H316 INDEX

This is a draft syllabus. If you are viewing it in hard copy it is found on the WWW at: http://mcel.pacificu.edu/mcel/barlow/Sp02/H316/index1.html There msy be some changes from the materials below. The books below, however, are those required for the class.

CLASS ORGANIZATION:

This class will consist of two sessions of lectures and discussions each week, and one session of role playing, usually scheduled for Friday meetings, but perhaps done on computer. The lectures and the readings will present a chronological treatment of Chinese history from 1949 to the recent past, with an emphasis upon political and economic change.

GAMING: The assumptions for the role playing or "gaming" in the Friday meetings is that all participants are members of Malo village on the outskirts of Shanghai, a "real" village about which much information has been published. Each participant will adopt the identity of a common Chinese social type, such as peasant, soldier, factory worker, etc. In the role playing and the associated papers, each student will try to develop a consistent persona for his or her chosen identity, with particular emphasis upon the points of political crisis in recent Chinese history, notably the mass campaigns and struggles. The information necessary to play an effective game and to write a good "role" paper can usually be found on reserve, though as the class procedes I will presume that you are doing additional research in the library.

Each role playing session will be based upon assigned readings and a specific "game," usually passed out one week in advance, with a decision or task-oriented outcome. The class will be assumed to be a Chinese "small group" which will attack each gaming session in terms of Chinese terminology and political values, faithful to each student's chosen persona. The problems will also be "real" ones chosen from the major political events of recent Chinese history. We will begin with problems from the immediate post-Revolutionary period and then work forward, roughly in step with the lectures, so that participants develop a historical perspective as we proceed. There is a list of bibliographic resources in these pages for your use, though they are somewhat outdated.

GRADING:

This is a small class and participation will be very important, so attendance is critical; three unexcused or unexplained absences and your grade goes down one level. The elements of the grade will include four brief "role papers" which should grow easily out of the research necessary for the role playing itself. A mid-term exam and a final, and participation in the role-playing sessions, whether held in class or on computer.

WRITING THE ROLE PAPERS

The role papers are similar to each other, the major distinction between them is the time-frame covered in each:

In Paper #1, take your character through the Great Leap Forward of 1958.
In Paper #2, take your character through the period covering the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. (1957-67 height) to the death of Mao.
Paper #3 should take your character through the Tiananmen Incident of 1989.

The purpose of the role papers is to write a character sketch of the life experiences of a Chinese person, assumed to be a participant in the major events of recent Chinese political history. In your paper, you should strive to show an awareness of the generalities of life in China, in particular the events of the great political campaigns, and also illustrate specifically how role-types similar to your character were affected by those campaigns. Some students have done their role paper as a diary, as a series of letters, as a confession, etc. You may choose any voice you find comfortable.

FORM: The paper should be about 5 pages long, plus endnotes and bibliography. Cite materials which you have drawn from works other than the assigned readings. I assume that you have all read those works and that your paper may use them for very general background, but I also expect that a "B" paper will show additional research in secondary works (scholarly books and articles about China) and that an "A" paper will show both strong secondary research and strong research in primary documents: materials in translation from Chinese sources, such as the JPRS translations series, Chinese Literature, the Peking or Beijing Review, etc. I have posted the form which I will use to grade the first set of role papers.

Thus a "C" paper is average, it goes little beyond the assigned readings.
A "B" paper incorporates substantial additional secondary research.
An "A" paper is outstanding, incorporating substantial research in primary materials. The "A" paper should also show exceptional depth of characterization.

LATE PAPERS are reduced one grade level per day that they are late. Papers are due at the beginning of class; late papers drop one grade level immediately after class begins.

Electronic Resources:

This course depends upon an electronic environment. If you are reading this syllabus in hard copy, the electronic version can be found on the WWW at: <http://mcel.pacificu.edu/mcel/barlow/Sp02/H316/index1.html>

Books to be purchased:

Meisner, Maurice. Mao's China and After. 1999. (Third Edition)
Chen, Yuan-tsung, The Dragon's Village. (Penguin Books)
Mao Tse-tung, Quotations from Chairman Mao. (China Books, San Francisco) (Could use electronic version on line, too. See Electronic Resources
Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual. ISBN 0-312-08380-7 (Standards for writing and citing)
Goldstein, Melvyn, The Struggle for Modern Tibet. ISBN 0-7656-0509-0 (On order; in next week?)
On Reserve in library: Whyte, Martin King, Small Groups and Political Rituals in China; Two books by Hinton, Fanshen and Shenfan. Fanshen will be useful from the outset in defining your character. There is another book on political participation in Chinese villages that should be useful. In the reserve collection is a series of collections of Chinese documents by Harold Hinton, these, too, should prove very useful.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES PAGE: This is a collection of useful materials to be found on the net., some graphics,
the class BBS, etc.

Weekly Schedule

EMAIL: barlowj@pacificu.edu