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C232: MODERN CHINESE CULTURE
Winter 2007
MCLC Resource Center / Study Guide #1 / Study Guide #2 / Dynastic Chart
Room: Arps Hall 384
Time: M/W 1:30-3:18
Instructor: Kirk A. Denton / 375 Hagerty Hall / 292-5548 (Office)
e-mail: denton.2@osu.edu
course webpage: http://deall.ohio-state.edu/denton.2/courses/c232/c232.htm
Office hours: Wed. 11:30-1:00
Goals:
The aim of this course is to introduce the student to modern Chinese culture, which is defined broadly to include politics, the arts, economics and society during the period from roughly 1850 to the present. The course will focus particularly on the period beginning with the late Qing (1894-1911) and the May Fourth Movement (1915-23), the crucial transition in the break with the Confucian imperial past, and extend to contemporary society and the commodity culture of 1990s People's Republic of China.The course has a dual structure. After a week of general introduction to pre-modern China, its dynastic history and thought, the first part of the course presents the student with a chronological overview of modern Chinese history, primarily through viewings of videos. Though this can only be the most general of introductions, knowledge of the historical development of modern China will be insisted upon throughout the course. In this course, history is not presented as secondary or merely as a backdrop to culture, but as an essential motivating factor that shapes and determines it to a large degree. Part two of the course looks more synchronically at subject areas (language and literature; society; visual and performing arts; popular culture) felt to be basic to an understanding of modern Chinese culture today.
This dual structure will hopefully reveal that within the complex process of historical development of modern China emerge certain key tensions between tradition and modernity, native and foreign, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, national salvation and personal enlightenment which may be seen as central to the formation of modern Chinese culture. Class lectures will attempt to make sense of modern China in terms of these tensions.
Texts (available at SBX)
Grasso, June, et. al. Modernization and Revolution in China. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1991. [Available as a E-book through Net Library via OSU Libraries ]China: Adapting the Past, Confronting the Future. Editors: Buoye, Denton, Dickson, Naughton, and Whyte. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies, 2002. This is a sourcebook of both primary and secondary materials on the history and geography, politics, society, economy, and culture of modern China. YOU MUST USE THE 2002 EDITION.
Further Readings
Barme, Geremie, ed. Seeds of Fire: Chinese Voices of Conscience, eds. G. Barme and J. Minford. New York: The Noonday Press, 1989. [collection of writings by Chinese literary, intellectual and political figures].----- and Linda Jaivin, eds. New Ghost, Old Dreams. New York: Random House, 1992.
-----. In the Red: Essays on Contemporary Chinese Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Dutton, Michael. Streetlife China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Lu Xun. Diary of a Madman and Other Stories. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.
Meisner, Maurice. Mao's China: A History of the People's Republic. New York: The Free Press, 1977.
Moser, Leo. The Chinese Mosaic: The Peoples and Provinces of China. Boulder: Westview Press, 1985.
Mote, Frederick. Intellectual Foundations of China. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971.
Munro, Donald. The Concept of Man in Contemporary China. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1977.
Schram, Stuart. The Thought of Mao Tse-tung. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989
Spence, Jonathan. The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution 1895-1980. New York: Penguin Books, 1981.----- The Search for Modern China. New York: Norton Press, 1990.
Zhang Xinxin and Sang Ye. Chinese Lives: An Oral History of Contemporary China. New York: Pantheon Books, 1987.
For an on-line information on modern Chinese culture, see:
For readings on modern Chinese history, go to
History of China (for a brief narrative history of modern China, link to the sections Emergence of Modern China, Republican China, and People's Republic of China)
For more on-line information on modern Chinese history, go to
John Fairbank Memorial Chinese History Virtual Library
Grading
Midterm 30%
Final 30%
Oral Project 40%
The midterm and final will consist of short answer and short essay questions. The midterm will cover material concerning traditional Chinese culture and the history of modern China. The final will be cumulative, though emphasis is placed on material covered in the second half of the course.
Students are expected to have read all assigned readings prior to the class to which they pertain and be prepared to ask and answer questions about them. Readings from Grasso are listed next to the title description for that week's lectures. This means that the reading should be done over the weekend, prior to the beginning of that week's classes, not by the end of that week. All other readings are to be found in the Main Library reserve.
Students will prepare final projects on a topic and in a format to be determined in consultation with the instructor. The project may be presented in a variety of formats: formal academic paper, oral presentation, video, blog, webpage, etc. Student may work together in small groups, preferably no larger than two. The project must show depth, and students should draw from more than just online source for material. Students who prepare websites must create something original and innovative, not simply an assemblage of images, texts, and music from other sites. Students can consider the following general areas of "modern" Chinese culture for their projects: literature (e.g., pick a writer and analyze a text), film (e.g., analyze a film or group of films for what it/they tell us about culture or society), art, television (e.g., analyze a sitcom), music (e.g., work on pop music), social customs (e.g., how has sexuality change in the new market economy), internet (e.g., websites or blogs), cellphone culture, folk culture, media (e.g., journalism in the PRC). . . I expect the topic to relate to MODERN culture. You can chose a topic related to traditional culture, but your focus should be on what has happed to that culture in modern/contemporary times. Keep your topics as narrow and focused as possible. This will allow you to get deeper into it. Do NOT, for example, present an overview of the history of film in China from its inception to the present.
Academic Misconduct
Academic misconduct is defined as any activity which tends to compromise the academic integrity of the institution, or subvert the educational process. Examples of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to: (a) violation of course rules as contained in the course syllabus or other information provided the student; violation of program regulations as established by departmental committees; (b) providing or receiving information during quizzes and examinations such as course examinations and general examinations; or providing or using unauthorized assistance in the laboratory, at the computer terminal, or on field work; (c) submitting plagiarized work for an academic requirement. Plagiarism is the representation of another's works or ideas as one's own; it includes the unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another person's work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person's ideas; (d) falsification, fabrication, or dishonesty in reporting research results; (e) serving as, or enlisting the assistance of, a "ringer" or substitute for a student in the taking of examinations; (f) alteration of grades or marks by the student in an effort to change the earned grade or credit; and (g) alteration of University forms used to drop or add courses to a program, or unauthorized use of those forms.
Disability Services
Students with disabilities that have been certified by the Office for Disability Services will be appropriately accommodated, and should inform the instructor as soon as possible of their needs. The Office for Disability Services is located at 150 Pomerene Hall, 1760 Neil Ave; TEL: 292-3307; TDD: 292-0901.
SCHEDULE
1/3 Introduction to course; geography of China, etc
WEB RESOURCES: Understanding China in Geography / geographical map of China / terrain of China / mountains and deserts map / agricultural regions and crops / Great Wall / political map / population density map / dialect map / provinces map
1/8 Traditional History and Thought
READINGS: Grasso, 3-33; "Introduction" (3-22); "Confucius" (41-51)
WEB RESOURCES (for historical overview): dynasties handout / Yellow Emperor / archaelogical evidence / jade / bronzes / oracle bone script; Ancient Writing from the Ruins of Yin / ancients Chinese scripts / map of Chou / image of Confucius / Ch'in emperor's tomb; Museum of the Terra Cotta Warriers and Horses / Liu Pang / Map of Han China / Grand Canal / map of Grand Canal / map of Tang / Map of Ch'ang-an / Silk Road / map of Sung / map of Marco Polo travels / Zheng He /
WEB RESOURCES (for traditional thought): Hundred Schools of Thought / Su Tzu's Chinese Philosophy Page / Confucianism (from PHILTAR, Philsophy, Theology, and Religion, St. Martins University) / The Analects (Confucius) / selections from Mencius / Tao Te ching / Yin-Yang symbol / Buddhist Basics /
1/10 Qing Dynasty and the Initial Western Impact
READINGS: Grasso, 34-69; "The Boxer Uprising" (62-74)
WEB RESOURCES: Emergence of Modern China I, Emergence of Modern China II, and Emergence of Modern China III (short narrative of 19th c. history); The Boxer Rebellion;
1/15 NO CLASSES (MLK DAY)
1/17 Modern history overview
FILM VIEWING (in class) : "China in Revolution"
READINGS: Grasso, 70-140; "The Chinese Enlightenment" (75-78); "Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan" (83-89)
WEB RESOURCES: Republican China I, Republican China II, and Republican China III (short narrative of the period from 192-1949); Tales of Old China (site devoted to Republican Shanghai); calendar posters; revolutionary woodcuts (Guggenheim exhibit China: 5000)
1/22 con't
FILM VIEWING (in class): "The Mao Years"
READINGS: Grasso 140-234
WEB SOURCES: PRC I, PRC II, PRC III, PRC IV, and PRC V (short narrative of this history of the PRC); Virtual Museum of the Cultural Revolution; Picturing Power (propaganda posters from the CR); Badges of Chairman Mao; KD's badges collection; Morning Sun (film and website about the Cultural Revolution); "The Red Guards: Hong Wei Bing" (from Revolutionary Workers Online)
1/24 con'tFILM VIEWING (in class) : "Born Under the Red Flag"
READINGS: Grasso, 235-257
WEB RESOURCES: The Gate of Heavenly Peace (site devoted to the film of the same name about the 1989 Tiananmen movement)
1/29 finish film and discussion of modern history
1/31 MIDTERM
2/5 Language/Traditional Literature
READINGS: Tang poems (to be handed out)
WEB SOURCES: Chinese language / Jerry Norman, "Tradition and Transformation in the Chinese Writing System" / oracle bones / bamboo slats writing / ancient scripts
2/7 Modern LiteratureREADINGS: "Medicine" (424-432); / "The Diary of a Madman" / "Talks at the Yenan Conference on Literature and Art" (435-39)
2/12 con't:
READINGS: "On the Other Side of the Stream" (463-486); "On the Road at Eighteen" (492-498); "Playing for Thrills" (506-513)
2/14 Family/ Society
FILM VIEWING (in class): "Small Happiness"
READINGS: "Chinese Women in the 1990s" (283-292); "Hey Coolie" (293-299)
2/19 Cultural Diversity/Rural Life
READINGS: "The Uniting of China" (31-40)
WEB SOURCES: Ethnic Minorities in China /
2/21 Socialist Art and Post-Mao ArtFILM VIEWING (in class): "Inner Visions: Avante-Garde Art in China"
WEB SOURCES: The Modernist Generations, 1920-1950 (from the Guggenheim exhibtion China: 5000 years); revolutionary oil painting (click Denton); propaganda posters (click Shen) Inside-Out (exhibition of avant-garde art)
2/26 Contemporary Film.
FILM VIEWING (in class) : "The World"
2/28 Popular Culture
FILM VIEWING (in class) : "Unleashing the Dragons"
READINGS: "I Have Nothing" (504-505); "McDonald's in Beijing" (255-259)
3/5 Popular Culture lecture/dicussionWEB SOURCES: Guide to Chinese Popular Culture;
3/7 project presentations
3/9 (final written projects due)
FINAL EXAM: Tuesday, March 13