There were no new surprising details but some tidbits and updates that will be helpful. The China maps from the first presentation are great and will be incorporated in my presentations.

I have a better understanding of the Hukou system. I was first introduced to this system in another NCTA course - Book Group for The Eternal Street of Happiness by Rob Schmitz (highly recommend). This is a collection of stories about migrants from the rural areas to the urban areas and the challenges they meet. One of the particular stories I remember is finding schools because of the lack of citizenship cards. 

The One-Child Policy is always of interest to my students and they always ask lots of questions. The more case studies about individual stories and situations I find, it helps them understand the challenges to implementing the system and then the reasons behind dropping the system. I look for (and would love more) stories of people who are a 'One-Child' and even stories of those families who chose to have multiple children. Another NCTA course (I just love them!) I am taking now is reading a book called Choosing Daughters by Lihong Shi focuses on her PhD work in a village that fairly quickly evolved with the idea that an only child being a girl is on ok idea. We hear so many stories that girls were abandoned, high rates of female infantice, illegal abortions, revealing the sex of the fetus becoming illegal, moving to a more rural village to give birth so there is not documentation, etc. This village did experience some of that, but it does not seem as long or as drastic as it took other places to adopt the idea. The book also has some great commentary about how the policies were implemented at the village levels. 

I look forward to learning more to update the information I already have and some new resources to use in class.

I found so much surprising and fascinating in the videos and readings that relate to my teaching practice and general interests in history and politics. I’ll include some of them here:

1. From the video, I’m curious what factors account for 80% less infant mortality after the Communist takeover of China? Is it related to improved diet due to an Agricultural Revolution, social or family structural changes, the abolition of landlord/feudal structures, access to better medical facilities in communes, higher vaccination rates, the relative peace due to the end of years of warfare and Japanese occupation? The number seems so astronomical to me that it’s almost unbelievable. Also, I’m curious about the methods used to get statistics and the reliability of the Communist Party’s data in scholarship. I especially think of the false data reported to Mao about grain harvests of the early 1950s that contributed to the famines of that era. Wouldn’t the famines of the Great Leap Forward reflect an increase in infant mortality in the early years of the Communist Revolution?

2. I’m curious about the continuities and changes from older dynastic hierarchies to the communist system and how the structural organization and supporting ideologies relate. For example, how do Confucian ideas of filial piety relate to the highly hierarchical communist party? Also, due to the lack of a deity in Confucian belief, did that make it more achievable for an atheist state to exist? Does the concept of “Mandate of Heaven” continue to either threaten or uphold the communist party leadership during times of upheaval or environmental disaster? And, although practices such as foot binding have disappeared from China, how does the patriarchy continue to bind or restrict Chinese women’s social, political, and economic mobility? In order to help my students in AP World History review 800 years of Chinese History and support historical thinking skills, it would be a good essay prompt to analyze continuities and changes in Chinese ideology, political, social, and economic systems.

3. I’m fascinated about the hukou system and wonder about the validity of comparisons to similar systems of exclusion in the United States based on race or undocumented migrant labor. For example, do the “peasant workers in cities” who do not have access to the social services/urban welfare or social security system- have similar status as undocumented people in USA? Does the hereditary status of hukou persist for children born in the city where their parent works rather than where they migrated from similar to how children of undocumented immigrants can achieve citizenship rights if born in the United States? Does nongzhuanfei represent a kind of DACA program in China? Many of my students are DACA eligible, and this could be a good way to relate and remember the hukou system as well as analyze and reflect upon our lives and unjust systems.

4. How effective were systems of control during dynastic China where Emperors, nobility, and a large bureaucracy managed state control of large masses of peasants? The bureaucrats were likewise managed and coerced through castration. Could a similar argument be made about the relative loyalty and emasculation of current communist party cadres? Peasants were also restricted to hereditary service. So, how revolutionary is the hukou system in the greater context of Chinese hierarchical and bureaucratic control of its population? I also wonder how and if military service in modern China offers a venue for greater social mobility for people of lower class status. And, although there is modern industrialization, how truly different is that than the proto-industrialization and export-based economy that persisted for hundreds of years within China that also relied upon trade and foreign currency?

5. When looking at the British model from the 18^th and 19^th century when Britain was the “workshop of the world,” and also experienced massive migration of working class and rural peasants to other parts within England due to Enclosure Movements or throughout the Empire as a result of colonial mercantilist enterprises or prison labor colonies… would that be a more appropriate comparison to the arc of modern China? Likewise, will greater organization and pressure from working class or farming communities with lesser Hukuo status lead to a greater internal changes that gradually force more rights? What Hukuo status do Uighers, Tibetans, Manchurians or other ethnic or religious minority groups have?

The key points I first plan to incorporate in my lessons will be the maps and tables that relate demography to realizing broader understandings about China throughout its history. I especially like the maps of population distribution to get a sense of the economic and political power of the eastern seaboard over the west. I love the comparison of CPI baskets between spending trends of Chinese versus Americans. That would lead to fascinating discussions. I also love the focus on major river systems and how an understanding of their management reflects environmental, agricultural, political and demographic continuities, changes, and challenges throughout Chinese history.  Whether it's been the continual management of the Yellow river since the Song period to today or the location of economic miracle cities in the Pearl River delta where 7 out of 8 million residents of Shenzhen are migrants outside of their native hukou, these river systems are integral to placing and thinking about China through time as the Thames or Mississippi or Nile are to understanding other regional histories. I’m curious about the similarities and differences these modern Chinese export zones have to the trading zones occupied by foreigners during the spheres of influence of imperialism or the earlier hongs of the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Thanks for this extensive set of reactions. Johnny, you're right about the massive drop in infant mortality. Mainly it was the product of peace, an information campaign and improved sanitation. Improved diet for mothers was an important help as well. Judith Bannister, China's Changing Population (1987), offers a great overview of population trends to the start of the "one child" era. Education was key in the 1970s and later as well. See the attached Song and Burgard article on the link between mother's educational level and infant mortality.
Here's from another study (also attached):

"We find that gains in education (and to a lesser extent, its interactions with major public health interventions) may explain an important share of the striking reductions in infant and under-five mortality during the Mao era. In particular, we find suggestive evidence of lagged lifetime benefits of better education. Taken together, educational gains during the 1950s and their interactions with public health interventions appear to explain about 80 per cent of infant mortality decline and 75 per cent of under-five mortality decline through the 1960s, and 55-70 per cent of the declines over the entire 1960-80 period."Babiarz et al.Page 13

In addition to reducing infant mortality, China's reduced maternal mortality. I've attached an article about this. China reduced maternal mortality by 75% by 2015. That progress began during the Republican period.

Jeanine,
Delighted to have you and everyone else with us. China is really pioneering the use of technology for social control and promoting ideological conformity. In many respects Chinese enjoy much greater freedom than they did during Mao's time (1949-1976), but the reach of technology is deeper and more sweeping than existed during those days. We'll be talking about this quite a lot over the course of the seminar.

Here are two of the most respected articles on how the Chinese government regulates and uses social media.

Kimberly, delighted you're picking up on the odd circumstance of linking hukou to the mother's location (this wasn't always consistent). Let's talk about it Tuesday afternoon.

The question of what exactly China's ruling governmental paradigm is in the 21st century is one that I have frequently contemplated over the years while living in China. I was particularly struck by Tim Heath's 2015 talk at the 15:00 mark where he says the CCP "essentially abandoned" their leninist-marxist-maoist ideology as a guiding principle of governance. I have noticed that China's "socialism with Chinese characteristics seems to be a sort of social nationalism, or national socialism. Could you comment on this? Thanks.

Derek, I quite agree with Heath, but would note that Leninism remains strong in China. In Chinese propaganda, political study and in the constitution, Leninism is always tied together with Marxism. But as it functions in China, it is quite separate and evident. Nationalism is among the tools employed by the Leninist party-state. Ask about attitudes toward Japan in our discussion to help sharpen this idea.