Question

Could someone help me with these questions about the Open Door Policy in China?

Answer 1

1. What facts about the event does your reader need to have in order to understand the event’s importance to new citizens?
2. Why is this event important for new citizens to understand?
3. What perspective do your primary sources bring to understanding the event?
4. How do your primary sources help you make your argument?

Answer 2

I can point you in a few directions to help answer these on your own if that works out. It also depends on which Open Door policy you're referring to -- there was one which was forced on China in the late 19th and early 20th century. Then there was the one under Deng Xiapeng which started in the late 70s and has continued on to today with China becoming a manufacturing superpower (iPhones, clothes, etc.) as a result.

1. To answer this one, it might help to explain how things were before the Open Door policy began. What was business like? How did China interact with the outside world before that? What choices did Chinese citizens have when it came to goods and services?

2. To explain why it's important, the first question technically covers that. If you understand how life was before the Open Door policy in China was like, then you can try and explain how it made things better...or worse.

3. This question is asking how the sources are pro or con, or from which side of the table they are talking from. Also the West was keen to open up China's markets. Internally, China's official papers toe the Party line so they would also have supported the reforms being made (if we're talking about Deng Xiaopeng's era).

4. Without knowing what your argument is going to be, it depends. This last point is supported by picking out which sources best fit whatever narrative you're writing about with your paper. So "source X" may support your pro-argument in supporting the Open Door policy, for example, and then you'll need to cite some reasons why.

These four questions are mostly just a guideline to how to write your argument since they have a lot of overlap. Just go down through each, one at a time, collect your thoughts in rough form, and then hash things out in a finalized paper once you've done your research.