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This is a required course for all students in the Issues in Contemporary China (ICC) stream on the MA in Chinese Studies in 2023-24. It has three aims:

(i) To enhance students’ academic literacy and develop writing and research skills required to complete the MA in Chinese Studies (reading, writing, citation and academic ethics).
(ii) To provide a brief introduction to the field of Chinese Studies today.
(iii) To explore some topical issues in the study of contemporary China.

Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students should:

1. Have improved their skills at academic writing, active reading, and critical thinking, and understand what is needed to produce a research paper to the standards required for the MA programme at CCS.
2. Have improved their ability to engage in informed discussion of a range of issues in the study of contemporary China.

Part 1: Introduction and Academic Literacy
Week 1 (8 Sept): Introduction.

Weeks 2 & 6 (15 Sept & 13 Oct): Academic literacy
– for all students, partially in workshop format, led by the course instructor and teaching assistant, to include training in research ethics.

Part 2: China Studies
Weeks 3-5 (22 & 29 Sept, 6 Oct): Introduction to the field of Chinese Studies – three weeks of lectures & tutorial discussions. Readings:
– Claudia Derichs, Ariel Heryanot, Itty Abraham. Area Studies and Disciplines: What Disciplines and What Areas? International Quarterly for Asian Studies 51(3-4), 2020.
– Arif Dirlik. Global Modernity and the Predicament of Social Science: The Case of China. Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2(1), 2009.
– Ivan Franceschini and Nicholas Loubere. Global China as Method. Cambridge Elements: Global China. Cambridge University Press, 2022.
– Gao Mobo. Constructing China: Clashing Views of the People’s Republic. London: Pluto Press, 2018.
– Evelyn Goh. Introduction – China in International Affairs: a century of encounter, 2022 [here]
– Kevin J. O’Brien. Speaking to Theory and Speaking to the China Field. Issues & Studies 54(4), 2018.
– Norman Stockman. Working in No Man’s Land: Between Sociology and Chinese Studies. Journal of the British Association for Chinese Studies 8(2), 2018. 

Part 3: Issues in Contemporary China
Field trips, lectures and discussions around current issues in the study of contemporary China, with a focus on Hong Kong and on US-China relations. Readings and further details will be posted on Blackboard.
– Local field trips in Hong Kong, Weeks 7 & 10 (20 Oct & 10 Nov. – TBC)
– US-China relations, Weeks 8-9 (27 Oct. & 3 Nov.)
– Hong Kong in wider context, Weeks 11-12 (17 & 24 Nov.)

Week 13 (1 Dec.): Concluding class.