CHINESE
AREA STUDIES
Enrollees
interested in the Chinese Area Studies or Chinese Career
Studies Certificate will take a series of core courses in
Chinese culture and language; they
will also elect courses from a rich variety of offerings
which will allow them to study, for instance, the diplomatic,
military, and intellectual relations between China and the
USA.
The
three thousand year old poetic tradition involving The Book
of Songs, Li Bai, Du Fu, and many others; the short, repressive,
but unifying reign of Qin Shi Huang Di; the social and philosophical
writings of Confucius and Lao Tse; the world-leading technological,
architectural, and intellectual achievements of the Tang
Dynasty; the ensuing turning inward and self-absorption
of the Middle Kingdom; the cyclical rise and fall of dynasties;
the New Cultural Movement developing after the collapse
of the Qing Dynasty in 1911; the rise of Communism and its
recent efforts to accommodate free, competitive enterprise;
developments in post-Cultural Revolution literature, as
in "Wound" literature; the writings and actions of such
intriguing figures as the tormented historian Sima Qian
and current political leaders, such as Jiang Zemin.
