Thesis about China

[blackhair]

Hi everyone,

I'm a Chinese born in Europe. Me and my mate want to write a sort of (pré-university, not university bachelor or master) thesis about China. We both have a list of ideas for the subject of this thesis, but we dont know for sure which subject we will choose. Here's a list of ideas. Do you have another interesting ideas for a thesis about China? If so, please share:clap

-Chinese censure on internet

-One child policy

-Could China become the largest economic power?

-Side effects of economic growth

-China and Tibet

-Effects of communism to nowadays China

[Daan]

That list sounds pretty good. You could also look into the effects of the credit crunch on the Chinese economy, or you could write about China's famous state-owned enterprises. There are excellent resources available in English on the Chinese economy, and you could probably get quite some accurate information in your own native language too. This might be harder when you write your paper on the Tibet issue, for example. Whatever you do, don't forget to have fun!

[gato]

How about doing something on the relationship of overseas Chinese and China? That's not something you hear about everyday. You could dig into how various group relate to China differently, maybe depending on when they emigrated, where they are from, their political attitude and economic status, etc. You can talk about the outreach of the Chinese government to overseas Chinese.

Most of the topics you listed have probably been done to deaths already in school reports.

[Outofin]

I like gato's idea. It's very hard to bring up new info and ideas in the topics you listed.

I got another similar suggestion: the Expat Life in China. You can just read through this forum and write a very good thesis. Who are they? Why they came to China? What they like about China? What they don't like?

If you can add some reflection on your own life and your parents experience, your thesis will really stand out among others.

[PhilipLean]

Unfortunately the topics you listed have been done to death by both political commentators and experts.

Gato's and Autofin's suggestions are good.

Though I think to take up Autofins suggestion you would need to also explore some of the more extreme expat forums - people tend to keep it sane and reasonable on this site.

Here are a few other things that strike me as interesting.

1 - the cultural shift of influence from the North to the South, Shanghai in particular is reasserting its old role of a hub of social change (read that as cultural change not political), what might this mean in the future ?

2 - China is the world's leading developer implementer investor in green technology, what does it mean, how much how fast, is China already a model for the rest of the world ? How does this reconcile with reliance on coal ? Is there hope that one day Chinese cities will have much lower pollution levels ?

3 - There appear to be 3 China's, the wealthy booming cities near the coast, the inland large cities and towns, and the very poor isolated rural areas. Has there been any positive progress in the rural areas ? Are people lives improving ? How do they compare to the poverty of the urban and rural poor in India (the only comparable country) - a hint, 30 % of the people in India have no access electricity and have no prospect of access to an electricity grid (way off in the future solar cells might bring them electricity.)

4 - Medical care in China, why has a socialist state apparently chosen a capitalist model to deliver health care. What is the impact on medical staff, patients. Where are the gaps - who misses out.

5 - The impact of the internet in China. Not the imports and the media and the games addiction, but the social impact and the apparent increase in physical isolation of many young people who choose to spend their spare time online chatting with friends rather than meeting people in real life. Why is it happening (the social, cultural causes), is the government concerned, what do people think about it ?

6 - Dating and meeting partners in modern China. Arranged marriages are fading away in the cities, there are no more work brigades to introduce people. How do people meet potential partners - here recognizing that there is a short window for meeting and getting married - post study, a short time after commencing work - culturally it all has to be in place before they are in their late 20s.

7 - Chinese Cinema, where is it at, beyond the great names that are popular in the West, what is actually happening in China, what do people prefer to watch ? Foreign films are huge among young Chinese, can local films compete ?

These topics are probably too big to explore in depth for your project but any one of them should give you enough material to write a substantial introduction to the issues.

The main thing I found about knowledge of China among people not living there is - apart from the topics you listed - most people know very little about China. So, writing about any single topic might prove interesting and informative for other people.

If anyone wants to say to say "that assertion is wrong" please do. These are only suggested topics to explore based on my impressions and reading.

Edited September 15, 2009 at 03:22 PM by PhilipLean

[Outofin]

I want to say "that assertion is wrong" about #1.

Speaking cultural influence, if you check music, film, TV, books and magazines, entertainment, serious arts, everything points to Beijing, Hong Kong, and you can include Taiwan as well. Even Guangzhou (in magazines and newspaper) or Hunan (in their popular TV shows) are doing a better job than Shanghai.

[PhilipLean]

Okay, point taken

I want to say "that assertion is wrong" about #1.

Speaking cultural influence, if you check music, film, TV, books and magazines, entertainment, serious arts, everything points to Beijing, Hong Kong, and you can include Taiwan as well. Even Guangzhou (in magazines and newspaper) or Hunan (in their popular TV shows) are doing a better job than Shanghai.

Maybe there is is still a topic looking at any differences in the type and content of these media from these different areas.

[gato]

The topics Outofin and Philip suggested are all very interesting, but they will require major effort on your part to research. Much of the available material might be in Chinese, which you may or may not be able to read. Another option which requires much less "book research" is to conduct interviews. It might be interesting to tell the story of your family's life in China and emigration to Europe. Or you can interview your mates' families, which might be an interesting twist.

[blackhair]

Thank you all for your ideas, i like them. Nice list Phillip, thats very interesting and i might choose something from that. you guys are right my ideas are pretty much standard.

[xianhua]

Tackling Philip's number 5 (but including addiction to games) would make interesting reading. You'd also be covering a very timely and contentious issue.

Check out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8209422.stm

Also, check out 'China's Cyber Strategy' by Nina Hachigian for a more scholarly approach. I have other resources if you go down this line and need more material.

Visting internet cafe's in China can be one of the most 'enlightening' experiences, especially one off the beaten track. Think teenagers chain-smoking, playing games and surfing porn in a zombie-like trance. Some spend all night in there - apparent by their accompanying duvets. I spoke to a few parents about it on my last trip to China and many are paranoid about their kids falling into that trap - hence those camps.

[gerri]

Just quickly wanted to add that, even (or especially?) given the differences between China and Japan - quite a bit has already, also, been written about the Otaku phenomenon in Japan. The mention of kids segregating themselves from others, into an online world, immediately brought that to mind - and some material for comparison can be helpful...

The main problem, I'd think, really is that you don't usually write theses while you are pre-university... the effort for actual research may be a bit much. Then again, the suggestion of interviewing/researching the own family can make for research, and one that is deeper than if you could only scour the internet for info. (Not that cyber-anthropology weren't around, but it's a bag of worms.)

[PhilipLean]

blackhair don't put yourself down

you guys are right my ideas are pretty much standard.

My list comes from talking to young Chinese people online over the past 18 months.

I started out with language exchange and gradually built up a contacts and friends.

Over that time I have been learning about modern China. These are issues that young people mention, particularly the difficulty in meeting new people / potential partners, feelings of social isolation, costs and quality of basic medical care.

Many people believe that daily life is too crowded and too competitive. Sometimes I show them photos of crowding from India and it blows their minds - they can not conceive of hanging on the outside of a bus on sitting on top of a bus or train. But, their feelings are still real. Maybe this is why they withdraw.

Where once the family and local community provided context and support a lot more people are working and/or studying away from home. The internet provides a connection to distant friends and family and former students connect to their old teachers.

But it does really seem to get in the way of meeting people and participating in society. Maybe because I am older people talk to me. I often get "I am lonely" I can't find a "girlfriend/boyfriend" . "Ok, what do you do to try to meet new people ?" Do you go out and meet people, do you do things that might bring you into contact with new people ?" "Oh, no, I am too scared to/ I don't know how to." As often happens, change is running ahead of the social infrastructure.

It would be interesting to get your parents' views on these things and what life was like for them. Maybe these were non issues.

Weng.Xinyu from this forum has an excellent introductory article - Number 12 - on his Slow Chinese website - It is in Chinese - I used online translation to read it.

http://www.slow-chinese.com/?p=293

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Edited September 16, 2009 at 12:04 AM by PhilipLean

[Guittar]

Here in the US we do not know very much about China and we do not hear about China very often. We buy a lot of Chinese goods, however that does not connect us to the Chinese.

China in the 21st century

-Chinese censure on internet - Yes, but it will be impossible to maintain. In the US, the internet is revolutionizing so many aspects of life that could be a whole project, or more.

-One child policy - No, too many social and economic unintended consequences.

-Could China become the largest economic power? - Could? How will they adapt to their new role as a world leader amidst international partners.

-Side effects of economic growth - Cultural,environmental

-China and Tibet - 100 years of imperialism , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Tibet

-Effects of communism to nowadays China - communism is basically economic policy and China has changed course away from that.

PhillipLean also had some excellent suggestions.