GC Wk9 OVERVIEW TO BEGIN MODULE 9

Purpose

This week we’re off to China and Singapore, and to Malaysia where we’ll have a look at Chinese pigs. We’ll see the importance of pigs and eating pigs in the religions of the Chinese and Malay populations in Malaysia. We’ll see how religious questions of what you eat or do not eat can tear families, and whole cultures, apart. And that’s all part of their religion.

These are debates of the times. And some of the debates have been going on for two thousand years or more. Towards the end of the semester we’ll have a closer look at three of the perennial classic debates. Till then, we’re off to China, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Until 2023 China was the most populous country in the world (with about 17.5% of the world’s population, or 1.5 billion people). India overtook China in April of 2023. China is second only to the U.S.A. in nominal GDP (Gross Domestic Product); it is one of the three most powerful countries in the world (by military strength), and it ranks fourth in size by total area. (statista Links to an external site. 1 August 2024)

China is large and powerful enough to merit two cultural metaphors in Understanding Global Cultures, "China's Great Wall" and "The Chinese Family Altar".

Singapore, an important trading partner of China, is represented by its famed "Hawker Centers". In terms of total area, China is over 13,000 times larger than Singapore.

Outcomes

• • To understand the cultural, social, historical, political, and economic importance and outreach of, China, one of the dominant cultures of the world, past and present.
    
    
  • To understand one of the smaller yet culturally and economically important countries in Asia, Singapore.
    
    
  • To understand the complex interaction between cultures as demonstrated and explained in the video The Pig Commandments, which focuses on the Chinese and Malay populations in Malaysia.
    
    

Begin Week 9

Now that you have a sense of the purpose and outcomes contained within this module, begin working through the activities:

• by using the “Next” button below to advance through the activities in sequential order
  
  
• or by going directly to the Week 9 Module for a listing of the activities.