CCSS2030
Modern Chinese Literature
Fall 2015
Mondays 1:30-2:15pm (WMY 405)
Wednesdays 2:30-4:15 (WMY 402)
Brian Skerratt, instructor
bskerratt@cuhk.edu.hk
Office: Room 1113, 11/F
Yasumoto Academic Park
Office hours: Tuesdays 2:30-4:30
Lü Chentong, teaching assistant
luchentong@gmail.com
Office Room 1117, 11/F
Yasumoto Academic Park
Office hours: TBA
Course Description
What’s so modern about modern Chinese literature? This course explores the polemics and problematics of
literary production in the Chinese region as China experienced drastic cultural, political, and social changes,
starting from the end of the nineteenth century. We will discuss questions of linguistic and formal innovation,
urbanization, cosmopolitanism, redefined gender roles, and the mutual implications of art and politics, all
while engaging with the historical background of China’s modern transformations. Readings will include
English translations of fiction and poetry by major writers from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, along with
some important essays and relevant works of scholarship. No knowledge of Chinese is required for this
course.
Learning Outcomes
 Gain a basic knowledge of the important writers and schools of literature in the Chinese language
since the beginning of the 20th century.
 Understand and appreciate the historical contexts that led to the production of the texts we study.
 Understand the discourses of modernity, postermodernity, and postcoloniality, as well as the special
problems that accompany these issues in the Chinese context.
 Practice close-reading skills and literary interpretation; learn to discuss literary texts in an academic
fashion.
Required Texts
 Joseph S.M. Lau and Howard Goldblatt, eds. The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature.
2nd ed. (CAMCL). Available at CUHK bookstore.
 Joshua S. Mostow, ed. The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature. Available
electronically via Ebrary. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b3600095~S15
 Wang Chen-ho. Rose, Rose, I Love You. Howard Goldblatt, trans. Available at CUHK bookstore.
Course Website
Additional readings, discussion forums, links, and other materials will be posted to the course website.
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Log in at: https://elearn.cuhk.edu.hk
Contact ITSC with any difficulties logging into the course website.
Assignments
Reading quizzes. Most weeks, on Wednesdays, students will complete short reading quizzes in class. Quizzes
will typically consist of only one question and give students a chance to demonstrate that they have
completed the reading.
Online forum discussion. Each week, by 9:00am Wednesday, students are required to write one original post
on the online discussion forum found on the course website, and to respond briefly to at least one other
student's post. A post should be about 2-3 paragraphs responding to the readings with original thoughts and
insights. Online discussion must remain respectful and constructive at all times. See “Online behavior” under
Course Expectations below.
Take-home exam. The final evaluation for the course will be a take-home exam, featuring short answer
questions as well as longer essay questions.
Grading
 Attendance/participation
 Reading quizzes
15%
 Weekly forum posts
 Take-home exam
20%
30%
35%
Course Expectations
Attendance. Attendance is required at all class meetings. The only exceptions will be given for serious medical
emergencies that are accompanied by an appropriate doctor’s note. Absences will affect students’ attendance
and participation grade.
In-class behavior. Students are expected to participate actively in class, both in lecture and tutorial. Active
participation means not only contributing relevant, thoughtful comments to classroom discussion, but
listening attentively to whoever is talking, whether it is the instructor or a fellow classmate. Students should
bring hard copies of the week’s readings to class for the purposes of discussion.
Electronic devices. Phones, tablets, laptops, and other electronic devices should be turned off or placed in
silent mode and put away for the duration of class. If a student has a legitimate, academic reason for using a
device during class, and he or she has received permission from the instructor, then that device should not be
used for any other purpose than consulting readings or taking notes.
Online behavior. Forum posts are due at 9:00am on Wednesdays. Whether they post early or late, students
should take the time to read their classmates’ posts before Wednesday's class, since these posts will form the
basis for in-class discussion. Online discussion is encouraged, but must always be carried out respectfully and
constructively. When disagreements occur, students should try to understand each other’s views and explain
their own using evidence. Never attack a classmate personally, or post offensive or hurtful material. Students
who fail to follow these rules may be banned from discussion forums or suffer other penalties.
Written assignments. Written assignments, such as the take-home exam, must be submitted before 5:00pm
on the due date. An assignment will only be considered complete if 1) it has been submitted electronically to
Veriguide, 2) the Veriguide receipt has been printed and signed, and 3) a hard copy of the paper has been
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submitted to the instructor’s mailbox (11th floor, Yasumoto Academic Park), along with the signed Veriguide
receipt.
Late assignments. Assignments submitted after the deadline will be penalized by one letter grade (e.g. A- to
B-, B+ to C+) immediately, plus another third of a grade (B- to C+, C+ to C) for every additional day late. No
extensions will be given. Plan ahead and submit your assignments early.
Email. All electronic communication from the instructor will be sent to students’ official, CUHK inboxes. It is
students’ responsibility to check this inbox regularly and make sure it does not go over quota. If you contact
your instructor from your personal email, please make sure that the sender’s name is your actual name, and
not some unfamiliar nickname. Instructor may still choose to respond to you by your CUHK address.
Week 1 (Sept. 7-9). Course Introduction: Origins of China's Cultural Modernity
 Lu Xun, “Diary of a Madman” (CAMCL 8-16)
Week 2 (Sept. 14-16). “Repressed Modernities” of the Late Qing
 Wu Jianren, Sea of Regret chapters 1-5 (website)
 “Late Qing Fiction” (Columbia Companion)
Week 3 (Sept. 21-23). The May Fourth Movement and Vernacular Literature
 Lu Xun, “Kong Yiji” (CAMCL 17-21)
 Lu Xun, “Preface to Call to Arms” (CAMCL 3-7)
 Yu Dafu, “Sinking” (CAMCL 31-55)
 “The Madman That Was Ah Q: Tradition and Modernity in Lu Xun's Fiction” (Columbia Companion)
Week 4 (Sept. 28-30). Evolving Gender Roles
SEPTEMBER 28: NO CLASS (Day after Mid-Autumn Festival)
 Shen Congwen, “Xiao Xiao” (CAMCL 82-94)
 Ling Shuhua, “Embroidered Pillows” (website)
 Ding Ling, “Miss Sophie's Diary” (website)
Week 5 (Oct. 5-7). Form and Reform: Urban and Poetic Modernities
 Mu Shiying, “Five in a Nightclub” (website)
 Chinese “New” Poetry selections (website)
 Chinese Modernism: The New Sensationalists (Columbia Companion)
 Form and Reform: New Poetry and the Crescent Moon Society (Columbia Companion)
Week 6 (Oct. 12-14). Turn to the Left: Literature and Politics in the 1930s
 Mao Dun, Spring Silkworms (CAMCL 56-73)
 “The Debate on Revolutionary Literature” (Columbia Companion)
Week 7 (Oct. 19-21). From the Ashes: Eileen Chang and Wartime Hong Kong
OCTOBER 21: NO CLASS (Chung Yeung Festival)
 Eileen Chang [Zhang Ailing], “Sealed Off” (CAMCL)
 Eileen Chang, “Love in a Fallen City” (website)
 “Eileen Chang and Alternative Wartime Narrative” (Columbia Companion)
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Week 8 (Oct. 26-28). The Mao Years and Their Aftermath
 Morning Sun (documentary film in class)
 Ah Cheng, “Festival” (website)
Week 9 (Nov. 2-4). Modernism and Nativism in Taiwan
 Wang Chen-ho, Rose, Rose, I Love You
 “The Taiwan Modernists” (Columbia Companion)
 “The Taiwan Nativists” (Columbia Companion)
Week 10 (Nov. 9-11). Hong Kong: Disappearing City
 Xi Xi, “Mother Fish”
 Ye Si, “Transcendence and the Fax Machine”
 Optional: Ackbar Abbas, from Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance (website)
Week 11 (Nov. 16-18). Post-Mao/Deng China
 Can Xue, “Hut on the Mountain” (CAMCL 325-328)
 Yu Hua, “On the Road at Eighteen” (CAMCL 439-444)
 Han Shaogong, “The Leader’s Demise” (CAMCL 337-348)
 Gu Cheng, selected poems (CAMCL 589-590)
 “Avant-Garde Fiction in China” (Columbia Companion)
Week 12 (Nov. 23-25). On the Island's Edge: Contemporary Taiwan
 Zhu Tianwen, “Fin-de-Siècle Splendor” (CAMCL 388-402)
 Hsia Yü, selected poems (website)
 “Writing Taiwan's Fin-de-siecle Splendor: Zhu Tianwen and Zhu Tianxin” (Columbia Companion)
Week 13 (Nov. 30-Dec. 2). TBA/Review
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