Course Code and Course Title
Perspectives on Chinese Studies
Time and Venue
Mondays 3:30PM - 6:15PM
WMY_502
Instructor
Prof. Kristof VAN DEN TROOST
Course Description
This is a required course for all students in the Chinese Arts and Culture (CAC) stream of the MA in Chinese Studies. It has three aims:
(i) To enhance students’ academic literacy and develop writing and research skills required to complete the MA in Chinese Studies (reading, writing, citation and academic ethics);
(ii) To introduce students to the field of Chinese Studies and its history, and to provide tips on how to “watch China” from different perspectives;
(iii) To explore different dimensions of how film can be used to study Chinese culture and society.
Course Outline
Week 1 (4/9): Introduction
Owen, Stephen. “What Is the Future of China’s Past?” In The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power, edited by Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi, 283-87. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018.
Week 2 (11/9): Academic Research and Writing
Mullaney, Thomas S., and Christopher Rea. Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You (and the World). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022.
Week 3 (18/9): Library Workshop and Tour
[This class will take place at the University Library. Our meeting point: Digital Scholarship Lab, G/F.]
Week 4 (25/9): Chinese Studies: Field and Method I
Stockman, Norman. “Working in No Man’s Land: Between Sociology and Chinese Studies.” Journal of the British Association for Chinese Studies 8, no. 2 (2018): 130-143.
Derichs, Claudia, Ariel Heryanto, and Itty Abraham. “Area Studies and Disciplines: What Disciplines and What Areas? Current Debates.” Internationales Asien Forum. International Quarterly for Asian Studies 51, no. 3-4 (2020): 1-15.
Cohen, Paul A. “How Has the Study of China Changed in the Last Sixty Years?” In The China Questions, edited by Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi, 283-87. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018.
***Wednesday 27/9 CUHK Research Ethics Training & Annotated Bibliography Due***
*** 2/10 Public Holiday—The Day Following National Day: NO CLASS ***
Week 5 (9/10): Chinese Studies: Field and Method II
Liu, Lydia H. “Introduction: The Problem of Language in Cross-Cultural Studies.” In Translingual Practice: Literature, National Culture, and Translated Modernity-China, 1900-1937, 1-42. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995.
Chen, Kuan-Hsing. Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. 211-
255.
Week 6 (16/10): Field Trip I: Hong Kong Heritage Museum (tbc)
*** 23/10 Public Holiday—Chung Yeung Festival: NO CLASS ***
Week 7 (30/10): Theoretical Frameworks in Chinese Film & Cultural Studies
Higson, Andrew. 1989. “The Concept of National Cinema.” Screen 30 (4): 36-47.
Berry, Chris, and Mary Farquhar. “Introduction: Cinema and the National.” In China on Screen: Cinema and Nation, 1-16. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
Shih, Shu-mei. “The Concept of the Sinophone.” PMLA, Vol.126, No.3 (May 2011): 709-718.
Week 8 (6/11): Film and Chinese Aesthetics [Screening: Dragon Inn, 1967]
Chow, Rey. “Introduction: On Chineseness as a Theoretical Problem.” In Modern Chinese Literary and Cultural Studies in the Age of Theory, edited by Rey Chow, 1-25. Durham: Duke University Press, 2000.
Rodriguez, Hector. “Questions of Chinese Aesthetics: Film Form and Narrative Space in the Cinema of King Hu.” Cinema Journal 38, no. 1 (1998): 73-97.
Week 9 (13/11): Film and Chinese Society I: Genre. [Screening: The Wandering Earth, 2019]
Song, Mingwei. “Variations on Utopia in Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction.” Science Fiction Studies 40 (2013): 85-102.
Langford, Barry. “Who Needs Genres?” In Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond, 1-28. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005. (Especially pages 13-22)
Week 10 (20/11): Field Trip II: Hong Kong Film Archive (tbc)
***Wednesday 22/11 Film Analysis Due***
Week 11 (27/11): Film and Chinese Society II: Realism [Screening: A Touch of Sin, 2013]
Stuckey, G. Andrew. “Documentarization and Amplified Realism in Jia Zhangke’s Films.” In Metacinema in Contemporary Chinese Film, 78-99. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2018.
Week 12 (4/12): Conclusion
***Tuesday 5 December Literature Review Due***