About+the+Course

//Weiji// is a Chinese word equivalent to //crises//. However, it has two meanings in Chinese: //challenges// and //opportunities//. Both China and the United States have had numerous critical crises in their history. Facing challenges in history, both the Chinese and American people have made use of their wisdom, courage, and experience to find new solutions to overcome the difficulties they were facing. Therefore, they transformed crises into opportunities, and they moved forward significantly after each crisis. This course will trace the critical crises in American history from 1620 and those in Chinese history from 1840 to the present. We will see how these two countries moved forward politically, economically, socially and culturally from different crises and challenges. Moreover, both countries are facing new crises in the 21st century. Can they find effective solutions to meet the challenges and move forward with their tradition, strength, wisdom and vision? This is an open-ended course with historical perspective and future vision. Hopefully, this historical review will help you have better understanding of American history, American society and American culture from a new perspective.
 * Moving Forward from Crises: a Historical Review and Future Vision of the United States and China**


 * 1. Course Introduction**
 * Instructor and student introductions.
 * Review rational of the course, syllabus, assignments, schedule and expectations.
 * Overview of course content.
 * Overview of course procedure
 * A survey

The Qing Dynasty, the last Chinese dynasty, created another golden age of Chinese civilization in the 18th century. With its correct policies, Manchu, the conquests of China successfully integrate into Han culture and won support from Han people. Its GDP was almost one third of the world. The population had tripled from 143 million in 1741 to 430 million in 1850. It territory reached 14,700,000 square Km or 5675,702 square miles. //Kangxi Dictionary// and //The Complete Library of the Four Treasures// – the Classics, history, philosophy and belles letters - displayed cultural accomplishments. Political stability, economic prosperity, territorial expansion and cultural richness made the ruler and its subjects gain a sense of superiority to all outsiders. Therefore, they resisted to anything new from the West. In the 18th century, the event of Macartney's meeting Emperor Qianlong indicated the beginning of a clash between the West and Chinese civilization. It was this kind of China-centric mentality that led to Chinese’s ignorance to the rise and challenge from Great Britain in the 18th and early 19th century. The Macartney Embassy is historically significant because it marked a missed opportunity by the Chinese to move toward some kind of accommodation with the West. Actually, how could you expect Chinese rulers to accept Macartney’s proposal to have free trade as an equal trading country when China regarded all the other nations as tributary states or barbarians?
 * 2. Qing Dynasty in the 18th Century**
 * Questions:**
 * How could Manchu integrate into Chinese culture and won Chinese people’s support?
 * What was Chinese rulers’ mentality before the early 19th century and why?
 * How to compare China and Great Britain economically, politically and culturally?
 * Why did Great Britain want to free trade with China and why China declined this request?
 * What was Macartney’s perception of China which he gained during his China trip?

The watershed between ancient Chinese history and modern Chinese history is the Opium War. This war is actually an encounter between the East and West. After the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolutions and imperialist expansion, the West emerged as a dominant force in the world. In contrast, Chinese civilization declined significantly from a superior position to an inferior status because of its own Sino-centric mentality, conservatism and isolation, as well as aggressive challenges from the West. Macartney's diplomatic efforts failed to bring free trade to China. But during the 19th century, the British cannon-policy forced China to open her doors. Chinese civilization met this unprecedented challenge from the West with humiliation that lasted for one century. From Chinese people’s rejecting, accepting and respecting Western culture, the Chinese mindset experienced painful and radical changes.
 * 3. Unprecedented Challenges to China from 1840 to 1923**
 * Questions:**
 * What factors led to the Opium War?
 * Why did China launch the Self-Strengthening Movement?
 * Why did China make top-down political reform in 1898 and why it failed?
 * Why did Sun Yah-sen make a revolution to overthrow the Manchu rule?
 * Why did radical Chinese intellectuals want to “down with Confucianism” and “welcome Mr. Democracy and Science”?

Different from Mao, Deng is a revolutionary pragmatist. He realized that Mao's romantic idealism put the Chinese into poverty and disillusionment, which would lead to the end of the Chinese Communist Party. He understood that one must gain the people's support in order to maintain control and that to keep the CCP in power one had to improve people's daily lives. Learning from Mao's failure, Deng was determined to launch an economic reform and open China's door to the world. It was extraordinarily difficult to re-direct a huge country of more than 1.3 billion people. This session depicts Deng's Economic Reform and how he achieved his objectives and won the hearts of the Chinese people by overcoming endless challenges. Also different from the Self-Strengthening Movement in the last half 19century, China took pro-active approach toward the world in her Economic Reform. China entered WTO in 2001, hosted the Olympic Games in 2008 and the World Expo in 2010. With these events, China emerged herself into the family of the world. A renaissance happened in China.
 * 4. Deng Xiaoping’s Economic Reform and Rising of China**

Socialism saved China in 1949. Capitalism saved China in 1978. China saved socialism in 1991. China saved capitalism in 2008. Deng Xiaoping and the Economic Reform in China Emancipating people’s minds from Mao’s ideology-oriented thinking Economic challenges The WTO Social challenges Political challenges
 * __Questions:__**
 * Why did Deng launch the Economic Reform?
 * What are differences between Mao and Deng in their perception of the world and the relations with other countries?
 * How to understand the Tiananmen incident in 1989? Could Deng have alternative choice?
 * What are the achievements of the Economic Reform?

A group of pilgrims with Puritans and “strangers” left for North America, a wild and savage land, to seek religious freedom, economic prosperity with ideals to establish a God’s City upon Hill. The first challenge they faced is that they landed in a place without a government. Mankind’s original sin or self-centered nature would lead to chaos and mutual destruction if they could not find a solution. Learning lessons from the failure of earlier settlers to this new world due to lack of a government, the pilgrims in New Plymouth decided to establish a social covenant entitled Mayflower Compact. The purpose of this agreement is for the sake of collective survival and general good of the settlers. The Mayflower Compact is the first document in American history demonstrating the attempt to form a government based of the concept that government should derive its power from the “consent of the governed.” It not only led to survival, success and prosperity of this community, but it also turned out to be the foundation of the American constitution and corner stone of the American government. This session will find out who these people are, why they broke of tradition of royal rule and set up self-governed society. What was the significance of the Mayflower Compact? [] The American Revolution led to independence of the thirteen states in 1780s. However, this new victory did not bring them social order and economic prosperity. On the contrary, they faced new challenges from both domestic society and foreign countries. Domestically, the weakness of the Confederation government, huge debt, trade protection from each state and economic depression caused Shay’s rebellion, army’s revolt and political struggles between “class with and class without, property.” Abroad, London blocked Americans’ trade with British West Indies and other countries, North African pirates attacks and disputes with Spain because of West Florida and Mississippi River. Facing this serious social chaos, the founding fathers decided to have a convention to seek a solution. In order to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty, these founding fathers were determined to create a constitution and make thirteen states into a strong nation. In 1630s, the pilgrims gave up part of their personal rights to establish a government to make sure collective survival. Again in 1780s, the founding fathers agreed to give up part of their own states’ power and establish a more perfect Union. Let us see how these founding fathers found solutions to solve interest conflicts between big states and small states, free states and slavery states, north states and south states, how they established a much more powerful federal government while making it “checks and balances,” and how they convinced their people to accept a strong federal government while maintaining most power of the states.
 * 5. Political Challenges to Americans in 1620s**
 * __Questions:__**
 * Who are Puritans? Who are Separatists? Who are strangers?
 * Why do all these people want to go to the New World at risk of life and comfort living in England?
 * What kind of challenges did they meet on the voyage and in this new land?
 * Why did they decide to establish a social contract entitled Mayflower Compact?
 * What is the significance of Mayflower Compact?
 * Documentary movie: Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of The Mayflower **
 * 6. The Constitution Convention and Foundation of American Political System**
 * __Questions:__**
 * What kind of challenges did the United States face in the 1780s?
 * What is the nature of the debates held during the Constitutional Convention?
 * Why did the delegates decide to replace Articles of Confederation with the Constitution?
 * What are different interest conflicts between conservative and democratic groups, large and small states, and north and south states?
 * How do these three branches work on their own and check and balance each other?
 * What are heritage, compromise, creation and rational of the Constitution?

7. **Racial Challenges to Americans up from 1860s to 1960s** “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This is the most important principle on which the United States of America was founded. However, its full realization has experienced a long and painful, even bleeding journey with the cost of hundreds of thousands of American people’s life. African Americans’ history, experience, fate and future exemplifies racial challenges to the US. This session focuses on the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. We will see how Americans suffered from racial conflicts which almost destroyed this young country, and how they found solutions to make the United States of America as one country, one nation in which all the ethnic groups can live together peacefully.
 * Questions:**
 * What are the roots of slavery system in the land of North America?
 * Why is racial discrimination and conflict a cancer in the body of the United States of America?
 * What factors led to the Civil War? Can the Civil War be avoided?
 * What are President Lincoln’s major contributions to the United States?
 * Why can the Civil Rights Movement win?
 * What is the significance of the Civil Rights Movement?
 * Is racial issue still a problem in today’s America?
 * Great Depression in 1929
 * Welfare society in 1960s
 * Financial Crisis in 2008
 * WWII
 * The Cold War
 * Anti-terrorism war
 * Bipolarization
 * Political corruption
 * Environmental challenges
 * Energy challenges
 * Moral crises
 * 9’11
 * Financial crises
 * Education
 * Debts
 * Way of life
 * Bipartisan politics
 * Immigration policy
 * Globalization
 * Energy
 * Environmental challenges
 * Sino-US relations
 * 8. Economic Challenges to Americans**
 * 9. Military Challenges to Americans**
 * 10. Current Challenges in China**
 * 11. Current Challenges in the US**
 * 12. Strengths of both China and the United States**