Instructor: Scott McNabb

Office: N432 LC

Office Phone: (319) 335-5372

e-mail: scott-mcnabb@uiowa.edu

This course will focus on educational development in China from historical, literary, and political perspectives.  The readings emphasize cultural background, current events, and alternative interpretations of socialist educational policies in China.

The three required books, available at Iowa Book and Supply, include Pa Chin’s Family, Ha Jin's The Crazed, and Xinran's The Good Women of China. A reader of current events articles is available from the instructor.  An additional recommended book is John King Fairbank’s The United States and China.

There will also be a collection of articles to read. Most of the required article readings have been archived electronically and may be accessed to print-out at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/psych/index.html under "Electronic Reserves" Course Listing – McNabb 07B-306. Other readings will be distributed in class by instructor.

Course Requirements

Grades will be calculated as follows:  50% for the class presentations and 50% for the final exam. 

Class presentations will be focused on books chosen to emphasize educational and political themes in the course.  These books will have an asterisk (*) on the syllabus.  The class reports should include the following:  information about the author, an overview of the book's contents, and a critique of representative passages photocopied for class discussion. 

Schedule

January 21        Introduction to the Course

January 28        Perspectives on China:  Ground Rules and Cultural Issues

                              Video on minorities in China

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February 4        Confucian Traditions in Chinese Education

                              Cleverley:  Chapters 1, 2

                              *Jonathan Spense, The Memory Place of Matteo Ricci

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February 11      Resistance and Reform:  Students and Chinese Politics

                              Cleverley:  Chapters 3, 4

                              Pa Chin, Family

                              *Chow Tse-tung, The May 4^th Movement

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February 18      The Long March and Yenan:  Revolutionary Educational Approaches

                              Cleverley:  Chapters 5, 6

                              *Edgar Snow, Red Star Over China

                              *Agnes Smedley

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February 25       PRC Educational Policies:  1949-1966

                              Cleverley:  Chapters 7, 8, 9

                              *William Hinton, Fanshen

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March 4           Cultural Revolution I:  Educational Reforms and Western Response

                              Cleverley:  Chapters 10, 11

                              *Ruth Gamberg, Red and Expert, and Simon Leys, Chinese Shadows

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March 11          Cultural Revolution II:  Stories and Reflections

                              *B. Michael Frolic, Mao’s People

                              *Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, and Other Stories From the Great

                               Proletarian Cultural Revolution

                              *Liang Heng & Judith Shapiro, Son of the Revolution and After the Nightmare

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March 18          SPRING BREAK

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March 25          Mao and His Shadow

                              *Little Red Book

                              *Ross Terrill, Mao

                              *Li Zhisui, The Private Life of Chairman Mao

                              The Crazed

                              Ted Anthony, "A Changing China Still Remembers Mao"

                              Janet Maslin, "Is Professor Yang Raving or Just Telling the Truth?"

                              Ruth Franklin, "A Real-World Education"

                              Ian Buruma, "Divine Killer"

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April 1            Academic and Religious Freedom in Contemporary China

                              Nicholas Kristof, "God and China"/"China's Deadly Cover-Up"

                              Craig Smith, "China Arrives at a Moment of Truth"

                              Andrew Jacobs, "Chinese Dissident Relishes a First Taste of Freedom, and Exile"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "China Imposes Limits to Rein In Independent Spirit of Press"

                              Perry Link, "China:  The Anaconda in the Chandelier"

                              Jonathan Mirsky, "Writers in a Cold Wind"

                              Ronald Dworkin, "Taking Rights Seriously in Beijing"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "China Lets Catholic Churches Flourish, But Under Its Rules"

                              Craig Smith, "China Makes War on Mysticism"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Former Falun Gong Followers Enlisted in China's War on Sect"

                              Craig Smith, "Falun Gong on Web:  Defying Ban in China

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "China's Top AIDS Activist is Missing; Arrest is Suspected"/"China

                                    Frees AIDS Activist After Month of Outcry"

                              Joseph Kahn, "China Toughens Obstacles to Internet Searches"

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April 8           Women's Issues and Contemporary China

                              The Good Women of China

                              *Honig & Hershatter, Personal Voices:  Chinese Women in the 1980’s.

                              *Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed.

                              Erik Eckholm, "Desire for Sons Drives Use of Prenatal Scans in China"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Harsh Chinese Reality Feeds Market in Women"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Suicide Gains Ground in Rural China as Women Heed

                                    Impulse of Despair"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "School a Rare Luxury For Rural Chinese Girls"

                              "China Takes Steps Toward Trying to Stop Suicide"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Study Links Rural Suicides in China to Stress and Ready

                                    Poisons"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Cleaned Up For Party, Beijing is Swept of 'Trouble'"

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April 15          Social and Economic Change in Contemporary China

                              Philip Pan, "Two Sides to China's One-Child Policy"

                              Philip Pan, "When the Employee-Owner Doesn't Work"

                              Peter Goodman, "Polishing a New Industry"

                              Joseph Kahn, "Made in China, Bought in China"

                              "Workers' Rights Suffering in China as China Goes Capitalist"

                              John Pomfret, "China's Communist Capitalists"

                              Joseph Kahn, "China's Hot, At Least For Now"

                              Erik Eckholm & Joseph Kahn, "Asia Worries About Growth of China's Economic Power"

                              John Pomfret, "Signs of Rampant Corruption"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Buicks, Starbucks and Fried Chicken. Still China?"

                              Joseph Kahn, "To Be Rich, Chinese and in Trouble: 3 Tales"

                              Craig Smith, "China Juggles the Conflicting Pressures of a Society in Transition"

                              Craig Smith, "Risking Limbs for Height, and Success, in China"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "China's Chic Waistline: Convex to Concave"

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April 22          Educational Change in Urban and Rural China

                              Erik Eckholm, "After 50 Years, China Youth Remain Mao's Pioneers"

                              Erik Eckholm, "For China's Rural Migrants, An Education Wall"

                              Nicholas Kristof, "China's Super Kids"

                              Gao Zhan, "Learning Politics in Class"

                              Erik Eckholm, "For Chinese Students, Fate is a Single Exam"

                              John Pomfret, "A Revolt In China's Villages"

                              Erik Eckholm, "In China's Heartland, the Fertile Fields Lie Fallow"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Without 'Barefoot Doctors', China's Rural Families Suffer"

                              Craig Smith, "China's Farmers Rebel Against Bureaucracy"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "AIDS Scourge in Rural China Leaves Villages of Orphans"

                              Philip Pan, "Worked to Death"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Migrants to Chinese Boom Town Find Hard Lives"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Spread of AIDS in Rural China Ignites Protests"

                              Erik Eckholm, "A Mining Town's Sullen Peace Masks the Bitter Legacy of China's

                                    Labor Strategy"

                              Elisabeth Rosenthal, "In Rural China, Mental Hospitals Await Some Who Rock the

                                    Boat"

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April 29           Review of Resources on Contemporary China

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May 6             Course Wrap Up

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