INST 341 – Contemporary China
Fall Semester 2009
Dr. Joshua Howard
Office: Bishop 313
915-5749, jhhoward@olemiss.edu
Office Hours – W 12:00-1:30 and by appointment
I. Course Description and Goals
In the 30 years since Deng Xiaoping launched the “reform and opening up” (gaige
kaifang) policies, China has witnessed rapid and far-reaching economic growth, a divorce
between the Chinese Communist Party and China’s legacy of socialist revolution, and
equally profound social change. Using both an historical perspective and interdisciplinary
approaches, this course examines the implications of these changes for Chinese society.
We will consider such issues as the meaning of “socialism with Chinese characteristics,”
China’s environmental crisis, the Tibet question, human rights, mass nationalism and its
effect on foreign policy, the effects of the market reforms on different social strata—
peasants, workers, intellectuals and entrepreneurs—as well as the various forms of social
activism that have arisen in response to China’s transition from socialism. I hope that by
a combination of lectures, readings from a variety of social science disciplines, and visual
materials, each student will gain at least a fundamental understanding of contemporary
China.
II. Texts
The following texts are available at the Student Union bookstore and placed on 24-hour
reserve at the Williams Library.
Craig Calhoun, Neither Gods nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in
China DS779.32.C35 1994
Leslie Chang, Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China HD9734.C55
C53 2008
Elizabeth C. Economy, The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s
Future HC430.E5 E36 2004
Bruce Gilley, Model Rebels: The Rise and Fall of China’s Richest Village HC428.T23
G54 2001
Chen Guidi & Wu Chuntao, Will the Boat Sink the Water? The Life of China’s Peasants
HD1537.C5 C47313 2006
Charlotte Ikels, The Return of the God of Wealth: The Transition to a Market Economy in
Urban China HC428.C34 I38 1996
Elizabeth Perry and Mark Selden, Chinese Society: Change, conflict and resistance
HN733.5.C444 2000
Barry Sautman, Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development and Society in a Disputed
Region DS786.C64 2006
III. COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1
(1) One midterm exam: essay and short-answer format. (100 points)
(2) Two five-page papers on assigned reading. (300 points)
(3) One ten-page “review of the literature” paper on one of the main issues explored in
class. (200 points)
(3) Class participation (200 points)
(4) Final comprehensive exam (200 points) Consists of essays and short-answer. All
students must take the final exam in order to pass the course.
Attendance at class is required, and any record of excessive absences or tardiness will be
treated as cause for lowering the final grade. With the exception of emergency-related
absences, more than five absences may lead to a failing grade for the course. Make-up
examinations or extensions to the due dates for essays will be granted only to students
who have encountered well-documented health, family, or work-related emergencies.
Papers should be handed in at the start of the class they are due.
Essays will be evaluated in the following terms: How cogent, compelling, and consistent
is the argument of the paper? How well have you employed evidence drawn from the
reading to support your argument, and how extensively? And, how clear and correct is
the prose of the essay?
Statement on Plagiarism and Academic Integrity:
There will be zero tolerance for academic dishonesty in any form, including cheating on
exams and plagiarism, which means essentially the act of passing someone else’s work
off as your own in any form. Such activities amount to theft of intellectual property.
Assignments found to be in violation will be failed without the possibility of repeating
them.
IV. (Approximate) Schedule of Lectures and Readings
Code: Blackboard readings marked with *
Dates
Topics
Aug.24
Introduction
Aug.26
View “China: Century in Revolution: The Mao Years”
Aug.28
Cultural Revolution and its aftermath
Read: Ba Jin* Wen Jieruo*,Wang Zengqi*
Chen Ruoxi* Wakeman*
Aug.31
Reassessing Mao and the Rise of Deng Xiaoping
Read: China Reader, pp.21-49*
Sept.2
Rise and Fall of the Democracy Movement
Read: Democracy Wall Movt documents* Liu Binyan*
2
Sept.4
Deng’s Political, Bureaucratic and Economic Reforms
Start reading GILLEY
Sept.7
ALL UNDER HEAVEN (video)
Read: Hinton*
Sept.9
Decollectivization: Social & Economic Consequences
Discuss: GILLEY (entire book)
Sept.11
Rural resistance
Read: Perry & Selden, chs.4-5
Sept.14
Rural crisis?
Read: Chen & Wu, ch.5, chs.1-2
Sept. 16
Solutions? Village Democracy?
Read: Chen & Wu, ch.6, O’Brien & Li* Jacka*
Sept.18
Five-page paper due on rural reforms
Sept.21
Video: Carma Hinton’s “Small Happiness”
Sept.23
Gender and “One-Child” Policy
Read: Perry &, Selden ch.5
Sept. 25
7 pm
Dinner & Movie: Mangjing (Blind Shaft)
No morning class
Read: Weston*
Sept. 28
Market reforms in the cities
Read: Ikels, pp.1-96
Sept. 30
Market reforms & effect on families
Read: Ikels, ch.3; Honig & Hershatter, “Marriage”*
Oct. 2
Education, Children and (Fast) Food
Read: Ikels, ch. 4; Chee*; Guo*
Oct.5
Video: “The Giant awakes: The path of Chinese
privatization”
Oct. 7
Urban labor reforms
Read: Ikels, ch.5; Perry & Selden, chs.3 & 7
Oct. 9
Corruption & Bureaucratic Capitalism
3
Start reading: CALHOUN
Oct. 12
6 pm
Video: Carma Hinton’s “Gate of Heavenly Peace”
Continue Showing “Gate of Heavenly Peace”
Oct. 14
Tiananmen & Student Movement
Oct. 16
Tiananmen & Student Movement
Oct. 19
Midterm
Oct. 21
Video: Carma Hinton’s “To Taste a Hundred Herbs”
Read: Madsen: “The Catholic Church in China”*
Oct. 23
Religious Revival and Repression
Read: Perry & Selden, ch.12
Oct.26
The State & Falun Gong
Read: Perry & Selden, ch.11 & Ownby, “Qigong, Falun Gong…”*
Oct. 28
Video: “China from the Inside: Episode 3: Shifting Nature”
Read: Economy, chs.1-2
The River Runs Black, chs.1-2
Oct. 30
China’s Environmental Crisis
Read: Economy, chs.3-4
Nov. 2
China’s Environmental Crisis
Paper due on Economy
Nov. 4
Rural to Urban Migration
Start reading: CHANG
Nov. 6
7 pm
Dinner & Movie: Beijing Bicycle
No morning class
Keep reading CHANG
Nov. 9
Discussion: CHANG
Nov. 11
Discussion: CHANG
Nov. 13
Beijing 2008 & Popular Nationalism
Nov. 16
The Tibet Question: Historical Overview
Nov. 18
Tibet
4
Read: Sautman & Dreyer, chs.1, 3, 14-15
Nov.20
Tibet
Read: Sautman & Dreyer, chs. 6-7, 9, 11
Nov. 30
Student presentations
Dec. 2
Student presentations
Dec. 4
Student presentations
Review of Literature paper due
Dec. 9
8 am
Final Exam
5