The 21st Century in China

Lorna Chang

Tuesdays, 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
March 25 - May 13, 2003
D.O.C. House

I have just returned from China. It is indeed the 21st Century in the People's Republic of China with its consumerism, energy and cultural dislocation. To understand China today, we need some sense of "old China" so we will read two novels: The Fabulous Concubine, by my father-in-law Chang Hsin Hai whose heroine is an historical courtesan and the hero a scholar-official in the Confucian tradition. It is set in the period of the Boxer Rebellion. Man's Fate, by Malraux, gives an authentic picture of Shanghai in the 1920's and the brutal crackdown of idealistic Communists by Chiang Kai Shek as he set out to unify China from its breakdown into Warlordism.

For a sense of what China is like today, I have chosen Peter Hessler's River Town which gives a vivid picture of life in a community along the Yangtz River which soon will be gone when the Three Gorges Dam is built. Our final two weeks will be spent reviewing a special edition of Newsweek, The Five Faces of China.

These readings give background for discussion of ideas: Confucianism, corruption, Communism, capitalism, consumerism and will promote discussion of ideas that need to be understood when considering China today: Confucianism, Communism, corruption, consumerism and capitalism — and underlying all the difficulties of creating a better life for the peasants without destroying the environment.

Class is limited to 20 participants.

Lorna Chang graduated from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland in 1952 with a major in Philosophy. In 1955 she married David Chang, an architect at that time. They had four children and lived in Puerto Rico, Long Island and Oregon. In 1965 they bought a house in East Barnard, Vermont, kept it over the years, and retired there in 1992. While raising children and moving about, Lorna developed and maintained interests in history, China, civic affairs, and the environment. She serves on the board of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science.