China: Traditions and Transformations Open Learning Course
The free video lectures of this course are made available as part of Harvard Extension School's Opening Learning Initiative.
About the Course
Modern China presents a dual image: a society transforming itself through economic development and social revolution; and the world’s largest and oldest bureaucratic state, coping with longstanding problems of economic and political management. Both images bear the indelible imprint of China’s historical experience, of its patterns of philosophy and religion, and of its social and political thought.
In this free Chinese studies online course, these themes are discussed to understand China in the modern world and as a great world civilization that developed along lines different from those of the Mediterranean.
Watch a Course Trailer
Peter K. Bol, PhD, Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University. Bol is director of the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University and a Walter Channing Cabot Fellow. His books include Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching and Neo-Confucianism in History.
William C. Kirby, PhD, T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. Kirby is director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and chairman of the Harvard China Fund. His research focuses on the history of modern China. He was dean of Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 2002 to 2006.
The Lecture Videos
The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course Historical Study A-13, which was offered as HIST E-1825, an online course at Harvard Extension School.
This course is offered through edX for free.