Week One: Introduction to Modern Chinese History / Film Language
Readings: Zhang Yingjin 2003: 1-57.
External web sources: Yale Film Studies Film Analysis Website
Week Two: Virtue, Gender, and Nation (***first reaction paper due on Wednesday***)
Primary screening: The Goddess (1934; dir. Wu Yonggang)
Supplemental required "viewing": New Woman (1934; dir. Cai Chusheng. Click here to preview the translated script and view images and clips)
Reading: Zhang 2003: 58-112
External web sources: Ling Lung Women's Magazine (1931-1937); An Illustrated History of the Communist Party of China; Tales of Old Shanghai.
Week Three: War and National Unity
Primary screening: Spring in a Small Town (1948; dir. Fei Mu. Click here to preview the translated script.)
Supplemental screening: Crows and Sparrows (1949, dir. Zheng Junli). TBA
Readings: Zhang 58-112
External web sources: Spring River Flows East; The Nanjing Atrocities: Online Documentary ; Interview with Li Xianglan (Otaka Yoshiko)
Week Four: Socialism and the Ideology of National Reconstruction (***second reaction paper due on Wednesday***)
Primary screening: Stage Sisters (1965; dir. Xie Jin)
Readings: Zhang 2003: 189-224.
External web sources: Morning Sun: A Film and Website about Cultural Revolution;
Week Five: Trauma, Memory, and the Cultural Revolution
Primary screening: Hibiscus Town (1985; dir. Xie Jin)
Supplemental screening: In the Heat of the Sun (1994; dir. Jiang Wen). T
Readings: Zhang 2003: 225-58
External web sources: Morning Sun: A Film and Website about Cultural Revolution;
Week Six: Roots and National Cultural Critique (***third reaction paper due on Wednesday***)
Primary screening: Yellow Earth (1984; dir. Chen Kaige)
Readings: Zhang 2004: 225-58
Week Seven: Issues of "National" Identity in Hong Kong
Primary screening: Happy Together (1997; dir. Wong Kar-wai)
Supplemental screening: Comrade, Almost a Love Story (1996; dir. Peter Chan). Time and place TBA.
Readings: Zhang 2003: 150-88; 249-58
External web sources: The Hong Kong Museum of History (includes a multipart video entitled "The Hong Kong Story")
Week Eight: Globalization and Identity (***fourth reaction paper due on Wednesday***)
Primary screening: The Hole (1998; dir. Ts'ai Ming-liang)
Readings: Zhang 2003: 113-49
External web sources: The Globalizaiton Website; Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy (PBS series website); Taiwan History (from New Taiwan: Illa Formosa); City of Sadness (Cinemaspace, University of California Berkeley site by Yeh Yueh-yu and Abe Mark Nornes); Chinese 505 information page for City of Sadness
Week Nine: Market Reforms, Globalization, and Identity, part 2
Primary screening: Platform (2000; dir. Jia Zhangke)
Supplemental screening: Blind Shaft (2003; dir. Li Yang). Time and place TBA.
Readings: Zhang 2003: 259-96
External web sources: China in the Red (Frontline Documentary)
Week Ten: Transnational Chinese Cinema
Primary screening: Hero (2002; dir. Zhang Yimou)
Readings: Zhang 2003: 259-96
External web sources: A Brief Historical Tour of the HK Martial Arts Film; Hero (official website)