Proceed to the Timeline website.
Create a timeline of a trend or topic in modern China with at least 10–15 key moments.
Consider the following example: Whitney Houston 1963–2012.
Feel free to get creative. You could choose topics such as “The Life of Deng Xiaoping,” “A Timeline of Women’s Rights in Modern China,” “The Soong Sisters,” “Student Movements in Modern China,” “Famous Engineers in Modern China,” “A Timeline of Chinese Cinema,” “Chinese Popular Music,” “Family Planning in the PRC,” “The Household Registration System (hukou),” “Chinese Students Abroad,” “Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (or the Americas, etc.)” or basically anything that you find particularly compelling!
For each “moment,” include a photo or YouTube link that illustrates the moment. Photographs, graphs/data, or videos are all fine. Write 1–2 or 3 sentences explaining what the moment is. Your final moment—dated to 2021—should be titled “Legacies,” with 4–5 sentences capturing the impact of who/what you choose and a brief “Works Cited” (use as many as you need). You don’t have to cite the information for every point in your timeline on the slide—just a general list of references that you used at the end will be fine.
Note: Some topics may be better suited for slightly shorter timelines, while others might require more moments. For instance, a timeline about the life of Lee Kuan Yew or Deng Xiaoping may require you to do at least fifteen moments (birth, education, career, etc.), while a timeline about China’s Great Firewall might call for 12 really detailed moments. Use your judgment depending on the topic. Ten is the minimum but you can feel free to do more than fifteen.
Grading Rubric:
- Appropriate Timeline Topic: 2 Points
- 10–15 Moments: 4 Points
- Picture or Video and Caption for each Moment: 4 Points
- Accuracy of Timeline, including the “quality” of Moments (Do your moments “make sense” for highlighting the point?): 4 Points
- Legacy Writeup: 4 Points
- Works Cited: 2 Points
Due Date: By session 27, as we’ll share them on the last day of class. (Note: I won’t pressure anyone to visually share their timeline with the class if you don’t want to; but be prepared to at least briefly introduce your topic and some key moments from the timeline).
Please remember that Wikipedia can be a nice starting point to sketch out a subject, but it is not a source to cite. Wikipedia can help you find and locate other appropriate sources (textbooks, university-published books, primary sources, etc.). This is especially true if you choose a subject like “the life of Deng Xiaoping.” You should have at least some analysis on the timeline that we wouldn’t be able to find on a Wikipedia page.
Student Example
“A History of Chinese Revolutions.” (Courtesy of Margaret Yu.)
