Introduction to China

Lecture: Mon/Weds, 3:35-4:25PM,

Uris Hall G01

Professor: Nick Admussen

Email: na347@cornell.edu
Office: Rockefeller Hall room 373
Office hours: Tuesday, 1-3 PM

Teaching Assistants:
Katherine Durand, khd25@cornell.edu
Office hours: Tuesday 11:45-12:45
Jihyun Han, jh2496@cornell.edu
Office hours Thursday 11:00-12:00
Clarence I-Zhuen Lee, il93@cornell.edu
Office hours: Monday 2:15-3:15
Rina Winarto, ew385@cornell.edu
Office hours: Wednesday 2:15-3:15
TA Office: Rockefeller Hall, room 344

Textbook: Ebrey, Patricia. Cambridge “Despise Not Your Contemporaries and Love the Ancients,”
Illustrated History of China, second edition. calligraphy by Wang Jiqian, 20th cent.

Introduction: This course is designed to begin your acculturation into Chinese society. Acculturation
is what happens when a person from one culture makes contact with people or ideas from another. One
part of this process is knowing a variety of basic information about Chinese life, as well as a series of
things that Chinese people feel or think. The other part of this process will ask you to place yourself in
relationship to Chinese culture, to internalize, oppose, or transform what you learn. Chinese people are,
of course, not identical to one another: each one chooses their own position in some relationship to the
culture that surrounds them. You'll begin to do that too as our semester progresses.
Concretely, after completing this course you should be able to better interpret news and
information about China, and to be able to better listen to and interpret what people in China think and
feel. You will also be prepared for the further study of China at Cornell and beyond.

Course Structure: Readings from our history textbook should be completed before class on Monday.
Monday will be a narrative lecture — telling the story of Chinese history. Wednesday (no assignments
due) will be a thematic or conceptual lecture. Sections meet on Thursday and Friday: reading
assignments for section are short primary materials, available on Blackboard under “Content.”.
Sections are also where you'll hand in your writing assignments (see below) and participate actively in
your own acculturation. The textbook and lectures will be straightforward; sections are designed to
stretch your capabilities and put you in direct contact with real cultural materials from China.

Discussion Sections: Attendance and participation in sections is compulsory and will be graded. You
must attend your own registered section, and will not be credited with attendance at other sections.
Participation grades are based on careful preparation (reading the assigned material) and active
engagement in the discussion; attendance alone is not a guarantee of a high grade. The ten highest
participation grades will be counted toward the section participation component, which makes up 25%
of the final grade. Any unexcused absence beyond the second will lower your grade. Absences may
only be excused in cases of religious observance, medical emergency, and other unforeseen
circumstances, and only if your teaching assistant is notified in a timely fashion and appropriate
documentation is provided. Your weekly participation will be graded on the following scale:

absent, or present but disruptive to, or disrespectful of, classmates or instructor 0

present, but not participating or clearly unprepared up to 3
good participation based on adequate preparation 4
thoughtful and engaged; facilitating and encouraging classmates’ participation 5

Each week, a set of questions based on the assigned primary source readings will be posted on
Blackboard under “Course Info.” Over the course of the semester each student must turn in a total of
six short written responses to these questions. Three of these must be chosen from assignments due in
the first half of the semester (before or at the midterm), and the remaining three from the second half.
Students cannot turn in more than these 6 assignments. Each week several numbered questions will be
posted; if you are submitting a response choose one number to answer. These questions and responses
will help structure that week’s section discussion, so they must be turned in on the day of the section
that discusses the material they cover. Even if you do not plan on handing in a written response that
week, you will be best served by briefly considering the questions before coming to section.
Submit your answer in class as a concise (approximately 250-500 word) paragraph; write in full
sentences, not point form. Each response will be graded as follows:
not completed (fewer than three responses per half-semester) 0
poor work (submission incomplete, off topic, or very poorly written) up to 3
satisfactory work (complete and clear) 4
excellent work (exceptionally insightful or thorough) 5

Additionally, instructors may start sections with a short three-minute freewrite on a simple question
about the reading. These are not individually graded (although they do represent participation) and are
intended to give you a quiet moment to think before the discussion starts. Students arriving late will not
be allowed to complete freewrites.

Exams: There will be two exams. The midterm examination will be a take-home test, posted on March
2 and due through Blackboard by 5 PM on Friday, March 9. Because this is a take-home test, no late
papers will be accepted. The midterm examination is intended as practice for the final examination,
which will be a sit-down test during Cornell's finals week.

Grading: Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

Section participation: 25%
Reading Questions: 20%
Midterm Examination: 20%
Final Examination: 35%

Academic Integrity: Fairness between students is very important to me, and your individual growth as
a thinker and a scholar is equally important. Plagiarism harms both, and I am eager to root it out. Please
review the Code of Academic Integrity at cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/AIC.html. A summary: do not
re-use language from print or Internet sources (outside research will be unnecessary, and often
counterproductive, for this course). Write your own papers. If you have questions, email your graduate
instructor or come to office hours — you are responsible for understanding and following academic
integrity policies, and our team has a good track record of successfully prosecuting violations.
Laptops: Because it uses digital texts, this course allows laptops and tablets in both lecture and section.
Successful students use their laptops sparingly, and only to refer to course readings and take notes;
exceptional students often take notes by hand, and print their section readings so that they can be
annotated. No limitations will be placed on the use of technology in lecture, but evidence of distraction
or disengagement will harm your participation grade in section. Because they’re too small to display
PDFs and inefficient for note-taking, cell phones should be silenced and stowed during sections.

Links: In “Course Info” on Blackboard, I will post links to news, events, and media from or about
China. If you see something online that interests you or you’d like to promote a Chinese cultural event
on campus, please send me a link at my email address above.

Schedule (potentially subject to change — check Blackboard regularly):

Wednesday, January 24 Lecture: introduction

(section 1) Introductions and short writing exercise

Monday, January 29 Ebrey Chapter 1 p. 10-37 Prehistory

Wednesday, January 31 The origins of writing; bronzes and oracle bones
(section 2): Eno's Yi Jing (whole document) and “Late Shang Divination Records”

Monday, February 5 Ebrey Chapter 2 p. 38-59 Eastern Zhou

Wednesday, February 7 The Bottleneck; studying ancient China; The Classic of Poetry
(section 3) Eno's Dao De Jing: “Basic Ideas of the Dao De Jing,” pgs 6 to 8, also verses 1, 3, 7, 8, 11,
25, 33, 52, 61.

Monday, February 12 Ebrey Chapter 3 p. 60-85 Qin and Han

Wednesday, February 14 Empire
(section 4) Eno's Analects: all of book 1, all of book 2, all of book 4, plus 5.7-5.11, 6.11, 7.1-7.14, 8.9,
9.14, 11.7-11.11, 12.1-12.5, 12.22, 17.25, and Appendix 2 (pgs 116-121).

Monday, February 19 No class: February Break

Wednesday, February 21 Ebrey Chapter 4 p. 86-107 Disunity (the Six Dynasties)
(section 5) How Master Mou Removes Our Doubts, article #1, 5, 10, 12, 15, 19, 26

Monday, February 26 Ebrey Chapter 5 p. 108-135 Tang

Wednesday, February 28 The Silk Road
(section 6) Poems by Li Bai and Du Fu

Monday, March 5 Ebrey Chapter 6 p. 136-163 Song

Wednesday, March 7 Art and politics: Fang and Shou
(section 7) Classic and Contemporary Art 3/9 at 5 PM — Midterm take-home due

Monday, March 12 Ebrey Chapter 7 p. 164-189 Liao / Jin / Yuan

Wednesday, March 14 Identity, Ethnicity, Race
(section 8) “A Soul in Bondage” by Tashi Dawa

Monday, March 19 Ebrey Chapter 8 p. 190-219 Ming

Wednesday, March 21 The Great Wall
(section 9) The Peony Pavilion and video

Monday, March 26 Ebrey Chapter 9 p. 220-261 Qing

Wednesday, March 28 Gender in Imperial China
(section 10) Dream of the Red Chamber (Dream of Red Towers)

Monday, April 2 No class: Spring Break

Wednesday, April 4 No class: Spring Break

Monday, April 9 Ebrey Ch. 10 p. 262-293 1900-1949

Wednesday, April 11 Language Reform
(section 11) “Diary of a Madman” and “Kong Yiji”

Monday, April 16 Ebrey Ch. 11 p. 294-331 Mao

Wednesday, April 18 Chinese Borderlands
(section 12) Morning Sun

Monday, April 23 Ebrey chapter 12 p. 332-363 Deng etc.

Wednesday, April 25 Tiananmen: spatial history
(section 13) To Live

Monday, April 30 Reform and Opening After 1989 (in Blackboard: Yu Hua, “Disparity” and
“Grassroots”)
Wednesday, May 2 The Sinosphere
(section 14) The 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony

Monday, May 7 China in 2018 (Blackboard: Carl Minzner, “China after the Reform Era”)
Wednesday, May 9 Review: three histories of Chinese capitalism

Final exam: May 16, 2-4:30 PM, location TBA