Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of California Santa Cruz/History 230A China's Transition to Modernity (Spring)

In this course, we will discuss important issues in China's transition to modernity, which was a process intimately connected to East Asian and global transformation at the same time.

The rise of China has drastically changed our perception of the country, the region, and its history. During the Cold War and Cultural Revolution, the dual images of China's irrationality and uniformity sent a confusing message to the world. At the same time, China's history, valorized in terms of its long-lasting culture and tradition, appeared detached from its unseemly politics. After Mao's death in 1976 and Deng's rise to power in 1978, China has unabashedly embraced global capitalism and surprised the world with its rapid economic growth.

China's double-digit growth lasted more than three decades, and almost everyone around the world could feel its impact. The rise of China has also elevated its Third World country status to that of a significant player in global geopolitics. China's imperialist vision of its future and its expansion has threatened South Korea, Japan, and most of the countries in Southeast Asia. India and Russia are both competing with China's influence on the smaller states along their long borders in Central and South Asia. China's Belt and Road initiative has remade the financial landscape and transformed infrastructures to various degrees in Central Asia, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and some parts of Europe.

The People's Republic of China has pumped billions of dollars into its university system to promote science, technology, engineering, and medicine. It has also invested significant resources in recounting its past and in understanding how they got where they are today. Therefore we should have inherited a different horizon within which to examine China's transition to modernity. For those of us who conduct research and write about China in the Anglophone world, do we feel a strong drive to reconsider how China entered the modern world? Klaus Mühlhahn, Pamela Kyle Crossley, Howard W. French, and Parag Khanna each offer their diagnosis and prescription. We will compare and discuss their perspectives.

This course includes two parts: The first part is periodization, in which we will study High Qing China, Entering the Modern World, Euroamerican Imperialism in China, and the Taiping Civil War. Together they constitute four consecutive and overlapping temporalities in China's transition to the modern world. The second part includes four thematic approaches to early modern China. They are material cultures, gender, intellectual, and environmental history. They reflect not only the instructor's idiosyncratic preferences but also the promises these four critical inquiries will bring in the future.

Week 1
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.

Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
 * Evaluating Wikipedia

Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Week 3
History

Week 5
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 6
Guiding framework

Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
 * Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.

Week 7
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the &quot;mainspace.&quot;

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

Week 8
Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media.

Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!

Week 9
It's the final week to develop your article.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
 * Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!

Write a paper going beyond your Wikipedia article to advance your own ideas, arguments, and original research about your topic.

Week 10
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.