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Academic Year 2002/2003

Representing China
ANTH 311 FA
Crosslistings:
EAST 311

This course will introduce perspectives that anthropologists, ethnographers, writers, film makers, artists and photographers have taken to understand contemporary social life in China. Students will learn to differentiate the strengths and weaknesses of each perspective and at the same time develop their own nuanced appreciation for Chinese culture and recent Chinese history. Beginning with basic concepts of family and family relationships, we will survey gift-giving and banqueting, changes in the role and status of women, education, organization of the workplace, rituals, festivals and changes since the beginning of the "reform and opening up" in the early 1980s. Anthropological essays and ethnographies will be supplemented by short stories, first-person narratives and class presentations of films, photographs and art works to illuminate the different ways that natives and foreigners represent Chinese culture. Lectures will provide cultural and historical context for these materials. No previous knowledge of China or Chinese is required for this class.

MAJOR READINGS

Margery Wolf, THE HOUSE OF LIM: A STUDY OF A CHINESE FARM FAMILY, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall 1968.
Jun Jing, THE TEMPLE OF MEMORIES: HISTORY, POWER AND MORALITY IN A CHINESE VILLAGE, Stanford: Stanford Univ. 1996.
Yan Yunxiang, THE FLOW OF GIFTS: RECIPROCITY AND SOCIAL NETWORKS IN A CHINESE VILLAGE, Stanford: Stanford 1996.

We will also be reading selections from the following:
Bruun, Ole, BUSINESS AND BUREAUCRACY IN A CHINESE CITY: AN ENTHOGRAPHY OF PRIVATE BUSINESS HOUSEHOLDS IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA, (China Research Monograph, 43), New York: Institute of East Asian Studies 1993.
Fei Xiaotong, FROM THE SOIL: THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHINESE SOCIETY, Berkeley: California 1992 (1947).
Flower, John and Pamela Leonard, "Defining Cultural Life in the Chinese Countryside: The Case of the Chuan Zhu Temple," in E.B. Vesmeer, Frank Pieke and Woei-lian Chang, eds., COOPERATIVE AND COLLECTIVE IN CHINA'S RURAL DEVELOPMENT: BETWEEN STATE AND PRIVATE INTERESTS, Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, c1998, pp.273-290; Freedman, Maurice, THE STUDY OF CHINESE SOCIETY.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Final paper, midterm exam.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Participation in web-based discussion board, journals on weekly readings.

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: NONE    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-18-2003

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