I wish to write this review to help those who are considering to take this class as a history GE, talking about the grading, exams, essays, lectures, professor Goldman and other aspects of this class.

Grading Distribution: 25% Essay 1 + 25% Essay 2 + 20% Discussion Participation + 30% Final Exam.
The two essays are based on the reading materials in class and about 6-7 pages each. To write good essays, you'll have to master the reading materials and the lecture contents very well. The discussion is mandatory and you have to ACTIVELY participate in this discussion (30% question posing + 70% in class participation) to get full credits. The final exam is in-person exam, which consists of three parts, including Part 1 Definition & Part 2 Essay (materials in lectures) & Part 3 Analysis Essay (reading materials). The final can be hard than expected. In other words, it is hard to get a 93% in the final, and you'll have to perform very very well in the previous two essays in order to get a final letter grade A.

About Grading: The grading of this class is based on ABSOLUTE SCALE. (93=A) The grading of your essays is completely up to your TA. Even though our TA is a good guy and I like his class, still he graded quite harshly and you can hardly get an A. In fact, geting a B+ or A- on each essay is very very common in class. He anticipated and expected a lot in your articles, so if you want an A it is better to go to his office hour and talk to him about what you are going to write. The final is quite hard and requires LOTS LOTS of preparation, including memorizing a great bunch of names, events, definitions, and dates, as well as pre-write the essays based on the review materials professor Goldman provided. Generally speaking, if you are not that good at Chinese history/not good at memorizing/just want a relatively easy GE, this class is definitely not a fine option for you.

Workload: Be ready for 100+ pages of reading per week (said in syllabus and this is true). This may be okay to history/literature related major students, but this is quite tough and hard for STEM students like me. Because the materials will be tested in the essays and final exams, you'll have to read comprehensively and thoroughly, and scanning through is not an option. The two essays require you to spend lots of time on them, so DO NOT consider this class as an east GE. You'll have to work hard enough and spend whole bunch of time to get an A.

About lectures and Professor Goldman: Professor Goldman is a very professional, nice, and caring instructor. Her classes are well organized and you can definitely learn lots about Chinese history in her class. She is a good lecturer and she cares a lot about her students, regarding the health issues, progress in class, etc. Generally I like her and the way she organized her class, and she has great knowledge in the field she teaches.

Conclusion: This history class, especially for those STEM students like me, is absolutely not an easy GE. If you want an A, you'll have to work very hard on the readings every week to master them, communicate with the TA to get good grades on your essays, while spend lots of time preparing for the essays and final exams. Even though professor Goldman is a great and nice professor, the workload is not light, and the grading can still be very harsh up to your TA. If you like Chinese history and ready to work hard on this topic, take this class and learn from professor Goldman. However, If you want an easy A GE, TRY NOT TO TAKE THIS CLASS. It is not worthy to spend that much time on a GE class like this one, while finally you might even have to PNP this class after you did so much just like me.

For nonhistory majors, or if you're not interested in any Chinese history, or you just need a ge, you're probably desperate searching for ge class because all the other ges you want filled up. Now that you are here, in this "history of china" class, don't even think about this class and just remove this class from your option of ges. Professor Goldman is a W human and such a nice and helpful professor, but the class itself is just garbage. There are so many names, events, and ideas you have to memorize, I didn't even think I was learning anything. The class begins to pick up the pace after weeks 2-3 when you get your first paper. You also get another paper around week 7 or 8. And then you get the final, which is the hardest final ever!!! Serious, if you don't want to stress the whole quarter about ruining your gpa, don't even think about this class. Don't listen to the other reviews about this class, they were probably history majors who loved history and were interested.

Know that in this class they really want you to get a good knowledge of Chinese history. The weekly readings, both textbook and for discussion, are a lot and take a lot of time to do. But if you do like history you will find the readings all pretty interesting and worth the time. If you don't then don't take the class. The two papers, the final, and discussion participation compose your grade. In the papers they really want you to be analytical. Professor Goldman holds office hour very regularly and she gives very insightful help for papers if you go to her. Because of COVID, the final is two 5-page papers, which is a lot. But if you work hard you will be fine. During the entire quarter there were never any recall quizzes or exams whatsoever, it's all about analyzing, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. I think an A is by no means easy, but I feel I've learned a lot. Professor is very good at lecturing, she is very clear.

In this class, like many humanities classes, your grade is entirely dependent on your TA. Discussion sections had mandatory attendance where we would discuss the weekly primary source readings (textbook readings weren't discussed, they could be considered optional). The grading breakdown was: discussion participation, two 6-page long papers, and a take-home final which consisted of responding to two prompts. Discussion participation grade was given mainly based on timely attendance to the zoom meeting. I gave about one answer/contribution each section and got full credit. The course is extremely interesting, I took it to fulfill my history GE requirement and got to learn a lot more about my background as a Chinese-American. The papers were written responses to the primary readings in class, and the discussion section was very helpful in preparing for them, so I'd recommend taking notes during them. Other reviewers say this course was too reading-intensive, but you can definitely get by reading just the primary sources and not the textbook readings. The papers are not timed. Lectures involved Prof. Goldman reading off slides, and she was very engaging. She requires you to stop by her office hours at least once during the quarter, which I would recommend regardless because she's very clearly passionate and knowledgeable about Chinese history. It was very refreshing talking with her and being able to ask her for help generating thesis or topic ideas for the papers. I personally loved this class but I could see why other people without a background or interest in Chinese history would have an issue with it. I'd definitely recommend taking it with Goldman and my TA Mindi if you can though, as both were extremely helpful teachers.