About the Speaker

Sara Schneewind, Sarah Schneewind, Professor of History, University of California at San Diego.

Slides for Classroom Use

Easternization not Westernization – Modernity is a Global Formation – PowerPoint [18 MB]

Teaching Guide

Outline & Key Points for Teachers

Background Readings and Classroom Resources

China’s Gifts to the West [PDF] [AFE]
A short unit prepared by Professor Derk Bodde for the Committee on Asiatic Studies in American Education, and reprinted with permission.

Chinese Ideas in the West [PDF] [AFE]
In addition to material inventions that came to the West from China (discussed in the article China’s Gifts to the West), Chinese “ideas” also influenced political and social development in the West. The article Chinese Ideas in the West discusses the Chinese origins of and influence on: the civil service (see note below), alchemy and chemistry, agricultural methods, thought in the Age of the Enlightenment, Western literature, and Western political and economic theories. A short unit prepared by Professor Derk Bodde for the Committee on Asiatic Studies in American Education.

Timeline of Chinese Inventions [PDF] [AFE]
A timeline of inventions in China and their appearance in the West.

Articles

China, Technology, and Change [World History Bulletin]
Excerpt from an article by Lynda Shaffer, professor emeritus of history, Tufts University, from the World History Bulletin, Fall/Winter 1986-87. On AFE.

Article Excerpts [Eastern Economic Review]
See excerpts on: Seeds of an Industrial Revolution in China, 1000-1200; The Ming Voyages of Cheng He: Chinese Naval Power in 1405; Trade, New World Crops, and China’s Population; Globalization in Asia, 16th -19th centuries: The Silver Trade, Impact and Implications. On AFE.

Lessons and Curriculum Units

East-West Exchange: Silk, Paper, Porcelain [PDF] [China Institute]
Unit J from the curriculum guide From Silk to Oil: Cross-cultural Connections along the Silk Roads, which covers second century BCE to the contemporary period. “Paper, silk, and porcelain were all invented in China and exported to the West. Students will evaluate the importance of these three products as elements in cultural diffusion along the Silk Roads.”

Silk Production [PDF] [Smithsonian]
Part II of “The Art and Archaeology of Ancient China” covers silk production.

Marco Polo in China [AFE]
Classroom resources and primary source selections from Marco Polo’s book – including the passage on the “black stones.”