Course offering at Duke Kunshan

GCHINA 302 - “The Factory: From Socialist Industrialism to World Assembly.”

“The Factory“ is an upper-division, major-requirement course designed and taught by Professor Zhaojin Zeng for the Global China Studies major. It surveys the historical transformation of industrial production, factory life, and labor politics in China. It also compares the Chinese experience against the larger background of economic change in the world since the Industrial Revolution.

Through reading carefully selected book chapters and journal articles and watching a series of documentaries, students gain a thorough understanding of the centrality of the industrial economy to the making of modern China and the world. By participating in the paper development workshops throughout the term, students also have the opportunity to learn to use primary and secondary sources to draft a solid research paper.