Shuo Sun – Anthro R5B - Final Paper Outline
Abstract:
In “The art of not being governed”, James Scott uses the example of the hill people living in the mountain region of Zomia and argued that instead of being primitive form of living, barbarians, or human beings leftover from pre-state era, these hill people deliberately move to inaccessible region to avoid state control. Scott states that the inaccessibility of the hills make them natural escape routes that can be used to avoid the sovereignty of state government. Scott briefly talks about the examples of how the defeated Kuomintang in the 1950s and the remnants from Taiping Rebellion both escaped to the mountains, but fails to talk about what happen to these people after that. In this paper, I would like to work on this missing information and find data to evaluate whether these people converted themselves to hill people permanently or did they use the resources in the hills to fight back against the state. The aim of this paper is to find out whether the primary or secondary sources concur with Scott’s arguments and discuss about the mechanism of using hills as escape routes in more details.
Outline:
1. Introduction:
The section introduces Scott and his book, “The art of not being governed” and points the reader to the specify topic that I will be focusing on in this paper. There will be a few sentences talking about the rationale and importance of this paper. (0.5 page) 2. Theoretical background:
This section enhances the introduction by providing a summary of Scott’s central arguments in his book and highlighting the issues in his arguments that inspired the topic of this research paper. 3. Methodology:
Approximately 1 to 2 pages will be spent talking about the methods that will be used for this research paper and these includes primary sources such as official historical documents and secondary sources such as books and research papers written by other authors. (1-2 pages) 4. Results and discussion:
This section discusses the observations that agree with Scott’s arguments and also focus on observations that can break Scott’s logics. Based on the discussions, I will come out with reasonable hypothesis that take the theoretical arguments further. (5-6 pages)

5. Conclusion:
Evaluations will be made based on the primary and secondary sources tentatively listed below. The central question of the research paper will be readdressed and more questions might be asked to take theoretical arguments further. (1 page)

Bibliography: 1. James C. Scott. The art of not being governed: An anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia, 2010. 2. Milton J. T. Shieh. The Kuomintang: selected historical documents, 1894-1969, 1970. 3. Loh, Pichon Pei Yung, 1928- , The Kuomintang debacle of 1949; conquest or collapse?, 1965 4. Chin Shunshin, The Taiping Rebellion, translated by Joshua A. Fogel. 2012 5. Teng, Ssu Yu. New light on the history of the Taiping Rebellion. 1950