Name:_______________________________________________ Date:__________________________________
Modern China DBQ 5 Paragraph Essay (Due at the end of class on Friday, March 14, 2014)
Directions:
1. Read the essay question.
2. Then, read and analyze the following documents using the guided questions, keeping in mind the essay question.
3. Categorize the documents into the three buckets with the associated graphic organizer.
4. Finally, answer the essay question in a typed (or handwritten) five paragraph essay using a minimum of 6
documents. There should be two different documents in each body paragraph.
Essay Question: Describe the successes and failures of modern China.
Document #1
Source: Reuters. "China Trade Report Better Than
Expected." New York Times 12 February 2014.
Chinese exports handily beat expectations in January,
rising 10.6 percent from a year earlier, while imports
jumped 10 percent, leaving the country with a trade
surplus of $31.9 billion for the month. ''The trade figures
were a bit of a surprise to the market,'' said Zhou Hao, an
economist at ANZ in Shanghai. ''The stronger-thanexpected exports data also showed improvement in the
global demand momentum.''
Document 2:
Author (s) or source
Title
_____________________________________________
Date
_____________________________________________
Type of Document
_____________________________________________
What is the MAIN IDEA of the document? (Paraphrase
here).
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Think about point-of-view. How does the author or
people in the article feel about China’s successes and
failures? Why does he or she feel that way?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Document #1:
Author (s) or source
Title
_______________________________________________
Date
_______________________________________________
Type of Document
______________________________________________
What is the MAIN IDEA of the document? (Paraphrase
here).
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
Think about point-of-view. How does the author or people
in the article feel about China’s successes and failures?
Why does he or she feel that way?
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
Document #2
Source: Jim Yardley, “Rural Exodus for Work Fractures Chinese
Family,” New York Times, 21 December 2004.
HUANGHU, China - Yang Shan is in fourth grade and spends a
few hours every day practicing her Chinese characters. Her script
is neat and precise, and one day, instead of drills, she wrote
letters to her parents and put them in the mail. "How is your
health?" she asked. Shan, who is 10, then added a more pointed
question: "What is happening with our family?" Her parents had
left in March. Their absence was not new in Shan's short life. Her
father, Yang Heqing, has left four times for work. He is now in
Beijing on a construction site. Her mother, Ran Heping, has left
three times. She is in a different city as a factory worker. Over the
years, Shan's parents have returned to this remote village to bring
money and reunite the family. They leave when the money runs
out, as it did in March. Her father had medical debts and needed
cash to see another doctor. Shan's school fees were due, and her
grandparents also needed help.
Document #3
Source: "Chinese Women Struggle to Climb Political Ladder."
USA Today, 12 March 2013.
Document #3:
Author (s) or source
In Chinese politics, whose annual, highly ceremonial conclave
[meeting] is underway in Beijing, there appears less to celebrate.
Female success stories abound in the worlds of business and
sports, and China's second female astronaut will lift off this
summer, but women struggle to achieve the highest political
positions.
Title
____________________________________________
Date
____________________________________________
Type of Document
"China is still a sexist country, dominated by men, and women
are discriminated against," said Wang Hongwei, a female
women's studies expert at South China Normal University in
Guangzhou. "Prejudice and misunderstanding toward female
politicians and officials are widespread in China. The number
and percentage of female officials are still small." At this year's
session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the rubberstamp legislature that serves China's ruling Communist Party,
women make up 23.4% of the almost 3,000 hand-picked
deputies, a 2.1% increase over 2012, the state-run Xinhua News
Agency reported.
That marks the first time the female ratio has met or exceeded a
non-compulsory guideline quota, set in 2007, of at least 22%.
Yet the lack of real progress is highlighted by the fact that the
new NPC figure only slightly exceeds the ratio achieved in the
mid-1970s…
Document #4
Source: Keith Bradsher, “Wages Rise in China as
Businesses Court the Young,” New York Times, 29 August
2007.
SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 28 — At the Dahon bicycle factory
here, Zhang Jingming’s fingers move quickly and methodically —
grabbing bicycle seats, wrapping them in cardboard and smoothly
attaching them to frames. Working a 45-hour week, Mr. Zhang
makes the equivalent of $263 a month; as recently as February, he
was making just $197. Some of his higher pay comes from
working more efficiently. “When I first started, I wasn’t this fast,”
he said. But a good portion reflects a raise Mr. Zhang got: to 1.45
cents for each bicycle seat from 1.32 cents. It is a small difference
that signifies major change. Chinese wages are on the rise. No
reliable figures for average wages exist; the government’s
economic data are notably unreliable. But factory owners and
experts who monitor the nation’s labor market say that businesses
are having a hard time finding able-bodied workers and are
having to pay the workers they can find more money.
___________________________________________
What is the MAIN IDEA of the document? (Paraphrase
here).
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
Think about point-of-view. How does the author or
people in the article feel about China’s successes and
failures? Why does he or she feel that way?
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
_________
Document #4:
Author (s) or source
Title
____________________________________________
Date
____________________________________________
Type of Document
____________________________________________
What is the MAIN IDEA of the document? (Paraphrase
here).
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
Think about point-of-view. How does the author or
people in the article feel about China’s successes and
failures? Why does he or she feel that way?
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
_
Document #5
Source: Kristie Lu Stout, "Chinese Women Fight to Shake off
'Leftover' Label." CNN Wire 21 August 2013.
Document #5:
Author (s) or source
HONG KONG (CNN) -- On the face of it, women in China seem to
have cracked the code for success. Seven of world's top 10 wealthiest
self-made women are Chinese. Property tycoon Zhang Xin is richer than
Oprah. And a girl-power chick flick called "Tiny Times" broke the
mainland's opening-day box office record earlier this summer.
Title
___________________________________________
But don't let the headlines fool you. In China, as in many other corners
of the world, women are under pressure, under-represented, and under
threat. A preference for boys under China's one-child policy continues
to this day. Access to cheap ultrasound and abortions has led to
widespread selective abortion of female fetuses. According to the China
Statistics Bureau, there are now 34 million more men than women in
China. Marital property in China belongs to the one person who owns
the home -- who is, more often than not, a man.
And there's not a single woman on the ruling Communist Party's sevenmember Politburo Standing Committee.
"So when it comes to women's issues, who will speak for women?" asks
former legislator and committed feminist [and female] Wu Qing.
Wu squarely blames the government for not trying hard enough to shore
up women's rights by implementing the constitution.
"Article 33 says every single citizen of the People's Republic of China
should be treated equally," Wu points out. "And, according to Article 48
on women, women should enjoy equal rights in the economy, in politics,
in everything."
"And yet, China is still rule of man, by man..."
Document #6
Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2010.
Date
___________________________________________
Type of Document
___________________________________________
What is the MAIN IDEA of the document?
(Paraphrase here).
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Think about point-of-view. How does the author or
people in the article feel about China’s successes and
failures? Why does he or she feel that way?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Document #6
Author or source:
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
Title:
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
Date:
_________________________
_________________________
Type of Document:
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
What is the MAIN IDEA of the document? (Paraphrase here).
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_
Think about point-of-view. How does the author or people in the article feel about China’s successes and failures? Why does
he or she feel that way?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_
Document #7
Source: “Reports of Forced Labor Unsettle China,” New
York Times, 20 June 2007.
Document #7:
Author (s) or source
Title
_________________________________________________
Date
_________________________________________________
Type of Document
Workers rescued in May from a brick kiln in Linfen, in
Shanxi Province, in northern China, in what has become an
unfolding labor abuse scandal [where people were
kidnapped and forced to work as slaves].
_________________________________________________
What is the MAIN IDEA of the document? (Paraphrase here).
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Think about point-of-view. How does the author or people in
the article feel about China’s successes and failures? Why
does he or she feel that way?
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Document #8
Source: Martin Feldstein, “China’s Biggest Problems are Political, not
Economic,” The Wall Street Journal, 2 August 2012.
Document #8:
Author (s) or source
The political problems [in China] are even more difficult. Corruption,
income inequality and party governance are at the top of the list of
domestic issues.
Title
______________________________________
______________________________________
The Chinese leadership acknowledges that corruption is widespread,
involving not only low-level bureaucrats but also senior officials. The
corruption problem interacts with the public's concern about income
distribution. While some of the very large Chinese fortunes are the
fruits of successful entrepreneurial efforts, the wealth of senior officials
and their children is widely regarded as the result of corruption and
bribery. Thousands of rural riots each year reflect the seizure of land by
local officials who sell it to real-estate developers at bargain prices. The
Chinese people know that when Deng Xiaoping famously said "To get
rich is glorious," he didn't mean that to apply to corruption.
Date
_____________________________________
Type of Document
______________________________________
What is the MAIN IDEA of the document?
(Paraphrase here).
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
Think about point-of-view. How does the author
or people in the article feel about China’s
successes and failures? Why does he or she feel
that way?
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
Document #9
Source: Arend van Dam. “Freedom of Speech.” 8 January 2013.
http://www.cagle.com/tag/china/page/7/
Document #9:
Author (s) or source
Title
______________________________________
______________________________________
Date
______________________________________
Document #10
Source: Edward Wong and Jonathan Ansfield. "Reformers Aim to
Get China to Live Up to Own Constitution." New York Times 4
February 2013.
“After the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, the surviving
Communist Party leaders pursued a project that might sound
familiar to those in the West: Write a constitution that enshrines
[protects] individual rights and ensures rulers are subject to law, so
that China would never again suffer from the whims of a tyrant.
The resulting document guaranteed full powers for a representative
legislature, the right to ownership of private property, and freedoms
of speech, press and assembly. But the idealism of the founding
fathers was short-lived. Though the Constitution was ratified in
1982 by the National People's Congress, it has languished [wasted
away] ever since.
Now, in a drive to persuade the Communist Party's new leaders to
liberalize the authoritarian political system, prominent Chinese
intellectuals and publications are urging the party simply to enforce
the principles of their own Constitution…. [Indeed] Rulers of
modern China have never enforced a Constitution that enshrines the
law as the highest authority and guarantees the rights of
individuals….
…Some party censors have reacted with caution or hostility to the
recent calls for constitutionalism. In recent weeks, the term
''constitutional governance'' could not be searched on microblogs.
And the petition organized by Mr. Zhang, which he prefers to call
an initiative, has been scrubbed from many sites on the Internet…
Type of Document
______________________________________
What is the MAIN IDEA of the document?
(Paraphrase here).
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
Think about point-of-view. How does the author
or people in the article feel about China’s
successes and failures? Why does he or she feel
that way?
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
Document #10:
Author (s) or source
Title
________________________________________
________________________________________
Date
________________________________________
Type of Document
_______________________________________
What is the MAIN IDEA of the document?
(Paraphrase here).
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
Think about point-of-view. How does the author
or people in the article feel about China’s
successes and failures? Why does he or she feel
that way?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
___