China. Passenger wheelbarrows. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. [reproduction number, LC-USZ62-113721 (b&w film copy neg.)])
Instructor(s)
Prof. Peter C. Perdue
MIT Course Number
21H.560 / 21G.191 / 21G.991
As Taught In
Fall 2004
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Highlights
This course also features archived syllabi from various semesters.
Course Description
This subject examines the experiences of ordinary Chinese people as they lived through the tumultuous changes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We look at personal narratives, primary sources, films alongside a textbook to think about how individual and family lives connect with the broader processes of change in modern China. In the readings and discussions, you should focus on how major political events have an impact on the characters' daily lives, and how the decisions they make cause large-scale social transformation.