He had much passion and is extremely knowledgable in materials and research related to Chinese civilization. But the course itself - or the way he tried to teach it, could be more organized than it was... and ... thousands of slides.

Just one fact to tell. I'm a Chinese-background student, but I was below median in midterm, final, and paper. Maybe I'm too vegetable! Fortunately, I received an A, as Professor Li himself is a really nice and helpful guy.

I took this class to satisfy a requirement as an anthropology major and I don't have much personal interest in archaeology, so I wasn't exactly expecting to love this class, but still it was largely bad. Professor Li does honestly seem like a nice person, but his lectures are really boring and he doesn't do a good job of making any of the things he's talking about interesting. But ultimately it didn't really matter too much whether or not I paid attention or even went to class because he gave a take-home midterm and final where all of the information was based on the book (and graded them easy; I got a multiple choice question marked wrong on the midterm and still got 30/30). Participation and attendance were required per the syllabus but the class was super empty by the third week and he never took attendance. I can personally vouch that I skipped about half the classes and still got an A (though I'm not sure the percentage breakdown). Overall, it's easy but if you're looking for a class that might catch your attention or teach you something interesting maybe look elsewhere.

I just got out of the final and I just wanted to recap for future students who are thinking of taking this class. First of all, this is not an "easy" GE. If you are looking for GE where you can get away with an A with minimal effort, this class IS NOT for you. I had to solely rely on the textbook to study for the tests because the lectures were not very effective. The professor would often go on tangents and talk about material that was not going to be tested on. I am not completely bashing on this class, though. The professor provided us with study guides so we can know what we needed to know for the test. These study guides were very reflective of what was going to be on the tests. The midterm consisted of only 20 multiple choice questions, which was a lot of pressure. The final consisted of 24 multiple choice questions, 2 map questions, and 6 short answers. If you are genuinely interested in Chinese civilization, then feel more than welcome to take this class. The professor is passionate about the topic and seemed like he always welcomed students to office hours. Overall, this class consisted of a lot of reading and memorizing. I honestly studied more for this class than my upperdivsion classes that I am currently taking for my major.

Very unclear and unfocused class. I have no idea what to study for the midterm, in fact the professor did not provide any information for the midterm. Lectures and Textbooks are covering extremely different topics. Every single one of my classmates I've talked to are either confused or stressed heading into tomorrow's midterm. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.

I'm a graduating senior who needed to fulfill the Philosophical/Linguistics requirement so I took this class. The TA was more interesting than the professor. I never went to lecture because I kept falling asleep during the first two lectures. I never did the readings and on the three quizzes (each one 10 points) I earned 10/30 points total as my quiz grade. I did manage 80% on the midterm and I always went to the discussions, which were mandatory. I'm not sure how I did on the final exam and on the final paper, but I passed soOOOooOOOoooOOo. Overall, the material was not that interesting to me but this class is not challenging to pass. Most of my friends got As in this class so I assume the curve is generous. I just wanted a peace of mind that my laziness was not going to cost my GPA.

This was probably one of the most confusing classes I've ever taken. Prof Li is super nice and really passionate about archaeology, but he is very unorganized and jumps around a lot. It was hard to follow, but somehow I got an A. The whole class is a blur, and I retained nothing. Do the assignments. Even if you have no idea what you're doing or saying, you'll wake up the morning grades are posted (still confused about what on earth just happened) with an A.

Prof. Li was the most accommodating and nice professor I've encountered during at-home learning. He pre-recorded his lectures and uploaded them onto CCLE, and you can view them right before a quiz and get an A. While this was nice, sometimes he would go over the slotted amount of time for lecture, as he often rambles about his personal experiences (though his work is super interesting to learn about!) He also tends to ramble a lot during office hours, so make sure someone keeps him on track or else he'll spend a majority of his OH answering 1 question. Overall, super cool professor and easy GE to get an A.

Class grade is split by:
Discussion section: 10%
Papers (best 1 of 2): 30%
Quizzes (best 4 of 5): 60%

Taken online, so experiences may vary.

Personally thought the class was really easy and interesting despite having no background except for AP World History before this class. However, others in groupchats I was in seemed to be constantly stressed about this class, so I may be an anomaly.

Due to the remote nature, Prof. Li recorded lectures that were 1-2 hours long and had us watch them on our own time. They were mostly slide-based and the slides were posted afterwards. For better or worse, you could tell which topics were more interesting to him because he would go more in-depth and show many pictures about them, whereas other slides might be just bullet points.
Midterm/Final were multiple choice/short answer and were fairly straight-forward, just facts from the lectures/readings. My understanding is that for in-person classes, he would test more heavily on geography, but he did not in the remote setting. Nevertheless, I would still suggest getting familiar with Chinese geography just because it makes it easier to understand what's happening.
Lectures can sometimes be a bit long/tangenty, but I enjoyed them.

TA sections were very different than lecture, focusing on the readings, which were more literature/cultural based instead of purely historical.
Quizzes were all based on literature, which can be difficult, especially if you aren't used to differentiating Chinese names and stuff.
TA discussions were just the TA reading slides about the topics covered and then a student-led group presentation about the topics again.
I spent a long time on the final paper because I'm a pretty poor writer, but it was graded pretty generously in my opinion (or I was really lucky).
I was personally less interested in this stuff, but it was a manageable amount of reading. The bar for discussion was kinda low, so if you participated at all, I think you would have gotten a good grade for participation.

Prof Li is a very nice person and very willing to answer questions. So while we did not have in-person lectures, he did have "interaction times" to talk and ask questions.

Overall, if you're interested in history, I found the class really interesting and learned a lot from it. If you're not, you might be bored.

I took this class remotely during the pandemic so I think the class was easier than it normally would have been. Midterm and final were open note and the professor gave us a study guide that pretty closely followed the test content. Make sure to collaborate with people on the study guide because its pretty lengthy. The midterm was all multiple choice and the final was multiple choice and some frq--these tests saved my grade. Pop quizzes were harder to get good scores on. As for the final essay, get feedback from your TA like all the other responses said. Like everyone else said, the first couple lectures (maybe until week 3?) are more archaeological based and not really helpful. But in the second half of the quarter I found that the lectures got better. Slides become more helpful later in the quarter as well. However, the textbook is also pretty good and you can do fine with just the textbook. (Although some things are more covered in the lectures than in the textbook.) If you're taking this class remotely, it won't be too bad. I probably wouldn't have gotten a good grade if it was taught normally in person.