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Dr. Tobie Meyer-Fong will present a talk entitled “Women and War in 19th Century China” this coming Wednesday (4/6, 4:30 pm, Annex A 114).
Author of Building Culture in Early Qing Yangzhou and a well-known scholar of late imperial China, Dr. Meyer-Fong (Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University) will share her current research on women’s roles amid the violent and devastating Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) that swept China in its days of Qing dynasty rule.
Students who attend can earn extra credit - to do so, please attend the talk and share a short summary of Dr. Meyer-Fong’s presentation plus your own thoughts on what you’ve learned of the topic in an email to Prof. Fernsebner (emails due Thursday 4/7 by midnight).
A message from UMW’s Chinese Language Students:
The Chinese language students are coordinating a trip to New York City’s Chinatown from April 15th until the 17th. The cost for the weekend is $57.30 and includes two meals, bus tickets and lodging. During the weekend, we will be visiting the Chinatown museum, looking at landmarks and enjoying amazing Chinese cuisine in the area. The language students will also be conducting interviews with Mandarin speakers in the neighboring Flushing area. We have many spots available but need to know immediately if you would be interested in participating! Please contact Joseph Calpin (jcalpin@mail.umw.edu).
As noted in class, many are saddened by and following the news of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that occurred on March 11th in Japan. If you’re interested in keeping up with the challenges of recovery in Japan, see the links below for news and reports.
For reports on Chinese responses to the disaster in Japan, see this early article by Adam Minter at Foreign Policy Magazine online as well as this guest post by Yajun on the excellent Granite Studio blog on Chinese history. ChinaSmack has also offered recent coverage of Chinese netizens’ response.
English Language Broadcasts
NHK English TV (Live Feed) – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv
Japanese Language Broadcasts
NHK TV – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-gtv
TBS TV – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tbstv
Ways to Help?
The Harvard University Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies offers a list of organizations that are collecting donations from those looking to contribute to the relief efforts underway. For more, see the links provided at their web site here.
大家好！ Hello Everybody!
The UMW Chinese language students invite all of you to try your hand at learning Chinese. We will be holding classes starting today, 7PM at Combs 215. Over the next four weeks we will have two one-hour class sessions a week on Wednesdays and Thursdays (please come to which ever is more convenient for you). During the class, we will cover basic Chinese phrases as well as some of the foundations of the language (pronunciation and writing). Lessons are five dollars per session and include cookies! If you are unable to make the first sessions, please feel free to show up to following weeks!
If you have any questions please contact Joe Calpin (jcalpin@mail.umw.edu).
As we discussed in class yesterday, our Friday workshop is going to be devoted to our readings so far in Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China. We’ll use the workshop not only to discuss the rich content of the text, but also techniques for note-taking on primary sources and the ways in which a text can be mobilized to support a strong analytical thesis.
Our assignment for Friday is to prepare a one-page set of quotes from the text (not more than 1-2 lines each) that you find relevant to a particular question that we’ve posed: why might the Communist movement have been attractive to Chinese peasants (and others) in the mid-1930s? Remember to put a correctly formatted bibliographic entry at the top of the page (use the Chicago / Turabian style — see our links to citing sources to the left for guidelines), to precisely copy the quotes or, in case where you are paraphrasing the detail shared by Snow, to make a note to yourself that this is indeed a paraphrase, and, finally, to include the page numbers after each.
Our goals for Friday’s workshop:
- building skills in constructing an expert argument on the question posed
- building hard skills in finding and managing evidential support for analyses,
- building an advanced understanding of the ways to cite sources (and, also, avoid concerns regarding plagiarism)
As announced in class today, our History 142 midterm has been rescheduled from Monday, February 14th to Wednesday, February 16th. Please change the date on your midterm review sheets; the rest of the policies and procedures noted there will apply (e.g. take-home essay due at the start of class on the new date 2/16; an in-class ID section will follow.)
If you have any questions, please be sure to contact Professor Fernsebner well in advance of the exam.
After our conversation in class on Friday, one in which a good number of classmates showed an interest in learning more about programs for study abroad, as well as possible internships, jobs, and more, I’ve added a page to our website devoted to Overseas Programs.
Keep an eye on the list if you’re interested, as I’ll be adding to it over the course of the semester…
As we move further into the semester, essay deadlines approach across a range of courses. We’ll have our first essay for Hist142 due on the date of the midterm (Monday, February 14th), with the assignment distributed in class. As you prepare, take a look at the slide-show below for strategies and advice towards composing a stronger paper.
See also our links to the left for guides on how to cite your sources and particularly how to avoid plagiarism in your own papers (the “plagiarism tutorial” is particularly helpful here!)
Study materials for our in-class map quiz are available at our “Online Readings” page here at the site. There is a list of terms to know, a map by which to locate them, and a blank map for practice in preparation for the quiz.
The map quiz will occur at the start of class on Friday, 1/21. Be sure to be on time. Make-up exams for late arrivals or absences will not be provided.
Note: the Online Readings page is password protected. The password was emailed to the class at the start of the semester and announced in class. Be sure to check on your access the site and download the materials well in advance of the quiz itself. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Professor Fernsebner via email.
This site (currently under construction) will be the main information center for History 142: East Asia — 17th-20th c. (Asian Civ II), Spring 2011. The full syllabus has just been posted and can be found at the link above; see below for a listing of the texts that will be required for the course:
Patricia Ebrey, et al, eds. East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. 2nd edition. Wadsworth, 2008.
Yukichi Fukuzawa. The Autobioraphy of Yukichi Fukuzawa. Trans. Albert Craig. Columbia UP, 2006.
Hildi Kang. Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910-1945. Cornell University Press, 2001.
Edgar Snow. Red Star Over China. Grove Press, 1994.
John Dower. War Without Mercy. Pantheon Books, 1987.
