Description
This module provides students with historical and sociological perspectives on Chinese childhood, families and education from the late nineteenth century to the present. It considers how state and non-state actors have used education to mould ideal citizens and how changing gender relations have profoundly shaped this education. Throughout the course students will be asked to think critically and comparatively about how Chinese conceptions of childhood, family and education changed through interaction with globally circulating ideas. It covers topics including late Qing examination systems, education for women, debates about education in the face of encroachment by western powers and Japan, the role of western missionaries and Chinese students abroad, the May Fourth Movement of 1919, and childhood and family life under Japanese occupation during the Second World War. Students will also gain an understanding of what it was like to grow up in Mao’s China and in the post-reform era. Students will be introduced to the latest debates in the literature, including postcolonial and feminist approaches, and they will analyse primary oral, visual, and textual sources.
Teaching delivery:This module is taught in 10 weekly lectures and 10 weekly seminars.
Indicative Topics:Based on module content in 2023/24, subject to possible changes
- Childhood and education in late Imperial China
- “Mr Democracy” and “Mr Science”: May Fourth and the New Culture Movement
- The Nanjing decade and the New Life Movement
- “To Rebel is Justified”: Student violence and the Red Guard movement
- Journey to the west? The Chinese student overseas
Module Aims:
- To introduce students to historical and sociological perspectives and research on childhood, families and education in modern China from the late Qing period to the present
- To examine how state and non-state actors have used education to mould ideal citizens in China
- To consider how changing gender relations in China have shaped childhood, family and society since the late nineteenth century
- To equip students to think critically and comparatively about how Chinese conceptions of childhood, family and education changed through interaction with globally circulating ideas
- To support students to analyze a wide variety of primary oral, visual, textual and material sources in Chinese language and translation
- To develop students’ intercultural awareness, critical thinking, and communication skills
Recommended readings:
- Hsiung, Ping-Chen. A Tender Voyage: Children and Childhood in Late Imperial China. Stanford University Press, 2005.
- Ko, Dorothy. Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding. University of California Press, 2007.
- Mitter, Rana. A Bitter Revolution: China’s Struggle with the Modern World. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.