Professor Mai was a great professor for Chinese 70! I didn't know what to expect, but I definitely enjoyed the class.

Pros
- Final was online and was a mixture of multiple choice, matching, short answer questions (basically 5 sentences on vocab words on their relevance, definition, and examples), and 2 essays. Professor Mai and the TAs were very clear on how the formatting would be and provided examples of short answer questions and essay topics. My 58 pages of notes for this class paid off when I had to find vocab words and textual evidence.
- Projects can be pretty interesting! One of them was a poetry anthology where you assemble a collection of poems with a theme that you come up with yourself. They allow for creative freedom. The other one was an expository essay, so more wordy. However, the poetry anthology was my favorite.
- Professor Mai's lectures were engaging and her slides were descriptive. She explains things in a concise way that keeps me paying attention.

Cons
- There are weekly readings that could get slightly dense, but if you take notes on them and break them up into smaller pieces, you should be fine.
- There are periodic quizzes that are graded by your TA - you do have to be detailed in your responses because these aren't guaranteed free points
- This is not necessarily the professor, but as with humanities and GEs, your TA could make or break your grade. My TA, Yi, was chill and helpful, but I heard stories of other TAs being harsher when grading projects and quizzes.

Overall, I would take this class again - it was a doable GE to have when I was taking 3 other STEM classes spring quarter of my freshman year.

Great professor, great class! I am from her Chin 70, which is about the traditional Chinese literature. Her lectures are very engaging and interesting, and the workload is way less than other GEs, so not only can we genuinely learn stuff but also do not suffer endless essays. Will surely take her classes again! Wonderful experience in spring quarter.

Professor Mai was such a sweet and kind professor. The subject matter of Chinese Gardens is much more profound and rich in history than I could have ever imagined. I loved that Professor Mai encouraged us to think poetically about gardens and dig deep into our readings' metaphors. Saying goodbye at the end of class was actually emotional and the final week of project presentations was incredible. The material from this class will stick with me for a long time to come. Not to be missed!