CHN245 Chinese Popular Culture
Department of East Asian Studies
Fall 2007
Instructor: Hai Ren
Office: LSB Room 111
Phone: 626-5062
E-mail: hren@email.arizona.edu
Class Meetings: MWF Mornings
DESCRIPTION:
This course is an introduction to contemporary Chinese popular culture. It explores popular
culture’s relations to social change, public spaces, the state, individual freedom, collective
justice, national identity, and globalization.
REQUIREMENTS
1. Regular and active participation in lectures (Monday and Wednesday) and discussion sessions
(Friday) (10% of your final grade). This means you have read the assigned materials for each
class and are ready to ask questions and volunteer opinions. You are required to write an onepage self-evaluative report at the end of the semester. This assignment is designed to give you an
opportunity to reflect what you have learned in the semester. In the report, you should address
the following questions: How would you like to apply two concepts or/and methods in your
future academic career? What aspects are you pleased about your work? What areas of your
work would you like to improve or further expand? In addition, you should also assign a grade
on the basis of evaluating your participation and attendance.
2. Quizzes (30% of your final grade). There will be ten quizzes during the semester. Quizzes are
in multiple-choice format and focus on assigned readings and lecture materials for the week that
they are given.
3. Three Reaction Papers (15% of your final grade). These are commentary on an assigned
reading and should be 2-3 pages long. They are not mere summaries of a reading, but rather your
critical responses to it. For example, you can either discuss the validity of the arguments that the
reading has presented or comment on its uses of data and facts. Reaction papers do not require
titles or references.
4. Research Paper (20% of your final grade): 6-8 pages long, typed and double-spaced. You will
choose one of three topics assigned to you at least three weeks before the due date. The paper
aims at developing your skills of comprehension, application, and analysis. You may be asked to
apply a theoretical concept in understanding a popular culture phenomenon; to compare two
important historical or cultural events; or to interpret a popular culture text (a film, video, or
novel). Before you submit the final draft (15 points), you will turn in an outline (l point), a
bibliography (1 point), and give an oral presentation (3 points), which add up to 20 points for this
assignment. The instructor will give you feedback on your outline, bibliography, and
presentation. In addition, you will be given an opportunity to revise the completed paper after
receiving the comments. In such a situation, you should let the instructor know on the day you
receive the commented paper. Your revised paper will be due a week after you receive it.
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5. Midterm Exam (ten multiple-choice, two short-answer and one essay-type questions) and
Final Exam (ten multiple-choice, five short-answer and two essay-type questions) (15% of your
final grade).
FOR HONORS STUDENTS ONLY: All the above requirements apply to you expect for research
paper. You are required to write two research papers (20% of final grade), each of which should
be six to eight page long, typed and double-spaced. The first paper is based on regular readings.
The second paper must incorporate additional readings, which will be assigned to you based on
the topic of your paper.
Grade Appeal: If you wish to challenge a grade on an assignment, you must submit in writing
(no more than one page long) to argue for your case. The instructor then will give you a new
grade, which may be lower, higher than, or the same as the original grade. Due to time
constraints, the research paper and the final exam cannot be re-graded. .
Absence Policy: You are allowed to have two (2) unexcused absences. After that, each
unexcused absence will result in a 2 point-reduction (10 points maximum) in your final grade.
Excusable absences include medical and family emergences, jury duties, holidays or special
events observed by organized religions for those students who show affiliation with that
particular religion, and service obligations pre-approved by appropriate UA authorities. Students
should make reasonable efforts to notify the instructor in advance of their absence: While
students can negotiate new submission dates for reaction papers and the research paper in the
case of excused absences, there will be no make-ups for missed quizzes due to absences, excused
or not.
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Students should behave responsibly and respectfully in the classroom. The use of pagers, cell
phones, and other electronic devices is prohibited during lectures and discussions. Plagiarism of
any kind as defined by the Student Code of Academic Integrity
(http://studpubs.web.arizona.edu/policies/cacaint.htm) will result in a failing grade for this class.
Students with special needs who are registered with the Disability Resource Center must submit
appropriate documentation to the instructor if they are requesting reasonable accommodations.
REQUIRED TEXS (available at UA book Store):
1. Perry Link, et al. Unofficial China: Popular Culture and Thought in the People's Republic.
Westview, 1990.
2. Kang Liu. Globalization and Cultural Trends in China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
2004.
3. Jianying Zha. China Pop: How Soap Operas, Tabloids and Bestsellers Are Transforming a
Culture. The New Press, 1996.
4. Class Notes ((Including excepts from "Chinese Popular Culture and the State." Special issue
of positions: east asia cultures critique 9, 1 (Spring 2001), John Storey, Cultural Studies and the
Study of Popular Culture. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1996.)
Internet Resources:
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1. Transnational China Project at Rice University: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~tnchina/.
2. Modem Chinese Literature and Culture Resource Center at Ohio State University:
http://mclc.osu.edu/jou/mclc.htm.
The information contained in the course syllabus, other than the grade and absence policies,
may be subject to change with notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Week One: Introduction
1. Welcome to the Course
2. Discussion of Online and library Resources
Readings:
The Syllabus.
“Writing the Research Paper." (Prepared by Dr. Dian Li, EAS faculty)
Week Two: Understanding Contemporary China
1. Contemporary China: An Overview
2. Popular Culture: A Definition and A Problematic
3. Quiz 1 and Discussion
Readings:
Link, Perry, pp. l-13.
Wang, Jing "Chinese Popular Culture Studies" (in Class Notes and at
http://www.duke.edu/web/FacultyForum/vo110/ffsept98.htm)
Week Three: Popular Literature I
4. Literature and Social Change
5. Elite and Popular Literature
6. Quiz 2 and Discussion
Readings:
Link, Perry, pp.17-36.
Lee, Leo Ou-fan and Andrew Nation, "The Beginnings of Mass Culture: Journalism and Fiction"
(in Class Notes: in Popular Culture in Late Imperial China, pp. 360-395).
Week Four: Popular Literature II
7. Consuming Literature
8. Making Bestsellers
9. Reaction Paper 1 and Discussion
Readings:
Zha, Jianying, pp. 129-164.
Liu,Kang, pp. 102-126.
Week Five: film I
10. Film and Its Audience
11. Film and Propaganda
12. Quiz 3 and Discussion
Readings:
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Zha, Jianying, pp. 79-105.
Link, Perry, pp. 37-56.
Week Six: Film II
13. Transnational Filmmaking,
14. Impact of Movie Stars
15. Quiz 4 and Discussion
Readings:
Kraicer, Shelly, '"Lost in Time, Lost in Space: Beijing Film Culture in 2004" (In Class Notes:
Cinemascope 21/Winter 2004 and at
http://www.cinemascope.com/cs21/fea_kraicer_beijing.htm).
Braester, Yomi, "Chinese Cinema in the Age of Advertisement: The Filmmaker as a Cultural
Broker" (in Class Notes: The China Quarterly 183 Sept. 2005: 549-564).
Week Seven: Television
16. The Role of CCTV
17. Melodrama: and Documentary
18. Reaction Paper 2 and Discussion
Readings:
Zha, Jianying, pp. 25-54.
Keane, Michael, "Send in the Clones: Television Formats and Content Creation in the People's
Republic of China" (In Class Notes: In Donald, S, Keane, M. and Yin Hong eds., Media in
China: Consumption, Content, and Crisis. Curzon Press, 2001, 176-202).
Week Eight: Popular Music
19. Midterm
20. Music as Defiance
21. Quiz 5 and Discussion
Readings:
de Kloet, Jeroen, "Popular Music and Youth in Urban China: The Dakou Generation" (In Class
Notes: The China Quarterly 183 (Sept. 2005): 609-626).
Clark, Matthew Corbin, "Birth of a Beijing Music Scene" (in Class Notes: China in the Red
website and at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/red/sonic/).
Websites: 1. Guides to Chinese Music at http://www.asiasociety.org/arts/insideout. 2. The
Internet Chinese Music Archive at http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/multimedia/chinese-music.
Week Nine: Popular Arts
22. What is Contemporary Chinese Arts?
23. The Power of Visual Representation
24. Quiz 6 and Discussion
Readings:
Flath, James A., “It's a Wonderful Life': Nianhua and Yuefenpai at the Dawn of the People's
Republic" (in Class Notes: Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 16, 2 (Fan 2004): 123-59).
Adrews, Julia and Gao Minglu, "The Avant-garde's Challenge to Official Art (In Class Notes: In
Debord S. Davis, et. Al., eds., Urban Spaces in Contemporary China: The Potential for
Autonomy and Community in Post-Mao China). Cambridge UP, 1995, 221-78.
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Websites: 1. Deco Orient at http://www.decoorient.com. 2. Masterpieces of 20th Century Chinese
Paintings at http://www.civilization.ca/cultur/chine1/chi00e.html. 3. New Chinese Arts at
http://www.asiasociety.org/arts/insideout.
Week Ten: Advertising
25. The Language of Advertising
26. Promoting Individualism?
27. Quiz 7 and Discussion
Readings:
Cheng, Hong and Schweitzer, J. C., "Cultural Values Reflected in Chinese and U.S. Television
Commercials" (In Class Notes: Journal of Advertising Research 36 (1996): 27-46).
Zhang, ling and Sharon Shavitt, "Cultural Values in Advertisements to the Chinese X Generation: Promoting Modernity and Individualism" (In Class Notes: Journal of Advertising
32, 1 (2003): 23-33).
Websites: 1. China's Public Advertising Culture at
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~tnchina/chinapotads.html. 2. Contemporary Chinese Advertising at
http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/graph/9conadvs.htm.
Week Eleven: Culture of Consumption
28. To Get Rich is Patriotic
29. Fast Cars and Shopping Malls
30. Quiz 8 and Discussion
Readings:
Chao, Linda and Ramon H. Meyers, "'China's Consumer Revolution: The 1990s and Beyond" (In
Class Notes: Journal of Contemporary China 7 (18) (1998): 351-68).
Ferry, Megan, "Advertising, Consumerism and Nostalgia for the New Woman in Contemporary
China" (In crass Notes: Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 17, 3(2003): 277 90).
Week Twelve: Sports and Leisure
31. Sports and Nationalism
32. In Search of Star Athletes
33. Quiz 9 and discussion
Readings:
Brownell, Susan, "Making Dream Bodies in Beijing: Athletes, Fashion Models, and Urban
Mystique in China" (In Class Notes: In Nancy Chen, et al, eds., China Urban: Ethnographies of
Contemporary Culture. Durham: Duke UP, 2001).
Lu, Suping, "Nationalist Feelings and Sports" (In Class Notes: Journal of Contemporary China
no. 22 (1999): 517-33).
Week Thirteen: Internet
34. Connected in the Chinese Way
35. Democracy and Regulation
36. Reaction Paper 3 and Discussion
Readings:
Liu, Kang, pp. 127'-162.
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Guo, Liang, "The Internet: China's Window to the World" (in Class Notes: YaleGobal Online
(Nov. 18,20021 and at http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=362).
Week Fourteen: Religion and Propriety
37. Discussion and Presentation of Research Paper
38. Religiosity and Spirituality
39. Everyday Ethics and Propriety; Research Paper Due
Readings:
Lin, Perry, pp. l03-120 & 156-174.
King, Ambrose Yeo-chi, "Kuan-hsi and Network Building: A Sociological Interpretation" (In
Class Notes: In Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, ed. by Wei-Ming
Tu, Stanford University Press, 1995, PP. 109-126).
Week Fifteen: Chinese Food
40. Philosophizing Food
41. Food and Rituals
42. Quiz 10, Discussion and Presentation.
Readings:
Zha, Jianying, pp. 105-128.
Wu, David Y.H. and Sidney C. H. Cheung, "The Globalization of Chinese Food and Cuisine:
Markers and Breakers of Cultural Barriers" (In Class Notes: The Globalization of Chinese Food
and Cuisine, eds. by David Y.R. Wu and. Sidney. C. H. Cheung, University of Hawaii Press,
2002).
Week Sixteen: Tradition and Future
43. Tradition and Modernity
44. China Goes Global
45. Revised Research Paper Due.
Readings:
Liu, Kang, pp. 23-45.
Watson, James, "The Renegotiation of Chinese Cultural Identity in the Post-Mao Era: An
Anthropological Perspective" (in Class Notes: Perspectives on Modern China: Four
Anniversaries, ea. by Kenneth Lieberthal, et at (1991), pp. 364-386).