Course Proposal - Level 1 Approval task
New Course Proposal for:Chinese Silent Cinema: 1920-1935
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Course Proposal Details for - Chinese Silent Cinema: 1920-1935 (Course code not
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School
School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
This is an interdisciplinary course that deals with history,
cultural studies, film studies and involves actual film
production. Students will view and analyze eleven early, silentera, feature films made in China and learn how to use visual
sources to understand historical phenomena. More specifically,
the course will examine a number of important themes in
modern Chinese history. The themes include modernity, urban
Course Description transformation, gender, migration, consumption patterns,
marriage and family, class, sexuality and nationalism. In
spatial and chronological terms, the main focus is on the
Shanghai global metropolis and its vanguard role in China and
in East Asia during the pre-war 1920s and early 1930s. In
order to sharpen their critical and interpretive capacities, small
groups of students will made 20 minute films modeled on the
thematics and aesthetics of silent-era Chinese films.
Normal Year Taken Year 4 Undergraduate
Course Level
UG
(PG/UG)
Visiting Student
Part-year visiting students only
Availability
SCQF Credits
0
Credit Level
SCQF Level 10
(SCQF)
Home Subject Area Asian Studies
Other Subject Area
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Course Secretary
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/ Institution)
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teaching hours
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Taught in Gaidhlig?
Course Type
Summary of
Intended Learning
Outcomes/L01
44
N/A
Chinese cinema; silent film; history
No Fee Applicable
Julian Ward
Classes & Assessment incl. centrally arranged exam
Semester 1
Common Marking Scheme - UG Honours Grade Only
No
Standard
The primary objectives of the course include: (1) exposing
students to materials and theoretical approaches that emphasise
new modes of understanding the complexities of modern
Chinese history; (2) introducing students to the strikingly
global aesthetic strategies deployed in China in the early
twentieth century by examining the case of the early Chinese
film industry; (3) sharpening student ability to analyze and
interpret visual materials; (4) pointing to the difference
between visual culture and print culture; (5) demonstrating the
ways in which student film production activities improve the
ability of students to learn from film artifacts produced nearly
100 years ago.
Learning Outcome 2
Learning Outcome 3
Learning Outcome 4
Learning Outcome 5
Special
Arrangements
Components of
Assessment
4 five-hundred word film critiques (30%)
Exam Information
Syllabus
1 20-minute film as a collaborative project (30%)
1 hour centrally arranged exam (40%)¿
One hour exam
16 page script book
WEEK 1
Sessions 1 & 2 Modernity, the Shanghai Urban Arena, and the
May Fourth Critique of Tradition ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Sep 16 Film: ¿¿¿¿¿ (Romance of the Fruit Peddler) 1921, d.
Zhang Shichuan¿¿¿
Sep 18 Reading:
Zhang, Zhen. ¿Teahouse, Shadowplay, Bricolage: ¿Laborer¿s
Love¿ and the Question of Early Chinese Cinema.¿ in Zhang,
Yingjin, ed. Cinema and Urban Culture in Shanghai, 19221943. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1999,
pp. 27-50.
Schwartz, R. Vanessa. "Film and History." in Donald, James,
and Michael Renov. The SAGE Handbook of Film Studies.
Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 2008, pp. 199-215.
¿Introduction: The Testimony of Images¿ in Peter Burke,
Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence.
London: Reaktion Books, 2001, pp. 9-19.
WEEK 2
Sessions 3 & 4 The Fragility of the New Urban Middle Class
¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Sep 23 Film: ¿¿¿¿ (String of Pearls) 1925, d. Li Zeyuan ¿¿¿
Sep 25 Reading:
Ding Ling, ¿Diary of Miss Sophia¿ (1927). ¿¿,¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Yu Dafu, ¿Sinking¿ (1921)
WEEK 3
Sessions 5 & 6 Masculinity and the Nation: Controversial
Cultural Artifacts ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Sep 30 Film: ¿¿¿ (Romance of the Western Chamber) 1927, d.
Hou Yao ¿¿
Oct 2 Reading:
Kristine Harris, ¿The Romance of the Western Chamber and
the Classical Subject Film in 1920s Shanghai,¿ in Zhang
Yingjin, Cinema and urban culture in Shanghai, 1922-1943.
Lu Xun, ¿Diary of a Madman¿ (1918)
WEEK 4
Sessions 7 & 8 In Search of the Modern Marriage (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Oct 7 Film: ¿¿¿¿ (Oceans of Passion, Heavy Kissing) 1928, d.
Xie Yunqing ¿¿¿ (2 pts)
Oct 9 Reading:
Lu Xun, ¿¿
Paul G. Pickowicz, ¿Shanghai Twenties: Early Cinematic
Explorations of the Modern Marriage¿ (Quiz#1)
WEEK 5
Session 9 Men Representing Women: The Horror Genre
¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Oct 14 Film: ¿¿¿¿ (Orphan in the Snow) 1929, d. Zhang
Huimin ¿¿¿ (2 pts)
Session 10 Melodramatic Imagination ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Oct 16 Reading:
Paul G. Pickowicz, ¿Melodramatic Representation¿
Midterm exam (UG)/essay preparation (PG)
WEEK 6
Sessions 11 & 12 Village vs. City: Spiritual Pollution
¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Oct 21 Film: ¿¿¿¿¿ (Peach Blossom Weeps Tears of Blood)
1931,
d. Bu Wancang¿¿¿ (2 pts)
Oct 23 Reading: Paul G. Pickowicz, ¿The Theme of Spiritual
Pollution¿
Mao Dun, ¿Spring Silkworms¿ (1932), ¿Autumn Harvest¿
(1933), and ¿Winter Ruin¿ (1933)
WEEK 7
Session 13 Culture as Social Science: Urban Perceptions of
Rural People ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿: ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Oct 28 Film: ¿¿ (Daybreak) 1933, d. Sun Yu ¿¿ (2 pts)
Session 14 The Low-brow Novel of Manners: The Mandarin
Duck and Butterfly Mode ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Oct 30 Reading:
Zhang Henshui, Shanghai Express (1934)
Link, Perry. Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular fiction in
early twentieth-century Chinese cities. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1981.
Consultations on Film Projects
WEEK 8
Sessions 15 & 16 Patriotism, Class, and Sexuality: Sorting out
the Components ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Nov 4 Film: ¿¿ (The Big Road) 1933, d. Sun Yu ¿¿ (2 pts)
Nov 6 Reading: Mao Dun, ¿Shop of the Lin Family¿
WEEK 9
Sessions 17 & 18 Prostitution as an Urban Form ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Nov 11 Film: ¿¿ (The Goddess) 1934, d. Wu Yonggang ¿¿¿
Nov 13 Reading:
Henriot, Christian. Prostitution and sexuality in Shanghai: a
social history 1849-1949. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 2001. (Quiz#2).
WEEK 10
Session 19 Sex, Anti-liberalism, and the Quest for Order
¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Nov 18 Film: ¿¿¿¿ (Queen of Sports) 1934, d. Sun Yu ¿¿
Session 20 Decadent Shanghai ¿¿¿¿¿¿
Nov 20 Reading: Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern (Quiz#3)
Consultations on Film Projects
WEEK 11
Sessions 21&22 Proletarian Culture and the Problem of Gender
¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Nov 25 Film: ¿¿¿ (New Women) 1935, d. Cai Chusheng ¿¿¿
Nov 27 Reading:
Harris, Kristine. ¿The New Woman Incident: Cinema, Scandal,
and Spectacle in 1935 Shanghai.¿ in Lu, Sheldon H.
Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender.
Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1997, pp. 277-302.
Reading: Qian Xingcun, ¿The Bygone Era of Ah Q¿ (1928)
Academic
Description
Dec5 Golden Chopsticks Award Ceremony ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
This is an interdisciplinary course that deals with history,
cultural studies, film studies and involves actual film
production. Students will view and analyze eleven early, silentera, feature films made in China and learn how to use visual
sources to understand historical phenomena. More specifically,
the course will examine a number of important themes in
modern Chinese history. The themes include modernity, urban
transformation, gender, migration, consumption patterns,
marriage and family, class, sexuality and nationalism. In
spatial and chronological terms, the main focus is on the
Shanghai global metropolis and its vanguard role in China and
in East Asia during the pre-war 1920s and early 1930s. In
order to sharpen their critical and interpretive capacities, small
groups of students will made 20 minute films modeled on the
thematics and aesthetics of silent-era Chinese films.
Study Pattern
Transferable Skills
Study Abroad
Reading Lists
Foundation in Chinese film studies. Familiarisation with core
literary and film texts. Development of reading skills to
advanced level. Training in critical analytical thinking and
written and oral presentation of ideas.
Fiction ¿¿¿¿:
Lu Xun, ¿Diary of a Madman¿ (1918), ¿The True Story of Ah
Q¿ (1921), and ¿New Year¿s Sacrifice¿ (1924).
¿¿,¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿Q¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Zhang Henshui, Shanghai Express (1935). ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Mao Dun, ¿Spring Silkworms¿ (1932), ¿Autumn Harvest¿
(1933), ¿Winter Ruin¿ (1933), and ¿The Shop of the Lin
Family¿ (1932). ¿¿,¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Yu Dafu, ¿Sinking¿ (1921). ¿¿¿,¿¿¿¿
Ding Ling, ¿Diary of Miss Sophia¿ (1927). ¿¿,¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Criticism ¿¿¿¿:
Liang Qichao, ¿On the Relationship between Fiction and the
Government of the People¿ (1902). ¿¿¿,¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Hu Shi, ¿Some Modest Proposals for the Reform of Literature¿
(1917). ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Chen Duxiu, ¿On Literary Revolution¿ (1917). ¿¿¿,¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
Qian Xingcun, ¿The Bygone Era of Ah Q¿ (1928).
¿¿¿,¿¿¿¿¿¿Q¿¿¿
Studies ¿¿¿¿:
Paul G. Pickowicz, ¿Shanghai Twenties: Early Cinematic
Explorations of the Modern Marriage,¿ China on Film, chapter
1.
Paul G. Pickowicz, ¿Melodramatic Representation and the
¿May Fourth¿ Tradition of Chinese Filmmaking,¿ China on
Film, chapter 3.
Paul G. Pickowicz, ¿The Theme of Spiritual Pollution in
Chinese Films of the 1930s,¿ China on Film, chapter 2.
Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New
Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945.
Zhang Yingjin, ed. Cinema and urban culture in Shanghai,
1922-1943. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press,
1999.
Link, Perry. Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular fiction in
early twentieth-century Chinese cities. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1981.
Henriot, Christian. Prostitution and sexuality in Shanghai: a
social history 1849-1949. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 2001.
Recommended Reading ¿¿¿¿¿¿ :
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China, pp. 271-434.
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