Prospectus

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Work and Workers in 20th century China

Course
2024-2025

Admission requirements

Successful completion of BA1 Modern Chinese History.

Description

This course surveys transformations in Chinese society in its transition from agrarianism to communist industrialism, with special focus on experiences of urban workers and their families at work and home, and in public. Specific topics examined include migration for work, the labor movement in the 1920s, changes in standards of living, gender relations, the politicization of work under Nationalist and Communist regimes, and Communist governance of industrial labor.

Important note: This course is separate from the course titled “Modern Chinese History.” Students are required to complete “Modern Chinese History” before taking this course.

Course objectives

  • Summarize and interpret key economic and social trends in the twentieth century.

  • Identify key transition moments and analyze causal factors of these transitions.

  • Evaluate historical sources for credibility, position, and perspective.

  • Establish historical context for reading primary source documents.

  • Formulate evidence-based arguments in academic English.

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

Seminar

Assessment method

  • Midterm essay (30%)

  • Final essay (70%)

Weighing

To complete the final mark, please take notice of the following:

The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.

Resit

A resit for the final essay is allowed if a student scores a non-passing grade (5,49 or lower) on the first attempt.

Inspection and feedback

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

  • Gail Hershatter, Women and China's Revolutions. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018.

  • Emily Honig, Sisters and Strangers: Women in the Shanghai Cotton Mills, 1919-1949. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992.

  • Felix Wemheuer, A Social History of Maoist China: Conflict and Change, 1949-1976. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Additional readings to be announced on Brightspace.

Registration

Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.

General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.

Registration À la carte education, Contract teaching and Exchange

Information for those interested in taking this course in context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.

Information for those interested in taking this course in context of Contract teaching (with taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.

For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.

Contact

  • For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.

  • For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office Herta Mohr

Remarks

None.