COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines major debates over politics, aesthetics, and popular culture in contemporary mainland China, focusing on the 1980s and 1990s. Materials for discussion include narrative fiction, films (both documentaries and feature films), and critical essays. Theoretical discussions will move between examinations of Euro-American universalistic paradigms of modernity/postmodernity, and mainland Chinese critic-intellectuals' engagment in appropriating and/or critiquing those paradigms. Topics include: the modernist narratives of "world history" (i.e., "center" against "periphery"), the postmodern turn of debunking "universal history" or metanarrative, the resurgence of Mao fever, the Chinese search for modernity, the controversy over "Chinese postmodernism," the 1990s's resurgence of neo-nationalism and new conservatism in China, state sponsorship and the new meanings of "culture as leisure."

REQUIREMENTS:

Atendance and participation in class discucssion 30%

Composing a question (based on assigned readings) for each class session. To be sent on the e- mail by 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays (questions received after 9 a.m. will not count). 15%

4 responses papers (no more than 3 pages, double-spaced, typed, summaries of readings are not accepted). 40%

A term project due on the last day of class 15%

REQUIRED TEXTS:

• Mo Yan. Red Sorghum.
• Jing Wang. High Culture Fever.
• Wang Shuo. Playing for Thrills.
• Jing Wang. China's Avant-Garde Fiction: An Anthology
• Chinese Nationalism. Ed. Jonathan Unger

Supplementary materials for electronic scanning

Feature Films and Documentaries (On Reserve in Lily Library)

• China in Revolution
• The Shock of the New (part 1: The Power that Be//Part 2: The Mechanical Pradise)
• He Shang (River Elegy)
• Yellow Earth
• Finding Fun
• A Beijinger in New York (1st episode)

Bibliography for AAL 150S (Course Pack): Chinese Modernism in the Post-Mao Era

• Barme, Geremie R. Shades of Mao. M. E. Sharpe, 1996.
• Cahoone, Lawrence. The Dilemma of Modernity: Philosophy, Culture, and Anti-Culture Albany: State University of New York Press. 1988.
• Calinescu, Matei. Five Faces of Modernity. Durham: Duke University Press, 1987.
• Can Xue. "The Hut on the Hill." Worlds of Modern Chinese Fiction. Ed. Michael Duke. M. E. Sharpe, 1991. 41-44.
• Chow Tse-tsung.The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1960.
• "Debates over Yellow Earth." Seeds of Fire. Ed. Geremie Barme and John Minfold. Hong Kong: Far Eastern Economic Review, 1986. 251-69.
• Eagleton, Terry. "The Conditions of Postmodernism." New Literary History 28:1 (1997). 1-6.
• Ge Fei. "Green Yellow." China's Avant-Garde Fiction: An Anthology.
• Goodman, David S.G. "The Politics of Regionalism." China Deconstructs. London and New York: Routledge, 1994. 1-20.
• Peter Gries, Review of China Can Say No. The China Journal 37 (Jan. 1997). 180-185.
• Han Shaogong. "After the Literature of the Wounded." Modern Chinese Writers: Portrayals. Ed. Helmut Martin and Jeffrey Kinkley. M. E. Sharpe, 1992. 147-55.
• Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity. Blackwell, 1990. 100-112. 125-172.
• -----. "Flexible Accumulation through Urbanization: Reflections on `Post-modernism' in the American City." Post-Fordism: A Reader. Ed. Ash Amin. Blackwell, 1994.
• Hassen, Ihab. The Postmodern Turn: Essays in Postmodern Theory and Culture. Columbus: The Ohio State University Presss, 1987.
• Jameson, Fredric. "Postmodernism and Consumer Society." Postmodernism and Its Discontents. Ed. Ann Kaplan. London and New York: Verso, 1988. 13-29.
• Kim, Samuel S., Dittmer, Lowell. "Whither China's Quest for National Identity?" China's Quest for National Identity. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993.
• Li Hangyu. "The Last Angler." Best Chinese Stories (1949-1989). Beijing: Panda Books, 1989.
• _____. "Seeking Roots Among the Gechuan River." Morning Sun: Interviews with Chinese Writers of the Lost Generation. Ed. Laifong Leung. M. E. Sharpe, 1994. 88-96.
• Li, Youzhuo. "Will Neo-Conservatism Dominate Post-Deng China?" China Strategic Review. Vol.2, No. 2 (1997). 31-40.
• Meisner, Maurice. "The Maoist Phase of the Revolution and the Yanan Legacy." Mao's China and After. New York, The Free Press, 1986. 31-54.
• Mo Yan. "Creator of the Red Sorghum Series." Morning Sun. 144-52.
• "The Preface and Epilogue of China Can Say No. China Strategic Review. Vol. 1, No. 8. 11-16.
• Peck, Jamie and Tickell, Adam. "Searching for a New Institutional Fix: the After-Fordist Crisis and the Global-Local Disorder." Post-Fordism: A Reader. 280-315.
• Pound, Ezra et al. Readings for Western Modernism. Excerpts.
• Smith, Paul. "Note on Terminology." Discerning the Subject (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 1988). xxxiii-xxxv.
• Su Tong. "The Brothers Su." Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused. 25-68.
• Su Xiaokang and Wang Luxiang. Deathsong of the River: A Reader's Guide to the Chinese TV Series `He Shang'. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.
• Wang Zengqi. "Buddhist Initiation." Chinese Short Stories of the Twienth Century. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1995. 173-201.
• _____. "We Must Not Forget Our Historical Roots." Modern Chinese Writers: Self-Portrayals. 156-63.
• Yan Jiaqi. "From Communism to Democracy: Democratic Trangsofrmation in the Post-Deng Era." The China Strategic Review, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1997). 19-29.
• Yu Hua, "One Kind of Reality." Running Wild: New Chinese Writers. Ed. David Wang and Jeanne Tai. New York: Columbia University Presss, 1994. 21-68.
• _____. "Noon of Howling Wind." Anthology of the Chinese Avant-Garde.
• Zha Jianying. "China's Popular Culture in the 1990s." China Briefing: The Contradictions of Change. Ed. William A. Joseph. Armonk: M.E.Sharpe, 1997. 109-50.
• Zhao, Y. H. Henry. "Post-isms and Chinese New Conservatism." New Literary History 28: 1 (1997). 31-44.
• Zhong Acheng. "The First Half of My Life." Modern Chinese Writers: Self-Portrayals. 106-17.
• _____. "The Tree Stump." Spring Bamboo: A Collection of Contemporary Chinese Short Stories. Ed. Jeanne Tai. New York: Random House, 1989. 229-43.
• Zhou Yi. "Before and After the Publication of China Can Say No." China Strategic Review. Vol. 1, No. 7. 19-21.

Readings:

9/2* T Introduction

• Chronology of Important Events Since 1949
• Clippings from The Shock of the New, part 1 (in class)

9/4 Th TOPIC: Modernity as a Cultural-Philosophical Discourse

• Matei Calinescu, "The Idea of Modernity," 13-26, 41-46, 58-68
• David Harvey, "Modernization," 99-112
• Lawrence Cahoone, "The Modernity Debate," 2-7

Assignments: First Class Lecture

We will start the class by talking about China's Mao Zedong fever. Politics and aesthetics are closely intertwined. Contrary to our common understanding of aesthetics, the category of the "beautiful" is not universal. It is culturally and historically specific. The construction of the aesthetic artifact is also inseparable from the construction of the dominant ideological forms of modern society. This was especially true in Mao's China where for decades, art and literature was subjugated to the needs of political ideology. And even after his death, artists and writers continued to be engaged in ideological battles with questions about Mao and his legacy, Marxism, socialism, now, about global capitalism. For instance, modernism and the avant-garde, which this course will cover, should be understood first and foremost as literary movements that had deep ideological roots in the Chinese people's collective memory of the Cultural Revolution. So without knowing that past of China's modern history--which was glorified and condemned at the same time--we wont be able to talk about contemporary Chinese literature meaningfully.

period: The post-Mao era--after 1976 after the fall of "the Gang of Four."

--1978 Democracy Wall Movement: young activists called for democracy as the "Fifth modernization," demanding the ouster of "Maoists," Deng Xiaoping came back to power

The Question of Mao

**the political necessity of preserving Mao as a symbol of revolutionary legitimacy.--to recapture the uncorrupted Maoism of the years prior to 1957, before Mao had succumbed to pernicious radical and utopian ideas

Assessment of China's Future

**Deng and reformers advocated the decentralization of economic power and decision-making to individual enterprises operating on a profit-making basis.

**The most striking departure from Maoist practices has been the establishment of several "special economic zones" designed to attract foreign capital by permitting the exploitation of Chinese labor and natural resources on terms more profitable than can be obtained in HK or Taiwan.

**in the countryside, the market-type reforms have had the greatest social/economic impacct. By the early 1980s, the communes had been all but dismantled, and collective agricultural production had been largely replaced by individual family farming.

The Question of Socialism/Capitalism

Deng, like Mao before him, is committed to making China both modern and socialist. But while Mao believed the crucial elements in the construction of socialism to be the values, consciousness, and will of the people involved in the process regardles of the economic conditions in which they found themselves, Deng has returned to more orthodox Marxist views on the relationship bet economic and social development.

If there is little socialist about Chinese society in the post-Maoist period, does it mean that it is capitalist?

(1) To ideologically sanction capitalist practices within what is said to be a basically socialist system, post-Maoist theoreticians have revived the orthodox Marxist view on the historically progressive nature of capitalism. While Mao believed that China had been fortunate to suffer under only a relatively brief and underdeveloped capitalist regime, thus making the prospects for socialism all the more promising, his successors view the absence of a full and genuine capitalist phase as one of the great tragedies of modern Chinese history.

(2) The promotion of market forces is but an expedient means to serve the nationalist and modernizing ends of the Chinese state. So what all too easily is labeled "capitalism" in post-Mao China is not rooted in private property, but rather is almost entirely dependent on the sanction and patronage of the state. The Chinese state is still the master of the Chinese economy.

**The reappearnce of petty private enterprise in the cities has been hailed variously as "an economic reform" and, by some Western observers, as a sign of the rebirth of capitalism. ???

Readings:

9/9 T TOPIC: Modernism: A New Aesthetics

• Excerpts from Yeats, Pound, Eliot, Williams

9/11 Th

• Ihab Hassan, "Modernism," 34-37.
• Matei Calinescu, "Versions of Decadence," 151-171
• Discussion of Yeats, Pound, Eliot, Williams, continued

Readings:

9/16 T TOPIC: Chinese Modernity in the Making: Enlightenment & Revolution

• China in Revolution (documentary: Lily Library)
• Chow, The May Fourth Movement
• Maurice Meisner, "The Maoist Phase of the Revolution and the Yen'an Legacy," 31-54

9/18* Th TOPIC: Mao Zedong Fever

• Geremie R. Barme, excerpts from Shades of Mao,
• "The Mao Phenomenon," 140-146
• "From Sartre to Mao Zedong," 149-150
• "The Red Sun," 192-194
• "A Place in the Pantheon: Mao and Folk Religion,"
• "The Imprisoned Heart: Consuming Mao," 215-220
• "MaoSpeak," 224-227
• "Galluping Mao: A 1993 Opinion Poll," 261-268
• "Chairman Mao Graffiti," 269-275
• "Musical Chairman," 282-284
• Class Debate on Mao Zedong
• Political Pop on Mao

Readings:

9/23 T TOPIC: The 1980s's Debate on Modernity in China

• Yellow Earth (film)
• Debate over Yellow Earth, 251-269

9/25 Th

• Jing Wang, High Culture Fever, Chapter 2, "High Culture Fever"

Readings:

9/30* T

• Yellow River Elegy (Episode 1 shown in class)
• Jing Wang, Chapter 3, "The Paradox of The Chinese Enlightenment"

10/2 Th TOPIC: Root-Searching Literature

• Wang, High Culture Fever: Chapter 4 (138-48; 180-86)

Readings:

10/7 T

• Wang, High Culture Fever: Chapter 5 (206-224)
• Paul Smith, "Notes on Terminology"
• Li Hangyu, "Seeking Roots Along the Gechuan River"
• Zhang Chengzhi, "Not Like Other Writers"
• Wang Zengqi, "Buddhist Initiation"

10/9 Th

• Wang Zengqi, "We Must Not Forget Our Historical Roots"
• Li Hangyu, "The Last Angler"
• Zhong Acheng, "The Tree Stump", "The First Half of My life"
• Han Shaogong, "Homecoming", "After the Literature of the Wounded"

10/10-10/14 Fall semester break

Readings:

10/16 Th

• Mo Yan, Red Sorghum
• Mo Yan, "Creator of the Red Sorghum Series"

Readings:

10/21 T TOPIC: Postmodernity

• David Harvey, "Fordism," "From Fordism to Flexible Accumulation," 125-172.
• Matei Calinescu, "A New Face of Modernity," "Epistemology and Hermeneutics: From Modernity to Postmodernity," 265-75.

10/23 Th TOPIC: Postmodernism

• Ihab Hassan, "Toward a Concept of Postmodernism", 84-96.
• David Harvey, "Postmodernism," 39-65.
• Fredric Jameson, "Postmodernism and Consumer Society"

Readings:

10/28 T Topic: The Debate over Chinese Postmodernism

• Yu Hua, "One Kind of Reality", "Noon of Howling Wind"
• Can Xue, "The Hut on the Mountain"
• J. Wang, Introduction to China's Avant-Garde Fiction: An Anthology

10/30 Th

• Su Tong "The Shu Brothers"
• Ge Fei "Green Yellow"

Readings:

11/4 T TOPIC: China after 1989: Nationalism

11/6 Th

• Gries, Review on China Can Say No.
• Excerpts from China Can Say No
• Barme, "To Screw Foreigners Is Patriotic: China's Avant-Garde Nationaists" in Barme, Chinese Nationalism

Readings:

11/11 T

• Pye, "How China's Nationalism Was Shanghaied" in Chinese Nationalism
• Crane, "Special Things in Special Ways: National Economic Identity and China's Special Economic Zones" in Chinese Nationalism
• A Beijinger in New York (episode one)

11/13 Th

• David Goodman, "The Politics of Regionalism: Economic Development, Conflict, and Negotiation," China Deconstructs, 1-20.
• Samuel Kim and Lowell Dittmer, "Whither China's Quest for National Identity?" 237-90.

Readings:

11/18 T TOPIC: New Conservatism

• Henry Zhao, "Post-Isms and Chinese New Conservatism," 31-44.
• Li Youzhuo, "Will Neo-Conservatism Dominate Post-Deng China?" 31-40.

11/20 Th Finding Fun (film)

• Terry Eagleton, "The Contradictions of Postmodernism," 1-6.

Readings:

11/25 T TOPIC: Mass Consumption and Popular Culture

• Zha Jianying, "China's Popular Culture in the 1990s," 109-50.
• Jing Wang, a paper on Leisure Culture of the 1990s's China

11/26-12/1 Thanksgiving recess

Readings:

12/2 T

• Wang Shuo, Playing for Thrills
• Jing Wang, High Culture Fever, chapter 7

12/4 Th Term projects presentation (5)

Readings:

12/9 T Term projects presentation (5)

12/11 Th Term projects presentation (6)

Final paper due

• Transnational China Project Home Page