Population Density in China

In East Asia, we will explore the big ideazChina buildings icon
of population density – the number of people
in a specific unit of area (like a square mile).

Population density is important for many reasons.
It has strong effects on economic productivity,
the likelihood of inventions (and disease),
and the amount of personal freedom
individual people are likely to have.

These materials explore some consequences
of population density, using examples from China.
Teachers should feel free to substitute examples
from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, etc. if they have
personal experience or access to good lessons.
Together, East Asian countries have more than
a quarter of the world’s population, so this unit
could expand to be a larger part of the class.

Day 1: China has about four times the populationChina US Population map
of the United States, on about half as much good land
(China has no West Coast, with cities like Los Angeles,
San Francisco, Portland, or Seattle. It also has no
Great Lakes, with cities like Rochester, Buffalo,
Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, or Duluth.)

Supplement this abstract map comparison by showing
images of life in a crowded place – good examples
include Shanghai, Hong Kong, Nujiang (in south China),
the terraced loess hills of North China, or Dongjiang area
near the border between China and Russia. China
has had a large population for more than 2000 years,
and it has lost a significant fraction of its population
several times in the past:

Day 2: Population pyramids show that China
has recently gone through most of the so-called
“demographic transition,” which means that it is
now on the “old side of the window of opportunity”
when declining birth rate, large number of workers,
and low dependency ratio allow an economy
to grow rapidly and invest heavily in future growth.

zChina Urban footprintsPopulation and immigration policies are linked
in many often controversial ways – the maps
and data in this section could form the basis
for classroom debates or persuasive writing activities.

Option: Comparing the populations of major cities
with their “footprints” on a map is a striking way
to visualize some differences among world cities
(especially if complemented by a selection
of “on-ground” visual images, easy to get
with an internet search or Google Maps).

Days 3-4: In recent years, China has risen to pass Japan
as the world’s second largest economy, and it is
by far the #1 manufacturing region in the world.
We are working on a package of activities about
container ships and ports – in the meantime,
here is a world map activity, a poster activity
that compares the import-export profiles
of different countries around the world,
and an activity about strategic straits.Import Export diagram

Option: If you didn’t do it earlier, here is
a package of activities that explore
the analogous climates of China and the US.

Option: China’s role in the world today
has two somewhat separate foundations –
the enormous population it has had for many
thousands of years, and its recent development
as a large manufacturing and trading economy.
Trade in China also goes back thousands of years.

This activity (with many options of different lengths)
explores a key question about trade:

How do people learn about other places,
in order to decide what to offer for trade? 

BI8T-Silk-Road-Trader-card-GHStudents read an info-card about their home place,
then make travel decisions, read info-cards about
other places, and compare notes (just like explorers
and traders did throughout human history). Then
they try to produce some informational products –
trading advice booklets, thematic maps of population
and other variables, maps of likely trade volume
or commodities along various routes, and even
(perhaps!) some advice for bandits about where
traders are vulnerable to raids (or advice to
trade groups and governments about how
to guard against bandits).

This activity can meet a variety of Common Core
and DBQ objectives, depending on what data forms,
maps, and other products students work with.

Finally . . . a brief activity about the geopolitics
of dealing with North Korea:

Summary:  After doing this unit, students
should be able to explain how the ideas
of population density and demographic transitions
can help us understand several key aspects
of China’s history and present role in the world.
It can also provide perspective for a capstone project
about a current-event topic such as girls working
in factories, the aging population of Japan,
the controversial railroad to Lhasa (Tibet),
the simmering conflict between the two Koreas,
or the changing role of China, Japan, or Korea
in globalizing economy (the “New Silk Road,”
the old conflict in the South China Sea).