Week 1: Introduction and navigation

Welcome to week 1 of the course “HST271: Modern China”!

This week we will set up the course so you have almost all the tools set up for the entire semester. You can run ahead and set up everything even before our first meeting on Wednesday, or you can chip away at the tasks on a daily basis. You will help each other out in class to overcome tech trouble, and that will be the number one way you will learn in this course: by trying things, making mistakes, asking each other and me, and trusting the process: if you keep engaging with the course materials and doing the assignments, you will learn about modern China.

Including attending the weekly classes, count on 6 to 8 hours per week on average for this course. That includes reading, reflecting, and writing about what you learned in Chinese history every week. Not every week will be equally heavy. You are able to work a bit ahead if you anticipate a heavy week from other courses coming up.

For the weekly tasks and extra-credit assignments, you fill out a Declaration Quiz on Canvas. These are linked in this weekly schedule, or on the dedicated webpage if there is one. You can also find them in the weekly Module on Canvas. [If you have worked with me before, this is a departure from previous years.] This week, the quizzes stay open for the entire week. Next week, that changes: there will be a 12hr automatic extension period, and extra credit assignments so you can make up points any missed deadlines, but I expect you to work within or ahead of the course rhythm. The Declaration Quizzes are simple true/false quizzes. You can go back and adjust your answer, and there is no time limit while you are inside the quiz.

If something about the process is not clear, let me know! Remember that for technical stuff you can contact the Digital Learning team. Just check out the “Where to get assistance?” section at the bottom of the page.

If you spot a missing or incorrect link from this webpage, or a Canvas quiz or module is locked, please email me: I’m a one-woman-show and human errors are quite possible. Help me out by letting me know where I goofed up!

Table of Contents

• Slides
• Readings
• Assignments
• Extra Credit Tasks
• Where to Get Assistance?

Slides

• Jan. 18
• Jan. 20

Readings and class details

For Friday

• Read Chapter 1 of the [otherwise recommended but optional] textbook (Spence), check out the summary, and look through the slides. (time estimate: 90 min) –> follow the green instructions on p. 1 of the PDF
  • Questions/notes: What is not clear to you? Where is this textbook baffling you? Take note of what you find difficult, where you struggled, and also what you found interesting, intriguing and makes you want to find out more. Bring your notes to class!
  • You need to enter a username and password for the PDFs. Find these on the Canvas home page. These remain the same for the semester. No two-factor authentication required for any hyperlink that starts with “docs.tdh.bergbuilds.domains”

• Read the following and do some thinking and note-taking (time estimate: 60-90mins)
• Mitter, Rana. Modern China: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. (ebook Trexler)
  • “Chapter 1: What is modern China” (pp. 1-16)
• Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. First ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.
  • Excerpt from the preface to the First edition (PDF)
  • Remember to use the username and password for the PDFs that are listed on the Canvas home page. Tell your browser to remember them, just do it!
  • Note that this short evaluation was dropped in the preface to the Second and Third edition of Spence’s textbook.
• How do both historians define “modern”? How does it matter for us, and our understanding of the history of China?

OPTIONAL EXTRAS for week 1:

• Tuchman, Barbara W. Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45. New York: Macmillan, 1971. (excerpt from chapter 2: pp. 26-37, marked with red brackets) (PDF <– click on link. Username and password can be found on the Canvas Page)
  • Note: the machine-read PDF text on this book scan may not be perfect, but you can highlight sections. If you open the file in Chrome, you can use Hypothes.is for social annotation (see this video). Use group HST271, of course.
  • This brief section gives you a whirlwind tour of the events between 1793 (the Macartney mission to the Qianlong emperor) and the revolution of 1911. We will see these in more detail, but they give you a good idea of the massive change that China underwent in the scope of about a century. By the end of the semester, you will be able to critique this passage in quite some detail. For now, just take note of what you find interesting, remarkable or strange, and contrast with what you already saw this week, and what’s to come in future weeks.
• Space: Provinces of China
  • Fun online quiz How fast can you get all the provinces? Note that Taiwan is indicated but won’t be asked! Not graded, no need to submit, but you can brag about your score in the Discord Chat!
  • Training aids:
    • Color map of political divisions (PDF)
    • blank map to practice (PDF)
    • List of items to identify (PDF)
      • Note: items marked in green are small or not marked on the blank map; Tianjin isn’t on my list yet. It’s south of Beijing.
• Time: Timelines of Chinese history
  • This timeline shows you that we only look at a small part of Chinese history- you are already aware of this from last week’s slides
  • Here are the timelines created by your predecessors in this course in the Fall of 2018; they take a moment to load.
    • They are based on The Search for Modern China, 3rd ed.
    • They are not perfect, but they will help you on your way with some more detail.
    • remember that you can work on one of these as one of your “Show and Tell” projects.
  • GIF depicting changes in space over time: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Territories_of_Dynasties_in_China.gif
• Video/audio lectures by Prof. Thomas Mullaney from Stanford University. Note that some are audio only, but all are short and informative. (Thank you Prof. Mullaney!)
  • The basics: a playlist bringing you up to speed with basic ideas of geography language culture of China has background for a course on modern China.
• Alternative textbook
  • Just one of the many to bring you the history of China in a nutshell: Gerritsen, Anna. “From Late Ming to High Qing.” In The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China. Edited by Jeffrey Wasserstrom, 12-36. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2016.
    • Read pages 12-19 only, the rest will come next week.
    • (available through Trexler as an E-book)

Assignments

1. Create your Bergbuilds Website

5 points, due Wed. Jan. 18, built-in extension until Monday Jan. 23

• Create your Bergbuilds Website and create your first post, using these instructions: https://tdh.bergbuilds.domains/first-post-2/
• Remember to email me the link to your blog, or I don’t know where it lives. The internet is a big place!

Declaration: fill it out on Canvas: “True” if you did all of the following
I created (or reactivated) a personal website on bergbuilds.domains.
I created the category hst271
I created my first post with a Growth Mindset Cat
TITLE of the post includes the word Cat
IMAGE: I included the image of the cat, a caption with the image credit/source, and the alt text.
CATEGORY: I added the post to category hst271
TAGS: I added the tag week1 to the post
I emailed a link to my website/blog to Dr. D’Haeseleer

2. (Re-)Activate Hypothes.is

3 points, due Jan. 19, built-in extension until Monday Jan. 23

• Time estimate: 45 mins
• Set up or reactivate your Hypothes.is account, and join the group HST271
  • Full Instructions here
• Annotate the course syllabus – ask questions or leave comments at specific points. If everything is clear, please just leave a page note indicating you read and agree with the syllabus.
  • remember you can use tags to draw our attention to questions that need to be answered by me (Dr. D)
• When you’re done, go to Canvas and fill out the Declaration Quiz

Declaration: fill it out on Canvas
– I created (or reactivated) an account on Hypothes.is
– I joined the Hypothes.is group HST271
– I commented in my group on the syllabus with questions and remarks, or added a page note stating I had read the syllabus and have no questions.

3. Join Discord

0 points task, due Jan. 20, built-in extension until Monday Jan. 23

• Add yourself to the Discord Server Dr. D’s classes Spring 2023. You may have received an email with an invitation link, but you don’t need to use that email address to register. Please follow these instructions. (<– Google doc)
• I’ll add you to the right role as soon as I can, and you will see your additional course channels (text and voice) activate as soon as I do. If that does not happen within 24hrs of you joining the server: email me to remind me. (Thanks!)
• In the Text channel #hst271, add an image that is meaningful to you, and that you’d like to share with the class (can be picture of you/family/holiday/pet, but also art work, object,…). Add your preferred name to address you in class. (I know nobody is Lord Buckethead, he’s in the UK and not signed up at the College!) Explain why the image is meaningful, and anything else you’d like us to know at the start of this semester.
• Say hello to your new classmates! Pop back in on the channel later in the day/week, make yourself comfy and chat away 
• Hop into the Tea Room anytime, it’s your space to hang out via video.
• You can also visit and post in the #off-topic-chat room and share things with students from my other and past courses, such as upcoming games, performances, etc.

When you’re ready, check the Declaration Quiz on Canvas to check off the task as Done!

I joined Dr. D’s Discord Server using the instructions in the Google Doc

I added in the Text channel #hst271 an image that is meaningful to me, and explained why the image matters to me.

I added my preferred name so people know how to address me in class.

I read and gave a thumbs up/reaction to the introductions of at least two fellow students.

4. First regular blog post

5 points, due by Monday, Jan. 23, 11.59pm.

Get your first regular blog post in, reflecting on the readings and class content of this week:

Write a blog post exploring themes or ideas based on what we read this week and discussed in class. You do not need to have all the answers. In fact, learning to ask good analytical or research questions is a skill you can develop during the semester.

• Length: approx. 400 words. excl. list of materials consulted.
• Add the list of materials consulted at the end of the post, in Chicago notes and bibliography style.
  • TOP TIP: Just copy the bibliography information from the Reading list here.
• Add the words “Week 1” in the title
• Including an image, and make sure to add Alt Text and a caption with the source/credit.
• Post on your website, and add to the category hst271.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I wrote a post of approximately 400 words in response to the readings.
– I included the bibliographic references for the materials I used for my post.
– I included an image, added Alt Text, and I provided a caption and credit (source) for the image.
– I use the words Week 1 in the title, and added the post to category hst271

Extra credit exercises

No extra credit tasks this week, there will be plenty of opportunities starting next week!

On to week 2!