North
China Herald Assignment
The North China Herald was the chief English language newspaper
in Shanghai for over a century. It was always pretty staunchly
imperialist, but it also gave fairly thorough coverage of events in
China. Even better, it is in English and on microfilm. Although the
paper ran from 1840 to 1941 our library only has the reels for
1937-1941. For this assignment you will have to go to the Serials
department in the basement of the library, get a reel of microfilm, put
it in a reader, read at least one article, and write a short (2 page)
essay about it.
The essay should explain something that we can learn about Asia
durring this period. This should be something you could not have found
in the textbook (China and Japan are at war!) and that is not just
repeating facts (The Japanese seem to have won the Battle of Xuzhou).
There was a lot going on during this period, so it should be easy to
find things of interest if you look around. You do not need to limit
yourself to the war and political events or to a single article. There
is a lot in here about Treaty Port society (ads are good for this),
economics, international relations. You have a lot to work with, so be
sure to pick something interesting. All papers should include the title
of the article, if possible, and the dates.
Papers are due on the date set in class. No late papers will be
accepted. Note that there are only so many reels, so if you come in the
night before the assignment is due you may be out of luck.
