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.