapminder is a non-profit venture – a modern “museum” on the Internet – promoting sustainable
global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
Gapminder’s statistical database provides a userfriendly interface for exploring world
development.
Choose countries or regions to follow, set
indicators, and watch the world advance from
1800 to the present.
This resource is particularly useful for
incorporating STEM Topics into teaching about
China.
This website has a special China portal, found on the page below, which allows you to compare regions
within China: http://www.gapminder.org/labs/
See the Booming Growth of China’s Megacities via Satellite, Tyler Falk (7/27/2012)
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/cities/see-the-booming-growth-of-chinas-megacities-viasatellite/4311
In 1973, NASA and United States Geological Survey’s Landsat 3 satellite took the image above of quiet,
rural land (plant-covered land is red) along China’s Pearl River Delta.
Asia Society: The China Game
http://asiasociety.org/node/20787
Can you out-smart the dragon? Race against the clock and answer questions about Chinese society.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
17
UNDERSTANDING CHINA THROUGH CHINESE/HONG KONG
SOURCES
CCTV News
http://english.cntv.cn/01/index.shtml
China Central Television (CCTV) is the national TV station of the People´s Republic of China and it is one of China´s
most important news broadcast companies. Today, CCTV has become one of China´s most influential media outlets.
Caixin
http://english.caixin.com/
Caixin Media Company Ltd. is a Beijing-based media group dedicated to providing high-quality and authoritative
financial and business news and information through periodicals, online, conferences, books, and TV / video
programs. Caixin aims to blaze a trail that helps traditional media prosper in the new media age, while distributing
comprehensive, in-depth and accurate news and information on various multimedia platforms.
China Daily
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/
The China Daily is an English-language daily newspaper. This state-run publication was established in 1981 and has
the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in the country.
ChinaCulture.Org
http://www1.chinaculture.org/library/2008-02/13/content_124744.htm
Chinaculture.org offers broad access to up-to-date cultural news about China with a wealth of information about
Chinese history, culture, politics and economy.
People’s Daily Online
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/
This party newspaper was established in June 1948 and is considered among the most influential and authoritative
newspapers in China.
Chinese Embassy – Washington, D.C.
http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/
Official website for the Chinese Embassy.
China Foreign Ministry
http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/
Official website for Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Asia Times Online (Hong Kong)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China.html
Asia Times Online is a quality Internet-only publication that reports and examines geopolitical, political, economic,
and business issues. They look at these issues from an Asian perspective which distinguishes them from the
mainstream English-language media, whose reporting on Asian matters is generally by Westerners, for Westerners.
China & U.S. Focus (Hong Kong)
http://www.chinausfocus.com/
China-U.S. Focus is published by the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a non-government and non-profit
organization based in Hong Kong. Established in 2008, the China-United States Exchange Foundation seeks to
foster a strengthened and improved relationship between China and the United States that is and will continue to be
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
18
UNDERSTANDING CHINA THROUGH CHINESE/HONG KONG
SOURCES
beneficial to China, the United States and the world-at-large. China-U.S. Focus is supported by the Shanghai
Institutes for International Studies, a think tank organization based in Shanghai; and assisted by Brown Lloyd James,
an international public affairs firm based in New York.
Xinhuanet News Agency
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/index.htm
The largest news agency in China includes 107 bureaus world-wide.
Economic Observer
http://eeo.com.cn/ens/
The Economic Observer is an independent Chinese weekly newspaper distributed in major cities throughout China.
It focuses on major domestic political and economic events and issues.
China Youth Daily
http://www.cyol.net/home/english/intro/daily.htm
China Youth Daily is a popular official daily newspaper and the first independently operated central government
news media portal in the People’s Republic of China. It has been operated by the Communist Youth League since
1951.
China Today
http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/index.htm
A monthly magazine published in several languages, including Chinese, English, French, Arabic, and Spanish. It was
started in 1949.
China.org.cn
http://www.china.org.cn/environment/index.htm
China.org.cn offers broad access to up-to-date news about China, with searchable texts of government position
papers and a wealth of basic information about Chinese history, politics, economics and culture.
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/
This English-language Hong Kong newspaper covers local Hong Kong, China, and international news. It was founded
in 1903.
Global Times
http://www.globaltimes.cn/HOME.aspx
Global Times is an English-language newspaper under the People’s Daily.
China Economic Review (Hong Kong)
http://chinaeconomicreview.com/
China Economic Review is a monthly magazine published in Hong Kong covering business, finance, and economics
in China. It has been published since 1990. We publish a comprehensive package of original reporting, commentary
and analysis for the discerning business reader with an interest in China's economic affairs.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
19
WORTH CHECKING REGULARLY
China Digital Times
Tese’s Favorite
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/
Source!
CDT is a bilingual news website covering China’s social and political transition and its
emerging role in the world. We aggregate the most up-to-the-minute news and analysis
about China from around the Web, while providing independent reporting, translations
from Chinese cyberspace, perspectives from across the geographical, political and social spectrum, and daily
recommendations of readings from the Chinese blogosphere.
China File
http://www.chinafile.com/
New online magazine/blog from Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations
Chinadialogue: Where China and the World Discuss the Environment
http://www.chinadialogue.net/
Chinadialogue.net is an independent, non-profit organization based in London, Beijing, and San Francisco. It was
launched on July 3, 2006. Climate change, species loss, pollution, water scarcity and environment damage are not
problems confined to one country: they are challenges that concern all the world's citizens, but the rise of China
gives them a new urgency.
Danwei
http://www.danwei.com/
Danwei is a website and research firm that tracks the Chinese media and Internet.
Greatfire.org
https://en.greatfire.org/
Websites blocked by the Great
Firewall of China.
Asia Pacific Memo
http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/about
Asia Pacific Memo is a communications initiative led by the Institute of Asian Research (IAR) at the University of
British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. We feature accessible scholarly knowledge about contemporary Asia.
Chinese Law Professor Blog
MORE NEWS SOURCES ABOUT CHINA
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/
The Economist: China
http://www.economist.com/world/china
Posts by Donald C. Clarke, Professor of Law, George
Washington University Law School.
The Guardian: China
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china
The New Yorker: Letter from China
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos
The New York Times: China
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countries
andterritories/china/index.html
The Wall Street Journal: China A Real Time Report
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/
China on Twitter
https://twitter.com/#%21/search?q=%23China
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
20
WORTH CHECKING REGULARLY
The China Story
The China Story
http://www.thechinastory.org/
The China Story Project is a web-based account of contemporary China created by the Australian
Centre on China in the World (CIW), College of Asia & the Pacific (CAP), The Australian National
University (ANU) in Canberra. The Project includes this website and China Story Yearbook. Copies
of the Yearbook were printed for distribution to libraries and for dedicated events connected with
the Project. The full text is available on this website and downloadable as a PDF and ebook for
Kindle and iPad. Options for reading and downloading the text can be found on the “Yearbook”
page. For more about the rationale of the Project, see “Telling Chinese Stories”, a speech by CIW
director and founder Geremie R. Barmé at the University of Sydney on 1 May 2012 in which he
announced the Project. The intellectual underpinnings of The China Story are best understood in
the context of New Sinology. There is a summary of the aims of the Project and
Acknowledgement of its contributors on the ”About” page. The China Story is dedicated to telling
China’s stories in English; but The China Story can be summed up most concisely in Chinese. The
China Story includes the following resources:
1. Telling Chinese Stories
http://www.thechinastory.org/2012/08/telling-chinese-stories/#Tellastory
Many of those who engage with the Chinese world today encounter the stories that are told about
China – the monolithic narrative of the party-state, the multiple stories of individuals, companies,
communities, and then there an array of accounts told about China, some that try to deepen
understanding, others that evoke familiar stereotypes.
2. Thinking China
http://www.thechinastory.org/thinking-china/
Thinking China is an attempt over time to document Chinese thinkers and thinking, scholarship
and intellectual enquiry. Our aim is to feature Chinese voices, arguments and accounts that allow
English-language readers better understanding the many (often conflicting) strands that make up
The China Story.
3. Key Intellectuals
http://www.thechinastory.org/intellectuals/
Data base of Chinese thinkers.
4. Yearbook 2012: Red Rising, Red Eclipse Download entire 340-page PDF or e-book here
http://www.thechinastory.org/yearbooks/yearbook-2012/
The inaugural Yearbook is titled Red Rising, Red Eclipse, and it covers the period from 2009 to
mid-2012. Produced by academics and writers who are members of or who are affiliated with the
Centre the Yearbook offers a survey of Chinese politics, law, economics, regional diplomacy,
Internet politics, thought, history and culture featuring academic analysis as well as a range of
information lists and data compiled by the Centre in coordination with our collaborators at Danwei
Media under the direction of Jeremy Goldkorn.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
21
GENERAL CHINA TEACHING RESOURCES
East Asia Resource Center: Jackson School of International Studies – University of Washington
http://jsis.washington.edu/earc/
The East Asia Resource Center invites K-12 educators to explore the wealth of opportunities available to them to
deepen their knowledge of East Asia.
Asia Society
http://asiasociety.org/
Asia Society is the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and
strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the United States.
Country Profile – China
http://asiasociety.org/countries/country-profiles/china
This Asia Society site provides a quick guide to the history, politics, and economic background of China.
BBC: Country Profile – China
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1287798.stm
BBC News provides a guide to the historical, political, and economic background of China including video and audio
clips as well as links to recent news stories.
BBC: Changing China
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/asia_pacific/2004/china/default.stm
Provides in-depth coverage on current events in China.
Modern China
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/china_modern/html/1.stm
This guide to modern China provides information on key issues affecting a country with a fifth of the world’s
population. Topics include geography, population, economy, and the environment.
CIA World FactBook: China
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html
This site is updated biweekly to provide information about the background, geography, people, government,
economy, communications, transportation, military, and issues for countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: China Program
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/programs/china/
The China Program provides research and strategic policy recommendations on issues pertaining to China, focusing
on political and legal reform and military/security.
Columbia University: Asia for Educators
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/
Created by Columbia University, this searchable site includes many curriculum resources focusing on China. The site
offers a vast array of free teaching materials.
NCSS: What I Wish my College Students Already Knew about PRC History (Jan/Feb 2010)
http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/ncta/pdfiles/Kristin%20Stapleton%20-%20article.pdf
Different generations of Americans understand China quite differently.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
22
GENERAL CHINA TEACHING RESOURCES
Chinese Chinese
http://www.chinesechinese.net/index.html
A not-for-profit Chinese cultural website with information on China
and Chinese including the History of China, Chinese Calligraphy,
Chinese Tea, Chinese Poems, Buddhism, Confucianism, etc.
University of Texas Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection:
China Maps
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/china.html
The Perry-Castañeda Library provides country and city maps in their
collection. Map types include political, relief, topographic, and
thematic maps.
OMuRAA (Online Museum Resources on Asian Art)
http://afemuseums.easia.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/museums/search.cgi
OMuRAA is an initiative of the Asia for Educators Program at
Columbia University. Its purpose is to make the wealth of visual
materials now available on the websites of many museums and artsrelated educational institutions better known to teachers and
students of Asian studies by cataloguing them in "teacher-friendly"
and "student-friendly" ways.
MIT Visualizing Cultures
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/home/index.html
Visualizing Cultures was launched at MIT in 2002 to explore the
potential of the Web for developing innovative image-driven
scholarship and learning. The VC mission is to use new technology
and hitherto inaccessible visual materials to reconstruct the past as
people of the time visualized the world (or imagined it to be).
United Nations Cyberschoolbus: China
http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/
The United Nations CyberSchoolBus is the online education
component of the Global Teaching and Learning Project, whose
mission is to promote education about international issues and the
United Nations. Country at A Glance contains statistics about UN
Member States including China. (All grade levels).
Test Your Geography Knowledge: Asia
http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/asiaquiz.html
Features an interactive online geography quiz of Asia (also includes
links to other regions of the world).
World Affairs Council:
China Resources
Chinese Gardens: A Gate to
Understanding Chinese Culture (05/2012)
http://www.worldaffairs.org/?attachment_id=1911
It has been said that you can enter Chinese
culture through the moon gate of a
garden. The Chinese garden symbolizes
the culture’s ancient beliefs about physical
and spiritual harmony. It integrates the
splendor of the natural world, the beauty
of Chinese architecture, and the fine art of
traditional mountain-water (shan-shui)
paintings.
Exploring China Through Documentaries
and Film (01/2011)
http://www.worldaffairs.org/programs/globalclassroom/teacher-resources/exploringchina-through-documentaries-and-film/
Film can be an extremely useful source for
exploring many issues facing China today:
the complex issue of globalization,
environmental concerns, migrant labor,
urban demolition/urban construction,
China’s changing rural landscape, political
and economic reform, the generation gap,
and human rights.
China’s Great Leap into the 21st Century
(11/2010)
http://www.worldaffairs.org/?attachment_id=958
“Mega” seems to be the word to describe
China these days, with its mega
population and mega economy. Without a
doubt, phenomenal change is happening
all across China. What does this mean for
China? What does this mean for the
world?
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
23
THE CHINESE LANGUAGE
Asia for Educators: The Chinese Language
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1000bce_language.htm#introduction
This overview of the Chinese language, both spoken and written, includes an introductory
reading for teachers; a pronunciation guide to Mandarin Chinese; and a reading about the
history, pronunciation, and writing system of the Chinese language.
Asia for Educators: Chinese Calligraphy
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1000bce_calligraphy.htm
This introduction includes a reading discussing the various styles, techniques, and materials of
Chinese calligraphy; two calligraphy exercises for the classroom; and discussion questions.
Asiakids: Learn Chinese
http://kids.asiasociety.org/languages/learn-chinese
Asia Society’s language learning site for kids.
ChinesePod
http://chinesepod.com/
ChinesePod was founded with the mission to make Chinese learning easier for busy people by
combining modern pedagogical principles with the latest web and mobile technologies.
Asia Society: Chinese Language Initiatives
http://asiasociety.org/education/chinese-language-initiatives
China's rise as a global superpower means there is an urgent need to increase the number of
Americans who are proficient in Chinese. The features on this website include making the case
for starting Chinese and other critical language programs, as well as practical tools on how to
create and sustain language programs that lead to greater proficiency. This section also features
articles and videos on best teaching practices, and best ways to create high-impact school-toschool exchange programs. These lessons are drawn from schools around the country that have
done it.
Asia Society: China and Globalization
http://sites.asiasociety.org/chinaandglobalization/
The materials and resources in the China and Globalization series are designed to be used by
teachers of Chinese at the elementary and secondary levels, and beyond. Each lesson comes with
a set of interactive flashcards and a video that introduces the content..
Asia Society: Learning Chinese Pays Dividends – Of Characters and Cognition
http://asiasociety.org/education/chinese-language-initiatives/learning-chinese-pays-dividendscharacters-and-cognition
The Browser: FiveBooks Interviews – Chris Livaccari on Language and Culture of China
http://thebrowser.com/interviews/chris-livaccari-on-language-and-culture-china
Chris Livaccari is Director of Education and Chinese Language Initiatives at the Asia Society in
New York. He has taught English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean and was formerly a U.S.
Foreign Service Officer who held postings in Tokyo and Shanghai. His areas of specialty are East
Asian and world languages education, language policy, and international education. Here he
recommends five books on Language and Culture of China.
Popup Chinese
http://popupchinese.com/
Learn Chinese with 1,000+ Chinese podcasts.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
24
IN THE NEWS: ECONOMICS
Asia Society: The China Boom Project
http://chinaboom.asiasociety.org/
The China Boom Project is a multimedia research, public education, and oral history project
designed to explore the question “Why did China boom?“ by recording the collective wisdom of
our moment. Beginning in 2008, China Boom Project researchers taped interviews with individuals
who possess unique insights into China’s Boom…The result is a mosaic explanation, painted in the
words of those who have watched it most carefully. This interactive website presents a guided tour
of China’s three decades of “reform and opening“ based on selections from the interview archive.
In addition, the project is digitally archived. The full-length videotaped interviews will be available
through a consortium of research libraries around the world. Geared toward an audience of
specialists and general public alike, China Boom will be a resource for researchers in decades to
come.
World Bank Report: China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income
Society (2012)
http://wwwwds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/02/28/000356161_2012022800
1303/Rendered/PDF/671790WP0P127500China020300complete.pdf
This 447-page report proposes six strategic directions for China’s new development strategy. First,
rethinking the role of the state and the private sector to encourage increased competition in the
economy. Second,
encouraging innovation and
adopting an open innovation
system with links to global
research and development
networks. Third, looking to
green development as a
significant new growth
opportunity. Fourth,
promoting equality of
opportunity and social
protection for all. Fifth,
strengthening the fiscal
system and improving fiscal
sustainability. Sixth, ensuring
that China, as an international
stakeholder, continues its
integration with global
markets. The research was
organized jointly by China’s
Ministry of Finance (MOF), the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC), and the
World Bank.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
25
IN THE NEWS: ECONOMICS
CNN: Is China Good or Bad for Africa? (10/29/2012)
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/29/is-china-good-or-bad-for-africa/
China’s growing presence in Africa is one of the region’s biggest stories, but even seasoned analysts
cannot decide whether this booming relationship is good or bad for Africa.
Foreign Policy: The Most Dynamic Cities of 2025 (8/13/2012)
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/13/the_most_dynamic_cities_of_2025
This website provides a projected ranking of “75 powerhouses of the coming urban revolution,” 29 of
which are located in China.
The Atlantic: The Economic History of the Last 2,000 years in 1 Little Graph (6/20/2012)
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/06/the-economic-history-of-the-last-2-000-yearsin-1-little-graph/258676/#
That headline is a big promise. But here it is: The economic history of the world going back to Year 1
showing the major powers' share of world GDP, from a research letter written by Michael Cembalest,
chairman of market and investment strategy at JP Morgan.
New Yorker Blog Post: Do Chinese Factory Workers Dream of iPads? (3/26/2012)
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/03/iphone-factories-chinese-dreams.html
Across China, there are a hundred and fifty million migrant workers, a third of them women, who have
left their villages to work in the factories, restaurants, hotels, and construction sites of the cities. They
represent the largest migration in human history; their experiences have changed the way they work
and marry and live and think. Very few of them would want to return to the way things used to be.
Should you feel bad? I don’t think so. But whether you do or not is peripheral to a much larger and more
important story.
Slide Show: Foreign Policy: China’s One
Percent—Portraits of the Lucky Ones, Living
Large in the People’s Republic (8/31/2012)
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/
08/31/chinas_one_percent
As China’s economy has taken off, images of
the country have become dominated by
skylines littered with cranes and glittering
glass facades that bespeak a country that has
arrived on the world stage—and wans its
competitors to know it as well. But China’s
rise has also been accompanied by a
revolution in the private lives of Chinese
citizens, and it hasn’t always been smooth.
The Wall Street Journal: What the Chinese Want
(5/18/2012)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303
360504577408493723814210.html?fb_ref=wsj_share
_FB&fb_source=home_oneline
Consumers in China are increasingly modern in their
tastes, but they are not becoming 'Western.' How
the selling of coffee, cars and pizza sheds light on a
nation racing toward superpower status. (Includes
article, video, and slideshow.)
Foreign Policy: The Loneliest Superpower
(3/20/2012)
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/03/20/t
he_loneliest_superpower?page=0,0
Real strategic alliance or friendship is not a commodity that can be bought and bartered casually. It is
based on shared security interests, fortified with similar ideological values and enduring trust. China
excels in "transactional diplomacy"— romping around the world with its fat checkbook, supporting
(usually poor, isolated, and decrepit) regimes like Angola and Sudan in return for favorable terms on
natural resources or voting against Western-sponsored resolutions criticizing China's human rights
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
26
IN THE NEWS: ECONOMICS
record. And the world's second-largest economy will remain bereft of dependable strategic allies
because of three interrelated factors: geography, ideology, and policy.
Foreign Policy Research Institute: China’s Economy – Recent Growth and Historical Legacies
(6/2011)
http://www.fpri.org/footnotes/1606.201106.rawski.chineseeconomy.html
China’s continuing growth spurt, now in its fourth decade, is a major event in world history that has
delivered massive benefits to its citizens, and also to its trade and business partners, including the
United States. Chinese economic expansion also creates
conflict—in the economic sphere alone, China has
Find the article The Inevitable Superpower
on the Foreign Affairs website:
become involved in disputes over cross-national shifts in
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/682
production and employment, corporate takeovers, trade
05/arvind-subramanian/the-inevitableimbalances and protection, environmental hazards,
superpower
currency valuation, intellectual property, internet
censorship, labor standards, subsidies, and many other
issues.
Intelligence Squared Debates: China does Capitalism Better than America (107:04)
http://fora.tv/2012/03/12/China_Does_Capitalism_Better_Than_America
Can China's brand of state-directed capitalism overcome rampant corruption and the threat of growing
inequality, or will the American model of innovation and free markets prevail? For all appearances,
China has emerged unscathed from the global economic crisis, in stark contrast to its biggest debtor,
America. China’s admirers point to its ability to mobilize state resources, quick decision-making and
business-friendly environment as reasons for its economic ascendency. Speakers: Ian Bremmer, John
Donvan, Minxin Pei, Orville Schell, Peter Schiff.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
27
IN THE NEWS: POLITICS
Official Website of the 18th National Congress of the CCP
http://english.cpcnews.cn/
Follow the 18th National Congress sessions.
BBC: How China is Ruled
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/china_politi
cs/government/html/1.stm
The Chinese Communist Party has ruled the country since
1949, tolerating no opposition and often dealing brutally
with dissent.
Thirty years ago, talk about the rule of law and
civil society was the purview of a few
intellectual salons in China. Today, these
issues are a subject of Internet chatter,
discussions in leadership circles, driven by some
100 million bloggers and nearly 350 million
Internet users.
-Jon Huntsman, former United States
Ambassador to China
A Big Enough Forest
http://www.abigenoughforest.com/
"A big enough forest has all kinds of birds," is a Chinese expression similar in some ways to "Nothing
new under the sun." Given the size of this planet and number of people on it, it's no surprise that things
beyond our imagination happen every day. This site is a collection of surprising things, translations, and
thoughts.
Brookings Institute: China’s Top Future Leaders to Watch (11/15/2012)
http://www.brookings.edu/about/centers/china/top-future-leaders
In anticipation of China's leadership transition, the China Center's Cheng Li profiled 25 possible
members of the next Politburo, focusing on the following three aspects: personal and professional
background, family and patron-client ties, and political prospects and policy preferences.
Changing of the Guard – 18th Party Congress (11/21/2012)
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/features/timestopics/series/changing_of_the_guard/index.html?8qa&ref
=asia
Numerous articles, slideshows, videos, graphs.
Caixin: Political Reform: The Way to Go (11/14/12)
http://english.caixin.com/2012-11-14/100460488.html
The 18th National Party Congress report offers methods for policymakers to adapt to and adopt
democratic practices.
International Herald Tribune: Shut Out of Party Congress and Power Transfer, Chinese
Citizens Turn to Humor (11/9/2012)
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/shut-out-of-party-congress-and-powertransfer-chinese-citizens-turn-to-humor/
There is limited news coverage of the 18th Communist Party Congress. Yet China’s citizens are a
savvy lot. From taxi drivers to professors, many care deeply about what’s happening and have
turned to humor to deal with their frustration at the gap between what they want to know and
what the government wants them to know. It’s a subversive, bitter humor that is often cynical
rather than laugh-out-loud funny.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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IN THE NEWS: POLITICS
The Diane Rehm Show: Friday News Roundup—International (11/9/2012) (51:40)
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-11-09/friday-news-roundup-international
The world reacts to President Barack Obama’s reelection. China launches a once-a decade shift of
power. And Russian President Vladimir Putin fires his defense minister. Diane and a panel of journalist
discuss the week’s top international stories, what happened and why.
Council on Foreign Relations: The Chinese Communist Party (11/8/2012)
http://www.cfr.org/china/chinese-communist-party/p29443
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the founding and ruling political party of modern China,
boasting over 82 million members to date. The CCP is undergoing a pivotal once-in-a-decade power
transition that will see its fifth generation of leaders set the future agenda for the second-largest
economy in the world. While the country has maintained a political monopoly since its founding, the
effects of China's rapid economic growth have triggered increasing social unrest and political
destabilization that challenges the country's rise as a global power.
AP: How Selection of China's New Leadership Works (11/8/2012)
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/how-selection-chinas-new-leadership-works
China's communist elite are meeting to install a new generation of leaders in a process that is part
public show and part backroom politicking. At the center of the spectacle is the Communist Party
congress, a gathering held once every five years that is the 18th such event in the party's history. The
congress is more interlude than climax. Important decisions are made by current and retired leaders,
some of whom are not even on the congress delegates' roster, in bargaining that began years ago and
has largely been already resolved.
Foreign Policy: Hu Jintao's Legacy (11/7/2012)
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/07/hu_jintao_s_gamble?page=0,1
Will China's outgoing leader be the man who introduced the world to a new superpower, or the man
who destroyed it? It's too early to tell.
DISSENT IN CHINA
Chen Guagchen’s Message to Prime Minister
Wen Jiabao (4/27/2012) (15:10)
http://shanghaiist.com/2012/04/27/watch_human
_rights_lawyer_chen_guan.php
Blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has
managed to escape from house arrest while his
guards were not watching, and appeared
immediately afterwards on Youtube
NYT: Deng’s China (OPED) (11/7/2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/opinion/chinachanges-leaders-deng-xiaopingschina.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1&
After months of political turmoil, China’s leadership
is gathering this week for its once-in-a-decade
conclave to transfer power to the next generation. In
charting a course for China’s future, the new leaders
would do well to master the lessons from Deng
Xiaoping, the bold reformer who set China on its
path to success after the tumult of the Mao years.
Caixin: 18 Reforms for the Party's 18th Congress (11/2/2012)
http://english.caixin.com/2012-11-02/100455801.html
The leadership handover coincides with China arriving at critical social and economic junctures. The
following are suggestions for the changes it should make.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
29
IN THE NEWS: POLITICS
Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader (10/26/2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-inchina.html
Special NYT report covering President Wen Jiabao family holdings.
Foreign Policy Dispatch: The Creation Myth of Xi Jinping (10/19/2012)
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/10/19/the_creation_myth_of_xi_jinping
If every modern president needs a creation myth, then Xi Jinping's begins on the dusty loess plateau of
northwest China. It was here that Xi spent seven formative years, working among the peasants and
living in a lice-infested cave dug into the silty clay that extends around the Yellow River. Gradually, the
selfless peasants and the unforgiving "Yellow Earth”—a term for China's land that symbolizes relentless
toil and noble sacrifice—transformed this pale, skinny, and nervous-looking teenager into the man who
in November will take control of the world's second-most powerful country.
Pew Research Center: Inequality, Corruption Growing Concerns for China (10/16/2012)
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2390/china-concern-corruption-inequality-us-relations-rich-poor-gapeconomic-growth-america-democracy
As China prepares for its once-in-a-decade change of leadership, the Chinese people believe their
country faces serious and growing challenges. In particular, the side effects of rapid economic growth,
including the gap between rich and poor, rising prices, pollution, and the loss of traditional culture are
major concerns, and there are also increasing worries about political corruption.
Chinadialogue: Eight Major Challenges for China's New Leaders (9/11/2012)
http://www.chinadialogue.net/blog/5315-Eight-major-challenges-for-China-s-new-leaders/en
What environment and governance issues will China’s next generation of leaders face? Chinadialogue
gives our verdict on eight of the biggest challenges.
Financial Times: China in Transition: Ascent of
the Bureaucrat (9/10/2012)
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/bb1cfa16-f8d611e1-b4ba-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2BXKUcLyK
He helped cover up an AIDS scandal that wiped out
entire villages. While he was a provincial governor,
hundreds died in a series of big fires. But he did not
resign in disgrace or go to prison. Instead, he is
about to become China’s next premier. Li Keqiang
is one of the men the Communist party of China will
present a few weeks from now as the country’s
leader for the next decade.
Realism’s Return
Book Review: China in Ten Words, by Yu Hua
http://www.tnr.com/book/review/yu-hua-ten-wordschina#
…To see China today as an outgrowth of the Mao era is to
see China more deeply than most people in the West do,
and much more accurately than the regime in Beijing
would prefer. Western partisans of “globalization” often
do not see beyond the gleaming surfaces of China’s
showcase cities and assume that the Mao era is “history”;
and Western champions of democracy tend to attribute
China’s rising “rights awareness” to the intrinsic allure of
Western ideas, when in fact it has much more to do with
accumulated revulsion at harsh rule at home. The Chinese
government, for its part, prefers simply to erase memory
of the Mao era, and does this however it can…
The Atlantic: The “Silly Season” of Chinese
Politics (9/03/2012)
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2
012/09/the-silly-season-of-chinese-politics/261856/
As the country’s leadership transition approaches, Chinese commentators are pushing a hawkish
approach to the U.S.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
30
IN THE NEWS: POLITICS
Congressional Research Service: Understanding China’s Political System (5/10/2012)
www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41007.pdf
This 37-page report is designed to provide Congress with a perspective on the contemporary political
system of China, the only Communist Party-led authoritarian state in the G-20 grouping of major
economies.
The Atlantic: How China, the World’s Oldest Marxist State, Proves Marx Wrong (4/3/2012)
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/how-china-the-worlds-oldest-marxist-stateproves-marx-wrong/255390/
Chinese history since the communist revolution has gone a little differently than its ideological father
might have anticipated. If China’s Communist Party stays in control of another dozen years, it will best
its Soviet counterpart’s record and become the organization linked to Karl Marx’s ideas that has run a
country longest. This makes it ironic that the course of modern Chinese history has so often called into
question rather than confirmed Marx’s predictive power.
Reuters: China Premier Wen Jiabao's Comments at NPC Press Conference (3/14/2012)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/14/china-npc-highlights-idUSL4E8EE11K20120314
This site includes key comments on numerous issues including the following one on political reform:
As the economy developed, it has caused unfair distribution, the loss of credibility, corruption and other issues. I know
that to solve these problems, it's necessary to not only enter into economic reform but also political reform, especially
reform of the Party and the state's leadership system…Reform has
reached a critical stage. Without the success of political reform,
Read the full document: Premier Wen
economic reforms cannot be carried out. The results that we have
Jiaobao’s Report on the Work of the
achieved may be lost. A historical tragedy like the Cultural Revolution
Government (3/14/2012)
may occur again. Each party member and cadre should feel a sense of
http://www.chinausfocus.com/library/g
urgency.
overnment-resources/chineseresources/documents/report-on-theChina's central challenge now is remedying the social
work-of-the-government-2012/
consequences and cleavages that its growth has wrought.
Foreign Affairs: The Challenge for China's New Leaders – The Dangers of Allowing Inequality to
Worsen (3/7/2012)
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137316/yukon-huang/the-challenge-for-chinas-new-leaders
Real systemic change would be a long and slow process, and so far, authorities have been reluctant to
provide more responsive outlets for voicing complaints. They have also been less accommodating of
village-level governance experimentation as they were a decade ago, when a number of such
experiments flourished. Despite China's impressive economic achievements, the next generation of
senior leaders taking office this year must find a way to move on political liberalization that meets
popular aspirations but is acceptable within the party system. When a country is growing so fast, it can
only kick change down the road for so long before the ride gets very, very bumpy.
Council on Foreign Relations: Roots of Protest and the Party Response in China (2/25/2012)
http://www.cfr.org/china/roots-protest-party-response-china/p24216
Elizabeth Economy testifies before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on the
roots of protests in China and tactics used by the Chinese government in response.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
31
IN THE NEWS: POLITICS
Wall Street Journal: A Beijinger's Fight to Run for Office
(11/22/2011)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020444340457
7053621114826172.html
Facing pressure and censorship, I was told policies trumped
the rights in China's constitution.
Qiao Mu: My First Meeting with the Central Propaganda
Department (12/7/2010)
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/12/du-muqiao%E7%8B%AC%E6%9C%A8%E4%B9%94-my-firstmeeting-with-the-central-propaganda-department/
Qiao Mu, an instructor at Beijing Foreign Language
University, wrote a post on his blog (now removed) describing
his search for and impressions of the enigmatic Central
Propaganda Department.
Talking about Tank Man
(Includes a 2:32 video)
http://www.thechinastory.org/2012/08/tel
ling-chinese-stories/#Tankman
The moment on Chang’an Avenue to the
east of Tianamen Square, when that
unnamed young man confronted the
armed might of the PLA, has become an
iconic image that represents a sole voice
of protest raised against stated
repression. Far beyond that it is an image
that marks a bifurcation in contemporary
understandings of The China Story.
CSM: Five Famous Jailed Dissidents in China: Ai Weiwei to Liu Xiaobo (2011)
(http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/0412/Five-famous-jailed-dissidents-in-China-AiWeiwei-to-Liu-Xiaobo/Ai-Weiwei
Chinese authorities have cracked down on dissent in hopes of preventing a popular uprising in China
like those that have erupted in the Middle East. Who are some of these activists being put behind bars?
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
32
IN THE NEWS: U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS
China & U.S. Focus: The U.S.-China Reset (11/15/2012)
http://chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/the-us-china-reset/
The political calendars of the United States and China follow different cycles, but once every two
decades China’s leadership transition occurs simultaneously with the U.S. presidential election. So
now, with President Barack Obama’s re-election and Xi Jinping’s anointing as chief of the Chinese
Communist Party, both countries have an opportunity to take stock of the bilateral relationship.
Pew Research Center: How Americans and Chinese View Each Other (11/1/2012)
http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/11/01/how-americans-and-chinese-view-each-other/
Over the past year, public opinion surveys in the United States and China have shown evidence of rising
tensions between the two countries on a host of issues. These include increasingly negative perceptions
of each other and concern over economic trade policies. This infographic explores these views.
Pew Research Center: Ratings for the U.S. Decline, Growing Concerns in China about Inequality,
Corruption (10/16/2012)
http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/10/16/growing-concerns-in-china-about-inequality-corruption/
As China prepares for its once-in-a-decade change of leadership, the Chinese people believe their
country faces serious and growing challenges. In particular, the side effects of rapid economic growth,
including the gap between rich and poor, rising prices, pollution, and the loss of traditional culture are
major concerns, and there are also increasing worries about political corruption.
The Atlantic: Why Chinese State Media Blames America for Just about Everything (9/6/2012)
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/09/why-chinese-state-media-blames-americafor-just-about-everything/262038/
News flash for Beijing: Washington isn’t the puppet master you seem to think. A Xinhua editorial paints
the United States as a “sneaky trouble maker sitting behind some nations in the region and pulling
strings.”
Foreign Policy: Everything You Think You Know about China is Wrong: Are We Obsessing About Its
Rise When We Should Be Worried About Its Fall? (8/29/2012)
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/29/everything_you_think_you_know_about_china_is_
wrong
For the last 40 years, Americans have lagged in recognizing the declining fortunes of their foreign rivals.
In the 1970s they thought the Soviet Union was 10 feet tall -- ascendant even though corruption and
inefficiency were destroying the vital organs of a decaying communist regime. In the late 1980s, they
feared that Japan was going to economically overtake the United States, yet the crony capitalism,
speculative madness, and political corruption evident throughout the 1980s led to the collapse of the
Japanese economy in 1991. Could the same malady have struck Americans when it comes to China?
China & U.S. Focus: How China Sees America (8/25/2012)
http://chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/how-china-sees-america/
China has not earned a voice equal to that of the United States in a hypothetical Pacific Community or a
role in a global condominium as one member of a "G-2." China will not rule the world unless the United
States withdraws from it, and China's rise will be a threat to the United States and the world only if
Washington allows it to become one.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
33
IN THE NEWS: U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS
The Diane Rehm Show: New Complications in U.S. –China Relations (5/1/2012) (51:40)
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-05-01/new-complications-us-china-relations
In two decades since Tianamen Square, China has emerged as a global juggernaut: the state-run
economy has been held out as a model for economic success without democracy. But now the Chinese
economy is slowing and wealth inequality is at an all-time high. The recent downfall of hardliner Bo Xilai
nearly derailed the party’s leadership succession. And the daring escape of a blind lawyer from 19
months of house arrest has empowered China’s dissidents. These incidents threaten to undermine U.S.
objectives at this week’s economic and security talks in Beijing.
China & U.S. Focus: Never Needed More – U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue (5/1/2012)
http://www.chinausfocus.com/slider/never-needed-more-u-s-china-strategic-economic-dialogue/
On 3-4 May 2012 the United States and China convene their 2012 “Strategic and Economic” Dialogue”
(SAED). It has never been more needed. As the two powers and governments meet in Beijing for two
days of intensive discussions and negotiations over a wide range of complicated issues, much
uncertainty surrounds the relationship. Moreover, long-time observers and participants in SinoAmerica relations report a distressing “trust deficit” in the current relationship. This distrust on each
side is compounded by domestic, regional, and global uncertainties.
The Atlantic: Is U.S.-China Competition Over-Hyped? (4/25/2012)
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/is-us-china-competition-overhyped/256334/
Both countries face real challenges, but those don’t necessarily include one another. The U.S.-China
relationship has real issues it needs to confront and real cooperation is limited at best.
Interview with Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy – Is the U.S. Prepared to see International Institutions
Adapted to Reflect China’s Influence? (4/24/2012) (23:00)
http://www.chinausfocus.com/slider/is-the-us-prepared-to-see-international-institutions-adapted-toproperly-reflect-chinas-influence/
In an exclusive interview, Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy speaks about China’s increasing influence in
international institutions and the idea of international structural change. Since the collapse of the
Soviet Union, the U.S. is generally perceived as the sole super power nation... Ambassador Roy also
touches on subjects such as the U.S.’s role of military rebalance in the South East Asia region and
reassures that maintaining a healthy stable relationship with China continues to be in the best interest
of U.S.
China & U.S. Focus: Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy – Strategic Challenges for U.S.-China Relations
(4/10/2012)
http://www.chinausfocus.com/slider/strategic-challenges-for-us-china-relations/
Moreover, China and the United States will not be able to lessen strategic mistrust unless and until they
are prepared to address a central question: is there an array of military deployments and normal
operations that will permit China better to defend its core interests while allowing America to continue
fully to meet its defense commitments in the region? Neither country has yet shown any inclination to
begin exploring whether such an accommodation is possible. And yet this is what needs to be done if
we wish to avoid seeing history repeat itself, to the detriment of both countries.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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IN THE NEWS: U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS
Brookings Report: Addressing U.S.-China Strategic Distrust (3/30/2012)
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2012/0330_us_china_lieberthal.aspx
The coauthors of this path-breaking study—one of America's leading China specialists and one of
China's leading America specialists—lay out both the underlying concerns each leadership harbors
about the other side and the reasons for those concerns. Each coauthor has written the narrative of his
government’s views without any changes made by the other coauthor. Their purpose is to enable both
leaderships to better fathom how the other thinks. The coauthors have together written the follow-on
analysis and recommendations designed to improve the potential for a long-term normal major power
U.S.-China relationship, rather than the adversarial relationship that might otherwise develop.
Project Syndicate: Nixon Then, China Now (3/13/2012)
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/nixon-then--china-now
Had Nixon not acted in 1972, China’s self-imposed isolation would have continued. Deng Xiaoping’s
reform and opening of China to the world would have been far more difficult.
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: President Nixon Visits China – The Week that
Changed the World (2/27/2012 -3/5/2012) (28:00)
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/dialogue-program/president-nixon-visits-china-the-week-changed-theworld
This week on dialogue we examine a critical turning point in the history of the Cold War with President
Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. Joining us will be J. Stapleton Roy, who served as U.S. Ambassador to
China, Singapore and Indonesia. Currently, he's director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the
United States. Also, Douglas Spelman, Deputy Director of the Kissinger Institute joins us. Finally,
Yafeng Xia, an Associate Professor of History at Long Island University in New York and a guest
professor at the Center for Cold War International History Studies with East China Normal University in
Shanghai. He's also a fellow with the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.
Council on Foreign Relations: China’s Global Quest for Resources and Implications for the United
States (1/26/2012)
http://www.cfr.org/china/chinas-global-quest-resources-implications-united-states/p27203
China's search for food and land in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa, reflects the country's
pressing scarcity of water. China's approach has set off alarm bells in the region and the United States
should work actively to address China's water security needs, argues Elizabeth Economy before the
House U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Council on Foreign Relations: Reality in U.S.-China Relations (1/14/2012)
http://www.cfr.org/china/reality-us-china-relations/p23803
The events of the past year seem to have led the United States to adopt a harder-eyed approach with
China. Advancing cooperation is still the order of the day, but the run-up to Chinese President Hu
Jintao's visit to the United States has been characterized by an unusually frank set of speeches and
commentaries by senior U.S. officials that highlight the systemic challenges of the relationship.
The Atlantic: Beijing's 'Culture War' Isn't About the U.S.—It's About China's Future (1/05/2012)
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/beijings-culture-war-isnt-about-the-us-itsabout-chinas-future/250900/
A controversial essay by Chinese President Hu Jintao may be more about the leadership's concerns
about their own rule than about clashing with the West.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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IN THE NEWS: U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS
The Atlantic: Clash of Civilizations – The Confusion of Being a Chinese Student in America
(12/12/2011)
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/12/clash-of-civilizations-the-confusion-ofbeing-a-chinese-student-in-america/249787/
The way Americans talk about China can often seem hostile, frustrating, or altogether irreconcilable
with the world as a newcomer from China knows it.
China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) Eight Myths about Sino-U.S.
Relations (7/2011)
http://www.cicir.ac.cn/english/ArticleView.aspx?nid=2935
In recent years, copious amounts have been written on Sino-U.S. relations. However, there has been
little in the way of critical examination of the ideas
proposed...This article attempts to reflect on some of the
Remarks by President Obama and
most popular judgments on Sino-U.S. relations in recent
Vice President Xi of the People’s
years and to provoke further discussion.
Republic of China before Bilateral
Meeting (2/14/2012)
Foreign Affairs: The Great China Debate – Will Beijing
http://www.chinausfocus.com/librar
Rule the World? (9/2011)
y/government-resources/chinesehttp://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136785/derekresources/remarks/remarks-byscissors-arvind-subramanian/the-great-chinapresident-obama-and-vicedebate?page=show
president-xi-of-the-peoples-republicArvind Subramanian’s article entitled The Inevitable
of-china-before-bilateral-meeting/
Superpower claims that China will unquestionably replace
the United States as the dominant global power in the next two decades. He is right that if the U.S.
economy continues on its current trajectory, the United States will not be able to maintain its position
of global leadership. But he is far too bullish on China. Subramanian overlooks Chinese policies that will
complicate the country’s economic rise and ignores the possibility that Chinese growth will simply stop.
And he uses a definition of “dominance” that bears little resemblance to the U.S.-style preeminence he
sees China assuming.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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IN THE NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
Ministry of Environmental Protection – The People’s Republic of China
http://english.sepa.gov.cn/
This is the website for China’s official state agency responsible for all issues related to environmental
protection. This is a good “first stop” site for information pertaining to China’s environmental policies.
Asia Society: China Green
http://sites.asiasociety.org/chinagreen/about/
Over the past three decades, China has dazzled the rest of
the world with its stunning, high-speed economic growth.
However, rapid urbanization, poverty reduction and
transformation of city skylines have come at a grave price: air
and water pollution, degraded forests, pasturelands and
marine habitats, growing greenhouse gas emissions and a
host of other environmental problems. China Green, a
multimedia enterprise, will document China’s environmental
issues now and for years to come and will strive to serve as a
web forum where people with an interest in China and its
environmental challenges can find interesting visual stories
and share critical information about the most populous
nation in the world whose participation in the solution to
global environmental problems, such as climate change, will
be indispensable.
World Affairs Council: China’s Environmental Challenge
http://www.world-affairs.org/?attachment_id=885
With its intense economic growth, huge population, and
rising energy consumption, China now faces many serious
environmental problems. In this curriculum unit, students will
learn about China's current environmental situation and
explore the complex challenges facing the leadership and the
peoples of this diverse land. This unit includes an
environmental quiz and extensive fact sheets. In a roleplaying exercise, students will use primary sources to explore
multiple perspectives and points of view.
Topics to Explore on
China Green

Air and Water

Energy and Climate

Land and Urbanization

Life and Health

NGOs and Civil Society

Pollution

Tibetan Plateau

Wildlife
The website also offers video trailers
as introductions to these topics,
found here:
http://sites.asiasociety.org/chinagree
n/china-green-trailers/
PBS: China’s Top Water Issues
http://www.pbs.org/kqed/chinainside/nature/waterissues.html
This interactive map illustrates some of the most pressing water-related issues in China and how
problems that originate upstream are inherited by those living downstream, even those living in other
countries.
International Rivers: The New Great Walls, A Guide to China’s Overseas Dam Industry (2012 ed.)
http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/attached-files/intlrivers_newgreatwalls_2012_o.pdf
Chinese companies are building more dams than anyone else in the world. Civil society groups in Africa,
Asia and Latin America have expressed concerns about the social and environmental impacts of
numerous Chinese dams in their countries. In order to support NGOs in these regions struggling for
their social and environmental interests, we've updated our report on China's global dam building to
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
37
IN THE NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
explain how NGOs can best influence the projects and policies of Chinese dam builders and advocate
for social and environmental interests.
Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE)
http://www.ipe.org.cn/en/
The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) is a registered non-profit organization based in
Beijing. Since our establishment in May 2006, the IPE has developed two pollution databases (water &
air) to monitor corporate environmental performance and to facilitate public participation in
environmental governance. Our aim is to expand environmental information disclosure to allow
communities to fully understand the hazards and risks in the surrounding environment, thus promoting
widespread public participation in environmental governance. The IPE is a member of a coalition of
NGOs throughout China, promoting a global green supply chain by pushing large corporations to
concentrate on procurement and the environmental performance of their suppliers. This ‘Green Choice
Alliance’ consumer initiative takes into consideration the environmental performance of manufacturing
enterprises while exercising their purchasing power to make green choices.
Debatepedia: Debate – Is the Three Gorges a Good Idea?
http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Debate:_Three_Gorges_Dam
Debatepedia is a wiki encyclopedia of debates, arguments, and supporting quotations. Its mission is to
become "the Wikipedia of debates."
Asia Society: How Will China's New Leaders Approach
Rising Tide of Environmental Protests? (11/09/2012)
http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/how-will-chinas-newleaders-approach-rising-tide-environmental-protests
In recent years, "mass incidents" stirred by pollution have
steadily increased in China as people become richer and
more environmentally conscious. The middle class in
particular is demanding a better environment. But the
economic strategy that fueled three decades of rapid
economic growth in China relies on increasing resource
inputs and lax environmental regulation. As a
consequence, the overall state of the environment is
deteriorating — or improving too slowly — which
disappoints many Chinese citizens.
Business Insider: China Is Building a Huge Eco-City Where No One Will Need To Drive (11/2/2012)
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-building-a-nearly-car-free-city-2012-11
Outside Chengdu, in central China, a 78 million square foot site has been determined for an
unconventional sort of construction project. It will be a city built from scratch, for 80,000 people, none
of whome will need a car to get around.
The Diane Rehm Show: Environmental Outlook: Elephants and the Ivory Trade (10/2/2012) (51:40)
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-10-02/environmental-outlook-elephants-and-ivory-trade
The 1989 global ban on ivory trade was supposed to end the widespread slaughter of elephants in
Africa -- it hasn’t. Exact numbers are hard to come by, but by almost every estimate, poachers are now
killing tens of thousands of elephants a year, more than at any time in the last two decades.
Increasingly, the killers are armed militants seeking quick cash, and demand for smuggled ivory is
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
38
IN THE NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
strong. In Southeast Asia it remains a prized material for religious carvings, and in China it’s coveted by
the newly enriched middle class. Please join us to discuss the illegal ivory trade and the future of Africa’s
elephants.
Chinadialogue: A Rise in Confucianism will Make China's Leaders More Eco-Conscious (8/11/2012)
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/5312-A-rise-in-Confucianism-will-make-China-sleaders-more-eco-conscious
Concern about the environment is driving a Confucian revival in China, with implications for the new
regime, Daniel Bell, professor of philosophy at Tsinghua University, tells Chinadialogue.
Sustainable Media Group: The Tao of Green (3:29, 7/2012)
http://vimeo.com/43797453
What is Clean Technology like in China? The Tao of Green is a new film inspired by a trip to China and
made by Hal Calbom of the Sustainable Media Group. The trip was sponsored by the Washington Clean
Technology Alliance, the Washington State China Relations Council, and the Northwest Energy Angels,
and organized by the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle.
Fast Company: Ma Jun: How to Clean Up China’s Environment (6/2012)
http://www.fastcompany.com/most-creative-people/2012/ma-jun
An environmental researcher by trade, Ma spent years chronicling China's ecological catastrophes…Ma
founded the not-for-profit Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) in 2006. Since then, more
than anyone else in China, Ma has channeled the power of the Internet and the optimism of China's
younger generation into a force for environmental change.
The Guardian: World Carbon Emissions: The League Table of Every Country (6/21/2012)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/datablog/2012/jun/21/world-carbon-emissions-league-tablecountry.
The U.S. has seen the first rise in carbon dioxide emissions since the 2008 recession, new data shows.
Meanwhile China has sped into the lead as the world gathers for the Rio+20 summit. See how each
country compares.
Caixin: Government Urged to Support Green Industries (3/15/2012)
http://english.caixin.com/2012-03-15/100368829.html
Official says premier's warning against ‘blind expansion' of equipment manufacturing shouldn’t stop
growth.
Landesa: Findings from Landesa’s Survey of Rural China Published (2/2012)
http://www.landesa.org/news/6th-china-survey/
The results from Landesa’s latest 17-province survey of China’s farmers, published in this week’s issue of
the influential Chinese magazine Caixin (New Century Weekly), indicate that urgent reforms are needed
for the country to continue economic growth, improve the welfare of its 700 million rural and mostly
poor farmers, and bolster social stability.
Landesa: Summary of 2011 17-Province Survey’s Findings (4/26/2012)
http://www.landesa.org/china-survey-6/
This survey of 1,791 farmers across 17 provinces in China attempts to illuminate some of the forces
affecting Chinese farmers’ ability and willingness to retain, use, and improve their farmland. The
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
39
IN THE NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
survey’s findings show that urgent reforms are necessary in order for China to promote social stability
and continued economic growth.
The Atlantic: China’s Land Grab Epidemic is Causing More Wukan-Style Protests (2/08/2012)
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/chinas-land-grab-epidemic-is-causingmore-wukan-style-protests/252757/
Every year, local governments appropriate land from four million rural Chinese. None of this is a good
deal for the farmers, and the result, according to Chinese researchers, is that land conflicts are the
source of 65 percent of the more than 180,000 protests
Political Cartoon: Sustainable
China experiences annually.
Energy
This political cartoon shows how
China has seized an opportunity to
lead the world in clean energy
technologies.
http://www.politico.com/wuerker/arc
hive/20100920-stustainable-energy2100.html
Forbes: China’s New Five-Year Plan and Solar Power
(2/28/2011)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/etfchannel/2011/02/28/chinasnew-five-year-plan-and-solar-power/.
It is official: China is now the world’s largest consumer of
energy, surpassing the U.S. in 2009, according to the
International Energy Agency.
Chinadialogue: China’s Creeping Sands (6/24/2009)
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/3114
Growing sands are transforming China’s arable land, with nearly 20% of the country’s land area
classified as desert. A slideshow by photographer Sean Gallagher documents the issue, which affects
the lives of an estimated 400 million people.
Chinadialogue: Long Journey for China's Green Cars? (5/26/2012)
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4895-Long-journey-for-China-s-green-carsIn early March, the Chinese government unveiled a summary
of its programme to promote electric cars during the 12th FiveChina Business Review at a Glance
Year Plan period. Targets set by the Ministry of Science and
Technology include breakthroughs in 29 key technologies—
Chinese investment currently makes up a
from car components to charging platforms—by 2015. They
small but fast-growing portion of clean
also expect applications to be filed for over 3,000 electricenergy projects in the United States. Some
vehicle patents; large-scale demonstration projects in 30 or
Chinese companies have established local
more cities; and trials of new marketing models in at least five
manufacturing in the United States to
cities.
address U.S. regulators’ concerns about job
creation. Some local governments in the
China Business Review: Chinese Investment in Clean Energy
United States have encouraged Chinese
(4/2012)
investments in clean energy by offering
https://www.chinabusinessreview.com/public/1204/ellis.html
supportive policies such as tax credits.
Chinese investment in clean energy in the U.S. is small, but its
growth may offer benefits for American businesses and U.S.https://www.chinabusinessreview.com/public
China relations.
/1204.ellis.html
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
40
IN THE NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
China Business Review: China’s Green Building Future (4/2012)
https://www.chinabusinessreview.com/public/1204/nelson.html
Green building makes up a small proportion of China's construction industry, but government targets
may give sustainable building a boost over the next five years.
Earth Policy Institute: Meat Consumption in China Now Double That in the United States
(4/24/2012)
http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2012/update102
More than a quarter of all the meat produced worldwide is now eaten in China, and the country’s 1.35
billion people are hungry for more. In 1978, China’s meat consumption of 8 million tons was one third
the U.S. consumption of 24 million tons. But by 1992, China had overtaken the United States as the
world’s leading meat consumer—and it has not looked back since. Now China’s annual meat
consumption of 71 million tons is more than double that in the United States.
Caixin: Sweeping Pollution under the Rug
(4/9/2012)
http://english.caixin.com/2012-0409/100377172.html?utm_source=mail.caixinonline.c
om&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=caixinonl
ine_news_mail&utm_campaign=caixinonline
Gleaming cities are emblematic of China's rise, but
one expert says rural areas pay the environmental
price.
Caixin: Ex-Officials Battle Plan to Build Nuclear
Project (3/9/2012)
http://english.caixin.com/2012-0309/100366298.html
Work on China's nuclear power plants has begun to pick up again a year after the Fukushima disaster in
Japan. But the meltdown on March 11, 2011, is still fresh on the minds of four retired cadres in
Province's Wangjiang County. They petitioned against the Pengze nuclear power project in neighboring
Jiangxi Province and ultimately convinced their local government to oppose the plan. This kind of
official opposition to a nuclear undertaking is almost unheard of in China.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: China Holds Key to Climate Change (2/16/2012)
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/2012/02/16/china-holds-key-to-climate-change/9oko
For the past two decades, international climate change negotiations have been marred by a NorthSouth split. With the conclusion of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Durban the end of last year,
the first cornerstone was laid for increased global cooperation. The actual architecture of meaningful
long-term action remains elusive, however, as global governance finds itself preoccupied with other
geopolitical and economic trials. Indeed, it will be China and the world’s largest carbon emitters—not
U.N. summits—that determine the nature of the climate challenge in the immediate years ahead.
Asia Society Interview: China Photographer Sean Gallagher Discusses Threat to Pandas (1/18/2012)
http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/interview-china-photographer-sean-gallagher-discusses-threatpandas-photos#4
Short interview that includes 15 award-winning photos.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
41
IN THE NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
World Politics Review (via CNN): China’s Growing Water Crisis (8/10/2011)
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/10/chinas-growing-water-crisis/
Yet a closer look suggests that the greatest threat may well be lack of access to clean water. From
"cancer villages" to violent protests to rising food
prices, diminishing water supplies are exerting a
profound and harmful effect on the Chinese people as
well as on the country's capacity to continue to
prosper economically.
Slide Show: Thirsty Beijing (2010)
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/
3886-Slideshow-thirsty-Beijing
Per capita drinking water resources in the Chinese
capital have sunk to 4% of the global average. In a
series of images, photographer Olli Geibel documents
the city’s predicament.
Manufactured Landscapes (2006) (90 minutes)
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=manufacturedlandscapes
Manufactured Landscapes is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist
Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large‐scale photographs of “manufactured
landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly
beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris. The film follows him through China, as he shoots
the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial
revolutionTrailer:http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/displaytrailer.php?directoryname=manufacturedlands
capes&size=high&extension=mov
TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/edward_burtynsky_on_manufactured_landscapes.htm
Yale Environment 360: The Warriors of Quigang (39:10)
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/the_warriors_of_qiugang_a_chinese_village_fights_back/2358/
Like many villages in China’s industrial heartland, Qiugang — a hamlet of nearly 1,900 people in Anhui
province — has long suffered from runaway pollution from nearby factories. In Qiugang’s case, three
major enterprises with little or no pollution controls churned out
chemicals, pesticides, and dyes, turning the local river black,
Academy Award Nominee
killing fish and wildlife, and filling the air with foul fumes that
This e360 video, The Warriors of
burned residents’ eyes and throats and sickened children. This
Qiugang was nominated for a
video tells the story of how the villagers fought to transform their
2011 Academy Award for Best
environment, and, in the process, found themselves transformed
Documentary (Short Subject).
as well.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
42
IN THE NEWS: CIVIL SOCIETY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media Week: China Dating Websites: A Booming Market (9/19/12)
http://socialmediaweek.org/shanghai/2012/09/19/565/#.UKvW14as16Y
…China’s sex ratio for population under 15 is the highest in the world at 1.17, which means that there
are 17% more men than women. In 2020, the number of Chinese man of marriage age is expected to
exceed the number of women by 24 million. As the competition for finding a mate becomes fiercer and
fiercer, dating websites have a bright future ahead of them…
Guardian: Battle for the Internet (7/15/2012)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/16/internet-china-censorship-weibo-microblogs
International attention tends to focus on the Great Firewall, which stops Chinese citizens from reading
sensitive content overseas, and constraints put on familiar western brands—the blocking of social
media services such as Facebook, the Twitter and YouTube, or the Chinese government's clash with
Google, which saw the internet giant relocate search services to Hong Kong rather than continue to
censor results. But the world's largest internet population is far more interested in what happens on
domestic sites—and particularly the weibo or microblog services, which boast about 300 million
registered users. Microblogs, particularly Sina's Weibo, are where the clash of political controls,
commercial interests and the urge of millions to share their thoughts on official scandals, or just last
night's TV, play out.
Yale Global Online: How Weibo Is Changing China (8/9/2012)
http://www.yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/how-weibo-changing-china#.UCPnObPmsts.twitter
Beijing-based journalist Mary Magistad assesses the impact of the Weibo era on state-society relations
in China as the microblogging service celebrates its third anniversary this month.
Alliance Magazine, Philanthropy News: Interesting Times for Philanthropy and Civil Society in
China (6/6/2012)
http://philanthropynews.alliancemagazine.org/interesting-times-for-philanthropy-and-civil-society-inchina/
[May 2012] has been an interesting [month] for civil society in China because there have once again
been a large number of developments and press stories that bear on the sector and its needs.
Huffington Post: Democracy is Not the Answer (5/16/2012)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-x-li/democracy-is-not-the-answ_b_1520172.html
This is a written Q&A with Rachel Beitarie of the Israeli daily newspaper the Calcalist and Eric X. Li,
Shanghai venture capitalist. “…We know what the Chinese model isn't—it isn't liberal democracy, and it
isn't capitalism, but that what it is was not yet well defined. Could you try and define it anyway? What is
the end of the Chinese model and what are the means to get there?”
Wall Street Journal: The American Dream, Alive and Well in China (4/18/2012)
http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/04/18/the-american-dream-alive-and-well-in-china/
Even among well-read Americans, the disparity between their perception of China and the reality is
really surprising. There’s a deep-seated fantasy that Americans have about China, one they’re loathe to
give up or supplant with more realistic images. In old Hollywood movies Shanghai was shorthand for a
distant, exotic place where anything was possible... But these hot-button issues don’t affect most
people’s lives, most of the time. Young people from all over the world are coming to pursue interesting,
creative lives. One tag line we were considering was “The American dream is alive and well—in China.”
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
43
IN THE NEWS: CIVIL SOCIETY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Foreign Policy: The Not-So-Great Firewall of China (4/17/2012)
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/17/the_not_so_great_firewall_of_china?page=0,0
Social media won't drive the downfall of the Chinese Communist Party, but it is forcing government to
be more transparent and responsive to the public.
The Atlantic: Rumor, Lies, and Weibo—How Social Media is Changing the Nature of Truth in China
(4/16/2012)
China Slideshow
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/rumor-liesand-weibo-how-social-media-is-changing-the-nature-of-truth-inhttp://www.flickr.com//photos/
china/255916/
tags/chinadigitaltimes/show/
…The tug-of-war between the government and the people over truth
Includes captions and
and rumor happens every day in today's China. The rise of social media
explanations.
has made the struggle harder and the stakes higher.
New York Review of Books: Perry Link on Fang Lizhi (1936–2012) (4/13/2012)
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/apr/13/on-fang-lizhi/
Of the many comments from Fang’s Chinese admirers that I have heard in the days since his passing,
here are three of my favorites:
Some call him China’s Sakharov, and that’s fine. But to me, Fang and the Communist Party are more like
Galileo and the Roman church. An astrophysicist against powerful and arbitrary authority; the authority
persecutes the physicist, but the physicist gets the truth right.
In the 1980s, the words “human rights” could hardly be uttered in China. Today they can, and the term
weiquan (“support rights”) is everywhere. No one person made this change. But no one person had more to
do with it than Fang Lizhi.
Fang shows us a better way to be Chinese in the modern world. To be Chinese does not have to mean
“supports Bashir al-Assad at the UN” or “puts a Nobel Peace Prize winner in prison.” We can be better.
Teacher Fang is our example.
Financial Times: Lunch with Han Han (4/21/2012)
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/3be0e84e-8896-11e1-a727-00144feab49a.html#axzz258T99nFk
China’s most-read blogger talks to David Pilling about the downfall of Bo Xilai and why his fellow
citizens must reform rather than revolt.
Caixin: More Room to Breathe for China's Non-Profits (4/05/2012)
http://english.caixin.com/2012-0405/100376367.html?utm_source=mail.caixinonline.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=caixinon
line_news_mail&utm_campaign=caixinonline
Government controls are easing ever so slightly for educational charities, environmental groups, and
other do-gooders.
NPR: Provocative Chinese Cartoonists Find an Outlet Online (3/16/2012)
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/16/148695679/provocative-chinese-cartoonists-find-an-outletonline?sc=tw&cc=share
See recent cartoons that have slipped past censors and have appeared on Sina Weiba, China’s biggest
microblog service, which has more than 260 million users.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
44
IN THE NEWS: CIVIL SOCIETY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
PRI’s The World: How Appropriate is Democracy for China? (3/12/2012) (7:16)
http://www.theworld.org/2012/03/democracy-china/
China’s government often says that democracy isn’t appropriate for a Chinese Confucian culture. But
Chinese pro-democracy activists in Taiwan say democracy works just fine there.
Asia Society Video: China’s New Media Landscape (1/06/2011) (1:24)
http://asiasociety.org/video/policy/chinas-new-media-landscape-complete
Benjamin Liebman, Susan Shirk, Guobin Yang, and Orville Schell look at the ways in which the Chinese
government and public are adapting to the new information environment.
Foreign Policy: The Souls of Chinese Cities (8/13/2012)
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/13/the_souls_of_chinese_cities
China’s fast-growing megacities-43 cities of one-million-plus today, and a projected 221 by 2025—may
at first blush look homogenous and interchangeable, but of course a metropolis is more than a
collection of buildings, and foundations aren’t only poured in concrete. With few exceptions, China’s
most significant modern metropolises have varied, lengthy, and winding histories.
The Wall Street Journal: State TV Host Offers Advice on How to Throw Out ‘Foreign Trash’
(5/18/2012)
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/05/18/state-tv-host-offers-advice-on-how-to-throw-outforeign-trash/
With a surge of anti-foreigner bile rising in Beijing, one might expect a prominent Chinese TV
personality whose job it is to interview foreigners to weigh in with a few calming words. One would be
dead wrong.
Al Jazeera: Goodbye to China, Country of Contradictions (5/13/2012)
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/05/201251183633811491.html
http://ensign.ftlcomm.com/ensign2/mcintyre/pickofday/2012/005_may/may011/goodbyetochina.pdf
Al Jazeera's ex-Beijing correspondent says she covered country honestly and equitably, after having
credentials revoked.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
45
IN THE NEWS: CULTURE AND RELIGION
NYT: How Mao Became a Hipster Icon (4/12/2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/world/asia/21iht-currents21.html?_r=1
China can seem of many minds about Chairman Mao, who oversaw a period of mass famine and
persecution. His portrait still adorns the money and still hangs exaltedly on the gates to the Forbidden
City. But officially, at least, China has tried to tamp down enthusiasm for his ideas. Just a few weeks
ago, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao referred to the Cultural Revolution as a “historical tragedy” and a
“mistake” that ought not be repeated.
But amid the dizzying changes and surging consumerism of modern China, whose temples are Louis
Vuitton boutiques, a different view of Mao can be found among many young people of Ms. Sun’s ilk —
young, cool, weird, out of sync with their Burberry-chasing peers.
Caixin: China, The Worst Place to Retire (4/6/2012)
http://english.caixin.com/2012-0406/100376887.html?utm_source=mail.caixinonline.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=caixino
nline_news_mail&utm_campaign=caixinonline
An aging population and shrinking labor force mean problems for the country down the road.
Video: High Tech, Low Life (4/2012)
http://hightechlowlifefilm.com/trailer/
High Tech, Low Life follows the journey of two of China’s first citizen reporters as they travel the country
– chronicling underreported news and social issues stories.
The New Yorker: What Do the Most Industrious People on Earth Read for Fun? (2/6/2012)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/02/06/120206fa_fact_chang?currentPage=all
What do the Chinese, some of the hardest-working people on the planet, read in their spare time?
Novels about work. The seventh volume of The Diary of Government Official Hou Weidong was
published last July, with an initial print run of two hundred thousand copies. An official-looking red
stamp on their covers proclaims that the books are a “Must-Read for Government Employees,” but
managers and entrepreneurs read them, too. Zhichang xiaoshuo, or workplace novels, have topped
best-seller lists in recent years. Du Lala’s Promotion Diary, by a corporate executive writing under the
pen name Li Ke, is the story of a young woman who rises from secretary to human-resources manager
at a Fortune 500 company. It has inspired three sequels, a hit movie, and a thirty-two-part television
series. The books have sold five million copies. In The Get-Rich Diary of China’s Poorest Guy, an
unemployed man becomes a millionaire in three years by selling electric cable.
The Atlantic: A Look Inside China Photo Essays (3/26/2012)
http://www.theatlantic.como/infocus/2012/03/a-look-inside-china/100269
As China’s population and economy continue to grow, the country is scrambling to solve
challenges in housing, elder care, cultural and political institutions, the environment, and other
areas of everyday life. Today’s collection, a recent gathering of images froma cross the nation,
covers a range of subjects from wheelchair dancers to bear bile farms, a monkey-controlled robot
arm to a Tibetan exile protester who set himself on fire earlier today, and much more (41photos).
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
46
IN THE NEWS: CULTURE AND RELIGION
The Atlantic: After 20 Years of 'Peaceful Evolution,' China Faces Another Historic Moment
(1/23/2012)
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/after-20-years-of-peaceful-evolution-chinafaces-another-historic-moment/251764/
China's central challenge now is remedying the social consequences and cleavages that its growth has
wrought.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: Global Christianity with a Spotlight on China
(12/19/2011)
http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Global-Christianity-china.aspx
China, the world’s most populous country, is home to the world’s seventh-largest Christian population.
As recently as three decades ago, few researchers even within mainland China knew whether religion
had survived the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) initiated by Chairman Mao Zedong. It is clear now,
however, that religion not only survived but that hundreds of millions of Chinese today have some
religious faith, including tens of millions of Christians.
Did you know…
China is home to the world’s
largest number of Christians
living as a minority?
Explore the topic with these
Interactive Maps:
http://features.pewforum.org/
globalchristianity/map.php#/China,A
LL
China & U.S. Focus: In the City, But Not of the City – The Myth of China’s Urbanization (7/16/2011)
http://www.chinausfocus.com/political-social-development/in-the-city-but-not-of-the-city-the-mythof-china%E2%80%99s-urbanization/
Indeed, China is undergoing rapid urbanization on paper, if one simply looks at the number of people
relocated. But while its epic rural-urban shift has many trappings of what amounts to contemporary
urbanization elsewhere in the world, urbanization in China is a more complicated phenomenon that
requires an understanding that goes beyond the superficial one-dimensional narrative.
Foreign Policy Research Institute: Confucius in a Business Suit – Chinese Civilizational Norms in the
Twenty-first Century (5/2011)
http://www.fpri.org/footnotes/1603.201105.rawski_e.chinese_civilization.html#ref25
Chinese attitudes towards their traditional civilization have reflected the shifting political agendas of
the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Evelyn S. Rawski is professor of history at the University of
Pittsburgh. She delivered this paper at “A History Institute for Teachers,” March 19–20, 2011 on “China
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
47
IN THE NEWS: CULTURE AND RELIGION
and India: Ancient Civilizations, Rising Powers, Giant Societies, and Contrasting Models of
Development.”
PPT: http://www.fpri.org/multimedia/20110319.twotraditions.rawski.pdf
Webcast: http://www.fpri.org/multimedia/20110319.twotraditions.html
Foreign Policy Research Institute: Understanding Chinese Society (4/2011)
http://www.fpri.org/footnotes/1601.201104.gold.chinesesociety.html
What conceptual tools do China’s leaders draw on to understand their own society? The first is the
Chinese tradition, which is both this-worldly and practical. There are two streams of note. One is
Confucianism which stresses the middle way, harmonious society, knowing one’s role in society and
performing it well, hierarchy, mobility through education and self-cultivation, and enlightened officials
who also serve as moral exemplars. The other, harder, stream is Legalism, where the ruler relies on
severe laws and harsh punishments to
maintain power and order. There is no
idea of an impersonal legal system or
concept of everyone being equal
before the law.
NYT: The Rise of Tao (11/5/2010)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/
magazine/07religiont.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1
Religion has long played a central role
in Chinese life, but for much of the
20th century, reformers and
revolutionaries saw it as a hindrance
holding the country back and a key
reason for China’s “century of
humiliation.” Now, with three decades
of prosperity under their belt—the first
significant period of relative stability in more than a century—the Chinese are in the midst of a great
awakening of religious belief. In cities, yuppies are turning to Christianity. Buddhism attracts the middle
class, while Taoism has rebounded in small towns and the countryside. Islam is also on the rise, not only
in troubled minority areas but also among tens of millions elsewhere in China
New York Review of Books: Are China’s Rulers Getting Religion? (10/29/2011)
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/oct/29/china-getting-religion/
One reason authorities are now embracing Daoism as a source of moral guidance is that, in contrast to
Christianity...Daoism is widely seen as an
unthreatening, indigenous religion...
Visions of Modernity: Beijing’s Gilded Age
But the more China’s leaders try to use religion for
http://www.mdnphoto.com/blog/visions-oftheir own purposes, the more difficult it may be to
modernity/
have an actual effect on perceived problems like
Photo essay of architectural and social changes
in China.
society’s moral decline.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
48
IN THE NEWS: CULTURE AND RELIGION
“Chinese people don’t know what to
believe anymore,” says Liu Zhongyu,
a professor at East China Normal
University in Shanghai, who
conducted China’s first major survey
on religious beliefs. “And since the
political atmosphere has relaxed they
turn to religion for comfort.”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/
story.php?storyId=128544048
NPR: Special Series Entitled New Believers – A Religious
Revolution in China (7/2010)
http://www.npr.org/series/128644059/new-believers-areligious-revolution-in-china
 China’s Leaders Harness Folk Religion for their Aims

Beijing Finds Common Cause with Chinese Buddhists

Female Imams Blaze Trail Amid China’s Muslims

China’s Divided Catholics Seek Reconciliation

In the Land of Mao, a Rising Tide of Christianity

Churches Sprout in Rural China (includes photo essay)

Chinese Turn to Religion to Fill a Spiritual Vacuum
Spiegel Online: PR Writ Large, The Great Chinese Media Offensive (11/20/2009)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,661759,00.html
China's image in the world hasn't been the best lately. Now, Beijing is pumping billions of dollars into a
global media campaign in an effort to reverse that trend. Chinese television may be coming soon to a
TV near you.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: Religion in China on the Eve of the 2008 Beijing
Olympics (5/20/2008)
http://pewforum.org/Importance-of-Religion/Religion-in-China-on-the-Eve-of-the-2008-BeijingOlympics.aspx
According to a 2006 survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, 31% of the Chinese public considers
religion to be very or somewhat important in their lives, compared with only 11% who say religion is not
at all important. When asked a somewhat different question in a 2005 Pew poll, an even greater
percentage of the Chinese public (56%) considered religion to be very or somewhat important in their
lives. Other survey data, as well as Chinese government reports, have also shown that relatively large
numbers of the Chinese public consider religion to be important in their lives. This is somewhat
surprising given that China has strictly adhered to a secular and even atheistic national philosophy for
nearly six decades. (*This albeit dated resource includes a wide variety of surveys on religion in China*)
Foreign Policy Research Institute: Understanding Chinese Society (4/2011)
http://www.fpri.org/footnotes/1601.201104.gold.chinesesociety.html
What conceptual tools do China’s leaders draw on to understand their own society? I see three main
components: The first is the Chinese tradition, which is both this-worldly and practical. There are two
streams of note. One is Confucianism which stresses the middle way, harmonious society, knowing
one’s role in society and performing it well, hierarchy, mobility through education and self-cultivation,
and enlightened officials who also serve as moral exemplars. The other, harder, stream is Legalism,
where the ruler relies on severe laws and harsh punishments to maintain power and order. There is no
idea of an impersonal legal system or concept of everyone being equal before the law. The second
component is a Leninist one-party dictatorship….Third, the leaders see China as a developing country
with a large rural population, much of which is still poor and concerned with ensuring the basic
necessities of life. In this view, “human rights” means food, shelter, clothing, a job and health care.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
49
IN THE NEWS: CULTURE AND RELIGION
PBS: Soundscape of China
http://www.pbs.org/kqed/chinainside/soundmap/index.html
Explore China, its diversity and peoples through the extraordinary field audio
recordings captured by sound recordist, Peter Eason with photos taken by filmmaker, Jonathan Lewis.
Listen to over twenty scenes that include busy city streets, musical performances, sounds of nature,
religious ceremonies and people going about their lives inside China.
ArtSpace China
http://www.artspacechina.com.au/
Articles and discussion on contemporary Chinese culture.
China Internet Information Center: Traditional Chinese Festivals
http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/Festivals/78131.htm
Boasting rich cultural meaning and a long history, traditional Chinese festivals compose an important
and brilliant part of Chinese culture.
Asia Society: The China Game
http://asiasociety.org/node/20787
Can you out-smart the dragon? Race against the clock and answer questions about Chinese society
BEIJING BOP SCENE
CNN: China;s Bob Dylan-inspired Pioneer Still Rocking (5/11/2012)
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/11/world/asia/china-cui-jian-florcruz/?hpt=hp_mid
Cui Jian burst onto the music scene in China 26 years ago with his signature number, "Nothing to My
Name." He was one of the first Chinese musicians to bring rock 'n roll to China during the 1980s as the
country began to open up to western influences. He is still making waves today with his fusion of
western and Chinese styles.
Asia Society: Exploring the Underground World of Chinese Hip Hop (4/5/2012) (8:09)
http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/video-exploring-underground-world-chinese-hip-hop
This multimedia project documents live performances of some of the most popular underground hip
hop artists in Beijing, including MC Davey, MC Majun, MC Dawei, Nasty Ray, Yin San'er (IN 3) and
punk musicians Generation Six.
Hemisphere Magazine: Beijing Bop (3/1/2012)
http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/2012/03/01/beijing-bop/
Change is the order of the day in China, but the country's transformation from closed society to
consumerist hub has one unexpected byproduct: rock'n'roll. Welcome to Beijing, where a longsimmering underground scene is finally coming to a boil (Scroll through series of photos).
Audio Wired: Scenes from the Beijing Rock Underground (12/14/2009)
http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2009/12/gallery-beijing-rock-underground/all/1
Interview with photographer Matthew Niederhauser, whose new book Sound Kapital documents the
newly formed underground Beijing rock scene.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
50
PRIMARY SOURCES
Engage Your Students
Mao Era Primary Sources
Asia for Educators
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/index.html
An initiative of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University, Asia for Educators (AFE) is
designed to serve faculty and students in world history, culture, geography, art, and literature at the
undergraduate and pre-college levels.
Primary Sources 1900-today
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main_pop/ps/ps_china.htm#tp9
This site includes dozens of primary resources. These include:
 “Commonly Read Speeches and Writings of Mao Zedong (1927-1945)”
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1900_mao_speeches.htm
 “The Long March (1934-1936)”
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1900_mao_march.htm
 “Intellectual Opinions from The Hundred Flowers Period (1957)
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/cup/hundred_flowers.pdf
 “The Fifth Modernization: Democracy by Wei Jingsheng (1978)
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/cup/wei_jingsheng_fifth_modernization.pdf
Morning Sun
http://www.morningsun.org/index.html
A range of techniques and perspectives are used in the Morning Sun website to reflect on the origins
and history of the Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1976). We approach the period not from a simplistic
linear perspective, but from a panoptic one, encompassing a broad overview while allowing the user to
focus in on individual histories, narratives and events that reveal the complex contradictory forces that
led to an era of unrivalled revolutionary fervor and political turmoil.
 The Film
http://www.morningsun.org/film/index.html
The film Morning Sun attempts in the space of a two-hour documentary film to create an inner
history of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1976). It provides a multi-perspective
view of a tumultuous period as seen through the eyes—and reflected in the hearts and minds—of
members of the high-school generation that was born around the time of the founding of the
People’s Republic of China in 1949, and that came of age in the 1960s. Others join them in creating
in the film’s conversation about the period and the psychoemotional topography of high-Maoist China, as well as the
Read Mao’s Little Red Book in the
enduring legacy of that period.
Morning Sun Library:
 The Library
http://www.morningsun.org/library/index.html
Collection of primary source documents from the Cultural
Revolution (including speeches, newspaper editorials and
articles, directives, big-character posters, letters, diaries,
pamphlets, and self-criticisms), as well as a wide range of
secondary source material, such as essays, memoirs,
http://www.morningsun.org/living/red
book/lrb.html
This pamphlet from the Cultural
Revolution tells readers how to
apply Mao Zedong Thought to
problems encountered in pursuit of
the revolutionary path.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
51
PRIMARY SOURCES
articles, and book excerpts. These personal narratives, histories, biographies, and scholarly
analyses will serve to represent a variety of perspectives on the Cultural Revolution.
 Images
http://www.morningsun.org/images/index.html#
Images of the Cultural Revolution and of Mao during that period include a wide range of material
such as posters, paintings, artwork, photographs and artifacts (including Mao buttons). The
following are examples of the variety and richness of this source material.
Gallery of Chinese Propaganda Posters (1925-2006)
http://chineseposters.net/index.php
200 Highlights from the collections of the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, and
Stefan R. Landsberger (University of Amsterdam, Leiden University). chineseposters.net is a platform
for the presentation of authentic documentary and historical information without the aim to propagate
or dispute any political views; it tries to provide information that may serve to understand the history of
Chinese poster propaganda in all its aspects as well as the history of modern China.
The Film: The Revolutionary (includes two minute trailer)
http://revolutionarymovie.com/
Sidney Rittenberg arrived in China as a GI Chinese language expert at the end of World War II.
Discharged there, he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and was an active participant in the Chinese
communist revolution and its aftermath. An intimate of the Party's leadership, including Mao Zedong
and Zhou Enlai, he gained prominence at the Broadcast Administration, one of the most important
agencies of government. But in the convulsions of a giant country constantly reinventing itself, he twice
ran afoul of the leadership, and served a total of 16 years in solitary confinement. He returned to the
United States in 1980.Rittenberg captivates the audience with his exceptional intellect,
uncompromising honesty, and engaging personality. Over a five-year period, award-winning formerCBS journalist and China specialist, Irv Drasnin, interviewed Rittenberg to produce a compelling,
complex and unique understanding of the 20th century's biggest revolution. From Sid first meeting Mao
in the caves of Yan’an, to his becoming famous and powerful during the Cultural Revolution, to his
battling insanity in solitary, his journey and his profound insight illuminate a much greater history—a
history few Chinese are aware of, let alone many Americans, told by an American who was there.
NPR: The Revolutionary: An Unrequited Love For China (10/20/2012)
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/20/163239444/an-american-revolutionary-in-china?ft=1&f=7&sc=17
This radio interview with Sidney Rittenberg includes three clips from the documentary, The
Revolutionary. Sidney, who lives in Puget Sound, regards Mao as both a hero and criminal.
West Point Department of History: Chinese Civil War Maps (1929-49)
http://www.westpoint.edu/history/SitePages/Chinese%20Civil%20War.aspx
Maps from the West Point of the Chinese Civil War.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
52
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Engage Your Students
Questions for Discussion: From Deng to Now
Shortly after Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping and
other reformers moved to grow China’s economy, instituting
new “reform and opening” (gaige kaifang) policies. With
China’s move from a planned economy toward a market
economy, large work force, increasing advances in
technology and growth of industries, and encouragement for
the population “to get rich quick,” China (after three decades
of spectacular growth) has emerged as the factory of the
world. As it undergoes its “industrial revolution,” what are the
human costs and benefits of the world’s fastest growing
economy? In other words, who have been the winners and
losers? What human capital was/is still required?
The Three Gorges Dam is the most powerful dam in the
world, channeling energy to fuel China’s continuing rise as a great economic world power.
Discuss in more detail the significance of this technological achievement. Who have been the
winners and losers in this ambitious endeavor? Discuss the investment of human capital
necessary for this massive project.
With China’s intense economic development, huge population, and rising energy consumption,
it now faces many serious environmental challenges. Some would say that China’s greatest
industrial achievement has now caused China’s biggest environmental headache. Discuss the
country’s environmental challenges. How is Beijing successfully approaching them? How have
they failed? How has China’s industrial revolution affected the global environment?
As China’s demand for energy continues to rise and it searches the world for long-term energy
supplies and raw materials, how does this impact the rest of the world? How does it positively
and negatively affect its relationship with countries in Africa, the Mideast, and Latin America?
Japan? India? Russia?
As China moves from a socialist to a capitalist economy, a vital entrepreneurial sector is
growing and a new civil society is emerging. Discuss China’s zigzag path as the Chinese people
enjoy comparatively much more freedom than they did twenty or thirty years ago, yet at the
same time bump up against unyielding government control. Explore this impact on their lives
as their speeding industrial revolution pushes forward a slower social revolution. Discuss the
social benefits and challenges for both the Chinese population and the Chinese leadership.
The communist government supports capitalist endeavors spearheaded by local and provincial
leaders while it grapples with keeping them in line with central government policies. What are
the political costs and benefits from the State’s perspective?
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
53
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Chinese leaders deny that China’s rise as an economic superpower will lead to a desire to
expand its “empire.” Rather, their stated goal is to combat the growing disparity between the
haves and have-nots, and consequently, to spread the wealth more evenly across China. What
challenges does the current leadership face in trying to make this a reality? China’s disparities
cannot be limited to just a rural-urban divide. In addition to location, discuss the significance of
class, ethnicity, gender, generation, and education, as the government embarks on spreading
the wealth. How might Chinese Communist Party history affect Beijing’s actions?
Some would say that the glue/social controls of Confucianism and Mao Zedong Thought
(“Serve the people”) are being pulled apart by China’s new “get rich quick” mentality. Discuss
the material costs and benefits vis-a-vis a growing spiritual vacuum. Students may want to
approach this by investigating urban youth culture and how their lives today in a modern and
industrial society may affect China and the world tomorrow.
With China’s large work force, sustained high economic growth rates, increasing advances in
technology, and an expanding, modernizing military, China is emerging as a major global
power. In other words, China’s recent advancements are significantly altering 21st century
global economics and politics. Some would say that the relationship between the U.S. and
China is the most crucial relationship in the world today. Are the U.S. and China fated to
become enemies or partners in friendship? How will they balance growing economic
interdependence with mutual distrust? Does or should the rise of China pose a threat to the
U.S.? How can different national priorities lead to tension if not outright conflict? In what ways
can the U.S. and China build a peaceful and mutually beneficial relationship?
How do contemporary Chinese art, film, fiction, and design reflect the spectacular economic
changes that have occurred in the last three decades? Discuss the positive and negative
impacts on Chinese culture.
China’s Economic Supremacy
For almost 2000 years (up until the
How has China’s industrial revolution affected
1800s), China was considered to have
the lives of the Chinese and the rest of the
the largest economy in the world.
world? Who are the winners and losers?
China’s economy is again projected to
Encourage students to consider technological
take the lead by the middle of the 21st
change or industrial growth from the
century.
perspective of a worker and an employer or an
urban and rural migrant worker. They may also want to consider this from the perspective of
China as a major exporting nation and the U.S. as China’s main importer. What other
perspectives could they consider?
What is the relationship between technological change/industrial growth and human capital?
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
54
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How is China’s ongoing industrial revolution shaping China and the world today (and
consequently Chinese and world history)? Ask students to think about this question from the
following social science perspectives: geographic, political, cultural, economic, sociological, and
psychological. What do these changes mean for the different stakeholders: the Chinese
government, entrepreneurs, workers, students, migrant workers, and the rest of the world?
Encourage students to discuss: China’s future is under construction. Imagine China’s place in
world history. If you are a historian twenty years from now, how might you look back at China’s
social, economic, political, and geographic circumstances during the early 21st century?
Social Education: What I Wish My College Students Already Knew about PRC History
(1/10)
http://members.socialstudies.org/Scripts/4Disapi.dll/4DCGI/logon/redirectback.html?ref=htt
p://publications.socialstudies.org/se/7401/740112.pdf
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Different generations of Americans understand China quite differently. This, of course, is
true of many topics. However, the turbulence of Chinese history and U.S.-China relations in
the 60 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 has
deepened the gaps in generational thinking about China. Those who came of age in the
America of the 1950s and 1960s would remember when China seemed like North Korea does
today--isolated, aggressive, the land of "brain washing." Those who first learned about
China in the 1970s, perhaps, had teachers who were inspired by Maoist rhetoric and believed
young people could break out of the old culture of self-interest and lead the world to a more
compassionate future. The disillusion that came with more accurate understanding of the
tragedies of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution led some people to try to
understand China more fully. Many of the author's college-age students, though, seem to
have dismissed most PRC history as just another part of the bizarre failed story of world
Communism. For current secondary students, the spectacle of the 2008 Olympics and the
skyline of bustling Shanghai may make both Mao and the 1989 Tiananmen Square violence
seem irrelevant to today's China. These students will encounter disparate views of China
among various generations of Chinese and American observers. That poses a challenge to
teachers. To help students integrate the disparate accounts, they must teach them to
understand the radical transformations that have marked the 60-year history of the PRC. In
this article, the author stresses five themes--the significance of Maoism, experiments in
governance, economic development, conformity and diversity, and China's foreign relations
and global impact--with key events, people, and terms that she would want students to
know about and which can form the basis of a stimulating week-long or year-long lesson
plan.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
55
Timeline of Modern China
1949
1 October - Mao Zedong, having led the Communists to victory against the Nationalists after more than 20 years of
civil war, proclaims the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Nationalists retreat to the island of Taiwan and
set up a government there.
1950
China intervenes in the Korean War on the side of North Korea; Tibet becomes part of the People's Republic of China.
1958
Mao launches the "Great Leap Forward," a five-year economic plan. Farming is collectivized and labor-intensive
industry is introduced. The drive produces economic breakdown and is abandoned after two years. Disruption to
agriculture is blamed for the deaths by starvation of millions of people following poor harvests.
1959
Chinese forces suppress large-scale revolt in Tibet.
1962
Brief conflict with India over disputed Himalayan border.
1966-76
"Cultural Revolution," Mao's 10-year political and ideological campaign aimed at reviving revolutionary spirit, produces
massive social, economic, and political upheaval.
1972
U.S. President Richard Nixon visits. Both countries declare a desire to normalize relations.
1976
Mao dies.
"Gang of Four," including Mao's widow,
jockey for power but are arrested and
convicted of crimes against the state.
From 1977 Deng Xiaoping emerges as the dominant
figure among pragmatists in the leadership. Under him,
China undertakes far-reaching economic reforms.
1979
Diplomatic relations established with the U.S.
Government imposes one-child policy in effort to curb
population growth.
1986-90
China's "Open-door policy" opens the country to foreign investment and
encourages development of a market economy and private sector.
Stock markets open in Shanghai and
Shenzhen.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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Timeline of Modern China
1989
Troops open fire on demonstrators who have camped for weeks in
Tiananmen Square initially to demand the posthumous
rehabilitation of former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang, who
was forced to resign in 1987. The official death toll is 200.
International outrage leads to sanctions.
Jiang Zemin takes over as Chinese
Communist Party general secretary from
Zhao Ziyang, who refused to support martial
law during the Tiananmen demonstrations.
1992
Russia and China sign declaration restoring friendly ties.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) ranks China's
economy as third largest in the world after the U.S. and
Japan.
1993
Jiang Zemin officially
replaces Yang Shangkun
as president.
Preliminary construction work on the Three Gorges dam begins. It will create a lake
almost 600 kilometers (375 miles) long and submerge dozens of cultural heritage sites
by the time it is completed in 2009.
1994
China abolishes the official renminbi (RMB) currency exchange rate and fixes its first floating rate since 1949.
1995
China tests missiles and holds military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, apparently to intimidate Taiwan during its
presidential elections.
1996
China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan - dubbed the Shanghai Five - meet in Shanghai and agree to
cooperate to combat ethnic and religious tensions in each others' countries.
1997
Deng Xiaoping dies, aged 92.
Rioting erupts in Yining, Xinjiang and on day of Deng's funeral Xinjiang separatists
plant three bombs on buses in Urumqi, Xinjiang, killing nine and injuring 74.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
57
Timeline of Modern China
1998
Zhu Rongji succeeds Li Peng as premier,
announces reforms in the wake of the Asian
financial crisis and continued deceleration
of the economy.
Thousands of state-owned enterprises are
to be restructured through amalgamations,
share flotations and bankruptcies.
About four
million civil
service jobs to be
axed.
1999
Nato bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, souring Sino-US
relations.
Macao reverts to Chinese rule.
2000
Crackdown on official corruption intensifies, with the execution for bribe taking
of a former deputy chairman of the National People's Congress.
Bomb explosion kills up to
60 in Urumqi, Xinjiang.
2001
Diplomatic stand-off over the detention of an American spy plane and crew after
a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter jet
China joins the World
Trade Organization.
2002
U.S. President George W Bush visits on the 30th anniversary of
President Nixon's visit to China, the first by a US president.
Vice-President Hu Jintao is named
head of the ruling Communist party.
2003
China and Hong Kong hit by the Sars virus,
thought to have originated in Guangdong
province.
China and India reach de facto agreement over the status of
Tibet and Sikkim in landmark cross-border trade agreement.
2003
Launch of China's first manned spacecraft: Astronaut
Yang Liwei is sent into space.
National People's Congress elects Hu Jintao
president.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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Timeline of Modern China
2005
Aircraft chartered for the Lunar New Year holiday
make the first direct flights between China and
Taiwan since 1949.
Taiwan's National Party leader Lien Chan visits China
for the first meeting between Nationalist and
Communist Party leaders since 1949.
2006
Work on the structure of the Three Gorges Dam, the
world's largest hydropower project, is completed.
New China-Tibet railway line, the world's highest train
route, begins operating.
2007
During a landmark visit, Wen Jiabao becomes the first Chinese prime minister to address Japan's parliament.
2008
A massive earthquake in
Sichuan province kills tens of
thousands.
Beijing hosts Olympic Games.
The government announces a $586bn
stimulus package to avoid an economic
slowdown.
2009
China stages mass celebrations to mark 60 years since the Communist Party came to power.
2010
The web giant Google ends its compliance with Chinese
internet censorship and starts re-directing web searches to
Hong Kong.
Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo is awarded
Nobel Peace Prize, prompting offical protests
from Beijing.
2011
Chinally formally overtakes Japan to become the world's second-largest economy.
2012
Communist Party holds congress in which Vice-President Xi Jinping is selected as General Secretary of the CCP.
Source: The BBC Country Profile http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13017882
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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TEACHING IN CHINA
Recommended List from the National Committee on United States-China Relations
http://www.ncuscr.org/teach-china
The following is not an exhaustive list of all of the many programs that provide opportunities for
Americans to teach in China. However, all of the organizations on the list are known to the National
Committee and we feel confident recommending them.
China Education Initiative (CEI)
http://www.chinaeducationinitiative.org
Established in 2008, CEI pairs recent college graduates from the United States and China to teach in
low-income rural schools in Yunnan Province. American fellows teach English; Chinese fellows teach
other core subjects including math, science, and Chinese.
China Educational Exchange
http://www.mennonitepartnerschina.org/
The China Educational Exchange is a program of the Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren churches in
North America. Its primary function is to place North American teachers in teaching positions in
Chinese universities, usually in Henan and Sichuan provinces. CEE teachers normally serve for two-year
terms or longer, though the organization also places teachers for five-week terms of service each
summer.
Colorado China Council
http://www.asiacouncil.org
Founded in 1977, the Colorado China Council is a non-political, educational outreach organization
dedicated to developing programs to deepen the American public’s understanding and appreciation of
China’s history, culture and contemporary life. Its primary objective is to send Americans to teach at
Chinese universities and a few secondary schools. It is affiliated with the China Teachers Consortium, an
organization of China programs at several universities, and with the Colorado Asia Council, which offers
opportunities to teach English in Mongolia.
Council On International Education Exchange (CIEE)
http://www.ciee.org
In addition to its study abroad program, CIEE also runs a Teach in China Program. College graduates
can spend half a year to a full year teaching English in Chinese elementary, middle schools, high schools
or universities in urban or town locations in eastern China. Accommodation and local salary are
provided. Previous teaching experience is not required.
Fulbright Scholar Program
http://us.fulbrightonline.org/home.html
Jonathan Akeley, Program Manager for East Asia and Pacific
The Fulbright Scholar Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs and is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars. Fulbright
grants are made to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for a variety of educational activities,
primarily university lecturing, advanced research, graduate study and teaching in elementary and
secondary schools. Approximately 70 Fulbright full grants are made each year for scholars interested in
China. For lecturing awards, full and associate professors are preferred.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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TEACHING IN CHINA
Peace Corps
http://www.peacecorps.gov
The Peace Corps program is located within four regions of Western China: Sichuan, Guizhou, Gansu,
and Chongqing, where Peace Corps volunteers work at colleges and universities. Currently 114
Volunteers are teaching English in more than 62 universities, including five medical colleges and four
vocational colleges. Peace Corps Volunteers are known as "U.S.-China Friendship Volunteers" to their
students and colleagues. Common classes assigned to Volunteers include: Oral English, Listening
Comprehension, Reading, Writing, Literature and Linguistics. Secondary projects instigated by
Volunteers include English resource centers, radio shows, movie nights, sports clubs and women's
clubs. Volunteers have created a website where they are able to exchange teaching ideas, lesson plans
and methods.
Princeton-In-Asia (PiA)
http://www.princeton.edu/~pia/
Princeton-in-Asia provides young Americans with various opportunities to live and work in Asia. China
is PiA’s oldest and largest program, with nearly 20 interns in 9 cities teaching at both the middle school
and university level.
U.S.-China Teachers Exchange Program
http://www.ncuscr.org/programs/tep
Established in 1996 with funding from the Freeman Foundation, the Teachers Exchange Program sends
American K-12 teachers to China and brings Chinese secondary school teachers to the U.S. Please see
the Teachers Exchange page in this website for more information.
Volunteers In Asia
http://www.viaprograms.org/
Volunteers in Asia is a private, non-profit, non-sectarian organization that sends between 30 - 40
English teachers to Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam and China each year. China volunteers live and work at
universities and colleges across the country. One way in which VIA sets itself apart is through posts that
allow volunteers to spend time working at a local Chinese nonprofit organization. These English
resource positions give volunteers an opportunity to contribute to development work in China and learn
more about the growing phenomenon of NGOs in China. Another way VIA sets itself apart in China is by
cooperating with schools which otherwise have difficulty finding foreign teachers, due to their remote
location or insufficient funds.
Worldteach
http://www.worldteach.org
WorldTeach is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based at the Center for International
Development, which provides opportunities for individuals to contribute to international education by
living and working as volunteer teachers in developing countries. Teachers are placed at educational
institutions in Hunan Province.
YALE-China Association: Programs of English Language Instruction in Hong Kong and China
http://www.yalechina.org/home.php
The Yale-China Association selects qualified Yale graduates to undertake two-year assignments as
teaching fellows in Hong Kong and mainland China. Teachers are placed at Chinese University of Hong
Kong, or at educational institutions in Changsha (Hunan province), Xiuning (Anhui province), or
Guangzhou (Guangdong province).
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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LOCAL CHINA-RELATED ORGANIZATIONS
Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC)
http://www.cisc-seattle.org/
CISC helps Chinese and other Asian immigrants throughout King County achieve success in their new
community by providing information, referral, advocacy, social, and support services. CISC was started
in 1972 by a group of energetic college and high school students. They worked as part time volunteers
in a tiny donated space in Chinatown to fulfill a community need. The early focus was on helping nonEnglish speaking elderly in the community. Later, CISC broadened its scope and added adult and youth
employment programs, ESL and naturalization classes, family and youth services, domestic violence
and crime victim services, and a community technology center.
Chinese Student Association (CSA) at the University of Washington
http://students.washington.edu/csauw/about/
The CSA is a Registered Student Organization (RSO) made up of University of Washington students,
and dedicated towards improving cultural awareness on the campus as well as providing support for
those who come from a common background. Their purpose is “to serve as a vessel for students
through which to promote a better understanding and identification with the Chinese (Chinese‐
American) culture and heritage.”
Confucius Institute of Seattle
http://confucius.washington.edu/
Confucius Institutes devote themselves to satisfying the demands of people from different countries
and regions in the world who learn the Chinese language, to enhancing understanding of the Chinese
language and culture by these peoples, to strengthening educational and cultural exchange and
cooperation between China and other countries, to deepening friendly relationships with other nations,
to promoting the development of multi-culturalism, and to construct a harmonious world.
East Asia Resource Center: Jackson School of International Studies
http://jsis.washington.edu/earc/
K-12 teachers in all stages of their careers will find that the East Asia Resource Center is a great place to
learn more about China, Japan, and Korea. Year-round programming includes: one-day workshops on
East Asian art, culture, and history; the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) seminars;
intensive summer institutes in Seattle; and more.
Hengda Dance Academy (HDA)
http://www.hengda-dance.com/
The Academy was founded in November 1993 by Mr. Hengda Li in Seattle. It is the first professional
Chinese dance academy established in the Pacific Northwest. HDA has students with ages ranging from
four years old to adult. Its curriculum includes Chinese classical and folk dance, as well as aerobics and
body conditioning. Today, the Academy is primarily located in Seattle, with a branch in Bellevue.
Hong Kong Association of Washington (HKAW)
http://www.hkaw.org/hkawv2/index.php
HKAW is a 501(c) (6) non-profit organization, first established in 1994 by a group of community-minded
leaders, who had a common background of upbringing from Hong Kong. HKAW aims to serve by
engaging in both business and social activities to enrich people's lives with similar interests, while
increasing awareness of contemporary issues that arise in Hong Kong and China.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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LOCAL CHINA-RELATED ORGANIZATIONS
Huayin Performing Arts Group
http://huayin.org/About.aspx
Huayin Performing Arts Group was founded in Seattle, Washington 2004. It is a federal registered
501.C.3 nonprofit organization. Since its founding, Huayin has been devoted to promoting and
presenting traditional Chinese art forms. Its performances have captivated audience with magnificent
various forms of Chinese traditions. Huayin consists of three groups: chorus, dancing and Taichi and its
members grow to hundreds. Collaborating with leading artists from China, Huayin emerged as the
leading organization in performing arts in Chinese communities as well as among local communities.
With a vision of cultural renewal, the group is run and supported by volunteers who are passionate
about carrying on and evangelizing Chinese culture and heritage.
Landesa
http://www.landesa.org/where-we-work/china/
Landesa works to secure land rights for the world’s poorest people, who live on less than $2 a day. It
partners with developing countries to design and implement laws, policies, and programs concerning
land that are instrumental in reducing poverty, promoting economic growth, promoting women’s
empowerment, reducing and preventing violent conflict, and fostering environmental stewardship.
Mak Fai Washington Kung Fu Club
http://www.makskungfu.com/school/school.html
At the Mak Fai Washington Kung Fu Club, students of all races and ages learn and achieve selfconfidence, concentration, control, respect, and self-discipline in the rich tradition of Kung Fu. Students
improve their stamina, muscle tone, weight control, balance, coordination and awareness, gaining.
Northwest Asian Weekly
http://www.nwasianweekly.com/
Tucked near a Chinese restaurant in Seattle’s Chinatown/International District is a newsroom that
represents a cultural lifeline in an often unfamiliar land. The newsroom is home to the Northwest Asian
Weekly and its sister paper, the Seattle Chinese Post. It is the only weekly English‐edition newspaper
serving Washington’s Asian community. The Northwest Asian Weekly has one simple goal: to empower
the Asian community.
Northwest Wushu (Chinese Martial Arts)
http://northwestwushu.com/
Northwest Wushu offers competitive & recreational wushu and wu-fit (Fitness) programs for children,
teen & adults. Their wushu programs develop fitness & health while improving self-confidence, selfesteem & teach self-discipline. New students are taught basic skills of Wushu including hand, body &
kicking actions as well as flexibility & fitness training. Intermediate to advanced students go on to learn
jump kicks, acrobatics & weaponry.
OneWorld Now!
http://www.oneworldnow.org/
OneWorld Now! offers one year language, leadership and study abroad program. The OWN program
meets three days per week after school (two days of language, one day of leadership) and then offers
immersion language camp, leadership training and/or study abroad scholarships in the summertime.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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LOCAL CHINA-RELATED ORGANIZATIONS
Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM)
http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/visit/visitSAAM.asp
This exhibit is an opportunity to see a fresh installation of Seattle Art Museum’s (SAM) renowned
collection of Chinese art at the SAAM. The collection was started by Dr. Richard Fuller, the founding
director of the SAM and his family in the early 1900s. It contains representative works from each
dynastic period, and it is particularly strong in jades, ceramics and sculpture.
Seattle Chinese Garden
http://www.seattlechinesegarden.org/
The Seattle Chinese Garden inspires global understanding by immersing visitors in the richness and
beauty of Chinese culture. Our mission is to create a traditional Sichuan-style Chinese garden, the only
one of its kind outside China, as a means of celebrating Seattle's rich Chinese heritage and supporting
Seattle's future business and cultural relationship with China.
Seattle Chinese Orchestra (SCO)
http://www.uschinamusic.org/about/sco.php
SCO is the only traditional Chinese orchestra in the Pacific Northwest. Its mission is to advocate and
promote traditional Chinese music to the Western world. The forefather of the SCO was a Chinese folk
music ensemble founded by the famous musician Warren Chang, who was already nationally renowned
in China and in the United States at the time.
Sponge
http://www.spongeschool.com/
Sponge offers Chinese language classes for young children from newborn through elementary school.
They are conveniently located in Seattle & Bellevue and at a partner location in Redmond, Orange
Blossom Society. They are also happy to bring their classes to children at day-cares, preschools and
public and private elementary schools in the Greater Seattle Area.
Washington Chinese Art & Culture Committee (WCACC)
http://www.chinaartandculture.org
WCACC is a 501(c) 3 non‐profit organization that strives to foster understanding, friendship and
opportunities between local Chinese and American communities and between China and America
through art and cultural events as well as through other exchange activities. The volunteer‐run
organization is operated by professionals from different fields who share the same vision and passion
for China/US cultural exchange. WWCACC is the producer of the Seattle Chinese Arts & Culture Festival
held every summer in the Center House of Seattle Center. This website has a wonderful archive of
photographs.
Washington Sichuan Friendship Association (WSFA)
www.taiinitiative.org/wsfa
The Washington Sichuan Friendship Association (WSFA) is the citizen organization supporting the
official state-province relationship, which marks its 30th anniversary in 2012. Looking “the next 30,” the
WSFA seeks to encourage a broad set of programs to capitalize on the depth of experience that so
many of our regional institutions and leaders have developed over the years. The focus of the WSFA is
on the province of Sichuan, but our vision within that focus is to bring the various sectors of education,
business, culture, and tourism together in creative ways to synergistically grow the relationship even
further.
World Affairs Council: From Mao to Now, NCSS Conference November 16, 2012
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LOCAL CHINA-RELATED ORGANIZATIONS
Washington State China Relations Council (WSCRC)
http://www.wscrc.org/
The WSCRC, founded in 1979 following the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United
States and China, is a private and non‐profit business association dedicated to promoting stronger
commercial, educational, and cultural relations between the state of Washington and the People's
Republic of China. The Council is the oldest non‐governmental statewide trade association in the U.S.
dealing specifically with China. Free China Update newsletter available for viewing/download at:
http://www.wscrc.org/chinaupdate/default.cfm
Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (WING)
http://wingluke.org/home.htm
The WING is dedicated to immersing people in uniquely‐American stories of survival, success, struggle,
conflict, compassion and hope. The Museum is in the heart of Seattle’s vibrant Chinatown‐International
District, and includes the very hotel where countless immigrants first found a home, a meal, and refuge.
YOUR NOTES:
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