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Literature and Arts C-49
Fall Term, 1996
Cultural China in Contemporary Perspectives
Professor Leo Ou-fan Lee (Office hours: Wednesday 1-3, 9 Kirkland Place)
Teaching Fellows: Daisy Ng (Head), Robert Chi, Jianhua Chen, John Weinstein
Required Reading (for purchase; also on reserve at Lamont and Hillel)
Lu Xun, Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
Mo Yan, Red Sorghum
Bei Dao, The August Sleepwalker
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Sourcebook: (available at the Science Center basement)
Examination and papers: An in-class mid-term and a final examination, plus 2 analytical papers based on readings and section discussions (7-10 pp. each)
Film Evenings: Since film has become the most creative and popular art form in contemporary Chinese culture, a number of films will be shown on Wednesday evening each week (see schedule of classes below). An alternative date will be arranged for each showing. Attendance is compulsory, they will be tested in mid-term and final exams.
Schedule of Classes
Week 1 (Sept.17-19): Introduction, "Cultural China": Center and Peripheries"
Reading: (*items are included in the Sourcebook)
Wei-ming Tu, "Cultural China: The Periphery as Center" (from Tu, Wei-ming ed., The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today )
Part I Histories: Legacies of a Modern China
Week 2 (Sept. 24-26): Two Master Narratives: Nationalism and Revolution
Reading:
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, Introduction, Chapters 2, 3, 6
Prasenjit Duara, Rescuing History from the Nation, Chapter 1
Film : Zhang Yimou's "To Live"
Week 3 (Oct.1-3): Modernity and Its Discontents: The Culture of May Fourth
Reading:
Leo Ou-fan Lee, "Modernity and Its Discontents: The Cultural Agenda of the May
Fourth Movement," ( from Perspectives on Modern China Lu Xun, "Diary of a Madman,
""Kong Yiji," "Medicine," "Ah Q--The Real Story," "New Year's Sacrifice," "Upstairs in a
Wineshop" (from Diary of a Madman and Other Stories , tr. William Lyell)
Ding Ling, "Miss Sophia's Diary" (from Tani Barlow, I Myself Am a Woman)
Film : Section on Lu Xun from "The Pacific Century"
Part II Imaginations: Literary and Artistic Texts
Week 4 (Oct. 8-10): "Searching for Roots": Reinventing a New Reality in the Post-Mao Era
Reading:
Leo Lee, "On the Margins of the Chinese Discourse," in The Living Tree
Han Shaogong, "Pa Pa Pa" from his Homecoming? and Other Stories
Zhaxi Dawa, "Souls Tied to the Knots on a Leather Cord"
Shi Tiesheng, "Like and Banjo String"
Zhang Chengzhi, "The Nine Palaces" (all three from Jeanne Tai ed., Spring Bamboo:
A Collection of Contemporary Chinese Stories )
Film: Chen Kaige's "Yellow Earth"
Oct.15: first paper due
Week 5 (Oct. 15-17): Film of the Fifth Generation and Experimental Fiction
Reading:
Mo Yan (tr. Howard Goldblatt), Red Sorghum (entire)
Mayfair Yang, "An Interview with Chinese director Zhang Yimou" (from Public Culture)
Yu Hua, "One Kind of Reality" (from David Wang ed., Running Wild: New Chinese Writers
Film: Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum"
Week 6 (Oct. 22-24): Nativism in Taiwan Literature
Reading:
Wang Zhenhe, "An Oxcart for a Dowry," in Joseph Lau and Howard Goldblatt eds.,
The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature
Chen Ying-chen, "Night Freight" (from Joseph Lau ed., The Unbroken Chain)
Pinghui Liao, "Rewriting Taiwanese National History: The February 28 Incident as
Spectacle" (from Public Culture)
Film: Hou Hsiao-hsien's "City of Sadness"
Week 7 (Oct. 29-31): Feminism and Sexuality
Reading:
Li Ang, "Flower Season," "A Love Letter Never Sent" (from The Butcher's Wife, tr.
Howard Goldblatt)
Zhu Tianwen, "Fin-de-sicle Splendor" (from Joseph Lau and Howard Goldblatt eds.,
The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature)
Hsi Hsi, "A Girl Like Me" (from Ann Carver and Sung-sheng Chang ed., Bamboo Shoots
After the Rain )
Film: Tsai Ming-liang's "Vive l'Amour"
Midterm: Oct. 31
Part III Spaces: Public Spheres and Popular Culture
Week 8 (Nov. 5-7): The Tiananman Movement of 1989: Cultural Criticism in a Chinese Public Sphere
Reading:
Leo Ou-fan Lee, "The Crisis of Culture," in China Briefing: 1990
Andrew Jones, "The Politics of Popular Music in Post-Tiananmen China" in Jeffrey
Wasserstrom
and Elizabeth Perry eds. Popular Protest and Political Culture in Modern China
Benjamin Lee, "Going Public" (from Public Culture)
Film: Carma Hinton's documentary, "The Gate of Heavenly Peace"
Week 9 (Nov.12-14): Hong Kong: Popular Culture in an Age of Commercialization
Reading:
Fredric Jameson, "Postmodernism and Consumer Society" (from Hal Foster ed.,
The Anti-Aesthetic)
Ye Si, "Transcendence and the Fax Machine," (from David Wang, ed., Running Wild:
New Chinese Writers )
Leung Ping-kwan, Selections from City at the End of Time
Rey Chow, "Between Coloniers: Hong Kong's Postcolonial Self-Writing in the 1990s"
(from Diaspora)
Rey Chow, "A Souvenir of Love" (from Modern Chinese Literature)
Film: Stanley Kwan's "Rouge"
Week 10 (Nov.19-21): World Poetry and Print Culture
Reading:
Bei Dao, The August Sleepwalker
Stephen Owen, "The Anxiety of Influence: What Is World Poetry?" (from The New
Republic )[on reserve] Selection from Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production
Film: Wong Kar-wai's "Chungking Express"
Part IV Identities: Being Chinese in a Multicultural World
Week 11 (Nov.26-28): Discovering a New Continent: Migration and Early Travel
Reading:
Arkush and Lee, Land without Ghosts, selections
Maxine Hong Kingston, Chinaman, selections
Nov.28: Thanskgiving: no class; no section meetings this week.
Week 12 (Dec. 3-5): Images of Chinatown
Reading:
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Lisa Lowe, "Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Marking Asian American Difference"
in Diaspora 1.1 (Spring 1991)
Film: Wayne Wang's "Chan Is Missing"
Dec. 10: Second paper due
Week 13 (Dec. 10-12): Mediating Multiple Identities: Exile, Diaspora, and the New Immigrants
Reading:
Leo Lee, "On the Margins of Chinese Discourse"
Leo Lee, "Trans-Chinese Sensibilities"
[On reserve] Selections from John Rajchman ed., The Identity in Question:
Joan Scott, "Multiculturalism and the Politics of Identity"
Cornell West, "A Matter of Life and Death"
Homi Bhabha, "Freedom's Basis in the Indeterminate"
Film: Ang Lee's "Wedding Banquet"
Week 14 (Dec. 17): Conclusion and Review
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