Write a 4 to 5-page paper (double-spaced, excluding the title and bibliography pages) based on Yung Wing’s autobiography– My Life in China and America.

Read this autobiography carefully, place Yung Wing in historical context, and think about the following questions: How does Yung’s personal story reflect the profound political, economic, social, and cultural changes in China since the mid-19th century? How to understand Yung’s identity as a person in between different cultures at this turbulent time?

Keep the above broad questions in mind, and then find a theme that your paper can focus on. Use specific examples for deep analysis rather than simply introduce Yung’s experience. For example, you can base your analysis on his educational experiences to analyze how he obtained a U.S. education (including the pre-USA education in Macao and Hong Kong), how he understood the impacts of Western education (such as the influence on his personality and career), and how and why he later carried out the educational scheme. Or you can focus on his political visions and involvement in different reforms in China (including the Taiping rebellion) to analyze how his absorption of both Western (U.S. in particular) and Chinese ideals directed his engagement in those movements and why. Or you can focus on his interaction with non-Chinese and his understanding of race/nation/culture at this specific time. Or focus on other themes you are most interested in, but try to be coherent and well-grounded.

In this paper, first introduce the autobiography and analyze it critically as a primary source (see the documents I uploaded to the course website on how to analyze primary sources): who wrote it, with what purpose, with what significance, limitations of the primary source, and how you will use this source for your analysis.

Then introduce the key theme and the main questions you will address in this paper, followed by a well-structured analysis of the main points with concrete examples from the autobiography.