Unit of Study Outlines - Faculty of Arts
Unit of Study Outlines - Faculty of Arts
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During the past two decades of reform in China, society has undergone enormous, rapid change. With economic restructuring and the remodelling of the role of government, the relatively fixed social identities of the past have entered an uncertain, transitional phase. This component examines selected aspects of these changes, their impact on various groups and institutions (e.g., the family, the workplace), and the emergence of new conceptions of individual identity.
Please IGNORE the statement that you will find under "Assumed knowledge" below. It is not accurate.
No knowledge of Chinese is necessary for postgraduate students and Asian Studies Honours students who wish to take this unit. Class discussions and presentations will all be in English, and it will be possible to complete the unit using English-language readings only. However, supplementary Chinese-language readings will be available online throughout the semester. Chinese Studies Honours students will be required to undertake some Chinese-language readings.
1. To enhance your knowledge of developments in Chinese society since the death of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) in 1976 and the end of the Maoist period in 1978.
2. To acquaint you with new approaches to research on recent and contemporary Chinese society, with a focus on selected ethnographic case studies.
3. To encourage you to explore selected topics in greater depth than is possible in ordinary undergraduate units of study, thereby helping you to make the conceptual transition to postgraduate work.
4. To provide you with practice in some of the skills required for research and thesis / dissertation writing and other advanced work in Chinese and Asian studies.
5. To help you to develop skills of analysis and exposition (oral as well as written) that will be useful in a wide range of professional occupations.
6. To accustom students who read Chinese fluently to tackling Chinese academic articles, while giving less advanced readers appropriate opportunities of developing their Chinese-language reading skills.
By the time that you complete this unit of study, you should have acquired new insights into recent and contemporary Chinese society and the ways in which professional researchers study it. You should have acquired some new conceptual tools as well as a deepened understanding of the ways in which socioeconomic transformation has affected individuals, their life chances, their relationship with their community / communities, and their sense of self. You should have a subtler grasp of the complexities of the state’s continuing influences on Chinese society. You may have learned some things that surprise you—about Falun Gong, for instance. Above all, you should be dissatisfied.
Why is student dissatisfaction an intended outcome of this unit? Come to the first class, and find out more!
Seminars
2 hours per week
5000 words written work
• Total required formal assessment: 5,000 words of written work (or equivalent): 80%
• Classwork: 20%
Summary of formal assessment requirements:
• 3,000-word final essay in English, due in Week 13 (Wednesday 29 October); worth 40%.
• 15-minute oral presentation on essay topic in Week 12 (22 October); equivalent to 1,000 words of formal written work; worth 10%.
• 1,000-word critical review, word-processed in either English or Chinese, of supplementary reading, due by Week 10 (8 October) at latest. If you choose to write in Chinese, the required length is 1,700 characters. This assignment is worth 30%.
Further details will be provided later.
• Yan Yunxiang. Private Life under Socialism: Love, Intimacy, and Family Change in a Chinese Village, 1949–1999. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.
• Zhang Li. Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power, and Social Networks within China’s Floating Population. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
• Pun Ngai. Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.
• Nancy N. Chen. Breathing Spaces: Qigong, Psychiatry, and Healing in China. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
• Maris Boyd Gillette. Between Mecca and Beijing: Modernization and Consumption among Urban Chinese Muslims. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000.
Some other, shorter English-language readings will be available online, as will all the Chinese-language readings.
ASNS6975
A Web-CT site is in preparation for this unit of study. When it goes live, enrolled students will be able to gain access to a shortened version of the syllabus for this unit of study.
I look forward to seeing you at the first class meeting on Wednesday 30 July. Please see the timetabling website for details of time and place. The class will last for two hours per week only, and the first class meeting will be from 5.00 to 7.00. However, the classroom has been booked until 8.00 to give us more flexibility about the exact times when we begin and end. That is why the timetabling website states that class will be held from 5.00 to 8.00. We will discuss at the first couple of meetings exactly what time slot would be most convenient for everyone.
If you would like to do some background reading before the semester starts, I recommend the following:
• Richard Baum. Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
• Joseph Fewsmith. China Since Tiananmen: The Politics of Transition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
The WebCT will be used mainly for posting handouts, beginning with the syllabus.
A primarily informational role is envisaged at this stage.
Enrolled students should be able to gain access to the website using standard computer facilities. If you try to enter the WebCT site but are unsuccessful, this probably means that it is not yet live.