Take this class if you would love to be completely immersed into the 2000 years of Ancient Chinese Civilization. Take this if you want to dream about Chinese emperors and Chinese culture only. Take this if the only requirement you need left is in this one class and in this one class only.... If you would like to live, breathe, eat, think, and exist solely on Chinese history, take this class. All of the above must apply to you unless you want to fail this class. Otherwise, this class is NOT the dao.

Professor is very passionate about subject and you can tell. Props to him.

Many people are saying if you wan't an easy GE don't take this one. I will one up you--if you want a MANAGEABLE GE, don't take this one. This course covers a massive swath of Chinese History, which in fairness is interesting. However, Professor Schabergs lectures are entirely incoherent. He rambles on and on and on about the most microscopic irrelevant details, which would be fine in other circumstances but is just ridiculous considering how quickly we are supposed to be moving through thousands of years of history, and ridiculous considering this is an entry level GE and thus most students first extensive introduction to Chinese history. Not only does he hyper fixate on largely irrelevant topics (burial practices or pottery), but throughout his lectures he jumps back and forth through time and dynasty over and over again in very incoherent and incomprehensible ways. His lectures are largely confusing. He demands a lot from his class: the midterm and in class quizzes once again are extremely demanding and difficult with ambiguous wording once again on the most obscure topics yet he can't even give us the grace of grading these things in a timely manner. This is the longest I have ever waited for a midterm to be graded--and it's simply offensive to students who spend weeks and weeks preparing for your disproportionately difficult class. As other students have mentioned, this is quite literally the most difficult class I have taken at UCLA, which in itself is not even the problem. I am all for an academic challenge, but when the Professor does not want students to succeed and is an incompetent instructor, it's incredibly difficult to feel motivated to tackle that academic challenge.

If you do not have substantial background knowledge in the topic or are not wildly passionate about it, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. This is not the class to nurture a new passion or academic interest as you will just be discouraged as the class is equally disorganized as it is demanding. I wish I would have waited another quarter to fulfill my philosophical and linguistic analysis GE because now I fear my GPA is going to take a massive hit despite the herculean efforts I have given towards the course and learning this history.

A Word of Warning: CHIN50 is a Nightmare Dressed Like a Survey Course

If you think CHIN50 will offer a structured, insightful exploration of Chinese history, be prepared for a serious wake-up call. This class ambitiously attempts to cover everything from pseudo-fictional ancient dynasties to the communist revolution, creating a historical scope so broad that it's practically unmanageable for anyone with a typical course load—let alone for engineering students like myself, whose upper-division courses combined require less time than this one class.

The quizzes are the pinnacle of absurdity. They’re closed book and closed notes, which would be fine if they focused on significant historical figures and major events. Instead, we’re expected to recall obscure names, sometimes mentioned only once in the textbook. I actually went back to confirm: one sentence. That’s all we got on this “important” figure who somehow ended up as a focal point on the quiz. The questions are worded so ambiguously that even if you know the material, you’re left second-guessing yourself, hoping that you've deciphered what the instructor actually meant.

And then there’s the grading—glacially slow, to the point where feedback is irrelevant by the time it’s finally returned. Assignments pile up, and while you're still waiting on your quiz grade from a month ago, you’re asked to prepare for the next quiz over another ludicrously large chunk of history.

To anyone considering taking CHIN50: reconsider. Unless you’re ready to put more effort into this course than all your upper-division classes combined, or if you enjoy memorizing throwaway details over substantive learning, do yourself a favor and avoid it. There are better ways to gain an appreciation for Chinese history than being dragged through a scattershot mess like this.

Overall, I enjoyed this class. Although I wouldn't consider it an "easy" GE, if you do the work, you should be fine. I took it as a GE and didn't have too high hopes for it, but Dr. Schaberg's lectures were very interesting and he cares about our learning. There were 30 pages of textbook and/or sourcebook reading assigned before each class, which I found helpful but time-consuming. There were 5 in-lecture quizzes (closed book) and 5 discussion quizzes (open book), neither of which are too bad if you've been attending lectures and doing the reading. Discussion is mandatory, but if you have Quentin as your TA, it's very enjoyable—he's funny.

The midterm was short-answer and essay questions in-class, closed book, and I studied a lot for it; using Quizlets to review the dynasties was particularly helpful since it covered 3000 years of Chinese history. There was a final group/individual project that involved writing a few pages on any topic related to the class. The final was in-person on Canvas, which wasn't too bad (I studied a few days in advance), though if not for the protests it would have been just a longer version of the midterm. Good luck :)

Do NOT take this class with Schaberg for a GE dawg. I've invested more time into this than in some of my STEM classes and I'm still struggling. But if you're actually passionate about Chinese history and want to read EXTENSIVE texts on Chinese history and take ABSURDLY SPECIFIC, quizzes then go ahead. The discussions are enjoyable though.

Professor Schaberg is very disorganized and unfair. He does not assign any homework assignments or give any extra credit. Your whole grade is dependent on the 10 random quizzes and the midterm, project, and final. He purposely puts random stuff on his quiz that are not important or barely mentioned in any of the texts provided so you can get the answers wrong. He does not want people to succeed in his class. Do not take this if you want an easy GE, only if you are really interested in this topic or it is your major. It is not worth it because it most likely will drop your GPA. His lectures are also not organized at all. He jumps back and forth between very different topics. This class takes up more time then my major classes and its supposed to be a GE!! The professor talks about how since its a UCLA course, the class is supposed to be difficult, it is, but only because he will focus on the most unimportant facts or people in the dynasties on purpose to throw us off and make us miss problems. His midterm and quizzes have 5-10 problems max so you can't even afford to get one wrong. Although the topic is interesting, this class takes up so much of my time and stresses me out so much because of how the professor formatted this class. Not worth it to take, especially if its for a GE.