Peking University, Beijing

Calligraphy is the representative of Chinese art. To understand Chinese art, calligraphy is a convenient way to enter. The purpose of offering calligraphy aesthetics and practice, a general elective course across colleges and departments, is to enable students who are not majoring in calligraphy to have a preliminary perception of the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy, a general cognition of the history of Chinese calligraphy, and a basic experience of the basic techniques of Chinese calligraphy. Therefore, this course is integrated with aesthetics, history and practice. In this course, students not only listen to the history and theory of calligraphy taught by teachers and famous teachers, but also practice calligraphy in person under the inspiration of the teachers' unique teaching methods: seal script, official script, regular script, running script, cursive script, meaning and ancient meeting, elegant in hand. Students will be improved aesthetically, cultivated in their humanistic and artistic temperament, improved in the practice of writing, and finally have a new understanding of Chinese calligraphy and Chinese artistic spirit.

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span.

ICH Tai Chi Arts（Mr. Wang Qihe style） The Wang-Style Tai Chi, founded by Mr. Wang Qihe in the late Qing Dynasty, is a unique style of Tai Chi developed from the Yang-style small frame. In Wang style, not only is the softness and agility of Yang style well blended into the Wu-style hard frame, but it has also assimilated into its system the essence of other traditional arts such as Xingyi and Bagua, thus forming a special school of Tai Chi, characterized by its spiraling force and quick easy grace. Practitioners of Wang style should accustom themselves to the soft, water-like moves in Tai Chi and remember to be always as agile as the mouse-catching cat. From 1914 to 1921, Wang Qihe served in the Huiyou Security Bureau in Beijing. In 1913, Wang’s disciple Cao Shouhua was admitted to the Law Department of Peking University where he met Li Dazhao, who was also fond of martial arts. The two soon became close friends. Learning and practicing martial arts together, they also became comrades in battle when Cao joined the Communist Party under Li’s introduction. In 1938, Cao and Wang Jingfang (Wang Qihe’s son) escorted Deng Xiaoping and Chen Zaidao eastward and assisted them in establishing the revolutionary base in the south of Hebei. While Li and Cao sacrificed their lives for the Revolution in China, the Wang-Style Tai Chi survives and has thus formed an indissoluble bond with Peking University. Today, the Wang-Style Tai Chi has been listed as an intangible cultural heritage at the international (2020), national (2014), Beijing (2020) and Haidian (2018) levels. It is also a project declared, protected and inherited by the Peking University Headquarters. This course offers an overview of Tai Chi, including tuishou (pushing hands), sanshou (sparring), postures, as well as the biomechanical, biotechnological and philosophical principles behind the Tai Chi moves. The aim of the course is to let students understand and inherit the essence of Chinese culture, to boost their cultural identification and confidence, and to promote their physical and mental fitness. By learning and practicing Tai Chi, students can enhance their coordination, balance and flexibility, activate certain muscle groups, strengthen their cores, and thus gain a better control of their bodies. Tai Chi is also helpful in curing spinal and pelvic problems, reducing daily sports injuries and developing life-long sports habits among students.

Social psychology studies the psychology and behavior of individuals and groups in social situations and their development patterns. This course will cover the important concepts and theories in mainstream social psychology,including how individuals look at themselves and others,critical thinking about social phenomena, human aggression and helping behavior, attitude formation and change, social influence and its performance, the foundation of interpersonal relationships and intimacy, group psychology and behavior, how culture affects people, the psychosocial factors that affect human health, and the latest positive psychology. This course focuses on the application of social psychology in social life, the formation and maintenance of interpersonal relationships, principles of interpersonal communication and conflict resolution, and a smooth team work.This course will also focus on contemporary scholars' researches on human psychology and behavior under different cultural backgrounds. Through this course, students will master the research contents, research methods and major research results of social psychology and better understand social life and events.

Educational psychology is an advanced freshman/sophomore-level course in the field of education. It is the study of classroom learning and teaching. This course provides an introduction to the concepts and theories of educational psychology and explains how they can be applied to actual situations. Topics include characteristics of learners, principles of learning, and principles of teaching. This course aims to construct students’ general knowledge and skills on learning and teaching activities, and to demonstrate the practical educational implications derived from each theory. It is expected that students will be able to become efficient learners in their future study.

This undergraduate lecture course is designed to survey major topics of the international relations of the People’s Republic of China with a specific focus on Chinese perspective. With a brief introduction of major theoretical perspective on foreign policy studies, the main body of the course is organized around special topics of Chinese foreign policies, including the Chinese historical legacy and its impact on China’s foreign policy, nationalism and public opinion in contemporary China, mechanism of China’s foreign-policy decision-making, leaders and their styles, China’s attitudes towards global governance, the economic dimension of China’s interactions with the outside world, public diplomacy and China’s soft power and China’s policy towards peripheral countries, (in particular, the Northeast Asia and the South China Sea). This course pays attention to the application of different international relations theories to the problems under study. The course aims to acquaint students with knowledge of China’s involvement in world affairs in historical and contemporary perspectives and train them with an analytical understanding of the dynamics of China’s foreign policy.

An Introduction to Philosophy This course aims at being an introduction to the way of philosophical thinking through a close reading of Plato’s Republic and other classical philosophical texts. The course will introduce the students to the major topics, problems, concepts and approaches of philosophy by following the lead of Socrates to examine the ways of life. In addition, the course will provide a preliminary training of reading, arguing and writing in the philosophical way. Introduction: philosophy as a way of life Republic I: Justice, the failure of the definition Republic II: The founding of a just city? Republic III: Education of the Guardians Republic IV: From city to Soul Republic V:　Three Waves Republic VI: the way to philosophy Republic VII: the ladder of learnings Republic VIII: degenerate cities Republic IX: Tyrant Republic X: the Myth of Er Mencius I: Justice and advantages Mencius II: Beyond Altruism and Egoism Mencius III: Ataraxia Mencius IV: Natural Goodness Great Learning

Group social work is an important method among the three major practice methods of social work. This course mainly introduces the basic principles of group social work, the theoretical basis of group work, group types, elements of group systems, group dynamics, group social work process and the evaluation of group social work. The purpose of setting up this course is to enable students to systematically understand the meaning, origin and development of group social work as well as the theoretical basis of group social work practice, to have an in-depth understanding of the structure, process and development of the group, and to master the principles and characteristics of each different implementation stage. On the basis of comprehensively using various methods and techniques of group social work to organize the implementation of group social work. The course will explain practical theories while supplementing them with relevant cases. While paying attention to the analysis of practical theories, it will also focus on teaching group work skills and methods to prepare students for group social work.