A lot of reading and sometimes they were very difficult to understand. You had 1 presentation and 3 papers (1 paper was the final). For the final you expand upon one of the two papers you did. Harsh grader. No one got above an 89 on the 2 papers, but she grades better on the final (I ended up with an A). I suggest going to office hours to get a better idea of what she wants, even if you don't really understand I thought it somewhat improved my paper. Class was (presentations) discussion, break, her lecture. Sometimes she does not make sense, so I suggest to have an outline ready and just walk through it with her. Made some great friends through the struggles.

I regret taking this class because it will definitely bring down my gpa. Professor Zhang is super nice, but she isn't really helpful when it comes to papers. Also, she is a really nit-picky, hard grader. It is extremely difficult to get an A in this class. Although it meets once a week, there is about 150 pages of reading a week, which can be a lot when you have 4 other classes to worry about. There were a lot of times I did not finish the reading. Overall, if I could go back in time, I would have fufilled these requirements elsewhere.

This class was so easy because it gets rid of 3 requirements. Although its long a very boring, its not hard to do well on the papers and BS your way through the discussions if you just make up something to say. zhang rocks. no midterm just 3 essays and a presentation all year

Class was structured around 4 papers, 2 presentations, and discussion participation. Papers in length were 2, 4, 4, and 10 pages, totaling 20 which meets the second writing requirement. While definitely a tough grader, it was perfectly reasonable to get an A- or B+ on all of these papers. The reading is sometimes very long and I did not finish it every week, making it tough to participate in discussion those weeks. However, the discussion grade starts at an 80 and is improved based on your efforts, so again it was not difficult at all to get an A- or B+ in that category. Professor Zhang was incredibly knowledgable and smart. She was clearly passionate about the subject and I very much enjoyed getting to know her in the small class environment. I would recommend her class because she is a great professor and she grades both fairly and easily.

This class is mostly about ancient Chinese philosophy, so it is discussion heavy. There is a couple papers that you have to write about certain schools of philosophy and you have to do a presentation. She isn't a hard grader, so it is pretty easy to do well as long as you show up.

It is a lot of reading and 20 pages worth of writing but it will count for 2nd writing req., non western perspective, and history. Cong is a very engaging professor and most of class consist of student led discussion. It's what you make of it. She also has a lot of fun stories. It's easy for participation points once you read (about 120 pages/week) and have something to say (participation is very important so don't be shy). Sometimes you have readings and a paper due every week but it's doable. You definitely can't BS the writing. However, be proactive and GO TO OFFICE HOURS. It will pay off a lot.

the weekly readings and writings can be very interesting or very boring