SINO1003: Greater China – A

Multidisciplinary Introduction
Week 1: September 5, 2023
Introduction to the Course and China Studies
 https://www.audiobooks.com

▪ Associate Professor in SMLC (China Studies) and HKIHSS

▪ School of Modern Languages and Cultures (SMLC), Faculty of Arts and Hong Kong Institute
Dr. Ji Li of Humanities and Social Sciences (HKIHSS)

李紀 ▪ Historian of Late Imperial and Modern China

▪ https://www.hkihss.hku.hk/en/people/ji-li/
▪ Courses: SINO1003, SINO2001, SINO2002, SINO2013, SINO2004, SINO3001
Dr. Kang Siqin
康思勤
▪ PhD HKU
▪ Comparative Politics, Public Opinion, State Capacity
▪ https://github.com/kang8mao/Kang-Siqin
▪ Publication: Political Research Quarterly; Journal of
Contemporary China
▪ Newspaper Commentaries: the Diplomat; SCMP; Caixin etc.
Tutors

Ms. Ailin Li (Arts)

Mr. Jiasheng Xiao (PPA)
Email: liailin@connect.hku.hk
Email: xiaojsh@connect.hku.hk
 Introduction to China Studies

Ice-breaking group discussion 10-15 minutes

Introduction to the Course

Two Miracles
Lecture Outline
Three Lenses

How the Past Informs the Present

What is Modern China?

Course Assessment
 Course Objectives

Introduces China Studies as a topic of study

• Curriculum based on innovative research

• Themes pertaining to all parts of political and cultural China

Introduces China Studies as a method of study

• Hands-on simulations of investigating China

• Acquisition of practical skills that apply to many fields of study
 Multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary

Dialogue between Humanities and Social Sciences

General Multilingual (Chinese, English, and other

languages)
Characteristics
International community of scholars

Diverse approaches to China’s past and present

 SINO2001 China in the World I: From Sinology to
China Studies (Dr. Ji Li)
SINO2002 China in the World II: Critical Paradigms
Other China SINO2003 Issues and Perspectives of
Studies Contemporary China Studies (Dr. Jiangnan Zhu)
Courses SINO2004 Research Skills for China Studies
SINO2005 Readings in China Studies
SINO2010 China Regional Studies-Northeast China
(Dr. Loretta Kim)
SINO2011 Taiwan Studies (Dr. Loretta Kim)
SINO2013 Women and Gender in Chinese History
(Dr. Ji Li)
SINO3001 & 2 Capstone
SINO3003 Internship

Rural Land
Circulation in
Contemporary China:
A Case Study of
Guizhou
Has Cyber Nationalism
Influenced Actual Policy-making
on Cross-Straits Relations in
Contemporary China? : Two Case
Studies on Chou Tzu-yu's
Apology Incident and Tsai Ing-
wen's Victory in the Taiwanese
Presidential Election
Works of Students Like You
Fluidity of Authenticity:
The Effect of Facebook on A Study on Neo-Sinocentricism: The
Political Participation: A Representation of Production of TV Travel
Case Study of Students at the Authenticity in Built Programs in
University of Hong Kong Cultural Heritage in Contemporary China
Contemporary China
The Interplay of Sports
Facts and Fictions: History
and Chinese National
Industrial Tourism in of Hunan Female Soldiers
Pride: Bird's Nest, the
Northeastern China: A in Xinjiang during the
Beijing National Stadium
Case Study of Shenyang 1950s and Modern Drama
in 2008 Beijing Olympic
Display
Games
 ▪ Augusta de Gunzbourg (2014-18, China Studies Major)
SINO 3001
▪ Capstone Project: Curate an EXHIBITION, "Imagining A
Capstone Project Country: Representations of Chinese Women in French
Samples Historical Newspaper Le Petit Journal.“ (By archival research)
 ▪ Cony, Chuang Ming Wai (2014-18, China Studies
SINO 3001 Major)
Capstone Project
▪ Capstone Project: Rural Land Circulation in
Samples
Guizhou (by FIELDWORK)
 ▪ Ren Yongyi (2018-22, China Studies and Marketing double
SINO 3001 major)

Capstone Project ▪ Capstone Project: “From Post-subculture to Popular Culture:

The Development of Online Stand-up Comedy in Mainland
Samples China” (By SURVEY AND INTERVIEW)
 China Studies – University of Hong
Kong (Facebook)

China Studies @
HKU

http://www.chinast.hku.hk/
http://www.socsc.hku.hk/ccs/
Ice-breaking
 Ice-Breaking (5-min)

Self-Introduction

Please turn around to your neighbors and

introduce yourself to each other
 Go to www.menti.com and use the code
8680 2698
https://www.menti.com/alrfyv6p2eat

Q1: Why do you want to study

China?

Q2: What are the most urgent issues you think

China needs to deal with?
Understanding China
 ▪ 1st Miracle: The fast economic
development since 1978

“The Two
Miracles” ▪ 2nd Miracle: Long term socio-
political stability during fast
economical development
 2009
Source: China’s Statistical

2008
Yearbook, various years

2007
2006
2005
2004
China’s Annual Growth Rate, 1952-2009

2003
2002
The Reform Period, 9%

2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
1979
1978
1977
1976
1975
1974
The Maoist Period, 5%

1973
1972
1971
1970
1969
1968
1967
1966
1965
1964
1963
1962
1961
1960
1959
1958
1957
1956
1955
1954
1953
1952

-10

-20

-30
30

20

10
 U.S.’s economic scale relative to China’s: Shrinking
60.00

57.1
50.00

40.00

30.00

20.00

10.00

4.4
0.00
1960

1962

1964

1966

1968

1970

1972

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008
Source: World Development Indicator 2010
China’s economy is MORE than the next 4 countries combined

Country GDP, 2022

India

UK

Germany

Japan

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD
 #1 in contribution to
global GDP
growth for the past
decade (25-35%),
which is twice that of
the US.
If the world GDP
grows by $100, then
$25-$35 comes from
China.
#1 in international tourism spending (In 2010,
Chinese tourists spent half as much as Americans; and
by 2017, China was spending twice as much as the US)
#1 in poverty elimination (800 million lifted
out of extreme poverty). Extreme poverty
was claimed to be practically 0% in 2021.
 Justin Yifu Lin:
“The Economic
Miracle of China”
 ▪ Long term socio-political stability
during the fast development
▪ Modernization theory predicts the
opposite:
The Second
Miracle - Social disorder during fast
transformation
- Old regimes collapse because
existing institutions cannot meet new
demands
Source: Why Communism Did Not Collapse: Understanding Authoritarian Regime Resilience in
Asia and Europe, Cambridge 2013, edited by Martin K. Dimitrov
 NetEase (网易) 2022 Yearly News Review
▪ Life under the strict pandemic control

▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaZ7M-aUx9I&ab_channel=%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E6%95%B0%E5%AD%97%E6%97%B6%E4%BB%A3
Xiong’an : China’s
1000 Year
Scheme (2017)
 ▪ 1st Miracle: The fast economic
development since 1978
Questions to Keep
in Mind:
“The Two ▪ 2nd Miracle: Long term socio-
Miracles”? political stability during fast
economical development
 ▪ China in Trouble?
▪ Economic problem?
▪ Real Estate bubble
▪ Stock market
▪ Local debt
▪ Economic growth stagnated
What Now?
▪ Social Problem?
▪ Rapid declining birth rate
▪ Rising nationalism
▪ How people will response to the
social and economic problems?
% in each country with a(n) __ view of China

Opinion of China: Do you have a unfavorable view of China?

- Pew Research Center

 Political Structure and
Process

Actor/agent: Political
Analytic Tools Elites, Masses

Historical and
Comparative Perspectives
How the Past Informs the Present
What is China?
 ▪ The earliest written record of the word “中國”(The Middle
“宅兹中國” Kingdom) is from an inscription on the Western Zhou
bronze vessel Hezun 何尊, which includes 122 characters
describing the history of Zhou. King Cheng used this word
The Middle Kingdom in his prayer, expressing “Here in the center of the world I
dwell”. Discovered in 1963 in Baoji, Shannxi.
 ▪ Ge Zhaoguang 葛兆光, Here in
‘China’ I Dwell: Reconstructing
Historical Discourses of China for
Our Time (2011)

▪ Three periods in history when

the anxiety about "China" made
the question of "what is China"
particularly hotly debated.
What is China? ▪ 1) Northern Song （10th-11th c),
when China Proper/Han people
were in tension with other
nations (華夷）
▪ 2) Late Qing and early Republic
(late 19th-early 20th c.) when
China was under the
Western/imperial threats, “Save
the nation” and China's Modern
Transformation of the State
▪ 3) Now.
 ▪ Sinology 漢學
▪ “Sinology means the academic study
of China primarily through Chinese
language, literature, Chinese culture, and history,
and often refers to Western scholarship.”
▪ Western concept of China, Chinese Culture, and
From Sinology Chinese people
to China Studies
▪ Voyage Sinology 遊記漢學 13th-16th century
▪ Missionary Sinology 傳教士漢學, 16th-19th century
▪ Professional Sinology 專業漢學 19th-20th century
 The Rise of Area Studies (China Studies) 區域研究/中國研究

▪ Cold War Background in Post- WWII

1945
▪ Necessity of gathering
interdisciplinary information or “total
knowledge of areas” and safeguarding
national interests during the Cold War
▪ Emphasis on fieldwork as a crucial
component of area studies training
▪ Privileging the nation-state as the
elementary unit of analysis, closely
related to the political and social
environment of the nation
Bruce Cummings, "Boundary displacement: Area studies and
international studies during and after the Cold War." Bulletin of
Concerned Asian Scholars 29, no. 1 (1997): 6-26.
 Shift of Research Paradigms
▪ Sinology
▪ - Chinese cultures/customs/morality/Confucianism
▪ - Chinese languages/art/architecture/novels/poetry

▪ China Studies
▪ - Area Studies: Cold War/post cold war strategic information
(demography, geography, politics, economics … )
▪ - China in Contemporary World: more complicated and interrelated
issues such as religion, ethnicity, migration and diaspora…
 Shift of Explanation Models
From “Impact-Reaction” (John Fairbank) to
“China-centered” (Paul Cohen)

“China Model”, “China Exceptionalism”

Modernity, Nationalism, Imperialism,

Post/Colonialism …

Methodologically: Social Scientific approach

VS. Humanities/Arts approach
 From Empire to Republic

Revolution and Reform

The Paths to
Modernity in Economic Restructuring
China
New Society and New
Culture
Modernity in China

Political
Cultural
Structure
Traditions
and
and
Administra
Innovation
tion

Economic
Social
Developm
Institutions
ent
 Defining China

What is China (what is being defined)?

Who is defining China (who is allowed to

define China)?

How does China change (past, present, future)?

How the image and identity of China and

Chinese are constructed. “Chineseness”
 ▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsT9k_T
Who is Chinese? 8o6g
Who are Chinese?

Han, Minorities,
Overseas
 What is the Chinese
Nation/中華民族?

“Building a strong sense of community

among the Chinese nation”
Where is
China?
 Dazhao Temple of Huhhot Qingjing (Ashab) Mosque of
They are all in 呼和浩特大昭寺 Quanzhou 泉州清淨寺
China

Religion St. Sophia

Cathedral of
Harbin 哈爾濱
聖索菲亞教堂
Sanjiang Church
of Wenzhou
溫州三江教堂
 China is diversified
Environment
(Geography & Climate)
People Eat Different
Food
Society & Culture
 And people don't
understand each other!
Language
 A geographically defined space
A community of diverse linguistic,
cultural, and historical
▪What is discourses and practices;
▪ China? An ongoing and contested political
and social project
…...
 How to Study China?

China as a Topic
Telescope China as a Method Microscope
 RESEARCH METHOD
▪ Qualitative VS. Quantitative
▪ Archival Research based on texts, materials,
artifacts, and other types of documentation
▪ Surveys, ethnography, interviews, GIS …

China as a CHINA AS A METHOD

Method ▪ Previous: Western modernity as a method and
forced China into this framework.
▪ "Discovering history in China" underscores the
specific logics of Chinese history and development.
▪ An intention to construct a new universality grounded
in specific spatio-temporal logics in understanding
the world
 ▪ Understanding China in a
Historical Context

Telescope ▪ Understanding China in a

& Global Context
Microscope
▪ Understanding China from a
Comparative Perspective
 Introduction to the Course

Course Guide is on Moodle. Please read it very

carefully.
All readings are available to download on Moodle.
Sign up Tutorial

COURSE WEEKLY LECTURE ASSESSMENT AND

OBJECTIVES TOPICS EVALUATION
 ▪ Collaborative teaching-learning
experience
▪ Rigorous and fair evaluation for the
benefit of student learning
Course objectives
& General ▪ Flexibility and creativity as guiding
Expectations principles
▪ Mutual respect and understanding
for and by all members of the class
 ▪ Week 1 Introduction
▪ Week 2 Understanding the “Paths” to Modernity in China
▪ Week 3 The Formal Political Structure
▪ Week 4 Policy Process and Policy Implementation
▪ Week 5 Society and Culture I: Diversity and Ethnicity

Weekly Lecture ▪ Week 6 Society and Culture II: Gender and Religion
▪ Week 7 Socialist Transformation and Economic Reform
Topics ▪ Week 8 Documentary Forum: We Were Smart (2019)
▪ Week 9 Guest Lecture
▪ Week 10 Society and Culture III: Class and Public Opinion
▪ Week 11: Wrap-up Lecture
▪ Week 12: In-Class Final Test
 Documentary
Forum

We were Smart
殺馬特 我愛你
（2019）

• “We were Smart” trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyP5zI1svz
U ▪ Director: Li Yifan 李一凡
 Opportunities for individual and group
excellence

Evaluation standards apply to all students

Assessment and Effort and output are linked (i.e. A-level effort
likely leads to A-level results)
Evaluation
Grades are earned not given

Students should ask for feedback during the

semester rather than waiting to contest final
grades
 Active/Constructive
Participation in Lectures and
Tutorials (25%)

Assessment A Final Paper (35%)

Items
Semester-end Test (40%): In
the last lecture, essay
questions
Lecture and
Tutorial
Participation
(25%)
 LECTURE
▪ Attendance is Mandatory. (unexcused absence for 3
or more lectures may result in a failing grade)
▪ Finish required readings before attending lectures.
▪ Attentive in lecture and active participation.

Lecture and
TUTORIAL
Tutorial
▪ Attendance (30%) is Mandatory (unexcused absence
Guidelines for 3 or more meetings may result in a failing grade).
▪ Participation (70%): finish all readings and prepare for
presentations and discussions (if the assigned group
fails to deliver the presentation, the group will result in
a failing grade).
 LECTURE
▪ Attendance@HKU Mobile App (contact the tutors before
the break if you cannot check-in via the app)
▪ Installation & Login (Portal UID & PIN)
▪ Check-in: open the app in this classroom when the lecture
begins. The app will search for your location and check in the
class automatically. Please grant permission to access Location
and Bluetooth functions.
▪ The user guide is on Moodle
Attendance

TUTORIAL

▪ Please approach the tutors and sign up on a paper

attendance sheet before each tutorial begins
 ▪ Tutorial attendance is mandatory. Each student must
sign up for one tutorial. There will be six tutorial
sessions in total.

▪ Tutorial selection should be done directly at the

HKU Portal system (Portal -> My eLearning ->
Sign up for Tutorial Sign Up). Only those who are successfully
enrolled in the course can sign up for tutorials.
Tutorial
▪ Time, venue, and tutorial guidelines are all on the
SINO1003 Moodle page.

▪ Contact the tutors if you cannot register via the

HKU Portal system.
1. Access Tutorial Sign-up application via the hyperlink in My eLearning tab of HKU Portal
2. List of tutorial groups of a course for selection.
 PRESENTATION
▪ 15 students divided into 7 small groups (presentation
from week 4)
▪ Each group will deliver a presentation based on the
week's required readings

THE FLOW OF EACH TUTORIAL MEETING

Tutorial ▪ Recap the main points of the week's topic (5 min)
Guidelines ▪ Presentation (15 min): 1) summarize required
readings; 2) comment on the strengths and
weaknesses of the readings; 3) give examples; 4) put
forward a debatable question
▪ Discussions within and across groups (15 min)
▪ Exchange ideas with the whole class (15 min)
 ▪ How do you understand the shaping of modern China's
national image and identity? What is China? How to
define “Chineseness” or “being Chinese”. Each paper
should choose one or two specific aspects of China’s
political/economic/social/cultural characteristics to
write an essay discussing how the image of China or the
identity of “being Chinese” is defined, performed, and
Final Paper challenged from either the official/state/mainstream or
unofficial/individual/marginal perspective.
(35%)
▪ Each paper should be 1500-2000 words (not including
footnotes/endnotes and references) in length, double-
spaced, 12-point font. The final paper must be submitted
through Moodle Turnitin Link by 5:00 PM on
December 5, 2023 (Tuesday).
 ▪ Summative assessment (cumulative coverage of
content)
▪ Students will write short essays (based on each
individual’s choice
of several questions) reflecting upon topics
Final In-Class covered in the course.

Test ▪ 10:30 AM Tuesday, November 28, 2023, in

(40%) class.
▪ No computer, phone, iPad, etc.

▪ Suggested preparation method: Write a

reflection after each lecture to test what you
have learned
 Thank you!
We are looking forward to a
wonderful semester with you!