BETWEEN PLOWS AND SWORDS: U.S.-CHINA CULTURAL RELATIONS SINCE THE LATE 1700S

Catalog description

(Slashed with HIST 62326 ) This seminar explores the beginning, evolution, transformation, and impact of U.S.-China cultural relations since the late 1700s. The United States and China have built a complex and dynamic relationship in the past two and a half centuries. Among the dimensions of that relationship, cultural relations were the oldest, deepest, and most consequential. While non-governmental organizations and individual Americans as well as Chinese played a crucial role in initiating and expanding cultural contacts between the two nations, government intervention and control were intensified over time, turning cultural relations into an instrument to achieve domestic as well as foreign policies goals. How did cultural contacts between the two nations begin? Who were the major players in the making of the Sino-American cultural relations? What were their major goals? How did the U.S. and the Chinese governments get involved in bilateral cultural contact and exchange? What impact did the expansion of cultural ties have on both societies? How were the U.S.-China cultural relations changed during the Cold War? What impact did the Cold War transformation have on cultural relations during and after rapprochement? By addressing these key questions, this course gives students a deeper understanding of the complexity and dynamics of U.S.- China relations.