Textbook:
Reading in Modern Chinese Documents, Compiled by Mien-hwa Chiang
Course Description and Objective:
This documentary survey course is a literacy and history focused course, designed for students whose Chinese proficiency is at the Advanced-mid level, Penn heritage track CHIN 0520 (231), regular track CHIN 0870 (361), 0860 (381), 1040 (411). The course is designed for social sciences majors and anyone who is interested in using historical records to study China. The three purposes of this one-semester course are: 1) to enlarge and refine students’ perspective of China’s development; 2) to develop students’ ability to read and use Chinese language documents for research; and 3) to gain familiarity with the state, society, and cultural development in twentieth-century China. Through collection of excerpts from essays, documents, and speeches written from 1903 to 2021, this course will
facilitate students’ understanding of the problems and changes facing Chinese society from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the present. Topics will include speeches by revolutionary leader Chen Tianhua, political leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, as well as current Chinese ambassador to America Qin Gang. In this advanced Chinese language course, you will be asked to express yourselves orally and in written form on the topics of the reading materials beyond your current level. It is hoped that after working with these interesting and overlooked set of texts and conducting oral discussions and online research, students can be better prepared linguistically and culturally in their future careers or MA programs in the fields of political science, sociology, international relations, law, history, communications and business.
Sample Text (Entry)
哎呀！哎呀了!什么来了？洋人来了！洋人来了！不好了！不好了！大家都不好了！老的、少的、男的、女的、贵的、贱的、富的、贫的、做官的、读书的、做买卖的、做手艺的，从今以后，我们的苦日子到了！
恨啊！恨啊！恨啊！恨的是满洲政府不早变法。你看这洋人这么强，这么富，难道生来就是这么强吗？他们都是从近二百年来做出来的。不说欧、美各国，如今单说那日本 国，三十年前，没一事不和中国一样，自从明治初年变法以来，那国势一天天强大起来。到了如今，不但没有瓜分之祸，并且还要来瓜分中国哩！论他的土地人口，不及中国十分之一。 (Lesson 1《警世钟》1903 by 陈天华)
Sample Text (Exit)
人类社会面临的挑战难题层出不穷，中美需要合作、必须合作的领域数不胜数。近年来，中美曾共同面对两次重大公共卫生危机，但不同的态度导致结果完全不同。2014 年，中美携手合作帮助非洲国家抗击埃博拉疫情。而 2019 年新冠肺炎疫情暴发后，美方将疫情政治化，为双方及国际社会团结抗疫设置了障碍。《纽约时报》专栏作家弗里德曼不久前发出一个灵魂拷问，如果外星人入侵，中美能否合作应对？我们希望中美两国都能和国际社会一道，给出一个清晰嘹亮的确定回答：同舟共济、携手应对。(Lesson 7《两个不同国家，一个国际体系》2021 by 秦刚)