Syllabus
BYU Course Outcomes
1. Students will be able to describe the most significant aspects of
the polity, economy, society and ideology of China from 1200 to
the present.
2. Students will be able to recognize and analyze change over time
in China.
3. Students will be able to evaluate and apply primary source texts
to broad historical themes.
4. Students will be able to conduct individual research and situate
it in the broader historical context.
Course Objectives
Like all good history courses, this class seeks much more than a basic
working knowledge of chronological facts, dates, and details: “boring
minutia” I call it. Personally, I find little value in memorizing trivia.
Here, we look to develop a deeper understanding that includes the basic
analytical skills all historians must employ. In short, this course seeks:
1. To instill within you, the student, a solid working knowledge of
the major features and themes found in modern Chinese history
from 1500.
2. To compel you to carefully examine, through the writings of others,
what it was like to live in another time and in another culture. To
provide you a chance to develop empathy for the countless people
who have lived before you on the other side of the globe and provide a context within which to better judge your own experiences.
3. To stimulate new thinking about the world around you, cause
you to introspect, and discover new ways of dealing with your
own day-to-day existence. To instill within you a powerful sense
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HIST 341: Modern China Since 1500
of empathy for the difficulties faced by China’s millions over the
last few centuries.
4. To give you the opportunity to articulate your thoughts, observations, and insights gained from the class. Analysis comes from
introspection and thought. Writing highly refined and insightful
papers forces that thought to crystallize and allows your creative
genius to emerge.
5. To empower you with the ability to intelligently discuss past and
current events in China as well as formulate opinions regarding
Chinese events as an informed observer.
Required Materials
Textbooks
My courses always emphasize reading. The study of history generally
involves only three things: reading, thinking, and writing. Before you can
even begin the latter two tasks, you must first read. We’ll use nine books
for this course in addition to the lessons outlined here. They include:
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Jonathan Spence. In Search of Modern China. 2nd ed. Norton,
1991. ISBN: 0393307808
Jonathan Spence. Emperor of China. Vintage Books Edition,
Random House, Inc, 1988. ISBN: 067972074X
Ida Pruitt. A Daughter of Han. Stanford University Press. ISBN:
0804706069
Pearl Buck. The Good Earth. Pocket, Simon and Schuster, 1994
(or a similar edition). ISBN: 0671729896
Lu Hsun. Selected Stories. Norton, 1977. ISBN: 0393008487
Jung Chang. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, First
Touchstone Edition, Globalflair, 2003. ISBN: 0-7432-4698-5
Jasper Becker. Hungry Ghosts. Henry Holt, 1998. ISBN:
0805056688
Liang Heng. Son of the Revolution. Random, 1984. ISBN:
0394722744
Jianying Zha. China Pop. New, 1996. ISBN: 1565842502
Spence’s text In Search of Modern China provides a brilliant, readable, chronological presentation of many basic themes in modern Chinese
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Syllabus
history. The lessons presented here have been designed to support this
text which, in turn, helps fill in the gaps of the lessons. Between the two,
you should be able to follow the basic narrative of China’s modern history very well.
Spence’s Emperor of China offers you a chance to read the writings
of one of China’s greatest emperors and envision what it was like to rule
the celestial empire. Through this brief encounter, you should begin to
appreciate the pressures facing an emperor and the struggle for virtue
he sought.
A Daughter of Han provides a window into the life of a common
woman at the opposite end of the social spectrum. Through her humble
tale, you’ll begin to appreciate what women could face in China.
Pearl Buck, who grew up in China, is most famous for The Good Earth,
a vivid account of the pressures of peasant life. All the elements of suffering and triumph are there, providing us with a memorable portrayal
of peasant life and its struggles.
Lu Hsun’s iconoclastic Selected Stories changed history by convincing
thousands of young Chinese that they needed to abandon their traditional
ways and modernize. Lu’s short stories were printed and circulated widely
among students who then acted by attacking elements of traditional
society—as depicted in Pearl Buck’s book—in an effort to “throw off the
chains of the past” and allow China to move ahead. Naturally, the stories
evoke tremendous emotion as they heap condemnation on traditional
Chinese practices and beliefs.
Jung Chang’s Wild Swans is perhaps the greatest memoir of the
modern China period. She records the experiences, hopes, dreams, and
struggles of three generations of Chinese women as they moved from the
turn of the twentieth century to the end of it.
Hungry Ghosts is a frightening study of the world’s greatest famine.
Becker meticulously details what went wrong and how problems with
Mao’s administration contributed to the starvation of some 30 million
people. Few accounts so brilliantly portray the flaws of Maoist autocracy.
Liang’s Son of the Revolution takes us back to the grassroots by
explaining what it was like to be a somewhat rebellious lad caught up in
the fury of the Cultural Revolution. An entire generation of youth was
shaped by the upheaval and few tell the tale better than Liang.
Zha provides a slightly irreverent look at the changes occurring in China
today. As China continues to modernize, certain changes are exciting and
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HIST 341: Modern China Since 1500
positive. At the same time, new problems (or maybe the same ancient
ones) are reappearing. Each of these books is brilliantly written and very
engaging. Enjoy!
Note: The spelling system for Chinese names is, quite frankly, a
mess. Names will seem foreign and bizarre for those of you who’ve had
little or no previous exposure to the Chinese language. This problem is
compounded by the use of two different spelling systems. The Spence text
uses one spelling system, while others, like the Pruitt and Lu books, use
a completely different spelling system. In the list of key terms for each
lesson, I use Pinyin. The Spence text has a conversion table if you need
one. I apologize for the resultant confusion. This spelling problem is an
issue with which teachers and students of Chinese history throughout
the English-speaking world must grapple. Do your best.
Course Structure
Complete the readings and do the assignments. That’s it!
Speedback Assignments
In this course, you will complete twenty Speedback assignments. These
assignments let you know if you’re getting what you need out of the lesson
material. Don’t do the Speedback assignment until you’re confident that
you know the material in each lesson. The Speedback assignments don’t
test the books, just the lesson materials.
Book Response Papers
You must also submit eight one-page responses (double or 1 ½ spacing);
one must be submitted for each book you read for class except for the
Spence text (In Search of Modern China). This response is your chance
to demonstrate thought beyond the last page of the book. If I were taking
this class, I’d take notes to myself as I read the books, watching for
interesting points of significance as opposed to a mere string of details.
Don’t summarize what you’ve read. Instead, indicate what it taught you:
interesting themes or observations that struck you, how it contrasted with
something else you read or experienced, striking ties to larger developments. Try to empathize with the characters in books and look at the
experiences they depict from the point of view of the authors. Compare
those depictions to what you experience in your own life. In short, this
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Syllabus
is not a book report, but an essay reflecting your own intellectual and
emotional response to the book.
Term Paper
Near the end of this course you will submit a three-page essay on any
topic in modern Chinese history. Material can come from readings done
for the course or from other sources. This assignment can take the form
of a synthesizing and analyzing essay, listing observations you’ve noted
in the readings (for example, the changing role of women in Chinese
society), or a descriptive essay about a particular topic (for example, the
intent of Mao’s reforms). To stay on track, you should have this turned
in by lesson 19.
Midcourse and Final Essays
You will submit two sets of essays, one set with lesson 9 and one with
lesson 20. Each set is open-note and open-book, and involves answering
two essay questions. You may submit no more than two pages for each
question. (Thus, you may submit four pages for the whole assignment.)
Essays should demonstrate well-written, quality work that reflects thought
and effort. They do not require you to simply recount information gleaned
from the class but to gather, assess, and analyze what you’ve learned from
the readings and lessons.
Submission of Assignments
You will submit your completed paper to Independent Study electronically through your course. To make sure that I can open and read your
paper, please save it as an Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) file. Here’s how to do it:
1. Type your paper in a word-processing program (such as Microsoft
Word).
2. When you save the file, click the Save as type: drop-down list.
3. Select PDF (*.pdf).
4. Use the course number, your first and last name, and the
assignment name for the filename. For example, “HIST341_
MichaelMurdock_BookResponse1.pdf.”
5. Click Save.
6. Submit the lesson’s .PDF file through the submission page with
the corresponding assignment name for grading.
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HIST 341: Modern China Since 1500
Grading Criteria
Speedback assignments will be graded by computer. All others, however,
will be graded by the instructor.
Speedback Assignments
20 percent
Book Reponse Papers
32 percent
Term Paper
16 percent
Midcourse Essays
16 percent
Final Essays
16 percent
Total
100 percent
Grading Scale
A
100–93
A-
92–90
B+
89–87
B
86–84
B-
83–80
C+
79–77
C
76–74
C-
73–70
D+
69–67
D
66–64
D-
63–60
E (fail)
59 or below
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