Second Essay Assignment
Yuan-tsung Chen’s The Dragon’s Village and Yu Liu’s “Why Did It Go so High? Political Mobilization and Agricultural Collectivization in China” both deal with the land reform movement in China. Chen’s book is a memoir; Liu’s article is a scholarly analysis.
For this essay assignment, you are required to use Dragon’s Village to evaluate the argument presented in “Why Did it Go so High?” Does the evidence presented in Dragon’s Village confirm Liu’s findings, or call them into question?
Note that in writing your essay, you are free to focus on a particular part or parts of Liu’s argument—there’s no need to evaluate the entire argument. (Indeed, you most likely do not have the background to evaluate her comparisons with the Soviet Union.) You should also feel free to discuss problems and limitations of Dragon’s Village as a source.
Your essay should be approximately 1200 words (about five pages) and is due on April 10, at 10 AM. Please do not bring a hardcopy to class. Instead, upload your paper using the “upload assignments” tab on Blackboard. Papers submitted after the deadline will be marked by the system as “late,” and will be downgraded. As on your last essay, you will be judged by the extent to which:
You offer a sound and convincing argument;
You demonstrate careful reading of the sources;
You include ideas from lecture and other assigned readings as appropriate;
You craft a well-written and well-constructed essay;
You demonstrate understanding of the history presented thus far in class;
You are able to write a paper that is free of careless errors.
Please be certain to cite the readings you use. Your citation format can be informal, but it should cite the reading and page number. For example, (Dragon’s Village, p. 25). No use of other than assigned readings is permitted. Do not use sources from the Internet. Please be careful to guard against plagiarism and other forms of cheating. If you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism