Graduate School in China – A History Major’s Perspective

[kdavid]

I have been interested in pursuing graduate studies in China since shortly after I first arrived back in 2006. From the time I started researching until I began my first classes in the autumn of 2011, I found there was not a lot of first-hand information available for those curious about pursuing graduate studies on the mainland, especially for non-Chinese-language majors. As such, I’ve written down my experience thus far so that others interested can get some insight. This is a work in progress, and I plan on updating this as I continue with my MA over the next two and a half years.

My Background

I’m a married, American male in my late twenties. I graduated from an American university with a BA in English and a minor in history back in 2005. My intention has always been to go on and get a PhD (though initially I didn’t think I’d get into history).

I wanted to travel a bit before applying to graduate school as I thought it would help make me a stronger candidate. I traveled to Europe where I got TESOL certified and taught English for a year. One thing led to another and I ended up in China in 2006, where I’ve been since. I’ve continued teaching English and I’ve also been involved in teacher training.

I hit the ground running with my Chinese studies and achieved a decent conversational level within my first year. I took the HSK for the first time in 2009 and got a 5. I took it again in 2010 and got a 7. Looking back, this is actually very slow progress. Really until 2009 I didn’t do much character study or serious reading. It wasn’t until I committed to the idea of graduate school (2009) that I got serious about characters and reading.

Currently, I’m on track to complete my MA in 2014. I hope that in the process I can get some papers published, perhaps give some talks at some conferences (my adviser seems to think having a foreigner speak at some of the conventions he attends would be quite novel), and then move on to do my PhD in the States. I’m majoring in Ancient Chinese History with an emphasis on the Ming and Qing dynasties.

China Scholarship Council Scholarship

I first heard about the CSC scholarship here on Chinese Forums. I looked into it and decided to apply. The process was quick and easy. I applied from the mainland via the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

At the time when I submitted my application, I was only interested in one school, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). I had done some preliminary research online and through CUCAS. While CUCAS wasn’t incredibly helpful, I was able to find enough information between them and HIT’s website to make an informed decision (or so I thought). In the end, I switched schools after HIT informed me they did not have my major. The CSC offices in DC were helpful and prompt in telling me how to change my already-submitted application and filing the new papers.

The CSC contacts at the university have been helpful. I’ve been provided with everything promised. The only weird thing is that the scholarship only covers “necessary” books. Perhaps this is different for BA students, but as an MA student none of my books are considered “necessary”. Luckily, all but one of the books I “needed” this first semester was available in electronic format.

First Experience with Graduate School in China

This is a lengthy aside which I’m providing as an anecdote to attest to the overall disorganization of some institutions. If you’re applying to a university which has established systems for foreign students, it’s unlikely you’ll encounter this type of situation. However, if you’re applying to universities which do not have many foreigners, you’re likely to encounter some level of chaos.

I read that one way of making your CSC application stronger was to include an acceptance letter from the university you want to attend. As such, I applied to HIT prior to submitting my application. (In the end it’s a good thing I decided not to go to HIT and instead apply to the university through CSC as the acceptance letter for HIT didn’t come until after the CSC deadline had passed.)

I had read on HIT’s English website (I found their Chinese website very unhelpful) that they did indeed have a modern and contemporary history MA program. I also verified this through CUCAS which supposedly contacted a professor there.

I wanted to speak directly with a professor at HIT prior to applying to get a feel for the course content, textbooks used (so that I could start reading ahead), class schedule, etc. (this is quite normal for students to do in the States). In the end, I was unable to do so as the contact information I found online lead nowhere, and the professors I attempted to contact did not reply.

Despite this, I decided to apply anyway. As the CSC deadline was approaching, I tracked down the person in charge of foreign affairs and asked how to apply. I filled out a form, submitted the materials requested (scan of my passport, transcripts, notarized copy of my BA, etc.), and was told I’d be contacted after everything was processed.

Within about a week I was contacted by a professor. She wanted to schedule a meeting to meet with me and let me take an exam to assess my subject knowledge. (Apparently the other students applying for this program had just completed the official 考研 exam, so I was behind the gun.) I arrived about 10 minutes early for the meeting (to make sure I could find the office). The professor was about 15 minutes late. She explained she had written a special exam for me which I could complete using the computer. She had literally scribbled five questions on a napkin. I waited in her office while she typed them up and printed them out. While I don’t recall the exact questions, they were all essay-format questions asking to recall events post-1840. She gave me the exam to complete and then left the office. After I finished the exam I waited around for a bit until a graduate student came and told me the professor wouldn’t return. I handed my answers to a graduate student and left.

A few days later the same professor contacted me. She informed me that not only did HIT not have a modern and contemporary history major (which I had not only just applied for, but also took an exam for), but they didn’t even have a history department, which, apparently, the university had just closed.

I was told that I should instead study Marxism, because (and this is verbatim) “modern history and Marxism are the same”. I was told that I had passed the exam, and that I was invited to attend an interview with the graduate committee. By this stage, even though I was certain I would not accept an offer with this university, I figured since I had come this far, I might as well attend for the experience.

There were seven other students attending the interview. After speaking with a few of them, I learned that not all of them were history majors as undergraduates. One of them didn’t even know what major he was interviewing for (he thought it was for philosophy). Also, upon speaking with some of the current graduate students who were supervising the interview, I learned that even though many of them were about a semester away from graduating, they hadn’t even started their dissertation research; some hadn’t even chosen a topic, and some seemed as though they were just planning on writing a book report.

I was the last of the students to be interviewed. While those before me took about 20 minutes each, mine was done in less than five. I was asked if I knew who Bertrand Russell was. I was also asked if I didn’t receive the CSC scholarship if I’d entertain self-funding. I said no because I was neither interested in studying Marxism nor paying the enormous sum of 50,000 RMB for two years’ tuition.

Several weeks after the interview, I was contacted by the admissions office informing me I had been accepted. In that time, I had already been accepted to Heilongjiang University, which, so far, has been a much more positive experience than what I experienced at HIT.

Registering at HeiDa

I received my CSC acceptance package mid-summer. I knew ahead of this I had already been accepted as I contacted the university directly.

During the first few days of the semester (note, after the Chinese students had already begun their classes) foreign students began registering—this is relevant because my major classes began the day we were asked to come in to register. (In the end it I only ended up missing one class.) CSC students had different meeting times assigned from the other foreign students (e.g. those who were self-funded or on a different scholarship).

Though I met with the academic coordinator for foreign students early and explained to her my situation (i.e. that I had my own apartment, had my visa covered through my employer, etc.), she said I still needed to attend the meetings. However, the meetings were only catered to addressing these issues and making these arrangements (e.g. visa, dorm, etc.), so they were not beneficial at all for me. There have been several other “mandatory” meetings throughout this last semester, none of which I’ve attended as they’ve all been scheduled only a day in advance (so I had no time to rearrange my schedule), and even at times when I had class.

Mandatory Proficiency Test

All foreign students are required to take a Chinese proficiency test. This seemed a bit odd as one prerequisite for getting into non-Chinese language majors is at least a 6 on the HSK. It was later, when I overheard the admissions coordinator speaking with other students, that I discovered students who failed the exam were required to take additional Chinese language classes at their own expense. While it’s good that the university doesn’t want to place students with a low level in a class in which they’ll clearly struggle, the whole set up seemed more like a money-making opportunity for the university than a measure designed to group students according to their level of fluency.

A clear case of this can be found in the only other foreign student in my class (we’re both studying the same major)—a Japanese student in his mid-to-late twenties. He speaks very poorly with no fluency and he has a very difficult time following along in lectures. He’s often asked questions by the professors (because they call on everyone equally) and he is rarely able to respond. Sometimes he just shakes his head. When he must communicate with either the professors or our classmates, he makes everyone write down what they want to say; he also responds by writing.

In light of this situation, and also my experienced with HIT's application process, it seems quite obvious that foreign students get much more leeway with admissions criteria than Chinese. Perhaps this is because having a larger foreign student body adds prestige to the university?

Changing Majors

After several days of going back and forth to the university, I was informed by the admissions office that they also no longer had a contemporary and modern history major. This time, however, I was given many more options than just “Marxism”. The period closest to what I wanted to study was the Ming and Qing era.

I was led to the head of the history department who outlined my options, the majors available in the department, and the courses each major focused on. She was very helpful in not only providing a detailed outline, but she also gave me the professional outline of each professor so that I could choose an adviser. I was given the number of my adviser and told I should call him to arrange a meeting. I did just that and we met the next day.

Choosing an Advisor

My brother-in-law (a year shy of beginning graduate school) had told me that when choosing an advisor, I should take the one I want to study under out to dinner, get him really drunk, and give him a 红包 of at least 1000 RMB. Having been in China for quite some time, this made sense. My wife, however, said this was a bad idea and that no one did this. I even felt a little odd about giving someone money the first time we met.

In the end, with the Moon Festival approaching, I decided to go to Makey and splurge on one of the moon-cake sets. I bought the most expensive one they had (about 300 RMB). In typical Chinese style, the box was very ornate. When I met my adviser, we chatted a bit about my academic history, plans for the future, etc. I said lots of nice, flowery and flattering things. Before I left I handed him the moon-cake set. He seemed very happy about that. Upon speaking with my classmates, it doesn’t seem typical to give 红包’s. I’m also pretty sure no one gives gifts either—though I think it’s still a good idea.

My Classmates

The history department at HeiDa is broken up into different majors. Including me, there are 14 students studying the Ming and Qing dynasties. There are 12 Chinese students (the 13^th is the Japanese student I mentioned above).

My classmates come from all over China, with only 2 or 3 being local Harbiners. While everyone speaks Mandarin clearly enough, those from further south mumble; some students also speak very quietly. This makes it very difficult for me to follow along in discussions in a classroom with poor acoustics. Often times I can understand the professor perfectly, but not my classmates. Often I have to follow along with just half of the conversation.

My advisor has five students from this class under his wing. When we met with him earlier in the semester he asked how many of us had plans to continue studying a PhD. Of the five, I was the only one. The other four seemed more interested in being able to find a job after graduation.

The motivation and participation level of my classmates is quite low during lectures. The professor often asks questions which no one answers. Sometimes it’s unclear if they’re just being shy or they don’t know the material. At the beginning of the semester we treated the whole department (six professors all together) to a big meal. During that meal as my classmates were going around the table introducing one another, it seemed few of them were history majors as undergraduates. A couple of them even said the only reason they chose history for their MA was because they didn’t test high enough for what they wanted. Clearly, having classmates who don’t have a strong enough foundation in the course material, aren’t interested in pursuing research, or not even interested in history at all dampens the classroom environment.

Close to the end of the semester, we told we would be giving a brief talk on what research we had been doing outside of class for our term papers. On the day we were to give the presentations, I was the only student who had prepared anything. The professor insisted everyone stand and speak—some students simply took their notes from our other class together and read from that.

All of my classmates are friendly and easy to get along with, they’re clearly just not very interested in studying.

Classes, Professors and Teaching Methodology

For the three years of the program (six semesters), we attend classes for three semesters. The first semester includes four classes (two major-related, two not). The two non-major related classes are 马克思主义 and English. Foreign students aren’t required to take Marxism, nor are we required to take English (at least those who come from an English-speaking country). Instead, the Marxism class is substituted with 中国概况 (still not sure exactly what this is) and Chinese language classes. I was told I could defer on scheduling these for another time, so I did. I’ll probably schedule them for the second semester of my second year, which is when I’ll have finished my core classes.

For our core classes, or at least for the two we’ve had so far, the teaching methodology is very similar. The professor stands (or sits) at the front of the classroom and lectures from his notes. Occasionally, he’ll ask us questions. The difficulty for me in these classes is that we’re not given material from which to study or prepare. While the professor may give us the topic in advance, the topic is often very broad.

While my Chinese level is good enough to follow along and participate in day-to-day language, I struggle when I come across topics which are very specialized. In some cases, not knowing one or two words can make it very difficult to follow along in a lecture, even when the context is understood. In addition, both of the professors I had for this last semester spoke using 书面语—both very formal and flowery, with a lot of 成语 and 文言文. While I did not have much trouble most of the time, there were a few cases where I was completely lost for 10 or so minutes.

In most cases the professors will write key words on the board. At first, I struggled to read the handwriting, especially since it was written in 连笔, but as the semester progressed I got better at it. Also, Pleco is an absolute life saver. Having an excellent program and dictionary has made looking up and reviewing vocabulary much easier.

Study Load

In order to prepare for my classes, I did a lot of reading and self-study prior to the start of the semester. Unfortunately, as I had believed I would be studying modern history, all of my studies revolved around that. Having been flung into a different period altogether, I’ve been at a severe disadvantage. Not only am I not familiar with the main events, but clearly having to understand 文言文 had made things much more difficult to start.

I’ve found that it’s always been easier to have a good grasp of the material in L1 (English) prior to studying it in Chinese. This way, if I come across an item I don’t understand in Chinese, having a good foundation in English helps confirm whether or not what I think I’ve read is actually what I’ve read. At the start of the semester, my reading speed was very slow, but as things have progressed I’ve become much faster.

Of the three classes I took (one was an elective with my adviser—the only course on modern history the university offers), only one had any assigned reading. For me, the bulk of the semester was spent brushing up on the Ming and Qing period, in particular the specific terminology in Chinese, which never transfers from English. In class, it can often be difficult to follow along, not because I don’t know the material, but because I don’t know the specific phrase used in Chinese. For example, the treaty signed at the end of the first Sino-Japanese war in 1895 is (in English) the treaty of Shimonoseki, but in Chinese it’s 马关条约, which sounds nothing like Shimonoseki. There are a lot of instances like this.

Advice for Potential Graduate Students

Do as much research on the university and major as you can before you apply. Hunt down professors, former students, speak with office staff, etc. to make sure the university has the program you want.

If you fit the criteria, apply for the CSC scholarship. You likely stand a good chance of getting it.

If you have a family, or are also working, ensure your Chinese level is already at a very good level. If you have to study too much language in addition to course material, you’ll easily get behind.

You’ll need to have very strong reading skills. I’ve attached some examples of what we’ve read this semester. If you can read through these with no problem you’re likely at a level good enough for graduate school.

Study formal Chinese (书面语). It will make reading and listening much easier. I recommend this book.

I’d be happy to answer any questions anyone has about my experience thus far. I’ll update this post at the end of each semester.

Research [Added 01/30/2012]

To this point, I have not attended a graduate school in the West, so I'm not familiar with how western institutions instruct, promote, or cultivate research skills in their students. As such, I don't have room for comparison.

With my university, a professor provided us with a handout on the first day of classes. It was a double-sided A4 sheet which had broken down the major works for each period/dynasty. The bottom of the second side had just under a dozen websites listed. We were told that by the time we graduate we should have read all of these books (close to a hundred in total). We were also told that when researching a topic or looking for specific works, we should use the websites provided. This was the extent of our "research training".

When I asked my adviser about research methods in private, he was helpful in showing me around the campus libraries. He also showed me the same handout mentioned above. For some reason, he's very big on having us search 中国知网 and read theses published by previous students (I'll discuss this site below).

Regarding the libraries, while the buildings are relatively modern, the bookshelves are quite bare. I'm not sure if this is because they're moving things over to the new library, or if the available resources are just very scarce. It seems quite a shame that the campus' two enormous libraries are largely bare. In addition, the selections available all seem quite dated. With that said, one section of the library does provide the most recent subscription of a number of academic journals. Yet my adviser, when showing me around this section, only pointed to a couple he said were worth reading.

Without much direction, I've had to fend for myself in finding online research tools. As commuting back and forth to the States to visit libraries there is not feasible, the internet has become my best research partner. I won't bother listing here most of the websites written on the handout mentioned above as I found them unintuitive, user-unfriendly, and out-dated (one website hadn't been updated since 2005). Instead, I'd like to share some tools I've found which have been a tremendous help thus far in my research.

Google Scholar is probably the most well-known. It's essentially Google for academics. It seems to search major university and journal databases. While Google Scholar is excellent at helping you track down citations and specific works, the links it points you to generally only provide abstracts, and may require payment to access the full site/article. For example, a typical search may point you to an article you want, yet you may be required to be a subscriber to that database or journal in order to view or download the article. With that said, there are many articles available free of charge.

Google Books is one of Google Scholar's favorite resources. In most cases, you can view a book's table of contents, introductionary sections, and sometimes the first few pages of each chapter. This is a great way to take a peek into works you may be interested in purchasing/borrowing.

中国知网 is a search engine for Chinese academic journals and online theses databases. The advanced search function does a decent job at finding what you need if you're specific enough, but the engine itself doesn't seem to do a great job at filtering out material completely unrelated to your search criteria. Also, the results are heavy on master's level and doctorate theses. For reasons discussed in this post, these may not be the best sources to gather a good deal of information you need. This is a subscription site. Google Scholar will often point to articles, theses etc. located here.

爱问共享资料 has so far been my saving grace. Whenever I search this website, I feel like a kid in a candy show. There are tons and tons of books, articles, etc. here, most for free. Before I consider purchasing any book from Amazon, I always run a search here first. A lot of material is free to download, however some downloads require "payment" in the form of tokens. You get 20 tokens when you sign up for an account (downloads can cost 1, 2, or 5 tokens). You can earn more tokens by uploading your own material. There doesn't seem to be a system in place to keep you from creating multiple accounts *cough cough*.

Finally, something I haven't yet taken advantage of yet, but likely will in the future, is Amazon's Kindle Textbook Rental. Many books available in any type of electronic format can now be "rented" from Amazon for 30 or more days. I believe the initial period is 30 days, with subsequent renting periods requiring additional payment. This looks to be a great idea as rentals can help you save up to 80%.

Update: 12/7/11

I completed the second semester of my MA degree at Heilongjiang University July 1. This semester was both challenging and extremely demotivating. As a whole, I’d say I received more headaches than I did education. More on this below.

We had five classes this semester, all mandatory and assigned. In other words, we weren’t given any freedom to choose our own courses. (I’m not sure how this compares with MA programs in the West.) Below I’ve included a brief summary of each course along with my reflections.

中国古代史料科学

The presentation of this class as a whole seemed completely useless. The professor, while clearly the most responsible of the bunch (because she actually taught her own classes—more on this below), simply read off a long list of books, the authors, and why these books were important. The class was literally “XYZ is an important book because….. It was written by….. Next, …..”

In addition, while we were all Master’s students of the Ming-Qing period, more than three-fourths of the semester was devoted to previous periods. I understand the Chinese mindset that in order to understand one dynasty we must understand those that came before it as each successful dynasty improved on the systems of its predecessors, yet it seemed unnecessary to spend so much time on information that was not pertinent to our research.

明清民族与边疆研究

All of the professors at HLJU have research interests tied to border and minority people’s issues. However, Chinese students don’t choose a university based on finding professors with whom they share common research interests. Instead, they choose the best university which will admit them based on their graduate exam score. As such, graduate students generally adopt the research interests of their professors/advisers. Most of my classmates have chosen border-related research topics because they couldn’t think of one on their own. It appears they’re simply doing work for their advisers.

In the case of this course, I feel the topic was too narrowly focused and filled with redundancy. This may not have been the case had the professor chosen to teach the class. Instead, he gave a short introduction to the topic during week one and then assigned topics to us to teach. As we, the students, were responsible for teaching, the professor only attended lectures when convenient for his schedule. He was absent for half, if not more, of the lessons.

明清史专题

This course had the same professor as the one above, with the same format (i.e. students taught the class, not the professor). This topic was much more relevant to us as a whole, but was butchered by poor preparation and a clear lack of enthusiasm for the subject and respect for one’s peers. More on this below.

明清史文化史

This course was really a hodgepodge of topics spanning the Ming-Qing period. This professor taught the first several classes, providing a foundation for the rest of the semester. However, as the professor above, he also ended up assigning topics for us, the students, to teach. He was also absent from several classes, though not as many as the professor above.

明清学术史

For me, this looked to be the most interesting course of the semester. Unfortunately, it was headed by the worst professor. He was hung over on the first day of class. We know, because he told us. He often ate breakfast and smoked in class.

What angers me most about this professor is his nerve. He taught the first several classes, only to complain not quite a third through the semester that we weren’t participating enough; perhaps because all of his sources were in classical Chinese, which we all struggled with, he did not provide handouts or assign textbooks, and he also refused to explain the language he cited, stating that it was “too simple” to bother with in class.

Before giving up with his own lectures, he whined (really, he whined) that he’s “the best professor in the History department” because he prepares his own materials and actually teachers the classes. He then proceeded to assign topics to us to teach for the remainder of the semester. However, instead of providing feedback on our content, as the professors above did (when they attended class), he played computer games on his laptop. (I actually took a photo of him doing so!) He also commented that he was very happy he wouldn’t have to teach us again. The feeling is mutual.

Teaching Methodology

As a whole, the approach of assigning topics to students to teach was an epic failure, and for several reasons.

First, many of my classmates do not have a background in history (two of them studied accounting). As such, they don’t have the background to go into enough depth for the topics assigned. Many of my classmates simply photocopied books and/or articles and read straight from these materials during their “lessons.”

Second, many of my classmates simply do not care about their education. It’s very obvious that they know that regardless of how they perform, they’ll get their degree in the end. Many are simply going through the motions hoping that an advanced degree will help them get a better job.

Third, the professors provided a syllabus for us to follow. Ideally, we’d all be able to see what the next week’s topic was so that we could read ahead and prepare to participate in the discussion. However, after the first few student-taught classes, my classmates switched the order and even chose their own topics. As no one ever notified anyone in advance of what their topic was or of what material they were preparing from, it made it impossible to prepare ahead of time.

Lastly, my classmates are simply not teachers. Except for me, no one in the class has any teaching experience. As such, no one knew how to write a lesson plan, how to manage the classroom, how to lead a discussion, etc. In other words, no one could teach. Most classmates simply read straight from source material. Only a couple were able to lead discussions in a manner on par with a graduate-level course.

CSC Scholarship

Everything along this front went well. The only annoyance was that I was often messaged at the very last minute to “come immediately” to sign for my monthly allowance. As I have a number of responsibilities outside of my studies, it was always inconvenient to drop everything to run down to the office. Fortunately, the staff was understanding of my situation, and often allowed me to sign early or a day or two late without consequence.

However, CSC wasn’t the only institution which assumed that students have no life outside of the classroom. The history department also made several “demands” for our time, often at the very last minute. I assume this isn’t a problem for most students, as they don’t have jobs and/or families.

Workload

The workload this semester was very heavy (for me). I made it a point to put a serious amount of effort into preparing for my lessons. I always sourced multiple sources and points of view, brought in handouts and photos when relevant, and made it a point to teach communicatively (much to the chagrin of my classmates, who would prefer to never be called upon to participate or answer questions).

On this later point, my discussions were lively when professors were present, but when the professor was not present, I was largely ignored as my classmates text messaged, surfed the net on their phones, or did homework for other classes. (Hypocritically, I often did work for other classes as well when I couldn’t follow a “lecture”, or the content was so dull that I had to find something to justify my time spent in class.)

To be fair...

There were three classmates who really stood out as putting a lot of time and effort into their lessons (there are twelve of us altogether). They were able to teach without their lesson plan, citing many sources from memory. They were also able to answer most questions that were asked of them without any hesitation. These three really knew their stuff.

Aside from the one professor who I clearly didn’t care for, the others are all very nice, very knowledgeable people. If you asked them questions in class, they were always able to answer and provide additional resources. They were also very willing and open to spending extra time with us answering questions outside of class, recommending books, etc. In general, I’m happy with the personality and ability of the professors. What I’m not happy with is the format of "teaching" which was used this semester.

I’m confident I would have learned much more had the professors actually taught on their own. After many discussions (again, when they were present), they would often supplement what had been discussed with what they believed was important. These brief talks often proved to be much more valuable than what my classmates presented.

Lastly, the professors' absences were largely due to attending conferences in other cities (or so we've been told).

What’s to come

Next semester we only have three classes. This will be our last semester of classes. The final year and a half of the program is devoted to researching our Master’s thesis. More on that later on in the year.

Update: 12.12.25

This was my program’s third semester. It was also the final semester of classes.

My Chinese classmates and I had three MA classes. I also had to take two elective classes. The elective classes are taken in place of Marxism and English, which are not required for foreign students.

The MA classes were 清代知识分子问题研究, 中国古代社会史研究, and 中国制度史. The electives were 中国概况 (mandatory for all foreign graduate students) and 古代文学.

The professor for 清代知识分子问题研究 was one of the same professors we had last semester. We were informed at the end of last semester that the “teaching” style for this class would be identical to that of his other classes; i.e. the students do all of the teaching, and the professor attends class whenever it is convenient for him.

I knew immediately that this would be a huge waste of my time (see above). In addition, the language school I work for on the weekends had asked if I was interested in opening an additional class (i.e. more money) during the time slot for which the 清代知识分子问题研究 was scheduled to be. I spoke with the professor, who also happens to be my advisor, about opting out of the class under the pretense that my school needed me to open a new class. He agreed, assigning me three books to read in place of the class.

The other two classes were with the professor who taught us 史料学 in the previous semester. My classmates had no qualms at this point of the program about completely ignoring the professor during lectures. Each classmate did their own thing during the lectures; activities which varied from sleeping to playing hand-held game consoles, and from texting to reading books for other classes.

The MA classes continued to live up to the low standards I’ve come to expect since beginning the program in September 2011. There were no syllabi, textbooks, or assigned readings. The professor droned on for hours with little response from the students. The core material veered way off track from the Ming-Qing (our major) period and in many cases rehashed material we had heard before in other classes with other professors.

The elective classes, however, tell a very different tale. In general, these classes—designed specifically for foreign students—seem to be held to much higher standards than those aimed toward a Chinese-only cohort.

To start, the facilities in the foreign student are much better than those for Chinese students. The classrooms are equipped with white boards (instead of chalk boards), computers, speakers, and an overhead projector and project screen. The classrooms in these buildings are also warm and comfortable, whereas the main liberal arts building (where I have my MA classes) was so cold that my feet were always freezing (and this is with two pairs of socks and thick snow boots on. I never took off my hat, scarf or jacket in this building, whereas I could always get comfortable in the foreign students’ building. Faulty equipment in the foreign students’ building was also repaired in a timely manner, whereas the door knob for the room in which my MA classes were held was broken on day 1 of classes this semester (early September), and not fixed until late November. (Students got locked in/out of the classroom on several cases due to this issue.)

In addition, the overall organization of the elective classes was much better. Professors presented structured syllabi on the first day and followed them throughout the semester. There were assigned textbooks and readings, the content of which was pertinent to the lectures. The professors taught communicatively, organizing activities which engaged students and required discussion. Students were assessed on the material covered in the texts and lectures. The professors were also well-dressed, punctual, and rarely (if ever) missed or canceled classes.

While all foreign, the motivations and approaches to learning of these students varied. Of the three elective classes I’ve taken (I also audited a 近代史 class during my first semester; see above), two have been for BA students and one, the 中国概况, for MA students.

The BA classes were preponderantly comprised of Russians, who, in general, I found very disrespectful. They were late, did not pay attention, slept, chatted throughout the lectures, and, again speaking in general, had a very poor level of Chinese.

On the other hand, the MA students were a multi-national group, with students hailing from Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Japan. They were all very respectful toward the teacher and each other. They completed assignments and participated in discussions. Of the thirty or so students in this class, more than 90% were Chinese language majors, the others studying economics. Of all these students, however, only one or two had decent oral Chinese. Toward the end of the semester we were all required to teach a short 5-10 minute lesson on a topic of our choice. More often than not, the presenters were unintelligible, and had it not been for their prepared materials (e.g. handouts, power point presentation, etc.), I would have found it near impossible to understand anything they said. I had expected much more from Chinese language majors.

Regarding these contrasts, I can give the most allowance to the disparity in facilities. The foreign students’ building caters only to hundreds of students while the Chinese facilities must cater to tens of thousands. Clearly, size and maintenance are issues which contribute to such a disparity.

My main concern, and gripe, is that it is very clear that the university is capable of recruiting intelligent and organized professors while also installing systems and courses which adhere to communicative teaching principles. If the university can do so for the foreign student body, why can’t it also do this for the Chinese student body?

What the Chinese system lacks, by my estimation, is an overall lack of integrity, responsibility—professional and academic—and passion. Professors’ inability to hold both one’s self and students to high standards of personal and academic excellence, orthopraxy, a pervasive 差不多 attitude, and general apathy is stunting the emergence of what could be a vibrant intellectual community. (This is an idea/mini-thesis I'm working on drafting into a full article, which I'll link to once complete.)

What’s next?

While we’ve finished classes, or will be over the next two weeks, we still have a year and a half of the program remaining, all of which is classified as dissertation research.

Update: 13.4.23

This update is likely to come across as a bit negative as I've been extremely frustrated of late with the school systems and overall complete lack of organization.

With classes having been finished last semester, this and following semesters for the next year and a half are devoted to writing our theses. While the curriculum devotes three semesters to research and writing, we're actually only given until early December. The steps are:

Semester 4 (mid-April): Thesis proposal and committee review

Semester 5 (early December): Committee review of rough draft

Semester 6 (very end of the semester; i.e. early July): Committee review of final draft

So, in actuality, we have to have the bulk of the writing done by the end of November. Of course, none of this is outlined in the curriculum. Dates are ostensibly scheduled at a whim. It honestly seems like the department says, 好的，到时候了, and then schedules whatever is necessary. This has led to a lot of last-minute scrambling.

Each "committee review" is comprised of a panel of five professors. The professors are those which teach the 古代史 curriculum, and who also serve as the advisors for the graduate students. I've had classes with all but one of these professors.

I first learned in February that we would be required to submit a written proposal to our advisors sometime in March or April. (My advisor is the one who informed me of this.) I was told that following submission of the written proposal, there would be a defense in front of the committee. I was told that the specific date of the defense had not been scheduled, but that my advisor--he told me this in person--would inform me of the date. I commented that I must know far ahead in advance so that I could take the morning/afternoon off work, to which he replied, "Since you're a special case, you don't need to attend. Just submit the forms and we'll do it individually." Great, I thought. I won't have to miss work (and therefore be docked pay!).

Toward the end of March, I received a text message from our 班长 that she had posted some information regarding the paperwork and defense to our QQ group. I replied to her text message promptly informing her (for the 100th time) that my request to join the group had still not been accepted, and I therefore could not access the information she had posted. She said she was busy, but would send the information to me later... which, of course, she never did.

I then received another text message (these are all mass texts, which go to all our classmates), the Monday before the defense, notifying me that I was to submit six copies of my proposal in accordance with the department format by that Wednesday. She also informed me that the defense was scheduled for that coming Sunday afternoon. I contacted my advisor, explained that I had not been informed/kept in the loop, and that my day of work had already been scheduled. (I had already scheduled to take off that Saturday morning and afternoon to take the GRE.) I also questioned him about his comment made in February that I would not need to attend the defense. This time, his attitude and tone was very different. I *must* do everything as everyone else was. Period.

Okay. Annoying, but okay. This is doable. I got a good friend to cover my afternoon class, which would give m just enough time to sit in front of the committee at 1:30 and then hurry back to work. The 班长 sent me a copy of someone else's paperwork, which I used to format my own. I was told that the only important parts were the bibliography and chapter outline. For the bibliography, the "class leader" told me to 多写点, by which she essentially meant to include a lot of books, even if I wasn't intending to use them.

While I was annoyed at having to drop everything I was doing to focus on this, I had spent the past 18 months researching and writing as my advisor had approved my research topic back in the fall of 2011. (This will be important in a minute.) I typed up the report, wrote a rough chapter outline and a bibliography, which included only books I had either read or was planning to use. I submitted this via email to my advisor to review before I passed it along to the "official" channels.

My original intent was to research Westernized radicalism, cultural conservatism, and Neo-Confucianism in Chinese students studying abroad in America between 1915 - 1925. As mentioned above, my advisor thought this was a great topic, and so I got started (again, eighteen months ago).

As luck would have it, my advisor was singing a different tune when it came down to the deadline. He and a classmate "edited" my original chapter outline, putting the focus more on statistical data (e.g. where students studied, numbers of students, where they were from, what their majors were, etc.) and less on their thinking. My whole argument was that these students were far from being strictly conservative, as prior scholarship has stereotyped them as. Whereas previous scholars focused on a narrative history of these students, I wanted to focus on their thinking. The new outline was essentially a recapitulation of what other scholars have already written; that is, a narrative account of this group of students. In addition, I was told to add more books to my bibliography. I responded that I didn't have time between then and Wednesday to read the amount which they wanted me to add. I was told just reading the back cover/abstract would be sufficient for including it as a referenced work.

I reiterated my original intention, and with a few of my own changes, I managed to reconcile the two directions. I submitted this to the official channels, and waited for Sunday.

As mentioned above, we each submitted six copies of our proposal the Wednesday prior to the defense. These were supposedly going to the professors so that they could look over them in advance, make notes, suggestions, etc. As we sat in the conference room that Sunday afternoon waiting for the professors to arrive, a classmate brought in the stack of our thesis, all unmarked. Then the professors arrived, they were handed out. It was very clear they had not looked at anyone's proposals; likely with the exception of their advisees'.

I was the first one to be called up. I was asked to give a brief summary of my main points, why I had chosen this topic, and what made it special. I responded to this prompt briefly. As I was talking, however, I noticed only two professors listening. Two were flipping through reading my proposal, and the professor who played solitaire in class while we taught was, surprise surprise, playing on some mobile device. He did this the entire time I spoke, stopping only to tell me the same thing he told me at the end of last semester--that my thesis 没有任何新意.

The others only commented on the topic, and not at all on the content. I was asked to explain the chapter outline, which I did. I was then told that my topic was too broad. (This is because the "editing" done by my advisor and classmate made it very broad.) The original topic was 从签订二十一条至五卅惨案，中国留美学生在美的过激主义，保守主义与新儒家思想, which was changed to ershi shiji chuqi zhongguo liumei xuesheng sixiang yanjiu.* I was also told that a topic such as 思想 was too complicated and broad, and that I shouldn't attempt to tackle it, to which I rebutted that I had a very narrow scope to focus my research, which I had already begun.

In the end, the committee completely disregarded the idea of me doing anything related to 思想 and instead wanted to guide me toward the more narrative nature of previous publications. I listened to their suggestions, made notes, and left once they had finished with me.

Okay, all done, I thought. I'll continue on with my research as I had already been doing for quite some time. No. I wouldn't. My advisor called me a few days later to ask how the revisions were going. Revisions? I asked. Apparently I had to not only do exactly what the committee had "recommended," but I had to write exactly I had outlined in the proposal; nothing more, and nothing less. And, of course, my advisor sent me a newly "edited" proposal, which scotched all elements of 思想, radicalism, etc., and instead was, in addition to the statistical data, now included sub-chapters such as "clothes and food," none of which was in accord with my original topic or chapter outline. I was also going to be required to sign a form which stated I would not deviate from the "agreed upon" outline.

When I commented to my advisor that this research had already been done, he asked me if my specific newly "edited" topic (now ershishiji chuqi zhongguo liumei xuesheng yanjiu*) came up when searched in 知网 or other publication-search websites. When I responded it did not, he said, "Well, then, there's no problem." "But, Professor, this has already been done in English," I replied. "Then your translation will be unique to China!"

Barf.

*I've changed this from characters to pinyin as I don't want a professor or classmate searching this topic and then coming across this post, which, in some regards, does not reflect glowingly upon my experience thus far.

The most frustrating aspect of all of this is that the department is being so inflexible with my topic. I'm not sure how graduate programs in the States are, but I'd assume that you'd start out with something broad which would be refined as you did more research and worked with the primary sources. I don't understand how students are supposed to start with a chapter outline and write to that before they've even looked at a primary source.

What's looking to be the most likely case is that my topic has been the target of censorship. My advisor is a card-carrying member of the CCP (he has a plaque on his desk), and the classmate which helped "revise" my topic and chapter outline has taken the 国务院 exam in the last year, so that may mean he's on track for membership as well. If this is the case, that I'm being censored, then it's clear that the university/Party allows no leeway whatsoever in research topics which may stray from the political narrative.

Reading List

Below is a list of some books I've read/been reading over the last year and a half. I'd recommend all of these, some more than others. As my current project is centered around early Republican intellectual history, many books are tied to those topics. I'll add to this list as I come across new books, or remember one's I've read before.

The Search for Modern China, Jonathan Spence
The Cambridge History of China, Volumes 9 - 12
China's Last Empire, William Rowe
China's Republic, Diana Lary
China in Transformation: 1900-1949, by Colin Mackerras
Awakening China: Politics, Culture, and Class in the Nationalist Revolution, John Fitzgerald
China in War and Revolution, 1895-1949, Peter Zarrow
A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China, Benjamin Elman
From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China, Benjamin Elman
Confucian China and Its Modern Fate, Joseph Levenson
Liang Ch'i Ch'ao And The Mind Of Modern China, Joseph Levenson
Hu Shih and the Chinese Renaissance: Liberalism in the Chinese Revolution, 1917-1937, Jerome B. Grieder
Sun Yat-sen, by Marie-Claire Bergere
The True Story of Lu Xun, David E. Pollard
The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919, Vera Schwarcz
The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China, Chow Tse-tsung

 

Updated: 14/5/30

 

Mission Accomplished! (knock on wood)

 

I have to knock on wood because it seems that every time I've "finished", something else crops up.

 

The past month or so has been a bit chaotic. The chaos stems mostly from all of the last-minute issues which occur. For example, after handing in the "final" copy of my thesis on March 27 (my advisor told me that this had to be a perfect copy as it was the copy which would be evaluated by the independent committee recommending us for the final thesis defense) I was contacted at 4 pm on April 16 (on my way out the door to pick up my son from kindergarten) by my advisor telling me that the formatting for thesis wasn't the "official" formatting. I inquired what the specific problem was so as to fix it, and he told me he couldn't tell me (because he didn't know) and that I should contact a classmate.

 

Three classmates later, I learned that none of my classmates had formatted their own thesis, and that they had all paid someone to do so. Well, with thirty minutes to the deadline, I got in contact with said person and forked over 180 RMB to have him reformat my thesis. This incident is really a microcosm for the entire three years I've spent in the Master's program here at HeiDa (e.g. the system is disorganized, no one has all the facts, everyone is informed at the last minute of certain deadlines, etc., and the egregious fact that professors don't read what their students write--my professor clearly had at least three weeks time to review my thesis and notice the formatting wasn't correct).

 

Another case in point attesting to the latter:

 

Our "thesis defense" was this past Monday. Each student prepared a 2 - 7 minute self-introduction/thesis overview. The committee, made up of our professors, then provided comments. It was evident from the comments provided by the committee that no one on the committee had given more than a passing glance at any of the theses. One professor even said during my defense, "I've just received this, so I haven't had time to review it." Another professor, after glancing at my table of contents, commented that my thesis didn't contain enough commentary on how the group in question viewed America, when, AS IS CLEAR FROM THE TABLE OF CONTENTS, I DEVOTE AN ENTIRE CHAPTER TO DISCUSSING THIS ISSUE. Another had nothing more to say than, "good topic choice." Additionally, my thesis had no fewer than two dozen errors (in the Chinese translation), which I only caught after reviewing it for the umpteenth time (my fault, obviously). However, my advisor, who I had expected would review my thesis in its entirety, didn't note even one of these errors, including an incredibly obvious one in the second paragraph of my abstract ON PAGE 2 of the paper.

 

I believe the biggest source of frustration from this experience stems from expectations. I had high expectations for the university, professors, and my classmates going in. I also had expected that high expectations would be held for me. In the end, however, it seems that even Chinese academia abides by the 差不多 attitude which I've come to loathe in my eight years in China. The silver lining here is that this experience has taught me that no matter where I go the only person who will consistently hold me to high expectations is myself, and that it's my responsibility to ensure that I hold myself to a high moral, professional, and academic standard.

 

Negatives aside, this experience has been more positive than negative. The structure of the program provided motivation to learn about my field in depth. Attending lectures and reading genuine Chinese sources has improved my Chinese, especially within an academic context. The process of researching and writing a thesis in two languages (~42,000 English, 60,000 Chinese) has been an invaluable professional experience. Additionally, as I've completed this through the CSC scholarship program, I haven't had to pay for anything. In fact, the stipend alone provided over the last three years has amounted to approximately US$10,000, which has all gone into savings. Most importantly, I believe that it was this experience which led to me being accepted into a one of my top-choice PhD programs in the States with guaranteed funding for at least five years. As having the opportunity to pursue a PhD at a top school in the US has been my ultimate goal since leaving the States in 2005, I'm pleased that my accomplishments here in China have been validated by an American authority, and I now have an opportunity to continue to pursue my dream and passion with highly motivated individuals within a challenging and rigorous intellectual community.

晚明史.pdf

变迁之神：南宋时期的民间信仰 【美】韩森.pdf

[gato]

Great writeup, kdavid.

Can you say a bit more about the assigned reading? Is there a written syllabus? How many pages per week? What kind of material? Textbooks, scholarly books, or articles?

(Are you able to read Ray Huang's 万历十五年 in Chinese, yet?)

What are you supposed to read for the two classes without assigned reading?

How much are classes about memorizing/learning about facts, as opposed to analysis?

I wonder if the "close" of the modern history departments at both schools is due to recent conservative political climate.

That lack of interest in intellectual matters is unfortunately common among Chinese university students. I've seen that with graduates of the top-tier schools, as well. It's very much a "get a degree with as little effort as possible and get a top-earning job" attitude.

[amandagmu]

I've met, sat in classes, or dealt with extensively with people at the following schools: 北大，北体，人大, and 华师大(上海）。I have found 北大 and 华师大 PhD candidates and professors in politics, political history, and international relations to be of very high caliber. I believe this is largely because most of them have spent a significant amount of time dealing with non-Chinese scholars (so, participating in a global community of researchers) and/or they have done significant research and presented it outside of China. (Many 北大 and 华师大 professors and their graduate students have held long-term fellowships at places like the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. and GiGA in Hamburg.) I have also experienced what gato mentioned with some people from 北大, particularly with some people who must have had good 关系 to get in or work there. They are the outliers in my field, however, as most people are quite good. (Of course, having a few bad apples is not unusual elsewhere -- I heard a terrible presentation the other day from someone in my field who has a PhD from Harvard, the kind of presentation with completely ridiculous conclusions and vacuous statements that made several of us in the audience think "Really? They let YOU get a PhD from Harvard?")

I think in part because it's located in Shanghai, the 华师大 history and politics people seem much more open to discussion, new research, and new ideas. It hardly seemed surprising that the 上海市档案馆 and 上海图书馆, in contrast to any of the archives or libraries I used in Beijing, were always full. I didn't need as much 关系 to talk to people either. Most were more than willing to go get a drink or lunch with me and get straight into research chats. No topic was forbidden or awkward. Likely this is also due to the long-standing ties and the number of their people who have studied elsewhere and/or been engaged in discussions with foreign scholars.

In sharp contrast to these two schools and groups of people, the professors and students from the other two universities I mentioned are much more of a mixed bag. They have all been friendly, but only a few of them have engaged in serious research with non-Chinese scholars, meaning that they are often unaware of debates on certain topics I thought most people knew about. When I was in Beijing last year I found myself aggravated with their students as well - so many of them were just lazy, didn't do assignments, and seemed to be on track to just get out as soon as possible and find a job. I attended a regular graduate student seminar at one place and most the time only half the people seemed to show up. No one engaged in discussion or debate with the professor, even when one particular professor encouraged and begged them too. (This was a professor who I often debated with over lunch and in his office all the time. He was quite familiar with issues in the field in and outside China and he always wanted to know about my new research, even gave me some great ideas for directions on certain issues.)

Oh, and I thought it was funny that kdavid mentions the research presentations - I found that even when the professor I mention above assigned people a date well in advance they would come in either 1) totally unprepared or 2) with a sloppy powerpoint presentation that had been written entirely based on some book they had read and/or baidu, and occasionally with some theory that seemed like it had come from left field. My favorite to this date is the guy who said that Stephen Hawking can help us understand the mentality of Formula 1 racers. (I thought I had misheard him until I saw the powerpoint slide with a clip of Hawking in a wheelchair and the Formula 1 clip next to it.) The funny thing was that, even though they technically were doing projects in history, anthropology, and the social sciences, it seemed like no one had ever been to an archive. When I asked for people's advice and experience with them, they shrugged their shoulders but offered to call and get the address for me.

[gato]

My favorite to this date is the guy who said that Stephen Hawking can help us understand the mentality of Formula 1 racers. (I thought I had misheard him until I saw the powerpoint slide with a clip of Hawking in a wheelchair and the Formula 1 clip next to it.)

This was a PhD student, right? 华东师大 has a number of famous professors in modern history. 杨奎松, who focuses on the 1920-1950 period, is my personal favorite.

China has had a Great Leap Forward in university expansion in the last decade. It has resulted in a disastrous decline in the quality of university education. Some say that the damage will last at least a generation.

From 1993 to 2007, the number of undergraduate students admitted increased by 500%, and the number of graduate students increased by 900%.

Teaching resources have not kept up with the increase in student volume. Much of the new government spending has gone into hardware such as new buildings and campuses. Teacher salaries have not kept pace with the private sector, leading few top students wanting to go into academia (particularly with its emphasis on volume publishing today).

http://nf.nfdaily.cn/nfrb/content/2010-09/19/content_16033911.htm

　　1999年以后,随着高等教育大扩招政策的实行, 博士研究生教育呈现出高速扩张。

从1999～2003年,博士生招生规模年均增长26.6%。

1999年全国博士生招生近2万人,2003年招生4.9万人,2004年招5.3万人,2007年招5.8万人(当年在校博士生达到22万人)。

在博士学位授予方面,2001年1.4万人,2004年2.3万人,2006年3.6万人,2007年4.1万人。2008年我国博士学位授予数达到5万以上,甚至超过美国当年博士学位授予数(约5.1万)。

http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2008-09/24/content_10100426.htm

教育部官员:高校扩招没问题 政府投入显不足

2008年09月24日 08:24:36 　来源：中国青年报

扩招给中国高等教育带来巨大变化。然而，增幅最高的并非公众普遍认为的本科学生，而是研究生。相比于1993年，2007年全国研究生招生数增长了8.9倍,普通本专科招生数同期增长了5．12倍。

1993年~2007年，全国研究生招生数从4．22万增加到41.86万，普通本专科招生数从92.4万增加到565.9万人。扩招带来的明显变化是，高等教育在学人数从500万增加到2700万，增长了4．4倍。高等教育毛入学率从5％增加到23％。

张力指出，教育经费占GDP6％以上是支撑教育现代化的基石。但我国1993年《中国教育改革与发展纲要》规定到2000年要达到4％的目标，并没有实现，2006年也仅占3．01％。"中国能否在2010年实现4％（的目标），还是有疑问的"，因为这需要2007年~2010年间，每年至少增加0．25个百分点。需要指出的是，随着GDP这个基数快速增长，提高教育投入比重的难度，无疑越来越大。

教育资源不平衡是另一个矛盾所在。北京当地院校的生均拨款比中央部属院校还多，而四川、江西培养一个公办大学生，仅能得到2000多元政府拨款，"还不足上海培养一个公办小学学生（经费）的四分之一"。张力感慨："世界上很少能够找到我们国家这样——生均预算内拨款最高省是最低省的8倍！这样的情况下，怎么保证质量？"

我国政府预算内教育经费占教育总投入的比重，从1994年的80.5％下降到2006年的40.8％，"一路锐减"。而教育总投入中，社会捐资集资经费的比重更是连年下降。"没有任何一个市场经济健全的国家，社会捐资集资的比重这么低的，从1991年的8.6％降到2006年的不到1％了。"

教育投入结构表中，主要上升的部分是学杂费。"学费、杂费、其他教育经费的增长幅度太快，实际上就是让学校想各种各样的办法去创收。"

[samitakamaki]

Thanks for the thorough write-up! Like you said, information about post-grad studies in China is awfully lacking.

I'm curious about what was demanded from you though, didn't you have any hand-ins or exams at the end of the semester?

Also, what book did you say you recommended for 书面语?

[amandagmu]

Re: Hawking - sadly, yes, that was a PhD student.

Interesting article. I like how the obsession with statistics neglects the fact that some of those American PhDs are also Chinese students, usually the top ones, who have leave China to go elsewhere to do their studies.

[kdavid]

Can you say a bit more about the assigned reading? Is there a written syllabus? How many pages per week? What kind of material? Textbooks, scholarly books, or articles?

This was perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of this semester for me. I had three courses this semester:

中国近代史 (Modern Chinese History)

This was the elective course I took with my adviser. It's designed for undergraduates studying Chinese language.

The course discussed China from 1840-1911 (the first Opium War through Xinhai Revolution). There was no assigned reading or homework for the whole class.

I didn't find this course difficult to follow as I had studied the material and Chinese terminology before hand.

The final grade given was based on a final written exam (no mid-term exam). I didn't have to write the final as this was just an elective.

史学理论与方法

This was supposed to be a historiography class. I had thought we'd be discussing different points of view of history (e.g. intellectual, social, cultural, narrative, gender, race, economic, etc.). Instead, we spent most of the course discussing topics the professor was familiar with (race and minority issues), and we spent little time on other varying perspectives.

This was the only class with assigned reading. We had somewhere around 4 - 5 books for the semester. The professor did not give us a deadline for reading anything. He just said, "Next week we'll start this." Most books I could read in a week (~200 - 300 pages). As I mentioned above, many students did not do the reading.

While this professor seemed a bit disorganized (canceled classes, didn't want to talk about topics outside his field of study), he was good at providing us with alternative points of view and requiring us to think out certain issues (as opposed to just lecturing and requiring us to memorize facts).

中国古代史通论

Perhaps the best way to translate this class is as "A Narrative History of Ancient Chinese History". There were no assigned books or reading. The professor had a different topic each week on which he lectured (e.g. centralization of power, the civil examination system, etc.).

The lectures for this course were insightful and informative, especially as I had no background in Ancient Chinese history. Again, the lack of an organized syllabus and assigned reading made it difficult for me to read ahead, and subsequently follow along in some lectures.

(Are you able to read Ray Huang's 万历十五年 in Chinese, yet?)

I can read it, with a dictionary and a lot of time. The main obstacle for me in reading this is the difficulty of the language. It's very flowery and there's A LOT of period-specific terminology.

What are you supposed to read for the two classes without assigned reading?

No assigned reading for these classes.

How much are classes about memorizing/learning about facts, as opposed to analysis?

There aren't a lot of demands on us. We're assessed on our term papers, not tests. This makes life a bit easier for me as I can choose whatever topics I want for my term papers. This is great as I can focus more on my period of interest (early 20th century) and less on ancient China.

That lack of interest in intellectual matters is unfortunately common among Chinese university students. I've seen that with graduates of the top-tier schools, as well. It's very much a "get a degree with as little as possible and get a top-earning job" attitude.

I've been told by many people that as long as you get accepted into a university program, you're guaranteed to graduate and get the degree, regardless of your performance.

I'd think the only ones serious about research would be those planning on pursuing a PhD at a good school.

[gato]

When I taught at a middle-tier university in Beijing several years ago, students used to tell me that I was the only teacher that assigned readings or that they had to do more reading for my class than for all their other classes combined. I was teaching American law in English.

This was supposed to be a historiography class. I had thought we'd be discussing different points of view of history (e.g. intellectual, social, cultural, narrative, gender, race, economic, etc.). Instead, we spent most of the course discussing topics the professor was familiar with (race and minority issues), and we spent little time on other varying perspectives.

王力雄's "天葬" on the history of Tibet is a read if you are at all interested in race and minority issues in China. It's often recommended as one of the best history books on Tibet. If you are interested in a copy (I have both PDF and ePub versions.) Posting it here would probably get this site banned.

Wang is an ethnic Han and married to a Tibetan woman. In the book, he mentions the strategy of the Manchu Qing emperors of forming alliances with the Dalai Lama in order to pacify the Mongolians. Mongolians had converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the years following Genghis Kahn. Even though the Tibetans were nominally subjects of the Qing Empire, the Dalai Lama would sit next to the emperor when visiting the palace, which is not allowed of almost anyone else.

More recently, he's also written a book on Xinjiang, "我的西域你的东土" (My Western Territory, Your East Turkistan).

[WestTexas]

I've been told by many people that as long as you get accepted into a university program, you're guaranteed to graduate and get the degree, regardless of your performance.

yeah, pretty much. Yet there still seem to be so many people on these forums who don't quite understand how broken the Chinese education system is.

[kdavid]

Yet there still seem to be so many people on these forums who don't quite understand how broken the Chinese education system is.

Slightly off topic, but it doesn't seem quite possible that all these PhDs (those not pulling their wait and doing the coursework) are the ones going on to do ground-breaking research, running the economy, dealing with complex social issues, etc.

This then leads me to ask, "Who is?" If these students aren't getting the education they need in school, when and where are they getting it?

[amandagmu]

Just like in those who ran things in the 20th century -- most of them will be at least partially educated in Europe and North America.

[gato]

The greatest damage to the universities only came in the last decade. Many people doing the bulk of research in China might either be educated in the better days. There are a number of good people who came of age in the 1980s who only have Master's degrees and not PhD because PhD were so rare in those days. It's not the degree that matters, but one's dedication and the amount of freedom one has to do the work. Nowadays because so much emphasis is put on volume, lots of professors just put their names on students' work, and students often plagiarize, so not much original work is being done.

[carlo]

Subject may be an issue. I would guess fields such as finance or engineering would get more resources thrown at them and a more motivated student body (even assuming "greed" is a motivation!) In the current environment, it wouldn't be surprising if the history department wasn't a magnet for intellectual energy.

Very interesting write-up, thanks!

[kdavid]

Nowadays because so much emphasis is put on volume, lots of professors just put their names on students' work, and students often plagiarize, so not much original work is being done.

I'm not saying that I'm going to produce something ground-breaking, but I do worry that my work will be plagarized based soley on the fact that it will be an original point of view (I hope!)

I'm putting an enormous amount of energy into my research as I'm hoping it will be my ticket to a good grad school back home. I worry about how being plagarized may affect this....

[renshanrenhai]

I'm putting an enormous amount of energy into my research as I'm hoping it will be my ticket to a good grad school back home. I worry about how being plagarized may affect this....

I believe your worry is not unnecessary. I have heard about a case of being severely plagarized happened in one of the top-tier universities.

[wushijiao]

Wonderful write up KDavid!

After having a university experience in which I found the teaching/studying aspect to be very shaky, I've often felt that one of the best benefits of getting a Chinese degree would be in the interaction with fellow students and teachers (ie. integrating yourself with other, similar people in Chinese). It sounds like that may not quite be so in your particular circumstances.

Nonetheless, I'd be curious to know whether or not in your opinion if you see interaction with other Chinese students as a big attraction in deciding whether or not to get a higher degree.

[kdavid]

I'd be curious to know whether or not in your opinion if you see interaction with other Chinese students as a big attraction in deciding whether or not to get a higher degree.

While my classmates are friendly enough, in the case of both me and my Japanese classmate, there is clearly case of "us" and "them".

There were a couple times during the semester when a professor canceled a class. When this happens, I think the prof notifies the 班长 who in turn is supposed to notify everyone. Regardless of the protocol, neither me nor the Japanese student were notified on many cases, which resulted in both of us showing up to an empty classroom.

My apartment is 45 minutes from the university by bus. When class starts at 8 am, I have to be out the door before 7, so I'm up at 6. It's a huge waste of time to wake up and travel all the way down there for nothing. After this happened several times, I made a point to express my chagrin. It was only toward the end of the semester that I was promptly notified of cancellations.

In addition to this, there were cases where a prof had told the 班长 about a conference or meeting we may be interested in attending and had asked her to notify us. When she did this, she addressed only the Chinese students. She'd turn her back to us and speak to everyone.

My classmates were roomed together by the university, so most of them spend 24/7 together. I'm also about five years older than them. I think this adds to the ostracization.

Not being able to integrate is not a huge deal for me personally. At the risk of sounding smug, I'm very, very busy, and I don't really have time for much else other than my family, studying and working.

I make it a point to remain open to them, speak up in class, and answers questions about cultural differences, how academics in the US differ from China, questions about their English classes etc. Perhaps for them it's a bit odd having a foreigner in their class who can participate (largely) at the same level they can.

[renshanrenhai]

@ kdavid could you recommend some books or references about Chinese history (especially Song or Qing dynasty ) ? (either English or Chinese versions will be helpful)

[kdavid]

@Sally-txl

I'd be able to help more with Qing references. What topics are you interested in?

[renshanrenhai]

@ kdavid

I am especially interested in two topics 1) the international relationship between Qing dynasty and Europe, Japan, 2) Manchu's history in terms of all aspects .