I wouldn’t recommend this class unless you already have a strong background or personal interest in Chinese history and culture. The course is designed to give a broad overview of everything from music to art to politics, and while the workload itself is manageable (just two essays) (not counting the movies and books he assigns), the class really lacked structure.

There’s no midterm—only a final—so it was hard to figure out what to focus on. Since the course covers so much content, it felt overwhelming, and without clear guidance on what would actually be tested, I went into the final pretty much blind. Dr. Berry is clearly knowledgeable and passionate, and he’s a great lecturer, but if you don’t have prior knowledge going in, this class can be really difficult to follow.

The only reason I did okay was because a few students made a comprehensive study guide, which I relied on heavily. The final itself isn’t hard if you know the key people, movements, and concepts—but the challenge is figuring out what those are. His slides weren’t very helpful, and the sheer amount of material made it easy to get lost.

Also, while movies and readings were assigned throughout the quarter, I don’t think most students actually completed them because it would’ve taken up way too much time on top of everything else.

If you could take another GE, do it. The class itself is probably easy but I had a horrible TA, Guanrui Gong, who made the experience super annoying. The professor is pretty chill and you can get away with not studying that much but it really depends on your TA.