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The Pack contains associated resources for the learning experience, typically in the form of articles and videos. There is a teacher Pack (with only teacher information) and a student Pack (which contains only student information). As a teacher, you can toggle between both to see everything.
Here are the teacher pack items for China and Its Neighbors: History and Its Influence, Part 2:
Overview In this experience, students compare propaganda with photographic evidence from the Great Leap Forward to consider how governments can shape public messages about historical events. They then trace major turning points in modern Chinese history and research how those events influenced later political, economic, and social developments. Finally, students examine how the modern histories of Taiwan and Mongolia are connected to China and create an infographic showing important events and relationships across the region. In scenes 2 and 3, students will work in small groups. Objectives:
Governments often try to shape how people understand major events. Posters, speeches, newspapers, and other forms of communication can be used to promote particular ideas about a country, its leaders, or its policies.
In China during the twentieth century, the government used posters and other media to encourage support for political and economic campaigns. These sources can tell us what leaders wanted people to believe, but they do not always show the full conditions people experienced.
Historians therefore compare different kinds of evidence. A government poster may communicate an official message, while photographs, personal accounts, or other sources can reveal different parts of the same historical moment.
In this experience, you will examine major changes in modern China and investigate how political decisions, conflict, and government policies influenced China and its relationships with Taiwan and Mongolia.
Objectives:
Study this Chinese poster from 1959.
The words across the top say: “The vegetables are green, the cucumbers plump, the yield is abundant.”
Study the poster carefully.
Record the impression it creates about food production and daily life in China at this time. Use specific details from the image or words in the poster as evidence.
Now examine several photographs from China during roughly the same period.
Study:
As you look at the photographs, compare the conditions they show with the message presented in the poster.
What do the poster and photographs reveal about the difference between an official message and people’s experiences during the same historical period?
After students respond, invite several students to identify specific evidence from the poster and photographs before explaining their conclusions. Use the discussion to introduce propaganda as information designed to influence people’s beliefs or attitudes. Students should recognize that the poster communicates abundance, success, and optimism, while the photographs provide evidence of hunger and food shortages. Emphasize that neither source should simply be accepted without considering who created it, why it was created, and what perspective or evidence it provides. Use this comparison to set up the rest of the experience. Students will encounter government decisions and political campaigns that had major effects on people’s lives, and they will need to distinguish between the goals leaders announced and the outcomes people experienced. Possible follow-up questions include: This version keeps the part of Scene 1 that is genuinely strong, but makes it much more purposeful. It now launches the larger experience around government decisions, official messages, lived effects, and historical evidence rather than just “source analysis” in the abstract.
Students will collaborate in small groups for scenes 2 and 3. Divide students into their groups and assign each group an event:
Try to distribute the events so that the class investigates the full sequence of modern Chinese history. When everyone is ready to continue, unlock the next scene.
