HIST 6650 - [Reading and Viewing Modern China]

(crosslisted) CHIN 6626

Spring. Next offered 2018-2019. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: equivalent of three years Mandarin instruction. Permission of instructor required. Co-meets with CAPS 4650/CHIN 4426/HIST 4650.

Z. Chen.

This course is designed to help graduate students and qualified undergraduate to conduct research on topics on modern Chinese history. To qualify to take the course, a student should have studied Chinese to the advanced level. It will concentrate on helping students develop the ability to read and interpret historical documents in Chinese. Altogether eight sets of original documents representing different events and periods are selected. Documentary films will also be shown in class to enhance students’ understanding. While doing so, both linguistic and historical issues will be addressed and analyzed, so students will develop a better understanding of how to deal with some of the general challenges that they will be facing in conducting primary-source research on modern China. Class will be conducted in Chinese.