200-400 time limit essay about Chinese culture

answer 5 questions out of 10 within 4 or 5 hours at 12/12 6pm

Please choose one question from each pair and write on it for 25 or 30 minutes.(Normally this will produce about 200 to 400 words per question, but writing more words or fewer words areboth fine. Quality is more important than quality.)

1. Choose A or B.
A. Why was calligraphy important in pre-modern China? Name and explain at leastthree reasons—more, if you can.

B. Imagine a Confucian, a Legalist, a Buddhist, and a Daoist having tea together inRiverside, California. They hear a report the covid-19 is spreading wildly in Riverside andthreatening many lives. What conversation would they have? (You may write it as a short play,if you like.)

2. Choose A or B.
A. Why do people speak of a “dynastic cycle” in China? What were the causes ofcycles?

B. What was funny about traditional Chinese “comedians dialogues” (xiangsheng)?Name as many reasons as you can.

3. Choose A or B.
A. After British gunboats arrived on the China coast in the 19 th century, many Chineseleaders favored “Chinese learning for the core, Western learning for practical things.” What didthat idea mean? How well did it work?

B. During the May Fourth era, what did Chinese writers have to say about the position ofChinese women? Use two or three examples to illustrate.

4. Choose A or B.
A. Between 1949 and 1957, there were a number of political “campaigns” in China.Name two or three of them. What were their causes and their results?

B. What caused the Great Leap famine of 1959-1962? What caused the GreatProletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966-69? What was the connection, if any, between these twoevents?

5. Choose A or B.
A. What are the main reasons why China’s economy has grown so rapidly since the1980s?

B. What was the strategy of the Citizens Movement in China (2002-2007) for advancingfairness in society and the rights of citizens?