SOC393Y0 Domestic and Global Chinese Communities
The course aims to enhance students' understanding of Chinese politics, economy, and culture and the impacts of market-oriented reforms on the lived experience of the people in contemporary China. With a combination of classroom lectures and discussions, students will have an opportunity to study various aspects of social, economic, and political changes in contemporary China, including employment and gender, grassroots-level democratic election, family organization and formation, social networking, poverty, social welfare, religion, and the environment. Students will also have a chance to explore the implications of globalization, transnational migration, and global Chinese societies.
Prerequisites
Prerequisites: None
Breadth Requirements = Society and Its Institutions (category 3)
Note: This can be counted towards programs in Contemporary Asian Studies at the University of Toronto.
Field Trips
In addition to formal lectures and classroom discussions, the course will feature guest lecturers such as Chinese scholars, village heads, migrant labor women, the elderly, and policymakers. Organized field trips include visits to Chinatown, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, Marina Barrage, Gardens by the Bay, Indian Heritage Centre, and Kampong Glam. Moreover, participants can look forward to engaging in open seminars with special guests, each focusing on a specific topic. Students may also have the opportunity to participate in an exchange event by discussing course topics with their peers at the National University of Singapore.
Instructors
Professor Weiguo Zhang is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and is affiliated with the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and the Institute for Life Course Aging. Dr. Zhang specializes in social demography, social gerontology, and the sociology of families. His work primarily focuses on social changes in China and the well-being of older Chinese immigrants in Canada. His research has covered a variety of topics including the Chinese "one child" policy and fertility, China's domestic adoption of children, the welfare of childless elderly, economic and political participation of women, marriage and family dynamics, and rural transformation in China. His current research investigates the effects of the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and migration status on intra-group dynamics and aging experiences of Chinese Canadians, the impacts of COVID-19 on Chinese communities, and anti-Asian racism in Canada. Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. in Development Studies at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, in 1998.
Dr. A. Ka Tat Tsang, Ph.D. (Toronto) is a Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. His scholarship focuses on the development of a knowledge base for human services in the global context, through the active integration of theory, practice, and research. He teaches direct practice courses in the MSW program and courses on epistemology and social work research in the Ph.D. program. He has been actively promoting social work and the development of. human service programs in China since the 1980s. He founded the FAculty's China Program in 1997 and has been the Director since. He is the founder of the SSLD (Strategies and Skills Learning Development) System which supports a wide range of human service applications in Canada and internationally. These applications cover personal, family, group, organizational, and community interventions.