[
Wesleyan Home Page
] [
WesMaps Home Page
]
[
Course Search
] [
Course Search by CID
]
Representing China
EAST311 FA
This course will introduce perspectives which 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
and status of women, education, organization of the work place, rituals, festivals and changes since the beginning of the "reform and opening up" in the early 1980's.
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
ETHNOGRAPHY 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], "The Morality of
Personal Relationships",
"Patrilineages," "Consanguineity and Regionalism"; 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 COLLECTIV
E 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, Stanford: Stanford, 1979; Frolic, B. Michael, MAO'S
PEOPLE: SIXTEEN PORTRAITS OF LIFE IN
REVOLUTIONARY CHINA, Cambridge: Harvard, 1980; Harrel, Stevan, "Introduction: Civilizing Projects and the Reaction to Them," in Stevan Harrel, ed., CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS ON CHINA'S ETHNIC FRONTIERS, Seattle: Univ. of
Washington, 1994; Honig, Emily and Hersh
atter, Gail, PERSONAL VOICES: CHINESE WOMEN IN THE 1980'S, Stanford: Stanford, 1988; Liu Xinwu, "The Bell and the Drum Tower," in Chen Jianing, ed., THEMES IN CONTEMPORARY CHINESE LITERATURE, Beijing: New World Press,
1993. pp. 93-204; Parish, William L.
and Martin K. Whyte, "Interfamily Relations," in VILLAGE
AND CONTEMPORARY CHINA, Chicago, 1978: 200-34; Watson, Rubie S., "Afterword," in Rubie Watson and Patricia Buckley Ebrey,eds., MARRIAGE AND INEQUALITY IN
CHINESE SOCIETY, Berkeley: California, 19
91, pp. 347-368; Wolf, Margery, "Sharing a Stove: Rural Domestic Relations," in Margery Wolf, REVOLUTION POSTPONED, WOMEN AND SOCIETY IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA, Stanford, 1984, pp. 203-37.
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Three papers.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Participation in web-based discussion board.
COURSE FORMAT:
Lecture/Discussion
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
NONE
Grading Mode:
Student Option
Prerequisites:
NONE
Last Updated on JUN-21-2000
Contact
wesmaps@wesleyan.edu
to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459