<p>Does anyone happen to know what college would be good for a major in Chinese History or something of the sort.</p>
<p>Chinese history is taught at many many colleges. All the Ivies have great profs. So do Chicago, Northwestern and other comparable schools. So do all the top LACs, and the top public unis (Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, UWash- UWis, and so forth). MIT has some terrific profs of Chinese studies as well.</p>
<p>But these schools do not seem to have a specific Chinese history major. They have history in general but no specifics in Chinese.</p>
<p>You might look for East Asians studies programs such as the one at Harvard. They might be more interdisciplinary than what you are looking for though. The basic Chinese History course at Harvard was great, back when I took it. The very best course that I took there though was a seminar on Chinese Landscape Painting of the Sung Dynasty - the course was taught by a visiting professor who is now at UC Santa Cruz.</p>
<p>Mathmom is correct. You can study Chinese history in History Departments or in Departments of East Asian studies. For the latter, studying the language is a requirement. Departments or East Asian Studies tend to be multidisciplinary but a student can certainly focus on history. The largest program in East Asian Studies is at Harvard and includes not only History and East Asian Studies, but also Anthropology, Art History, Sociology, Government and Religion</p>
<p>I told you that the parents would be very informed.... ;)</p>
<p>I think it will be a real mistake to major in Chinese History without knowing its language and geopgraphy. Unlike much of the Western World, much of China's long history needs to be viewed in isolation, at least until the last centruy. My advice is to at least major in its language and travel extensively into China. There will always be graduate school for history specialization. </p>
<p>Harvard and Princeton both have fabulous collections of Chinese books at their specialized East Asian libraries. For Chinese art, go to Taipei, where you'll find the important art works at the Palace Museum. </p>
<p>Mathmom, did your course go into the Yuan (Mongolian) Dynasty as well?</p>
<p>Chinese history seems a bit too narrow for a major, but it could certainly form an important component of either a history major or an Asian Studies major.</p>
<p>Check out Cornell. It has a big Asian Studies department with lots of options. <a href="http://lrc.cornell.edu/asian/%5B/url%5D">http://lrc.cornell.edu/asian/</a></p>
<p>Just to clarify:</p>
<p>No one majors in US history or French history. Students major in history. This means that at colleges with distribution or core requirements, they take something like 7 or 8 semester courses to fulfill these requirements, then 12-16 semester courses to fulfill the requirements of their majors. The rest are electives. At colleges with a 4-course load per semester, it leaves up to 8 semester courses for electives. This is how students who have not studied the language of the country they wish to study can learn it. As well, as some have said, there are summer programs for language immersion, often very well subsidized.</p>
<p>Chinese history is pretty mainstream; it's not an obscure field of inquiry. I agree with padad -- I can't imagine concentrating in Chinese history without a good background in Mandarin, at least. </p>
<p>The dean of Western historians of China is probably Jonathan Spence, who I believe is still teaching at Yale (he has been one of the most popular professors there approximately forever). This has also been an area where Harvard was traditionally strong, and Stanford cares a lot about it, too. But having someone with a focus on East Asian history has to be high on the list of any history department anywhere, including most LACs. I suspect that if you look you will find a lot of places where a prospective historian of China can get a good start.</p>
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Mathmom, did your course go into the Yuan (Mongolian) Dynasty as well?
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<p>I don't think so. It really zoomed in on this tiny period. We read a lot of scholarly articles for each class and had to write a short paper. Because of all those papers everyone did the reading. I really learned about how art historians look at art. (Not necessarily the way I look at art as an artist!)</p>
<p>
[quote]
No one majors in US history or French history. Students major in history. This means that at colleges with distribution or core requirements, they take something like 7 or 8 semester courses to fulfill these requirements, then 12-16 semester courses to fulfill the requirements of their majors.
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</p>
<p>My college roommate came pretty close to majoring in French history. :) But that's one reason I'd look at East Asian studies programs. If you are serious about Chinese history learning the language and the culture is critical. You might as well be in a major where all that stuff is bundled into the major.</p>
<p>Mathmom, in that case you may wish to venture into it on your own again. European Renaissance arts started to come into China during the Yuan period. Although Chinese landscape painters were slow to respond, the influx did have a perceptible influence that you may find interesting to tease out.</p>
<p>And if you are still interested in Chinese paintings, the place to see them is the Taipei Palace Museum. Chiang kai shek still had the loyalty of the airforce during his retreat to Taiwan, and he used the opportunity to transport the Chinese art works (stored away during the Japanese invasion) to Taiwan. The collection is so vast that it takes several rotations to display it in its entirety.</p>
<p>Mathmom:</p>
<p>If I recollect some earlier posts, you went to Harvard, right? If so, your roommate majored in History, not French history. The subfield was French history, but the declared major would be History.</p>
<p>Marite, Yes, that's what I meant - she majored in history, but it seemed like nearly all her courses were French history courses. </p>
<p>Padad, I'd love to go to Taipei and to the mainland to see and paint some of the actual landscapes.</p>
<p>OP: Are you interested in modern Chinese history. That is, from the last dynasty , formation of Republic of China to the People's Republic of China.</p>
<p>Or, you are interested in older Chinese history. That is, interest in anthropology, archaeology, sociolgy?</p>
<p>Point of information:</p>
<p>Chiang Kai Shek did save the National Art Collection from the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The Japanese surrendered in 1945. That said, He moved the National art collection in 1949 to Taiwan. Those are the facts, interpretation I will leave to the historians.</p>
<p>I would prefer to major in older chinese history. When i originally got interested in the major i was thinking off mainly acient chinese history. Like the supposed beginning of time up until the common era or maybe up until 1000AD.</p>
<p>D is taking a Chinese art history course at Columbia/Barnard and is enjoying it. I think they're up to Ming Dynasty.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing. It seems that there are programs that focus on Ancient Chinese history at the graduate level. There are history, anthropology and archaeology programs.</p>
<p>Maybe the way to go at the UG level is to study the language since you will probably need it if yo are interested in travelling to China. Especially if you are interested in doing field work in country. </p>
<p>This would give you the needed foundation to move on to MS and PHD level programs as you learn about where your precise interests are.</p>
<p>Don't listen to the people telling you not to major in history because you don't know the Chinese language.</p>
<p>I'm a history major at Berkeley. In the US, there is no specific Chinese history major, but history majors with concentrations in China such as myself. As an undergraduate, you do not need to know any Chinese to study Chinese history; everything is taught in English. There is a plethora of English language materials in Chinese history. At the graduate level, working knowledge of Chinese (ie be able to read Chinese, both modern and classical, but not necessarily speak fluent Mandarin) is needed for research, but classes are still taught in English. If you are considering graduate school in history, then you need to take a good number of history classes, including ones that have research requirments. The PhD program is not going to take you if you only take Chinese language classes (though knowledge of language will definitely be preferred)</p>
<p>Generally, history departments dont require you to over half your classes in the department, so you should not be only looking at the specific department as you would for a graduate program. Undergraduate education is for the experience: don't let the strength of a specific academic department determine where you should go. But you should visit the websites of the schools you think you're considering and see if they offer any classes that interest you.</p>
<p>Columbia, Harvard, and Berkeley all have strong East Asian studies departments. For history, the top ranked schools are Yale, Berkeley, and Harvard. At the undergraduate level, course offerings are more important than faculty prestige, though a hot shot professor can help you give the edge if you get his rec for a PhD program. The most renowned historian of China in America alive and teaching is Jonathan Spence at Yale, but his specialty is modern China, not antiquity. At Berkeley, Michael Nylan specializes in early China and she is will respected in the field.</p>