Chinese Language Course Class 1 - Elementary
This course is designed for the beginner. By taking this course, students will learn pronunciation, radicals and core characters, understand basic grammars and structures, be able to talk about some basic topics, such as greeting, talking about age, nationality, hometown, family, time and schedule, hobbies, describe a person, complete basic tasks in real life such as order food and shopping.
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Chinese Language Course Class 2 - Intermediate
This course is designed for students who have studied Chinese for a period of time and mastered some basic language knowledge. By taking this course, students will know more Chinese characters, words and grammars and how to communicate with Chinese in their daily life. A variety of topics are covered in this course, like weather and seasons, study, sports, travel, transport, etc. Students will learn to complete more tasks in daily life such as seeing a doctor, asking for directions, checking in hotel, making an appointment. This course may help students improve pronunciation and appropriate expressions, as well as understand more about Chinese culture.
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Chinese Language Course Class 3 - Advanced Chinese
This course is designed for intermediate students. By taking this course, students will comprehensively improve listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, and master the strategy of communication and expression. Students will learn to talk about more topics in greater details, such as the characteristics of a person, housing, lifestyle, examination, occupations, itinerary of a trip, etc.
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History of Modern China
This course serves as a survey of modern Chinese history. It will guide the students to explore the drastic social, cultural and political transitions occurred in China in the past one and half centuries, which have led to the country’s current condition. Lectures and discussions will center on the introduction of the general social context of different historical periods, significant incidents and events, key historical figures, as well as landmark literary texts and cultural artifacts. While generally following a chronological order, the course content will also be arranged in such a way as to address the various themes of social changes that have significant implications in the contemporary era – the reconstruction of national and ethnic identities of modern time, China’s international relationships, religions and secret societies, the transformation of gender role and family relationship, changes in economic policies, as well as trends in literatures and popular cultures. Through the study of an array of texts that include historical documents, literary works, documentary and feature films, the course will provide the opportunities for the students to acquire and exercise analytical skills to critically examine materials from varied medium, sources, and perspectives.
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Globalization and Urbanization: China's Urban Transformation and What it Means for the World
This course introduces students to the recent literature on China’s immense urban transformation process, spatial restructuring and urban problems it causes. Much of the course focuses on the post-1978 period, which fundamentally differs from the preceding 30 years of state socialism. The topics are mainly divided into three parts. Part 1 is on the process and the uniqueness of urbanization in China. Issues such as the socialist ideology, the household registration (hukou) system, rural-urban migration, and globalization will be discussed. We will also pay special attention to the process of urban development in Shanghai. Part 2 is on the spatial restructuring of Chinese cities. Students will study the dominant work unit (danwei) compounds in pre-reform era, urban renewal and expansion and the diversified urban landscapes in the post-reform era. Part 3 will examine various urban issues emerging with the rapid urbanization, such as the massive migration and assimilation, housing problems, urban inequality, and discontent.
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Issues in Contemporary Chinese Society
China’s transition to a market economy and return to the global community have huge impacts over the lives of its people, as well as the rest of the world. While covering other fields such as anthropology, political science, gender studies and urban studies, this course mostly employs a sociological perspective to examine issues in contemporary Chinese society. Topics examined include not only these well-known aspects of Chinese society such as guanxi and face, collectivism and family-centered culture, but also the emerging civil society, onging sexual revolution, and increasing social polarization that are more likely associated with the enormous social change over the past three decades. Students will be asked to critically and creatively think about change and continuity in contemporary China in relation to the dynamic and complex interaction of local factors and global forces.
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Chinese Philosophy
The course is a comprehensive historical survey of the main religious traditions in China, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and some comparative study of Chinese
religion and Christianity. Through lectures, discussions, and reading of select primary
and secondary sources, we will explore the formulations and subsequent transformations
of key beliefs, doctrines, practices, and institutions that characterized specific religious
traditions. We will also examine the patterns of interaction among different traditions, as
well as the general character of religious life in China.
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Internship Course
Internship Course (4 credits and 224 placement hours, OR 6 credits and 340 placement hours PLUS 26 seminar hours) - Conducted in English
In an increasingly interconnected global labor market, employers are looking to hire people with experience in diverse and multicultural environments. The ability to engage and communicate across cultures is an important skill that enables job seekers in navigating the job market and a constantly evolving workplace. An avenue to greater cultural immersion, this semester-long, unpaid international internship represents a unique opportunity to gain awareness of the challenges, subtleties, and pitfalls of working and living in a culture other than your own.
This course is comprised of two parts which together offer experience in and significant reflection on the multicultural workplace. First, you will be placed in a semester-long internship in Shanghai within a sector related to your professional ambitions. Second, you will enroll in an academic seminar that will require you to analyze and evaluate the workplace culture and the daily business environment you experience. While the seminar is conducted in English, your internship placement will be available in English and/or the language of your host country.
*There is an additional placement fee of $700 to enroll in the Internship Course. The course fee includes two business tours in Shanghai and one overnight trip over a weekend.
[4 Credit Syllabus]
[6 Credit Syllabus]
Managing Global Supply Chains
Supply chain management is becoming more and more important for businesses as the scope to outsource globally increases. Companies now have to deal with emerging countries just beginning to compete in global markets. A supply chain is the network of entities from the raw material supplier at one end, going through the plants, warehouses and distribution centers, to retailers, and sometimes the final customer, at the other end.
Supply chain management is the integrated management of the flow and storage of materials, information and funds between the entities comprising the supply chain. The main objective of the supply chain is to create and enhance value as the product, in its intermediate or final form, progresses through the network. The focus of this course will be on Asia and key issues within operations, which are of relevance in a firm’s ability to remain competitive in a global economy.
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Global Issues in China
This course is based on the combination of domestic politics and foreign relations. It not only pays attention to the development of China's domestic politics but also focuses on China's foreign relations. It not only sheds light upon the secrets of China's successful development in the past 40 years, but also reveals the road of China's further development in the future. It not only pays close attention to the security hotspots around China, but also in general unveils the fundamental characteristics of China's foreign strategy, especially the formation of China's peaceful development, the new type of international relations and the concept of global community of common destiny. Also the course is designed to introduce the important role China plays in a global context and to help students understand Chinese perspectives on global issues that affect the world today.
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Chinese Civilization
This is an introductory course to multiple sociocultural aspects of China as an old civilized country undergoing a critical economic and political transition. With the understanding that contemporary Chinese sociocultural issues might be better interpreted and comprehended in the background of China’s abundant but complicated tradition, the course mainly covers two parts: the part of the tradition and the part of modernity, and tries to build a link between the two through comparison and connection. It starts from a general introduction to some basics of China, with a highlight on the brief depiction of China’s history, and is followed by the elaborations on several important topics of China’s tradition and culture. In the part of modernity, it focuses on China's political structure and its main function, and a series of social, economic and environmental issues of concern in the process of China’s urbanization, with both general discussion and specific case study.
The course is aimed to present a diversified vision about China’s development, selectively raising some key topics concerning China’s change in both ideological and material spheres, in the hope of helping students acquire some basic understanding about China and develop some fields to their own interest. Students are required to bring one or two questions about the analyzed topics of China into the class discussion. The Lecture- Discussion method is applied to provide a better understanding of Chinese people and society.
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