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The second lecture for week 4 focuses on China's serious environmental challenges.

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Lecture #6 - Generations

For this lecture, there's a point where we pause so that you can read two sections of this attached file "24 Filial Piety Exemplars"
You're asked to read #5 and #11.

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The importance of gaokao (higher education entrance exam) has almost made it an English word. Some American schools are accepting gaokao scores in lieu of SAT/ACT. China Prep is documentary aired on PBS a decade ago, but I think it is still quite good.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/video/china-prep-video-full-episode-2/2722/

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If you highlight the entire link, a right click option is to open the link in a new tab. That will show some of the images that the search engine found.

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Tenja Young became an American commercial officer and now works as a business consultant. She wrote this for the institute website when she was a student here.

https://china.usc.edu/kfc-birthday-palace

The film Shanghai Calling features a character loosely based on Jim Rice, a US businessman in China. Bill Paxton played him in the film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLF8QEok3SQ
 

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Lin's right to note that the Dalai Lama spoke here some years ago. I got to hear him then and at Berea College when he spoke there in 1994. He's spoken throughout the US for about 30 years. In 2017, however, he gave the commencement address at UCSD. That led to complaints from the Chinese government (which always happens) and from some Chinese students. The Chinese government unofficially slowed visits by Chinese scholars to UCSD and other joint programs have run into trouble (e.g. Fudan University - UC joint center).

https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2017/06/17/dalai-lama-speaks-at-ucsd-commencement-amid-chinese-student-objection/37433131/

https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/uc_san_diegos_connections_with_the_dalai_lama_run_deep

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/20/china-punishing-american-university-hosting-dalai-lama

And why did the Dalai Lama visit a small college in Kentucky? See the attached article, "Bodhisattva in Berea." John Stephenson was the Berea president who hired me.

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Natali,
I quite agree with you and with Jonathan, who is an alum and a friend. China's main tool for poverty alleviation has been to empty the countryside and to expand towns. And it has done so on the backs and through the efforts of many, but disproportionately of those who started life with agricultural hukou (household registration status). Now we're into a whole new generation that has only lived in the city, but don't always get the benefits available to those fortunate enough to have local urban hukou (note that Beijing residents who have urban status, but in some other city, are also ineligible for education/health care benefits available to those with Beijing hukou - the system is that specific). From my perspective, it is the main contradiction in China today, exacerbating most other social problems.

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Stephen,
Ai Weiwei's use of the middle finger is well known outside of China, but censorship has limited his impact within China. But the middle finger has definitely filtered back into China. I've seen it for about 15-20 years, but mainly among returnees and others. Chinese media frequently broadcasts reports of protests outside of China (to show that people elsewhere have complaints, too, and that life in the US and elsewhere is far from perfect) that include such non-verbal gestures. So -- Ai Weiwei, who lived in the US for years, may have helped inspire the middle finger salute, but he's likely not the main driver. Globalization comes in various forms.

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Thanks to Christine for mentioning the terrible famine that followed the Great Leap Forward. Below is a link to an interview with a scholar who studied the famine and wrote about it in the book, Tombstone.

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Assigned readings:
(Skim) Lu and Xia, "Migration in the People's Republic of China," Asian Development Bank, 2016.
(Skim) Lu and Ye, "'Children of Great Development': Difficulties in the Education and Development of Rural Left Behind Children," Chinese Education and Society, V41N5 (2017).
Johnson, "In China, 'Once the villages are gone, the culture is gone,'" New York Times, Feb. 2, 2014.
Anderlini, "Christianity's rise in China," Financial Times, Nov. 8, 2014.
Various, news coverage of the rise and problems of internet bars.
Various, news coverage of the rise of dancing in China's public squares.

Video:
Woetzel, 2016, How to Change a Billion People (20 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEz5oI9YDAY
PBS/GlobalPost - Urban Migration for Young Chinese (5 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43uRiEp6k_U
FT-2013 (6 minutes) China's urban billion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SExDPEi8ogM
CNN- 2013, Lunar New Year Migration (3 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnJws_qdCnw
FT - Rise of Christianity (3 minute video to accompany the series launched by Anderlini's article, above) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43uRiEp6k_U
One of these two:
David Aikman, 2010, author of Jesus in Beijing, speaks at USC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43uRiEp6k_U
Fenggang Yang, 2018, on the Rise of Christianity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43uRiEp6k_U

Optional video: NHK on rural migrants in China's cities, 2017 (85 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ByiCZhKOO4

Questions to consider
Why did hundreds of millions of Chinese leave their rural homes for the cities? What problems were they trying to solve? What new problems did they encounter? What of the children who are left behind?

Why did people gravitate to the internet and internet bars?

What has led to the rise of religious beliefs in China? What has been the attitude of the Chinese state?

Optional readings:

Fan and Li, "Marriage and Migration in Transitional China: a field study of Gaozhou, western Guangdong," Environment and Planning, 2002, v. 34.
Seetoo and Zou, "China's Square Dancing," 2016

Please post your thoughts on these readings and videos and on the lectures.

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Hi Jen - We ran into a software glitch (no audio on the lecture) and will have a new version up later this afternoon. My apologies to you and all.

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For session 2 on economics, here are links to the videos I embedded in the presentations.

13th 5 Year Plan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhLrHCKMqyM

The belt and the road: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSancn88eFk

Claymation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdPK1v0UxqQ

 

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Here are the videos I embedded in the discussion of party and politics.

CD Rev "This is China": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCm3sbujB8g

CD Rev "The Force of Red": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cWQGDW8Jb0

The Cult of Xi ( 习近平 不知道该怎么称呼你   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6xpKqrytDI)

 

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Hi Folks,
Great to see everyone. I didn't call on everyone and I apologize for that. We want everyone to participate --- which is why we have this discussion forum. If there's an idea you wanted to share, but couldn't put it into words at the time or just thought of it now, please post it to the forum.

The few slides from today's discussion are available at the link below. Please note that all of the graphs are from this week's readings.

For the next three sessions, please feel free to post articles or links to news items about China that you come across.
For example: about Fan Bingbing:
https://variety.com/2018/film/news/fan-bingbing-apology-ashamed-and-guilty-for-what-i-did-1202966828/
https://variety.com/2018/film/asia/actress-fan-bingbing-tax-evasion-1202974463/

Jack Ma
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/alibaba-founder-jack-ma-step-down-chairman-n908061

Here's a talk about Alibaba's rise: https://china.usc.edu/video-duncan-clark-rise-jack-ma-and-alibaba

Here's the trailer about the rise of Alibaba: https://vimeo.com/channels/crocodileyangtzeexcerpts/94901900 (trailer is free to watch, the full film is available for rent)
 

 

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Another short film about China in Africa was made by a husband and wife American/Chinese team. It was shown on Aljazeera. The film and the filmmaker's explanation for it are at: https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2010/09/20109784210335575.html

Note that it dates from 2010.

Two great web resources for China in Afria are:
China in Africa project (https://chinaafricaproject.com/)
China-Africa Research Project (Johns Hopkins SAIS: http://www.sais-cari.org/)

Finally - a couple related video lectures:
Deborah Brautigam, Will Africa Feed China? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71jDW3ha6Qc&feature=youtu.be&list=PLEAC41A08E1EE341A
Deborah Brautigam, The Dragon's Gift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq6Ks3ROiCg
 

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