Tour China
F05
Shunzhu Wang
By focusing on China’s major cities and tour sites, students are provided with a kaleidoscope through which to view the richness of Chinese culture and history. Our study of cities will focus on history and change, while the study of tour sites will focus on the issue of ethnicity. This second focus is called for by the often-overlooked fact that China has 56 different ethnic groups. The goal of this course is to help students break through the stereotypical image of China as a country with an exotic, yet monolithic culture. For each unit (city or site), we will collectively compose a “tourist guide.” This is a multilevel class intended for third- and fifth-term students. The third-term students will contribute to the text in the form of questions and answers, while the fifth-term students will contribute to the text at the discourse level, writing the actual narrative.