抛砖引玉musings on the middle kingdom: Shopping in Beijing

You thought this post was going to be about clothes, didn't you? Next post. Hope the suspense isn't too much. This post, though, is all about my shopping period experience at Peking University.

For those who aren't familiar with the phrase, shopping period is the first two weeks of a semester at Yale when students can freely attend any and all classes they are interested in. Based on the classes they have "shopped," they decide on a final schedule and hand in their decisions at the end of the period. Now if I were back at Yale, I'd be picking from hundreds of classes. But here at PKU, I was given the opportunity to choose from 10.

The contenders:

Intro to Chinese Economy
A History of Vikings
Western Film and History*
Chinese Law and Society
The Dream of the Red Chamber*
Europe Since 1870
Eurasian Encounters*
Intro to Chinese Civilization
Chinese Urban Economic Policy
Chinese language (mandatory)

*denotes seminar (18 people or less)

Now, after dealing with Micro and Macroeconomics, I was done with any and all economics classes. A History of Vikings, taught by Prof. Anders Winroth, has been a popular Yale class for some time, so it was worth checking out. His other class, Eurasian Encounters, didn't quite tickle my fancy, so I could knock that off my list. Europe Since 1870, taught by a British historian, Prof. Stuart Semmel, was also interesting. It helps that Prof. Semmel is known as a pretty dynamic teacher. Everything else I had wanted to take since reading the class list in the spring.

So on to the shopping experience. I realized that, theoretically, taking a Yale class mixed with English-speaking Chinese students should offer a different perspective. Unfortunately though, sometimes the language barrier makes interactions a bit stiff and stilted. I found that to be the case in Vikings. Chinese Law and Society, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. The class is FULL of LAW STUDENTS and even some PRACTICING ATTORNEYS. It's also taught by an assistant professor (Yale College, History and Math; Yale Law) who had one of the toughest reputations as a TA that I've ever heard. He's brilliant, and he's really scary. Needless to say, the class is very engaging. Then comes The Dream of the Red Chamber, one of China's greatest (and longest) novels. The entire class is simply a semester-long discussion of this book and its incredible role in Chinese culture. Classes about Europe... eh. I've always found the many different kingdoms and empires a bit confusing. Intro to Chinese Civ, although a bit dry, is beneficial for obvious reasons. I just hope I can keep the dynasties straight.

Oh, and every class is two hours long. I really need to up the endurance of my attention span.

So, after a week and a half of shopping (we were cut short because PKU students had to have their schedules in sooner, and needed to know if there were spots in classes for them), the winners are as follows: