Understanding China

A History Institute for Teachers

October 21–22, 2006

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Chaired by David Eisenhower and Walter McDougall

Sponsored by the Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education
A Division of the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Co-sponsored by the Clausen Center for World Business, Carthage College
School of Professional Studies, Carthage College

Todd Wehr Center, Carthage College
Kenosha, Wisconsin

On October 21-22, 2006, FPRI’s Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education hosted 50 teachers from 26 states across the country for a weekend of discussion on teaching about China. The History Institute, held in Kenosha, Wis., was co-sponsored by the Clausen Center for World Business, Carthage College. It was webcast to registrants worldwide. [read the conference report] Related documents and media clips are available here, as is the original event flyer (82K PDF.

Topics and Speakers

Welcoming Remarks
Arthur Cyr, A. W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished of Political Economy and World Business, Carthage College
Walter A. McDougall, Co-Chair, FPRI History Institute for Teachers
Classical Chinese Thought and Culture, and Early Chinese History
Victor Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Pennsylvania; Author of Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World (University of Hawaii Press, 2006)
State and Society in Late Imperial China
Matthew Sommer, Associate Professor of Chinese History, Stanford University; Author of Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China (Stanford, 2000)
China’s Long Revolution(s) — from Mao to Deng and Beyond
Melanie Frances Manion, Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Author of Corruption by Design: Building Clean Government in Mainland China and Hong Kong (Harvard, 2004)
China’s Democratic Prospects
Edward Friedman, Hawkins Chair Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Co-author of Asia’s Giants: Comparing China and India (Palgrave MacMillan, 2005)
Remarks
Arthur Cyr, A. W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished of Political Economy and World Business, Carthage College
F. Gregory Campbell, President Carthage College
Panel: China and the World
Jacques deLisle, Director, FPRI Asia Program, and Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania June Teufel Dreyer, Political Science Department Chair, University of Miami, and Senior Fellow, FPRI Moderator: Walter A. McDougall, Co-Chair, History Institute for Teachers; Author of Let the Sea Make a Noise: A History of the North Pacific from Magellan to MacArthur (HarperCollins)
What Every American Needs to Know about Taiwan
Shelley Rigger, Brown Associate Professor of East Asian Politics, Davidson College/FPRI; Author of From Opposition to Power: Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (Lynne Rienner, 2001)
China’s Economy: Problems and Prospects
Nicholas Lardy, Senior Fellow, Institute for International Economics; Author of China in the World Economy (Institute for International Economics, 1994)
A Taste of China: The Language
Mimi Yang, Associate Professor of Modern Languages, Carthage College

Classroom Lessons

Intro to China (52K Word document)
by Nancy Bader (2006)
Historically, high school world history class content has often been “Western Civ” focused as opposed to truly representing all of the major world regions. This lesson plan is focused on teaching students information that will help them be involved members of a global community in light of China’s current powerful economic gains.
The People’s Republic of China (58K Word document)
by Margaret Coleman (2006)
The purpose of this lesson is to lead students to an understanding of China’s current domestic policy direction by uncovering the “policy oscillations” between the practical and the ideological that the CCP undertook between 1949 and the present.
Understanding China: The Prospects for Democracy in China (30K Word document)
by Dr. Paul Dickler (2006)
Objective: to assess the prospects of China’s becoming more democratic over the next decade, by (1) determining what qualities make a country a democracy, (2) establishing China’s present status in terms of qualities; and (3) projecting a decade into the future and hypothesizing where China will be, based on current trends. The information below will help students ascertain the answers to the first two questions; they will use evidence-based reasoning to determine the answer to the third question.
Life in a Totalitarian State (33K Word document)
by K. Johnston (2006)
Students will be able to identify major components of a variety of totalitarian states.
Imperialism in China (27K Word document)
by Sharon Powers (2006)
Students will examine and react to primary source documents on a Chinese person’s view of America at the turn of the 20th century.
Ancient and Medieval China (48K Word document)
Coco Toderan-Manson (2006)
As part of a year-long course in ancient and medieval world history, this unit is intended to provide students with a survey of major historical events in China, covering the years 600 BCE–1500 CE. This survey incorporates both primary and secondary source material in a discussion-based classroom format with supplemental lectures.