Home>Course>Popular Culture in Contemporary China>CHES2103/ UGEC2434/ CCSS2005

The rise of China as a global power has drawn critical attention from all over the world from various perspectives. This course will approach this phenomenon from the angle of popular culture. Examining contemporary Chinese popular culture in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, this course considers the process of globalization, the cultural flows among East Asian popular culture, particularly, with Japan and Korea, as well as interactions among Sinophone communities around the world. This course takes an interdisciplinary methodology, incorporating materials in the form of literature, films, TV series, pop music, reality shows, online forums, video games, and so on, to explore how economic development, technological innovations, and the political atmosphere shape the youth culture, gender dynamics, class structure, and many other issues on a daily basis.

Jan. 9 Course Overview: What is Popular Culture?

Jan. 16 Between “Classic” and “Popular”: “the Rivers and Lakes” and Cultural Nationalism

Jan. 23 Lunar New Year Vacation, No Class

Jan. 30 News, Newspapers and the “Imagined Community”

Feb. 6 Television and Gender Politics

Feb. 13 Popular Music: Stardom and “Cacophony”

Feb. 20 The Fashioned Body

Feb. 27  The Internet, Fandom, and Participatory Culture

Mar. 6 Reading Week, No Class

Mar. 13 Digital Power and Its Limit

Mar. 20 “The Second Life”: Gaming and Digital Intimacy

Mar. 27 Popularizing the “Tradition”: Pushing Soft Power in the Age of Globalization

Apr. 3 Individual Consultation

Apr. 10 Easter Holiday, NO Class

Apr. 17 Wrap Up: Predicting the Future