1: you are having dinner with a group of friends in a restaurant. The conversation turn to the topic of modern China. One of your friend claims that is futile to try to understand the Great Leap Forward and the culture revolution. The chinese went crazy and that’s that. Do you agree this opinion ? If so please provide a supporting argumenet. Or do you think that, however difficult,it is still possible to explain the events by situating them in the context of mordern China history? Confronted with the daunting chanllege of modernizing China, did the Chinese often hold different ideas, approaches and visions about what to do? Did Maoism represent one of those ideas Andrew approaches ?

2: In his book “ China in Ten words” ,Yu Hua, a renowned Chinese writer, discusses contemporary China through his own personal experience. He use his memory of the culture revelution to commment on various aspects of contemporary China, point out, in his opinion, the continuities and change of the two eras. In his book Age Of Ambition, Evan Osnos presents the different views of two prominent Chinese economists. Lin Yufu and Wu Jinglian, on the roles and priorities of government and democracy in the economic development of contemporary China. Based on the books, do you think that Yu Hua is more likely to be sympathetic to Lin or Wu’s view? Please use the assigned and other revelent material to support your position. (Please view Yu Hua pp3-14 113-180 and Osnos chap 10. Please also refer to the social and political change portrayed in Qiu, Death of a red Heroine