Major

Marketing

Advisor

Wen Xiong

Advisor Department

Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures

Date

5-2013

Keywords

China; Chinese; youth; culture; pedagogy; teaching

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Abstract

In light of China’s recent reemergence as a global superpower, it is becoming increasingly important for westerners to understand its history and culture. For current college students, the culture of China’s youth is particularly pertinent.

In this project, a course, HPR 107: Chinese Youth Culture, was designed and taught through the Students-Teaching-Students program, which provides senior Honor’s Program students the opportunity to design and teach their own Honor’s Program course. The HPR 107 course focuses on China’s 80后 and 90后 generations, those born in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively.

This multi-faceted project includes: subject matter research, course development, pedagogy development, course planning and implementation. Key project goals from the student-educator perspective include the development of: planning, critical thinking, teaching, communications, and time-management skills.

To guide the course development and teaching facets of this project, a list of student-perspective goals were also created. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to: think critically about the ways in which technology, innovation and government action can influence culture; explain major events that shaped the 80后 and 90后 generations; identify and explain the defining characteristics of the 80后 and 90后 generations; explain the ways in which the 80后 and 90后 generations may change China; realize the complexity of Chinese culture; compare and contrast Chinese and American culture; and communicate through effective oral and written communication.

In terms of subject matter, the HPR 107 course covers a variety of topics, including: 20th century Chinese history; China’s economic reform and opening; the one child policy; the consumer behavior of the 80后 and 90后; the Chinese education system; China’s internet language and culture; sex, cohabitation and marriage in China; and how the Chinese view the west.

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