Admission requirements
Successful completion of the BA1 course Introduction to Contemporary China A.
Alternatively, having read the books below:
Mitter, Rana (2008), Modern China - A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Naughton, Barry J. (2018), The Chinese Economy: Adaptation and Growth (2nd ed.). Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.Pieke, Frank (2016), Knowing China: A Twenty-First Century Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Description
This course engages with the structural social and political developments that are taking place in China,
both in the rural and urban areas. There will be a focus on the social effects of the processes which shape society, the media, and perceptions of China´s international role. Students will learn how Chinese citizens themselves cope with both opportunities and obstacles available for them in a changing society. Problems involved in governing and controlling China’s rapidly changing society will have our special attention.
Course objectives
Participants in this course will acquire the following:
Basic understanding of principles of social science research and its application in the Chinese context.
The ability to further expand and structure knowledge about contemporary China, intended as a first step towards specialization.
Further academic skills for study and research, including collecting, evaluating and applying information; the ability to read and listen critically and analytically; the ability to present verbally and in written form (active participation, class discussion, debating, writing term paper).
Develop an understanding of social activities and situations in contemporary China, including the skills to engage in informed discussion about them.
The course will provide the necessary background knowledge for the pursuit of advanced BA3 courses on Chinese politics, economics, and international relations. Completion of this course will
in many cases be a pre-requisite for taking such higher-level courses.
Timetable
Visit MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
Lectures & Seminars
Assessment method
In order to pass this course, participants will have to pass both of the following assessment components:
Regular course work (presentations): 40% of final grade.
Term paper: 60% of final grade.
The language used for both presentations and the term paper is English. Partial results cannot be
compensated. Late submissions of the term-paper will incur a grade deduction, and failure to meet the
formatting and referencing guidelines provided in this course will lead to a fail grade and the need for a
resit. Note that submissions will be checked for plagiarism; fraud will lead to severe repercussions, in line with university guidelines.
Course work requirements
The course work will consist of two tasks, each detailed in the respective session tabs:
Up to 5 'news flash' assignments;
Up to 5 (group) work presentations (grading criteria: content, style & argument, and presentation).
Each participant must complete minimally 3 of the 5 'news flash assignments and 3 of the 5 video pitches.
News Flash Assignments
The News Flash grade will be the average grade for your three best News Flash assignments.
For each assignment, you will receive a grade that reflects your ability to find an appropriate source, reference that source correctly, and complete the relevant task for that session.
For each News Flash session, you are also asked to provide peer-review feedback on the assignments of two other students. Your feedback will be marked as a pass or fail, where a fail implies either an inappropriate, unhelpful, or faulty response, or a missed peer review.
You may miss or fail 4 out of the 10 potential peer-reviews. For each additional failed peer-review, your final course-work grade will be reduced by 0.17 (so: 1/6th of a grade point).
The deadline for peer-reviews is the end of Monday (23:59 hrs) after the assignment deadline, which means you have one day (24 hrs) to provide feedback. This is a hard deadline: after this point, you will not be able to submit a review and will fail that peer-review task.
Video Presentations
Your presentation grade will be the average grade for your three best video presentation.
Each presentation should be 5 minutes long (+/- 30 seconds). If you are working in teams, the maximum time increases as follows: 7 minutes for 2 participants, 8 minutes for 3 or 4 participants. More information on the grading criteria is available in the section Course Description opens in new window.
For each video presentation session, you are also asked to provide peer-review feedback on the assignments of two other students. Your feedback will be marked as a pass or fail, where a fail implies either an inappropriate, unhelpful, or faulty response, or a missed peer review.
You may miss or fail 4 out of the 10 potential peer-reviews. For each additional failed peer-review, your final course-work grade will be reduced by 0.17 (so: 1/6th of a grade point).
In addition to providing feedback to two other students, you are also able to 'like' up to 10 video presentations for each assignment. Note that this, much like providing comments in the comment section, is merely meant as a way to interact with other course participants; it does not affect their grade or yours.
The deadline for peer-reviews is the end of Monday (23:59 hrs) after the assignment deadline, which means you have one day (24 hrs) to provide feedback. This is a hard deadline: after this point, you will not be able to submit a review and will fail that peer-review task.
Resit policy:
There will be no resit for the course work.
For the term paper, only failed attempts may be re-written, and only a previous submission for the first
attempt qualifies students for the resit. First attempts that received a passing mark (5.5 or higher) cannot be improved through further revision.
Grading of the resit will incorporate part of the grade for the first attempt. The grade for each component after a resit will be calculated as follows:
25% of the first attempt, plus
75% of the second attempt.
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
There is no mandatory textbook for this course. All required readings will be announced on Brightspace and will be available through the Asian Studies library.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website.
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Contact
Remarks
Not applicable.