Global China Studies (GCHN-SHU)

This course provides an introduction to Chinese civilization from ancient times to the present. With a focus on inter-cultural and inter-ethnic interactions, we will explore three sets of questions that are central to the understanding of Chinese civilization. China is frequently seen as a culturally and ethnically homogenous society, but is this view historically accurate? How did Chinese interactions with cultural, ethnic, and racial others shaped the evolution of Chinese civilization, and how did these interactions impact the trajectory of world history? How might considering heterogeneity help us better understand China and Chinese identity, and how have these concepts changed over time? Over the course of the semester, we will read historical texts from China’s major dynasties and trace changing conceptions of Chinese civilization and Chinese identity. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC, HPC or IPC; GCS Elective Chinese History, Society, and Culture.

This course examines China's modern history from around the 16th century to the present. It will go through the social, political, economic and cultural, as well as international developments China has experienced during the past four hundred years, with an emphasis placed upon the late 19th and 20th centuries. While this course will provide a chronological depiction of main historical events and historical figures, it will also emphasize a series of important themes crucial for comprehending the dynamics and trajectory of China’s modern era. Its purpose is not just to impart information; it also aims to cultivate a basic understanding of the significance of the Chinese experience in the age of worldwide modernization. This course will also expose students to different scholarly or other interpretations of China’s recent past, so that, hopefully, they will occupy an academically/intellectually informed position to critically embrace or discard all kinds of narratives of “China” and its modern history that they encounter. The format of the course combines lectures, critical discussions, and interactive selected texts reading. It is expected that all students will be prepared for the course outside class and will be actively engaged in all parts of the class. Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Humanities Introductory course (18-19: survey).

This course surveys the history, culture, and diversity of Yunnan, China. From the ancient bronzes of the Dian Kingdom to the province’s recent rise as a tourist destination, students will encounter the voices of indigenous peoples and outsider’s narratives. In addition to focusing on Yunnan and its regional history, this course will relate basic chronology and major events of Chinese history. The World of Yunnan examines religious pilgrimages, commercial linkages, and the Warlord politics of the early 20th century to better evaluate Yunnan’s unique positioning in China, Asia and the world. Each class will examine both textual and visual sources to provide a fine-grained understanding of Yunnan’s overlapping ethnic, commercial, and ecological landscapes. Students will be introduced to historical, anthropological, and religious studies methodologies culminating in a final oral project. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS Elective Chinese History, Society, and Culture

What do people think they are talking about when they refer to “China”? Does the term refer to a geographical, cultural, political, hybrid, or other type of entity? How and why has that changed both within China and outside China? This course is about reality and representation; it will address both the shifting geographical, political, cultural and human reality of “China” and what “China” meant to both inhabitants and outsiders in different periods and in different contexts. The goals of the course are 1) to deepen understanding of the history of China and the role of the past in the present 2) to introduce different ways of thinking about China in the world and the world in China, 3) to learn to distinguish between opinion, hypothesis and fact in historical inquiry; 4) to reinstate a concept of China as dynamic, varied, and interactive. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Core Curriculum Humanistic Perspectives on China or Interdisciplinary Perspectives on China; GCS Major Requirement; Humanities Major Other Introductory Courses (18-19 Critical Concepts Core Course/Survey Courses).

This course provides an introduction to the history and culture of Shanghai through the eyes of fiction writers. We will read short stories (in English translation) by Chinese, British, American, Japanese, French, Polish, and South African writers who lived in the city between 1910 and 2010. Their stories will take us on an imaginary city tour through time and space: from businessmen, politicians, and prostitutes gathering in the nightclubs of the old Bund, to Jewish refugees struggling to find a home in the poor shikumen neighborhoods of Hongkou, to teachers and students fighting political battles at the university campuses during the Cultural Revolution, and young urban youth pursuing cosmopolitan lifestyles in the global city of today. The course also includes trips to various places featured in the stories and guest lectures by some of Shanghai’s most famous writers today. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature; Humanities Major Other Introductory Courses.

What is a good China story? Is this the story China should tell about itself to the world? Is this about cultural self-perception, understanding the world, cross-cultural communication, or simple propaganda? More importantly, how can we tell China stories from perspectives inside and outside China? Narrative fiction is one of the most effective ways to engage with the Chinese past and the Chinese present. In this course, Students will be introduced to various genres including philosophy, religious allegory, romance, political satire, and science fiction. Instead of presenting China as a monolithic civilization, this course uses stories—from the premodern originals to their modern iterations in print and on screen—to understand “the world of China” and “China in the world” from ideological, ethnic, cultural, and geo-political perspectives. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Core HPC/IPC; GCS Major/minor; GCS Elective: Chinese Literature, Art, and Media.

Was Li Bai or Du Fu more famous during their time? Which one of the Four Classic Novels is more worth reading? More importantly, what is out there in the world of traditional Chinese literature? We will answer these questions in this introductory level course of traditional Chinese literature. This course surveys the historical developments of traditional Chinese literature from Early China to 1911CE, focusing on the most representative literary figures, works, and genres. Along with these representative works, the course will also examine the most influential literary and aesthetic theories of each time period. Built on the survey, this course further aims to cultivate two sets of skills: 1. Literary analysis, especially through dissecting a work’s genre, imageries, aesthetics, and social contexts; 2. critiques on several conceptual issues based on both primary sources and modern scholarship, including the construction of a literary lineage, sense of a canon, standards of aesthetics, etc. This course does not require any Chinese, Mandarin or Classical Chinese. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: 1. CORE HPC/IPC 2. GCS Elective: Chinese Media, Art, and Literature; Chinese Language and Literature Minor.

This course introduces students to perspectives on contemporary Chinese political and social thought as presented in academic publications, media reports, social commentary and postings on the Chinese Internet. It covers selected key topics in the disciplines of political, social, and cultural studies. It examines and compares Chinese and Western views on major developments and current issues. The course also introduces students to a variety of styles of writing and research methods as well as skills of cultural translation relevant to the study of contemporary China and Chinese thought. Fulfillment: Core Curriculum Social Science Perspective on China/Humanistic Perspectives on China or Interdisciplinary Perspectives on China; GCS Elective The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China; Humanities Major Advanced Courses (old Topic Course); Social Science Major Focus Courses Political Science - 200 level.

This course traces the historical transformation of media in post-reform China, from mass media to digital media, and examines the impact of shifting media landscapes on Chinese people’s everyday lives. We will explore questions including: how have media technologies and media practices been shifting in China since 1978? What is the relationship between media development, China’s political cultures, and global capitalism? How have traditional and new media mediated the public’s political engagement? How have digital media affected the lives of vulnerable and marginalized individuals and how have these groups changed media practices? This course will help students develop deeper understandings of Chinese media cultures and society in a global context. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE IPC; GCS Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature; Social Science Major Focus Courses Sociology - 200 level/ Self-Designed/Media Studies - 200 level; (18-19 Humanities Major Digital Approaches Core Course).

The course is designed to introduce important aspects of Buddhist thought and culture and encourage students to reflect their influence on Chinese (and also East Asian) culture and society. The first part of the course covers the early history of Buddhism and its evolution. It also introduces the so-called Mahāyāna (“Great Vehicle”) movement during the 1st century BCE and especially how the movement influenced Buddhist practices in East Asia. The second part of the course shifts to important topics in Chinese Buddhism such as magic, material culture, and environment. It also encourages students to relate Buddhist ideas to topics debated in contemporary society. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: GCS Major/Minor; GCS Elective: Chinese History, Society, and Culture.

Amidst China's burgeoning global economic presence, understanding its motivations and deciphering its overseas activities is vital. The Belt and Road Initiative and other expansive infrastructure endeavors underscore China's ambitions. However, the opacity of the Chinese government's plans poses a challenge for comprehensive research. This course introduces geovisualization as a lens to illuminate the spatial dynamics of China's global ventures. Using the extensive "Mapping Global China" database and geovisualization tools, students will investigate China's overseas investments' spatial patterns. This hands-on exploration will unravel the multifaceted impacts across various geographies. By course completion, students will adeptly harness spatial analysis to discern the nuances of China's worldwide economic endeavors and their broader implications. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC/IPC; GCS Major Elective: Politics, Economy, and Environment of China; GCS Major: China and the World; Social Science Methods course.

The goal of this course is to examine Chinese society and culture through the lens of the consumption of food and to elucidate the central role played at different times by food in Chinese culture and its representations. We examine the role of food in Chinese social, cultural, economic, and political history, with an emphasis on the pre-modern period. Topics may include the relationship of health and diet; food in religious and ritual practice; gastronomy; consumption and the material culture of food, including food as gift; regional cuisines; restaurants and catering; vegetarianism; famine and cannibalism; imperial dining practices; food identity; and global notions about Chinese food. Prerequisite: Not open to first-semester students. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC/HPC or CORE IPC; GCS Elective Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Humanities Major Advanced course (18-19 Topic Courses).

This course surveys art, visual culture, and material culture in China from the Neolithic to the end of the 19th century. Approximately one-third of the lectures will be organized based on the different mediums used in art, such as ceramics, jades, bronzes, and sculptures. Some lectures are designed to contextualize art into separate functions, such as for funerary and Buddhist rituals. The rest classes stress the difference in patronage, such as imperial art and literati art. Particular attention will be paid to understanding objects within their original social and cultural contexts. We will also relate individual artworks to a broad cultural background, highlighting the influence of various religions, philosophies, and politics. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with the diverse body of artwork produced in premodern China, as well as to consider the role art has played in representing or negotiating identities, religions, history, and politics. Students will be trained in various art historical methodologies and will deepen their knowledge about one aspect of Chinese art history through a group curatorial project. Prerequisites: None Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS Elective Chinese Media, Arts and Literature; Humanities Major Other Introductory Courses (18-19 Survey Courses).

The Silk Road has been a museum exhibition sensation as well as inspiration for Indiana-Jones-type of adventures, ever since the name was coined in 1877. As appealing as the name is in all kinds of media, it is never quite clear what the Silk Road actually entails. What does it mean to you, for instance? Searching for an answer, you will encounter numerous websites, books, scholarly and popular articles, or TV documentations that seek to unravel its many mysteries and even travel agencies that aim at revealing its myths. By consulting archaeological as well as written sources this course is going to evaluate all aspects of early Silk Road history – trade, travel, war, religion, ideologies, and cultural exchange – from its earliest age through the Mongolian Era (13th century). The main goal is, however, not to look at every aspect in isolation as it is often done, but to bring them all together. This way it will become clear that actual reality was considerably more complex than is generally claimed. Only the interplay of several factors allowed The Silk Road to become a pre-modern ‘success story’ probably only rivaled by the internet. Pre-requisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC or HPC; IPC; GCS China and the World; Humanities Other Introductory Courses / Survey Courses (18-19).

One of the most significant geopolitical shifts of recent years has been China's increased interest and involvement in the Islamic world, from Afghanistan to Africa. However, although such connections are not new, scholars have rarely examined the long history of contacts between the Sinic and the Islamic worlds comprehensively and systematically. Assembling a wide array of primary and secondary sources on different forms of Sino-Islamic encounters, this course introduces the major events, issues, and peoples that are involved in the complex relations between them. In-depth discussions of these topics will not only provide students with new perspectives on the histories of the Islamic world and China respectively, but also historical insights to gain a deeper understanding of the newly revived Sino-Islamic relations and the emerging China-US-Middle East triangular relationship in the twenty-first century. This course welcomes all students interested in histories of the Islamic world and China. No special background is required, though of course some knowledge of the history of China and/or the Islamic world will be a plus. Although it is a seminar course (we meet once weekly), a fifteen-minute mini-lecture in each class will provide students with basic background knowledge and set the context for the following week. We will then devote ourselves to discussion of the assigned readings. Pre-requisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS China and the World/ Electives Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Humanities Major Other Introductory Courses (18-19 Topic Courses/ Survey Courses).

Crime stories have enjoyed long-lasting global popularity. How do these stories help us understand the shifting meanings of criminality, law, punishment, and justice across different times and spaces? What are the Chinese notions of crime and justice? How can these notions and ideas tell us about Chinese history and culture? This course explores the concepts and practices of criminal investigation and punishment throughout Chinese history. It guides students to examine a broad range of primary sources across textual and visual genres chronologically, from late-Imperial courtroom drama, detective fiction of the Republican period, spy comic of the Socialist time to contemporary legal films and crime thrillers. By adopting an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, students will also engage with studies on criminality, morality, law, justice, scientific investigation, and state control from historical, sociological, and philosophical perspectives in and beyond China. Throughout the course, students will understand how the concepts, practices, and representations of crime and justice continue and change throughout Chinese history and reflect on their profound impact on contemporary Chinese society. Pre-req: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS Major: Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature.

This course surveys the sonorous world of modern Chinese culture from late Qing to the contemporary period. With a focus on sound, we will investigate diverse cultural forms ranging from public speech, sound cinema, popular music, and digital media, and explore how these artworks, by engaging with sound discursively and expressively, mediate questions of gender, identity, and technology in modern China. Following a chronological order, each week we will examine one prominent expression or theme of sound in a given decade and situate these sonic texts within local, national, and global histories. In so doing, we will learn to appreciate the vibrant creative impulses of modern Chinese cultural history and understand major cultural trends, artists, and socio-technological developments. Prerequisite: GPS or sophomore standing (or not open to first semester students). Fulfillment: CORE SSPC or IPC; GCS Elective Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature.

【Authenticity and Shanzhais(山寨)】 This course uses “fake markets” and “counterfeit” goods in Shanghai as a starting point for studying the concepts of originality and authenticity. Students in the course will learn about and challenge the western concepts of forgery, counterfeiting, and even history by analyzing Chinese alternatives such as shanzhai (山寨). We will examine the tension between several dominant ways of thinking about history and culture, and how these ways of thinking inform and are informed by political and economic trends. No prerequisite. Fulfillment: GCS Chinese History, Society, and Culture

Prerequisites: None. Fulfillment: GCS Chinese History, Society, and Culture: Historical Tourism in Shanghai; GCS Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature: Exploring Art Spaces in the City.

This course introduces students to the distinctive cinema of Hong Kong (HK). We will focus on the years between 1967 and 1997, when HK rose from regional to international prominence, then declined. We will approach HK cinema from four perspectives: geopolitical history, film genre, directorial style, and the economics of the film industry. Students will learn to see these perspectives not as mutually exclusive but as complementary, for we can best understand a film by thinking about it from multiple angles. Students will write two essays, the first analyzing a film made before 1980, and the second analyzing one made between 1980 and 2000. Each student will twice lead discussion of readings from the syllabus. In a small group project, students will do research on a topic relevant to the course, make a bibliography of their findings, and then present those findings to the class. Prerequisites: GPS or sophomore standing (or not open to first semester students). Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature; Humanities Advanced course.

This seminar provides a chronological survey of women’s narratives in modern Chinese literature and culture from the late Qing to the twenty-first century. In this course, we will cover a wide range of genres that narrate women and their gendered experiences, including literature, visual culture, cinema, and digital media, and explore how womanhood is imagined, articulated, and contested in modern Chinese literature and culture. Moreover, we will attend to literary and cultural texts by female artists, and explore how female artists express their creative agency and mediate disparate gendered experiences. These critical and creative engagements with the woman question serves as a pivotal momentum in the development of literary and cultural modernity in China, and they also reflect the broader socio-political landscape and cultural ecology of modern China. Prerequisite: GPS Fulfillment: CORE IPC/HPC; GCS Elective Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature; Chinese Language and Literature Minor.

The literary scene in the 20th centuryChinese-speaking world is diverse in sound and script, vast in the scope of subject matters, and challenging for those migrant or exilic minds whose creative energy is driven by their critical insight to the world around them. Working in,outside, and between places like mainlandChina, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, America, and France, Chinese-language writers may have in mind an imagined community of fellow countrymen when they write. Oftentimes, however, they may also ask provocative questions about nationalism, linguistic loyalty, and authenticity as Anglophone, Francophone, or bilingual writers living in the West. From andacross multiple cultural margins, they speak to probe the nature of modernity, cultural contact, and otherness amid the global flows of labor and ideas. How do Lu Xun, Lao She, Ha Jin, Alai, and Gao Xingjian represent China on the world stage and find their place in this picture? Where in their works can we find stylistic and cultural hybridization? How do novels and stories by Zhang Ailing, Bai Xianyong, Maxine Hong Kingston, Gish Jen, and Shirley Lim cement or deconstruct the conventional ground on which we compare Eastern and Western civilizations? What kind of an alternative literary geography, and worldview, do these writers offer? Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS elective Media, Arts and Literature; Chinese Language and Literature Minor.

The course focuses on the cross-currents of China’s encounters with the world, from the late 16th to the early 21st century. It proceeds from two assumptions: first, that China has long been engaged with the rest of the world rather than ever having been “closed”, as some would have it; and second, that impact and influence flow in multiple directions: into, through, and out of China, whether intentionally or involuntarily. Through a combination of lecture, discussion, and student research projects we will explore China’s encounters with the world chronologically and thematically, covering such broad topics as religion and philosophy; diplomacy; law; trade; war; revolution; political systems, and “soft power”. Pre-requisites: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS China and the World; Humanities Introductory course (18-19: survey).

Chinese architecture is a product of a unique culture and geographic environment. It differed markedly from that of the world outside East Asia before the twentieth century. This course explores a diverse range of architecture in China from ancient to contemporary times. We will investigate how cities, palaces, temples, residences, and gardens are designed and constructed, and look into how form and space reflected Chinese social and ethical values. This course does not progress in a chronological sequence of dynasties. Instead, it is delivered in a series of themes that are related to essential aspects of Chinese history and culture. Special attention will be given to controversies between the tradition and modernity in China, and the global impact that Chinese architecture have had since a long time ago. Students will develop a deepened understanding of one aspect of Chinese architectural history through in-depth research or creative project on a well-conceived topic. Previous coursework in Chinese history, literature, or art is required. Please consult with the instructor regarding a special arrangement to fulfill the language requirement. Pre-req: At least one prior course in GCHN-SHU, HIST-SHU, HUMN-SHU or LIT-SHU or ECON-SHU 238. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC, GCS Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature; Humanities Introductory course (18-19: Survey course).

In this course, we will see how people in China have used psychology to build a modern nation and promote modern values. Beginning in the early 20th century, we will encounter missionaries trying to replace superstition with science, reformers challenging gender relationships, and intellectuals who critiqued the Chinese character. As we move through the century, we will trace how various people have applied psychological techniques for very different purposes: creating healthy citizens for a new state, instilling a revolutionary spirit, managing corporate employees, and raising exemplary children. During the semester, each student will conduct textual and/or ethnographic research about an aspect of psychological expertise or mental health in contemporary China. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. Fulfillment: CORE STS; GCS Elective: Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Social Science Focus Anthropology 200 level.

This course, the first segment in a two-semester survey of Chinese-language film history, traces the origins of Chinese cinema and its transformation and diversification into a multi-faceted, polycentric trans-regional phenomenon in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan up to the 1960s. We study a number of film cultures in Shanghai/China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, including the complex web of their historical kinship ties, and place them within the regional and global contexts of modernity, revolution, nation-building, and attendant socio-cultural transformations. To investigate these unique yet interrelated films cultures together raises the question of national cinema as a unitary object of study, while suggesting new avenues for analyzing the complex genealogy of a cluster of urban, regional, commercial or state-sponsored film industries within a larger comparative and transnational framework. Topics related to screenings and discussions include urban modernity, exhibition and spectatorship, transition to sound, stardom and propaganda, gender and ethnic identities, and genre formation and hybridization. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature.

This course offers a broad overview of cultural interactions between China and the West over the past four hundred years, beginning with the arrival of Jesuit missionaries in China in the late 16th century. It seeks to explore these cultural interactions through the lens of translation, examining both translated texts of major cultural and historical significance, and those created within translational contexts rather than as direct translations. The course approaches translation as an interpretive act shaped by linguistic and cultural factors. It also views translation as a reciprocal process, inviting students to explore both how key Chinese texts and ideas made their way into Western languages and how influential Western works and concepts have been introduced into China at various points in history. Through detailed case studies conducted within broad historical contexts, students will gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding of translation as a form of cultural exchange. Prerequisite: None Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature.

This course examines queer histories, cultures, and politics in China, focusing on contemporary China. It seeks to answer: In what contexts have queer China studies emerged as a field of studies, and how have they influenced queer studies rooted in Western experiences? What does it mean to be queer or non-normative in pre-modern, modern, and contemporary China, respectively? How have Chinese sexual discourses changed over time? How has sexuality been entangled with language, family, law, health, colonialism, and globalization in China? How can we envision a future of queer China in the global context? Drawing on literary, historical, and ethnographic works, as well as first-hand materials, this course invites students from across disciplines to explore the mutability and variety of queerness in China. Prerequisite: POH Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS Elective: Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Social Science Focus Anthropology 200 level.

This is a Classical Chinese class that covers writings on foreign societies in history. In this class, we will see how people used Classical Chinese to make records of foreign societies, descriptively or imaginarily. We will follow pilgrimages to India as well as adventures in Vietnam; we will encounter child-eating Dutch cannibals as well as people from the Country of Dogs. Beneath this exotic surface, we will examine the underlying schemes and tropes that are often used to describe foreign people and polities in Classical Chinese writing. In this way, we will know what to expect when we read a text of similar genre. Because this is a Classical Chinese class, we will learn how to use grammar and context to parse difficult passages: we will learn basic tactics to unpack sentences when their structures are unclear or the words’ meanings are opaque. These tactics are especially crucial when one encounters an unfamiliar text without any outside help. Prerequisite: CHIN-SHU 402 (Classical Chinese II) or equivalent; OR Chinese students who have studied classical Chinese before; OR Instructor Permission Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS advanced track Language course for Native Chinese speakers; Humanities Advanced course (18-19: topic course).

Dunhuang is not only the “Pompeii of China” that in modern days attracts a huge amount of tourists; it was also one of the most metropolitan cities in the ancient world, comparable with Rome, Alexandria, or Constantinople. How could an inland city be so cosmopolitan? What makes the place a city of art? And how did this once fashionable city fade away, and then reappear as a complex of archeological sites? In this class, we will focus on one of the biggest archeological discoveries in the 20th century: Dunhuang. In addition to how Dunhuang was discovered, we will explore the main elements that vitalized Dunhuang as a metropolitan city: art, religion, language, literature, and technology. We will further examine the lifelines that brought these diverse cultural elements into Dunhuang from China, India, Central Asia, etc. As part of the class, we will also take a field trip to Dunhuang and nearby sites to physically experience the connectedness of Dunhuang. We will closely examine the murals, caves, and the city layouts so that we can reconstruct what it was like to live in the ancient Dunhuang. In other words, you get to be in the art world of Dunhuang. Pre-requisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS China and the World.

This course combines digital visualization technology with contemporary interpretations of the significance of Chinese monuments that identify and recall major events in Chinese history. Students will learn about the history, cultural significance, and scholarly knowledge of the monuments. Selected sites include timber-structure buildings, Daoist temples, and Buddhist art and architecture. Meanwhile, the course will cover immersive narrative knowledge, such as direct modeling for Chinese wooden carpentry structures, artifacts lighting, texturing, rendering, and virtual walk-through animation. Visualization and further utilizations will apply in the lectures and assignments to examine virtual environments’ authenticity and information management of the Chinese monuments. Students will create an immersive narrative using visualization tools to present a chosen monument site with its historical and cultural values in the final group project. Upon completing this course, students will have deepened their knowledge of the emerging field of the digital humanities through both a “digital” and a “humanistic” perspective and how digital humanities can be applied to visualize the history and culture of China. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS Elective: Chinese Media, Art, and Literature, IMA major elective; IMB major IMA/B Elective.

China is an environmental disaster. China will save the world. There are many ways to think about China and the environment, but few conclusive answers. Our challenge is to think in the midst of multiple crises unfolding quickly through a tangled web of relationships that constitute environmental problems or solutions. To better understand how the environment in China is imagined, valued, and transformed, we will explore traditional ideas, environmental history and governance, ethnicity, and the aesthetic politics of the urban and rural. We will explore local material changes in energy, food, and forests and their links with global systems. And we will conclude by considering again China's role in the global environmental crisis. Prerequisite: Passing grade of CCSF-SHU 101L Global Perspectives on Society Fulfillment: CORE SSPC or IPC; CORE STS; GCS The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China; Social Science Focus Environmental Studies 200 level course.

How can a hamburger symbolize progress, an animated character provide comfort, and rock music define one’s identity? In this course we will study the role of consumer culture in the lives of Chinese youth, both today and in the past. By examining popular commodities including sneakers, coffee, backpacking, and celebrity idols, we will think about how young people use these things to find friendship and love, to seek success and happiness, and to define who they are. As we consider why people like particular commodities, we will learn about class, gender, ethnicity, and modernity in China. Reading about the history of commodities in China, we will consider what is new about consumer culture, and why people’s tastes change over time. Alongside studies of specific commodities, we will read key theoretical texts about shopping, advertising, media, identity, and fantasy: these texts will help us understand how commodities can be imbued with tremendous power to shape our desires and create our identities. During the semester, each student will conduct qualitative research about a commodity, including online research and offline interviews with people who buy and sell this commodity. At the end of the semester, we will gather your research together to produce a handbook of Chinese youth and consumer culture. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC/IPC; GCS Elective: The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China; Social Science focus Anthropology 200 level.

This course is a survey of the major historical and contemporary currents of China’s religious thought and practice, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism and “popular religion”. It will focus on the interactions between such teachings and practices, as well as on the role of religion in Chinese society. You will study topics such as divination, visual culture, ritual, ancestor worship, morality, longevity techniques, healing practices and meditation. A selected number of primary and secondary sources will be discussed in each lecture; documentary films and visits to religious sites will be also key constituents of the course. Please note if you miss the first class of the term, you will need to contact the instructor to determine if you can still remain enrolled in the course. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC or IPC; GCS Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Humanities Interdisciplinary/Advanced Courses (18-19: Topic).

The history of Chinese religion cannot be complete without non-human animals (“animals” hereafter). By consulting sources of various genres, the course aims to reveal how major religious traditions in pre-modern China—Confucian rituals, Daoism, Buddhism, and popular religion—utilized, imagined, and interacted with animals. The investigation also will expand to the contemporary debates over religious modernism and animal welfare/environmental ethics. The main goal of the course is to reveal to students how religious traditions and values were created, transmitted, and modified in different historical contexts. Besides, the course will provide a lens for students to compare the role of animals in various religious traditions and understand how these traditions interact with each other. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS Elective Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Social Science Focus Environmental Studies 200 level.

Our goal is to map China. But rather than making maps through calculations or grids, we will be mapping China conceptually and theoretically. This is to say that in studying China's regions, physical geography, political territories, cities, counties, and people, our goal is to develop skills for thinking about China spatially. With thousands of years of recorded history and a political system oriented to progress and national development, China is often imagined in terms of linear time. However, from ancient walled cities to the Mao-era work-unit system to the more recent migrations of rural labor, understanding how political, commercial, and social spaces are organized is essential for understanding China's past and present. Prerequisite: GPS Fulfillment: CORE SSPC or IPC; GCS elective The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China; Social Science Focus Environmental Studies 200 level; Humanities Interdisciplinary or other Advanced course ( 18-19: Critical Concepts or Topic).

This is a class about what Chinese people think and believe, and how they perceive the society to which they belong. The class will cover a wide range of material from Shang oracle bones, Confucianism, Legalism, Taoism, Buddhism, and various folk religions, to 20th-century debates on Western thought and Communism. This class highlights three general concerns: 1) although we will cover the main categories of Chinese thought (e. g. Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism), we will emphasize the diversity of thought both within and outside those larger categories; 2) we will make clear that people’s beliefs and thought changed frequently over time and space, and 3) we will examine how socio-economic conditions and the media used to convey ideas affect people’s intellectual world and vice versa. No Chinese is required. Pre-requisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS Advanced track Language course for Native Chinese Speakers or Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Humanities Introductory course (18-19: survey/topic).

The literary scene in the modern and contemporary Chinese-speaking world is diverse, vast, and challenging for the migrant and exilic minds whose creative energies are often driven by their poignant insights to the turbulent events around them. Working in, outside, and between places like mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, America, and parts of Southeast Asia, Chinese-language writers ask questions about nationalism, tradition, ethno-linguistic politics, and cultural authenticity. They speak from and across multiple cultural margins to probe the nature of modernity, cross-cultural contact, and otherness amid the global flows of labor and ideas. This course invites students to participate in the ongoing discursive and historiographical debates over the study of “modern Chinese literature” through a fast-emerging transnational and comparative perspective. Reading stories, novels, and essays by both established and marginalized writers, we place the traditional nation-based rubric of Chinese literary studies in critical dialogues with a set of jarring historical contexts: Euro-American imperialism, Chinese emigration and their settler-colonial history, the post-1949 political split, and global decolonization movements, among others. We ask: how do writers represent China on the world stage? Where in their works can we discern stylistic and cultural hybridization? How do they variously cement or deconstruct the conventional East-West divide? What alternative literary geographies and worldviews do they offer? We begin with the satirical modernists of Republican-era China. Next, we turn to Hong Kong and Taiwan for identity debates, colonial legacies, nativism, and postmodern cultures. In light of the global migration history, we also study narratives from Chinese-speaking America, Malaysia, and Singapore to analyze how writers creatively deconstruct the notion of Chineseness. Finally, we discuss the changing terms of exclusion and inclusion of ethnic minorities in present-day Han-Chinese societies, to further expose the internal fractures within the global Sinophone cultures. (This may be used as a topic course or literary interpretation in the Humanities.) Pre-requisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE IPC/HPC; GCS China and the World or Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature; Humanities Introductory course; Chinese Language and Literature Minor.

This course introduces students to the history and cultural formations of worldwide Chinese migrations and diasporic communities, including change over the last two centuries and evolving global diasporic relationships and interactions. Some topics of interest include Zheng He’s legendary maritime travels on the imperial treasure fleets, the opium trade and its implication for early transnational Chinese capitalism, labor migration and exclusion in North America, socio-political and cultural indigenization of Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, and the coolie trade in the Caribbean region. Materials of study include history, essay, literature, and film. Prerequisite: GPS. Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS China and the World; Humanities Introductory course (18-19: topic).

This course focuses on the lives of women in China over the past century. Through a range of sources students will examine the advances made, and challenged encountered, by women in China. Students will analyze the impact, and often unforeseen consequences, of state political, economic and social policies, on women’s lives. In addition to documenting the many major improvements in the quality of most women’s lives, the course will also address the challenges that women continue to face, such as the ongoing influence of traditional sexist values (重男轻女), trafficking of women, high-suicide rates, domestic-violence, and work-place gender discrimination and harassment. The course will conclude with an examination of different imaginings of the long-term impact of China’s critical demographic gender imbalance. As much as possible the experiences of women from a range of backgrounds, including different socio-economic, regional, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, will be incorporated into the course. Sources will include government policies, memoirs, short stories and science fiction, films, and academic books and articles. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC/IPC; GCS The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China.

What makes a “good death”? How do people imagine, interpret, and describe the processes of dying? How do individuals respond to, live through, and move beyond the death of others? How do beliefs, customs, material cultures, and social structures co-constitute the lived realities of death? Drawing on insights from medical anthropology, anthropology of religion, and anthropology of ethics, this course explores diverse perspectives on the “good death”. With a primary ethnographic focus on China, using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, we will investigate: 1) the sociocultural constructions of death, 2) the processes of aging and dying, 3) the practices of end-of-life care, 4) debates about voluntary death, 5) how the living deal with the deceased, and 6) how people live with irrevocable losses. Prerequisite: GPS or sophomore standing (or not open to first semester students) Fulfillment: CORE SSPC/IPC; GCS Major Elective: Chinese History, Society, and Culture.

How did people in ancient and modern China understand health and treat illness? Historically and now, has “Chinese medicine” been an insular or open system? What can health perceptions and healing practices tell us about historical changes in China and its changing relationship with the world? Drawing on insights from the history of medicine and medical anthropology, this course explores health and healing in China through five chronologically organized units and one diachronically comparative unit. We will consider the cosmological, philosophical, and sociological factors that shape different visions of health. We will examine how local and global political processes affect healing practices and their perceived legitimacy and investigate what illness and remedy-seeking experiences reveal about the wider contexts in which medical activities take place. Prerequisite: GPS or sophomore standing (or not open to first semester students). Fulfillment: Fulfillment: Core IPC; GCS Major/Minor Elective Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Social Science Focus Anthropology or Global Public Health 200 level course.

This is a multimedia course designed to help students in reading, translating and critiquing primary source-based cases in modern Chinese history. For this, several sets of original documents covering different periods and events and reflecting different perspectives will be selected, and related documentary films will be shown and discussed in class.Taught primarily in Chinese this course demands a high competence in Chinese is required to take the course. Pre-requisites: Native Chinese fluency OR confirmation of adequate language competency for the course through a pre-enrollment test. All interested non-native speakers should contact the Chinese Language Program for an advanced proficiency placement test. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS elective in Chinese History, Society and Culture; GCS Advanced track Language course for Native Chinese Speakers; Chinese for Advanced Undergraduate Research.

Any writing on Shanghai today seems to run out of superlatives to describe the city’s dazzling transformation, spectacular architecture, and booming economy. But is it really the Global City it strives to be? In this course we will explore this question by looking into the urban development of the city from its status as a relatively unimportant trading town to the world metropolis of today. Besides regular seminar classes, the course involves field trips and guest lectures, and each student has to do their own semester-long research project. Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC/HPC or IPC; GCS China and the World; Humanities Interdisciplinary/Advanced Courses (18-19 Topic); Social Science Focus Self-Designed/Urban Studies - 200 level.

This course is a research seminar that prepares the students for researching, translating, and critical writing in Chinese art and architecture in a cross-cultural context. The first half of the semester will progress with different topics, including, but not limited to, landscape paintings, Buddhist art, ceramics, and gardens and architecture. To tackle research questions and problems in these fields, the students will get familiar with Chinese collections of major international museums and online Chinese art and architecture databases. They have to discuss and debate over terms from Chinese primary sources translated into English. They will also present their critiques on scholarly works focusing on cross-cultural approaches and methodology. The second half of the course allows students to make progress on a research project. They may choose a specific cross-cultural issue in Chinese art/architecture or opt to critique a historian’s work from a cross-cultural perspective. Upon completing the course, the students will expand their knowledge in Chinese art and architecture from a global perspective and enhance research and critique skills to serve more humanistic disciplines. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. language prerequisite: Intermediate II or Chinese native speaker. Fulfillment: GCS Major Requirement Chinese for Advanced Undergraduate Research or Language requirement course for Native Chinese Speakers for Advanced GCS Track.

This course explores the history of China (ca. 1500–1950) through the lens of gender and sexuality. By examining topics such as Confucianism, commercial sex, and women’s religious activities and literary achievement, it makes a case for gender and sexuality as drivers of historical change. It considers not only women and women’s history, but also men and masculinity, gender-nonconforming communities, and the changing relationship between gender, sexuality and social, economic, and cultural power. Students will be introduced to key questions in the study of Chinese cultural history and the history of gender and sexuality through a range of primary and secondary sources as well as film and multimedia. Our discussion will also be informed by cross-cultural comparisons with cases from other East Asian societies. Prerequisite: CHIN-SHU 201 Intermediate Chinese I or native speakers Fulfillment: Core IPC; GCS Major Elective: Chinese History, Society, and Culture; GCS Advanced Track: Advanced Undergraduate Research; Chinese Language and Literature Minor.

China at the Center? An Exploration of Chinese Foreign Relations from Pre-imperial to Late Imperial Times The main title of this course is an allusion to a book authored by Mark Mancall in 1984. However, there are some crucial differences between his approach to Chinese foreign relations and the subject of this course. Mancall has claimed – as have so many scholars before and after him – that Chinese interactions with the outside world were dictated by an ideology that saw China’s culture as superior to the surrounding ‘barbarians.’ This concept is now widely known as the so-called ‘tributary system.’ We are going to explore whether such assertions indeed have any merit. One little hint: things might not have been as easy as they appear at first glance. Over the course of the semester we will be tracing Chinese foreign relations from roughly the 6th century BCE (was there even a ‘China’ that could set itself apart from the ‘other’?) through the 19th century CE, that is to say the period when the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) was forced to interact with western powers such as the British Empire. Even today when there seems to be an abundance of media coverage, the meanings of bilateral or multilateral exchanges take quite some effort to deduce; too many details remain hidden from the public eye. The (ancient) past, of course, is even less generous with data. Nevertheless, there is plenty of information to be had; we just have to look for it. Thus, participants in this course will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in various kinds of sources: historiographical records, material culture, or personal diaries to name but a few. In doing so, our main objective will be that we develop a critical, analytical attitude toward said sources that will ultimately lead us to a more nuanced understanding of Chinese dealings with the outside world. Prerequisites: at least one GCS course. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS China and the World; Humanities 18-19 Topic.

The course is designed to present ordinary people's life in medieval China through the window of Dunhuang manuscripts. The materials discussed in the course will cover religious beliefs, divinatory practices, social interactions, governmental administration, medical treatment, etc. The course will also train students to read and translate raw, unedited primary sources. Furthermore, the course will also present the uniqueness of manuscripts compared to transmitted texts. Students will be introduced to important reference books. Through class discussions and translation homework, the course aims to prepare students for further study of premodern China. Prerequisite: CHIN-SHU 301 Advanced Chinese I or placed out of Advanced Chinese I or native Chinese speakers. Fulfillment: Core HPC/IPC; GCS Chinese for Advanced Undergraduate Research; GCS Advanced-track Language course for Native Chinese Speakers. (Fulfill the language requirement for study away students who are native speakers of Chinese).

Department consent. Fulfillment: general elective.

Fall Semester: Methodologies in China Studies; Spring Semester: Research Project Seminar. The first semester of this two-semester capstone course will focus on examining the importance and shortcomings of Chinese primary sources and data, familiarizing with and learning how to access and use key archives, museums, libraries, research tools, databases, and digital websites, and analyzing some of the pivotal books and articles on China. Students will also draft a research proposal, with a preliminary bibliography, and identify a faculty mentor for the second semester of the capstone course. During the second semester, students will work primarily with their respective mentors, but are required to also participate and make presentations at a weekly research seminar. Those opting for Advanced GCS major must demonstrate competency in reading and analyzing Chinese language sources. Pre-requisite: Senior Standing in GCS Primary Major Fulfillment: GCS Two-semester Capstone Course.

Fall Semester: Methodologies in China Studies; Spring Semester: Research Project Seminar. The first semester of this two-semester capstone course will focus on examining the importance and shortcomings of Chinese primary sources and data, familiarizing with and learning how to access and use key archives, museums, libraries, research tools, databases, and digital websites, and analyzing some of the pivotal books and articles on China. Students will also draft a research proposal, with a preliminary bibliography, and identify a faculty mentor for the second semester of the capstone course. During the second semester, students will work primarily with their respective mentors, but are required to also participate and make presentations at a weekly research seminar. Those opting for Advanced GCS major must demonstrate competency in reading and analyzing Chinese language sources. Pre-requisite: Senior Standing GCS Primary Major AND completion of GCHN-SHU 400. Fulfillment: GCS capstone requirement.

Department consent. Fulfillment: general elective.