Activism in the Digitial Age response (extra credit)

virtual spectators on weibo.com, photo credit: www.cyol.net

1. What have your learned from the China Digital Times articles on the Southern Weekly protest earlier this year? Cite the specific article(s) you consulted (notice the articles are ordered from new to old).

2. What have you learned from Prof. Guobin Yang's conclusion to his book The Power of the Internet in China? Use quotes with page numbers to support your observations.

Due Wednesday December 11 by 8 pm for one extra credit.

Exhibiting China response

Welcome back! Please read the three pieces for this week on Blackboard and write three concise paragraphs in answering the following questions:

Question for "Beijing 2008": In what ways do you think the comparison with Germany, Mexico, and South Korea is useful or not useful in understanding the Beijing Olympics of 2008? Give one textual evidence with page number to support your view.
Question for "Shanghai in the 21st Century": In what ways do you think the comparison with "world fairs" in history and other cities in the world is useful or not useful in understanding the Shanghai Expo of 2010? Give one textual evidence with page number to support your view.

Question for "Future": What interests you most in these 13 questions about China's future? Give one textual evidence with page number to support your view.

Due Wednesday 12/4 by 8 pm. Comments to two other responses due Wednesday 12/4 by 10 pm. Please be prepared to share the progress of your third and final paper in class this week.

From Taiwan back to the Mainland response

The Past and the Punishments by YU Hua (book cover)

Please respond to two short stories from Taiwan and one short story from the Mainland spanning a few decades (available on Blackboard). When were the stories written? What do they have in common? How do they differ from each other? Use quotes with page numbers from each story to support your analysis. Carefully cite any sources you use to avoid plagiarizing others. Due Wednesday November 20 by 8 pm. Comments to two other responses due Nov. 20 by 10 pm.

Cultural Milieu of the Reform Period response

Cui Jian in front of Tian'anmen, source: Chinese Avant-garde Art Archive

Please respond to HAN Shaogong's short story "Homecoming" and BEI DAO's poetry collection August Sleepwalker. What do these two samples of writings tell us about the cultural milieu of the 1980s in China? Use one quote from each reading to support your observation. Due Wednesday November 13th by 8 pm. Comments to two other responses due November 13th by 10 pm.

Cultures of the Cultural Revolution response

Scatter the Old World, Build a New World, ca. 1967, source: Chineseposters.net

1. Do you think the revolutionary model operas such as "The Red Lantern" are both government propaganda and popular entertainment for the people of China during the Cultural Revolution? Why and why not? Analyze a quote to support your argument.

2. What surprised you most in the "Growing Up with Posters" article? Explain with a quote and your analysis of it.

3. Click "themes" on the Chinese Posters website http://chineseposters.net/, and scroll down to "Campaigns, 1966-1976." Read through all links under this category and pick a poster that left the strongest impression and explain why.

Due Wednesday November 6 by 8 pm. Comments to two other responses due November 6 by 10 pm.

The Teahouse and Cultures of the Early PRC response

Ying Ruocheng as Liu Mazi (Pockface Liu) in Beijing People's Art Theater's 1958 production of Teahouse (Photograph: courtesy of Claire Conceison and Beijing People's Art Theater. Source: China Heritage Quarterly)

Please respond to Lao She's three-act play Teahouse, written in 1957 during the first decade of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing.

1. What changes and continuities (if any) are observable across the three acts of the play?

2. What kinds of characters are Wang Lifa, Fourth Elder Chang, Qin Zhongyi, Pockface Liu, and Ding Bao, from your point of view?

3. What is the most memorable scene for you in this play? Why? Please cite a short dialogue or stage description and analyze why it epitomizes the play for you.

Due Wednesday October 30 by 8 pm. Your comments to two other responses will be due the same day by 10 pm.

Re-imagining Wartime Cultures response

Film still from Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (2007)
based on Eileen Chang's short story
photo credit: Amazon.com

Please respond to Eileen Chang's "Lust, Caution" and YAN Geling's The Flowers of War (Part I required Part II recommended) in two well-written short paragraphs. Write them in the style of a mini-essay, complete with concise analysis of short quotes (with page numbers) to support your central argument.

Post your response as a comment here on our class blog by Wednesday 10/23 at 8 pm and your comments to two other responses by 10 pm. Your “talking point” about the readings with name and date will be due at the beginning of classes as usual. Enjoy reading and writing!

Cultures of the Second Sino-Japanese War response

Paul Robeson, with Chinese chorus conducted by Liu Liang-Mo,
Chee Lai, Songs of New China (record cover), Keynote, 1941. 

Please respond to my short piece on the making of the PRC's national anthem (required reading for 10/15). What have you learned from this piece? What strikes you as most interesting or surprising?

Mao Zedong's "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art," given in 1942 in Yan'an to writers and artists during the Second Sino-Japanese War, has been regarded as a foundational text for literary and artist production in China since then. The 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Mo Yan, together with many other writers, hand copied portions of the text in commemoration of its 70th anniversary earlier in 2012. 

Please respond to Mao Zedong's Yan'an Talks from a literary perspective (required reading for 10/17). How did Mao convey his ideas on literature and art? Who did he quote? Was he persuasive to you? Why do you think writers and artists at the time followed his call? And why do you think some disagreed with him? How would you argue against him if you disagree?

Cite textual evidences with page numbers to support your argument. Due Wednesday October 16 by 8 pm, comments to two other responses due on Oct 16 by 10 pm.

Modernism and Urban Culture response (extra credit)

It Often Begins with a Smile, 1930s. By Jin Meisheng (1902-1989).
Chromolithograph on paper. Collection of the Shanghai History Museum.

As your first short paper will be due on Wednesday October 9 by 8 pm under "First Short Paper" (post the title of and a link to your paper from your own blog) and your comments to two other papers (as a reply to the link) will be due on Wednesday by 10 pm, you are not required to also post reading responses here by the same deadline.

I am making this post available as an extra credit opportunity, as the readings for the coming week are too good to be missing out from our online discussion! You can certainly focus on this week's readings for your first paper and combine the two tasks more effectively to receive credit for your paper and extra credit for reading response.

Please respond to the first chapter of Mao Dun's novel Midnight and Shi Zhecun's short story "One Night in a Rainy Season". How do the chapter from the novel and the short story contribute to our understanding of a new urban culture in Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s? Are the chapter from the novel and the short story different or similar in their ways of approaching Shanghai urban culture? Which of the two pieces seem to best represent an emerging "modernism" in Chinese literature at the time, from your point of view? Use textual evidence with page numbers to support your argument. Due Wednesday October 9 by 10 pm for one extra credit.

The Folk and the Romantic response

Statue of Shi Pingmei and Gao Junyu in Taoranting Park in Beijing, photo credit: Glenn Belverio

What do you see as the characteristics of May Fourth romanticism from reading Tian Han's one-act play "The Night a Tiger was Captured" and the memoirs of two female writers Shi Pingmei and Lu Yin? 

How are they related to (or deviate from) the increasingly dominant trend of realism in literary and social activism as represented by Lu Xun and Rou Shi?

How are the specificities of literary forms (traditional Chinese theatre, Western-style drama, diary, memoir, short story, novella, etc.) contributing to or hindering the expression of aesthetic or political content?

Cite sources if you are quoting others to avoid plagiarizing. You will receive zero point for any portion of plagiarized responses. Use quotes and cite authors' surnames (Tian, Shi, and Lu) and page numbers to support your responses. Due Wednesday October 2nd by 8 pm. Comments to two other responses due Wednesday by 10 pm. 

What is new about the new cultural movement? Lu Xun and Rou Shi response

Painting of Lu Xun (Photo Source: The Guardian) 

Please respond to Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman" and Rou Shi (Jou Shih)'s "A Slave Mother" by Wednesday September 25 at 8 pm. Your comments to two other responses are due by Wednesday at 10 pm.

Attempt to answer the following overarching question based on your readings of these two stories: what is new about the new cultural movement? 

Read the two short stories closely and use concrete textual evidence (short quotes with page numbers) from the stories to analyze them as representative voices of the May Fourth New Cultural Movement. 

Cite Lu Xun and Rou Shi in full when referring to the authors as they are both pen names. 

Literature and Governance at the Turn of the 20th Century reading response

Li Shutong as Marguerite in La Dame aux camélias 

Literature and Governance at the Turn of the 20^th Century

 

Can fiction and drama change lives? Keep this question in mind when reading and reflecting on the readings. Your responses to this question taking all the four short readings into consideration will be due as a comment to this post by Wednesday 9/18 at 8 pm, and your brief comments to two other responses will be due on Wednesday 9/18 by 10 pm. 

Feel free to raise your own question and find your unique voice in your response. Carefully edit your writings, always cite sources when you are quoting or paragraphing others to avoid plagiarizing. Cite specific quotes with page numbers from readings to support your argument. Two short but well-written paragraphs will suffice.

The Sea of Regret Response

WU Jianren, author of The Sea of Regret, photo source: Hudong baike

Read the selection from "A Concise History of China" first as it will provide you with a brief historical background for the second reading. When reading The Sea of Regret, read with the following questions in mind:

What is the historical background? What are the main characters? What is the story about? And how is it written?

What aspects of the story may be considered unusual from your perspective? How is "passion," "duty," "femininity" and "morality" defined in the story? Do you consider the story "conservative"?

In your response, you should not feel limited by these questions and should feel free to pose your own questions. Compose your response as if you are writing a mini essay, furnished with topic sentence, quotes with page numbers as evidence, comments and questions of your own. It doesn't have to be long, two well-written paragraphs will do.

Post your response as a comment to this post. Save changes while writing or cut and paste from a finished document to avoid technical problems. Due Wednesday September 11 by 8 pm; comment on two other responses due by Wednesday Sept. 11 by 10 pm.  

The Search for Modern China and the Concept of the Sinophone

 A visual sourcebook of Chinese civilization

timeline and maps
Prof. Patricia Buckley Ebrey

University of Washington

The Late Qing

The Search for Modern China: The first clash with the West 

The response of China's scholars

China's political response

Britain's military response

The new treaty system

Lecture review (Google doc group exercise)

 
The Taipings (Hong)

The battle over opium (Lin)

Missionary activities

Empress Dowager Cixi

Self-strengthening movement

Limits of change

The Concept of the Sinophone (extra credit individual presentation)

P710 Sinophone studies—conceived as the study of Sinitic- language cultures on the margins of geopolitical nation- states and their hegemonic productions—locates its objects of attention at the conjuncture of China’s internal colonialism and Sinophone communities everywhere immigrants from China have
settled.

Coming attractions

Passion and Duty in the Late Qing

WU Jianren, The Sea of Regret

Cultural China: The Periphery as the Center (a preview of questions)

When was the article written? By who?
Why is this important?
Where is the presumed center of Chinese culture?

What is the main message of River Elegy? 

What are the four mini-dragons?
What are the three symbolic universes?

Shanghai Skylines

What is the difference between huaren and zhongguoren? 
What is modern China to you?
Who can represent modern China for you? 
In your opinion, which one of the three symbolic universes is currently asserting the biggest influence in molding the image of China?

August 29 further reading: The Manchus and the Han sample reading notes

Zhou Dongyu in Gong Suo Chen Xiang, Liaoning Ribao

Please take notes while reading for Tuesdays and Thursdays. Feel free to share them by Monday and Wednesday night on Google drive in "CHI 331 Group notes" to which you should all have been added. Extra credits for great notes. Some sample notes from readings for 8/29 below, and feel free to comment with your questions and reflections.

"Visions of the 18th Century: The Charms of Qing TV" reading notes and further reading links

"The erasure of Manchu language from period dramas is of course a matter of artistic expedience, but it is also one of the many small and subtle ways the educational and media environment in the People's Republic of China reinforces an orthodox interpretation of Chinese history, one which emphasises continuity and unity. For most viewers, the assumption is that what the Manchus spoke doesn't matter, because, in the end, the Manchus were Sinicised: seduced by the splendour of Chinese civilisation into abandoning their own language, culture and identity. How else could a small population of barbarians have ruled over so many Chinese for such a long time?"

A Virtual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization: Timelines and Maps 

The Economist on China: Weekly round-up, August 30, 2013 

"The Manchus and Their Language" reading notes

p. 485 Once the Manchus had their own literary language, they embarked upon what must surely be one of the world's great translation projects. The earliest translations from Chinese were of political and military works, texts that would be of use as the Manchus prepared to occupy and rule China. Later, the basic Confucian classics were translated. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries numerous historical, religious, scientific, medical, and literary works were translated from Chinese.

p.486 If the Mongol and Han members of the banners are included, the early Manchu confederacy totaled nearly one million people. In the early years of the dynasty, the vast majority of Manchus was monolingual in Manchu (Ji 1993, Elliott 2001). Knowledge of Manchu was also common among the Mongol and Han members of the confederacy. The vitality of the language remained reasonably strong for the first century of Manchu rule in China; thereafter a steady decline set in. By the middle of the eighteenth century knowledge of spoken Manchu was becoming rare. By the early nineteenth century spoken Manchu was effectively moribund in Beijing and probably extinct in many of the Manchu garrisons spread across China.

p. 487 The first Europeans to learn Manchu were several of the Jesuit missionaries at the Qing court in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries some members of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Beijing also studied Manchu. In general Europeans found learning Manchu far easier than mastering Chinese; some also believed that Manchu was superior to Chinese in its concreteness and clarity (Elliott 2001). Of especial interest to foreign scholars were the translations into Manchu of the most important Chinese Confucian classics. These Manchu versions served many an early sinologist as trots in their own translation work.

p. 489 Today in China there are almost ten million people who identify themselves as Manchu, making it the second largest minority in China (Elliott 2001: 43). Some of these present-day Manchus are descendants of the original Tungusic groups that made up the Manchu confederacy, but others are undoubtedly the descendants of the Chinese, Mongols, and Koreans who were incorporated into the Manchu banner system in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One rather unusual group of Manchus are the descendants of a group of Russian Cossacks brought to Beijing in 1685 and enrolled in one of the city banners; there they intermarried with Manchus and other banner-people.

p. 490 In conclusion, we might ask what has been the contribution of the Manchus to world history and culture. The most important contribution was without doubt the creation of the Qing empire, the last of the great Chinese dynasties. The Manchus expanded the borders of Ming China, ultimately to include Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia. With the exception of the now independent country of Mongolia (the "Outer Mongolia" of Qing times), the present borders of China are in the main those of the Manchu Qing dynasty. It was the Manchu rulers of the last dynasty who first confronted the irreversible tide of European and American interest in China.

Introduction, Clarification of Mutual Expectations, and The Manchus and the Han

The Last Emperor, dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987.

The Manchus and the Han

 

Manchu

Manchu and Chinese

The Words of the Emperor (documentry)



Why Modern Chinese Culture?

The rise of modern Chinese culture has impacted the contemporary world in significant ways. How did it all happen? What can we learn from it? What do we mean by "modern," "Chinese," and "culture"? Can we imagine a variety of "Chineseness" instead of a single, fixed notion of being "Chinese"?



Hong Kong Night (photo credit: http://www.beyond-secrets.com/)

Introduction to Modern Chinese Culture will help you approach these questions from a special angle of interpretation suggested by Chinese writers and intellectuals themselves. We will examine the role and self-conception of the writer in relation to the changing historical context of the modern Chinese world. We will be focusing on the relationship between arts and politics, between the intellectual and the people, and the artistic, the sexual, and the political aspects of modern Chinese intellectual life. Our goal is to develop critical thinking skills and to gain a deep knowledge of modern Chinese identity formations so as to better understand our own position in the contemporary world.