Introduction to Chinese Culture, Cinema and Literature

Welcome to CHNS260. This course will be fast and furious and with your participation, maddeningly entertaining. I've posted the syllabus for your perusal and am confident you'll find a number of topics that will both interest and befuddle you. The idea of the course is to introduce familiar, stimulating and controversial topics on China on a daily basis in a salon-like format. Daily readings are the foundations for open, lively discussion on a given topic for that day. Your informed, intelligent opinions (and occasional rants) are urgently solicited. I look forward to meeting and hearing from you all soon.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Informed by cutting-edge approaches to the study of China, this multimedia-enhanced course introduces students to classical and modern Chinese literature, culture and cinema. Topics integral to the history and perception of China guide daily discussion and include: kungfu, nationalism, hiphop, buddhism, basketball, gender, sexuality, insanity, the rickshaw, etc. As students deepen their understanding of the historical significance of these topics they will continuously be challenged to formulate what it means to be Chinese and to interrogate how and why they define it in such ways.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
(1) To increase specific and general knowledge of China’s artistic and cultural history;
(2) To enhance skills to analyze the different artistic genres and cultural phenomena of the Chinese-speaking world;
(3) To learn to produce different kinds of evaluative literature of the arts: (a) collegiate essay, (b) film review, (c) book review, (d) presentation(s);
(4) To develop appropriate, professional communication skills through writing assignments, class discussion and presentations.

TEXTS
To save you money most of the primary readings are made available online (as PDF files or HTML files) through the course websites and library e-Reserves. You need to access the texts well in advance in case there are problems with the websites. There are also two other inexpensive books that you will need to purchase for the course:

(1) Gascoigne, Bamber. The Dynasties of China. London: Constable & Robinson, Ltd., 2003. (~$12)

(2) Berry, Christopher J. and Mary Ann Farquhar. China on Screen: Cinema and Nation. New York: Columbia UP. 2006. (~$20)

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:
(***The instructor withholds the right to adjust the syllabus at any time.)

Week I : Cultural Foundations

5/18 M Introduction to Course: What does it mean to study “Chineseness”?
5/19 T Bronze Vessels and Brazen Kings (read The Dynasties of China)
5/20 W Hooking-Up in Antiquity (Selections from the Shi Jing)
5/21 Th Words to Live By (Selections from the Great Learning and the Middle Way)

Week II: The Rise of the Intellectual

5/26 M Confucian Cortegiani (Selections from the Analects, the Mengzi, the Laozi and the Zhuangzi)
5/27 T On Fluttering Sages (Selections from the Liezi and the Biography of Transcendents)
5/28 W Heroic Portraits (Selections from Records of the Grand Historian)

*Book Review (The Dynasties of China, ANGEL)

Week III: Life On the Margins

6/2 T How to be a Hermit (Selections from Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun, Meng Haoran, Wang Wei)
6/3 W My Zen Teacher is Nuts! (Selections from The Platform Sutra and Recorded Conversations of Zen Master Yi Xuan)
6/4 Th So I Married an Axe Murderer (Selections from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and Sketches from the Cottage)

* Presentations (ANGEL)

Week IV: The Art of Governance

6/9 T Presentations
6/10 W Palace Politics (Selections from Story of the Stone)
6/11 Th Monkeys Rule (Selections from Journey to the West)

* Test 2 (Week 4, ANGEL)/* Collegiate Essay (ANGEL)

Week V: Modernity and Liberation

6/16 T Insanity (Selections from Lu Xun’s short stories and essays)
6/17 W “Iron Women and Foxy Ladies” (Selections from Mao’s Red Book, the Historic Liberation of Chinese Women, The White Haired Girl)
6/18 F Selling Punches and Puns: Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan

*Film Review (Raise the Red Lantern)

Week VI: China and the West; a Remix

6/23 F Zhang Yimou and His Girls (Watch Raise the Red Lantern, Media Center)
6/24 M Shakespeare, the Sonnet and China (Watch The Banquet, Media Center)
6/25 W Yao Ming and Olympic Dreams (Selections from People’s Daily)

Final

6/29 M *Test 2 (On China on Screen: Cinema and Nation and what it means to be “Chinese”)

Chinese Cinema: Imaginative Modes for Engendering a Nation

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course provides answers to three broad questions:

(1) What and (2) How does Chinese cinematic history tell us about the quest for national (and transnational) identities?;

(3) What are the changing strategies, modes and contents of particular visual narrations of said identities?

In this course, we examine the major cinematic modes, genres and themes of Chinese film invested in the construction of national identities from the cinema’s infancy in the late Qing (1905) to the present. Through the investigation of various historical, operatic, realistic and combative modes of cinematic narration, we come to a detailed understanding of Chinese cinematic history and how it participates directly in efforts to imagine various Chinese communities whose roots are in the national. Because such imaginations on screen are visually and rhetorically unique, we approach our analysis of these films with the realization that a coherent national identity can not be taken for granted. In fact, that these films artfully narrate their tales in unique ways is a testament to the continuing evolutionary and pluralistic nature of Chinese national and transnational identities. It is our privilege to experience and to analyze these numerous visual displays of what it can mean to be Chinese in a modern world.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

(1) To enjoy the spectacle of 100 years of Chinese cinema;
(2) To become an educated reader of Chinese cinematic history;
(3) To learn the major cinematic modes, genres, themes and gendered imaginations of Chinese productions in their endeavors to define the national;
(4) To become a proficient writer of the collegiate essay and professional film review;
(5) To inspire you to enjoy the next 100 years of Chinese cinema.

TEXTS

Assignments for the course will consist of a combination of film viewing and the reading of critical, secondary literature. Required films for the course are available on reserve in the library’s media center. All secondary literature is retrievable online (as PDF files or HTML files) through the course websites and library e-Reserves. You need to access the texts online well in advance in case there are problems with the websites.

SCHEDULE

*The instructor may adjust the syllabus at any time. Be sure to refer often to the course website.

Opium War Films 鸦片影片: Historicizing a National Wound

Unit 1

*Rosenstone, Robert A. “The Historical Film: Looking at the Past in a Postliterate Age.” The Historical Film: History and Memory in the Media. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2001. 50-67.

*Chow, Rey. “Introduction: On Chineseness as a Theoretical Problem.” Boundary 2 25.3 (1998): 1-24.

Unit 2 *Bu Wancang’s 卜万苍 Eternal Fame 万世流芳 (1943)


Unit 3 *Zheng Junli’s 郑君里 Lin Zexu and the Opium War林则徐 (1959)


Unit 4 *Li Quanxi’s 李泉溪 The Opium War 鸦片战争 (1963)


Unit 5 *Xie Jin’s 谢晋The Opium War 鸦片战争 (1997)

*First film review due

Shadow Opera 影戏: Staging the Nation as Spectacle

Unit 6

*Gunning, Tom. “The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde.” Early Cinema: Space—Frame—Narrative. Eds. Thomas Elsaesser and Adam Barker. London: British Film Institute, 1990. 56-62.

*Chen Xihe. “Shadowplay: Chinese Film Aesthetics and Their Philosophical and Cultural Fundamentals.” Chinese Film Theory: A Guide to a New Era. Eds. George S. Semsel, Xia Hong, and Hou Jianping. Trans. Hou Jianping, Li Xiaohong, and Fan uan. London: Praeger, 1990. 192-204.

Unit 7 *Zhang Shichuan’s 张石川The Classic Daughter 女儿经 (1934), *Fei Mu’s 费穆 Remorse at Death 生死恨 (1948)


Unit 8 *Wang Bin’s王滨The White-haired Girl 白毛女 (1950)


Unit 9 *Xie Tieli’s 谢铁骊Azalea Mountain 杜鹃山 (1973)


Unit 10 *Chen Kaige’s 陈凯歌Farewell, My Concubine 霸王别姬 (1993)


Unit 11 *Ang Lee’s 李安Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 卧虎藏龙 (2000)

*First essay due

Socialist Realism现实主义: A Focus on the Family

Unit 12

*Elaesser, Thomas. “Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama.” Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and the Woman’s Film. Ed. Christine Gledhill. London: BFI, 1987.

*Chow, Rey. “Introduction.” Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films. New York: Columbia Up, 2007. 1-25.

Unit 13 *Yuan Muzhi 袁牧之 Street Angel 马路天使 (1937)


Unit 14 *Sang Hu 桑弧New Year’s Sacrifice 祝福 (1956)


Unit 15 *Allen Fong’s 方育平 Father and Son 父子情 (1981)


Unit 16 *Chen Kaige 陈凯歌Yellow Earth 黄土地 (1984)


Unit 17 *Zhang Yimou 张艺谋 Raise the Red Lantern 大红灯笼高高挂 (1990)

*Second film review due

Kung-fu Flicks and New Violence武侠片: Experimentations in Loyalty

Unit 18

*Louie, Kam. Theorizing Chinese Masculinity: Society and Gender in China. New York: Cambridge UP, 2002. 1-22.

*Tasker, Yvonne. Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre, and the Action Cinema. London: Routledge, 1993.

Unit 19 *Lo Wei’s 罗维Fists of Fury 精武门 (1972)


Unit 20 *Gordon Chan’s 陈嘉上 Fist of Legend 精武英雄 (1994)


Unit 21 *Ronny Yu’s于仁泰Fearless霍元甲 (2006)


Unit 22 *Chang Cheh’s 張徹 Five Shaolin Masters 少林五祖 (1974)


Unit 23 *Lau Kar-leung’s刘家良Drunken Master II醉拳二 (1993)


Unit 24 *Zhang Yimou’s 张艺谋Hero 英雄 (2002)

*Second essay due

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

(1) 2 FILM REVIEWS (10% EACH; 20% TOTAL): Two one-page popular film reviews that address the history, plot and opinions of a production will be required during the course of this session. Any film within a proper category may be selected for this assignment. These reviews will roughly be based upon the conventions of New York Times film reviews, which will be explained in a detailed handout in the first week of the course. All assignments will be typed, single-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, and handed in at the beginning of class on the final day of each categorical unit.

(2) 2 COLLEGIATE ESSAYS (10% EACH, 20% TOTAL): Two one-page essays that address, question, or complicate issues raised by the films and assigned readings will be required during the course of this session. The instructor will state the topic and set the critical parameters of the essay a week before the assignment is due. All assignments will be typed, single-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, and handed in at the beginning of class on the final day of each categorical unit.

(3) 4 QUIZZES (5% EACH; 20% TOTAL): Four pop-quizzes will be administered that will test the student’s knowledge of the films assigned in each category. Quizzes will vary in length from 5-10 questions. All questions will require short answers.

(4) FILM PROJECT (40%): As an alternative to the standard final, this course allows for the creative synthesis and expression of the larger themes of this course. Any group of 3-4 students may combine their efforts to produce a short film (5-10m) and present it (script and all) at an end-of-the-semester film festival. Three components of the project will be graded: (1) the script (10%); (2) the cuts (initial and edited)(10%); (3) engagement of themes of the course (10%).

or, FINAL EXAM (40%): The final will be a comprehensive examination consisting of three sections (short answers, short essays and long essays) that review the specific details of Chinese cinematic history and the broad questions proposed in the course description. The details of the final exam will be confirmed by the instructor.

Fantastic Bodies: Contemplations of the (Super-) Human in Classical Chinese

(Li Xi, “Zhuangzi Dreaming He’s a Butterfly,” 2008)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course combines the traditional aims of classical Chinese pedagogy with a historical and theoretical engagement of ancient texts that make them stimulating objects worthy of our attention and study. In Fantastic Bodies, we will acquire the necessary knowledge of classical Chinese grammatical components and vocabulary that will make it possible for us to understand, translate and engage ancient poetic, philosophical, medical and historical texts on way to exploring the nature and function of discourses and debates concerning the human body in ancient China. The corpus defining the parameters of our exploration of Chinese bodies will include The Classic of Poetry, The Analects, Mozi, The Songs of Chu, The Art of War, Zhuangzi, Liezi, Shiji, the Classic of the Soul’s Center, and others. By way of our in- and out-of-class assignments and discussions, we will gain the ability to execute more accurately, confidently and fluently readings of classical texts as well as to discuss the pressing cultural matters that occupy their pages.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

(1) To increase our specific and general knowledge of classical Chinese language, literature and culture;

(2) To enhance our understanding of key grammatical components of classical Chinese;

(3) To broaden our vocabulary of ancient Chinese words;

(4) To hone our ability to translate accurately and interestingly into English ancient Chinese materials;

(5) To develop our ability to offer clearly and cogently studied opinions on philosophical and cultural questions in a formal setting.

SCHEDULE
*The instructor withholds the right to adjust the syllabus at any time.

Topic Text Grammatical Focus

Beauty

Unit 1 “關雎,” 詩經 (“Guanju,” Shijing) 之

Unit 2 “桃夭,” 詩經 (“Tao yao,” Shijing) 其，于

Unit 3 “摽有梅,” 詩經 (“Pao you mei,” Shijing) 兮

Unit 4 “野有死麕,” 詩經 (“Ye you si jun,” Shijing) 無，而

*Recitation I due

Moderation

Unit 5 “為政,”論語 (“Wei zheng,”Lunyu） 以，何

Unit 6 “里仁,” 論語 (“Li ren,” Lunyu) 者，也

Unit 7 “辭過,”墨子 (“Ci guo,” Mozi) 是

Unit 8 “梁惠王上,” 孟子 (“Liang Hui Wang,” Mengzi) 焉，乎

Unit 9 “盡心下,” 孟子 (“Jin xin xia,” Mengzi) 所，非

*Critical Translation I due

Languishment

Unit 10 “終風,” 詩經 (“Guanju,” Shijing) 則, 莫

Unit 11 “山鬼,” 楚辭 (“Shan gui,” Chuci) 得

Unit 12 “離騷,” 楚辭 (“Li sao,” Chuci) 為，亦

*Recitation II due

Pain

Unit 13 “兼愛中,” 墨子 (“Jian’ai zhong,” Mozi) 然, 夫

Unit 14 “弱民,” 商君書 (“Ruo min,” Shang jun shu) 故

Unit 15 “行軍,” 兵法 (“Xing jun,” Binfa) 勿, 凡

Unit 16 “五邪,” 靈樞經 (“Wu xie,” Ling shu jing) 乃, 若

Unit 17 “廉頗藺相如列傳,” 史記 (“Lin Xiangru,” Shiji) 矣, 皆

*Critical Translation II due

Transcendence

Unit 18 “黃帝,” 列子 (“Huang di,”Liezi) 已, 如

Unit 19 “湯問,” 列子 (“Pang wen,” Liezi) 惟

Unit 20 “養生主,” 莊子 (“Yang sheng zhu,” Zhuangzi) 哉, 時

Unit 21 “達生,” 莊子 (“Da sheng,” Zhuangzi) 奚, 將

*Final

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

(1) ATTENDANCE/PARTICIPATION (40%): Role will be taken at the beginning of every session. This class requires daily preparation and exposition of classical texts as well as participation in in-class discussions and assignments. In order to maximize these points, students must regularly attend, be prepared and be actively involved in the day’s activities.

(2) IN-CLASS RECITATIONS (10% EACH, 20% TOTAL): As a time-tested method of fostering appreciation for a text and increasing our capacities of memory to progress in our classical studies, this course will require students to recite two short passages in front of their peers. Extra points will be given for stylistics.

(3) CRITICAL TRANSLATIONS (10% EACH, 20% TOTAL): Twice during the semester, a critical, annotated translation of a classical text will be submitted to the instructor. The translation will include: (1) the original Chinese text with a literal interlinear English translation; (2) a stylized, interpretative English translation; (3) a critical exposition of the material; and (4) an end-note apparatus defining all relevant grammatical structures, words and consulted secondary sources.

(3) FINAL (20% TOTAL): The final will require students to select a classical passage of their choice that addresses the course’s theme, and recite and expound upon its content to the class (~20minutes).