Contemporary Pop Culture in China: Emergence and Trends

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Spring 2015

Instructor:  Yong Jiang

Office: 1403 West Guanghua Tower

Phone:  18217414163

Email:  jiangyong@fudan.edu.cn


Office Hours: Thursday 2:00 – 4:00 p.m., and by appointment

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Course Description

This research course is designed to allow students the opportunity to understand the important cultural aspects associated with contemporary China. Chinese popular culture cannot be properly grasped without the immersion study of what ordinary Chinese people thought, felt, believed, and acted. We will take a generic approach, asking the basic question of what the Chinese people do with their typical forms of popular culture, such as lifestyles, popular literature, film, television, music, opera, food, religion, internet life, etc. We will exam these forms of popular culture primarily from the perspective of their political, ideological, sociological, cultural, and psychological functions. The seminar will focus on 1990s and 2000s PRC popular culture. These subjects will be approached through both written and visual documentation. Students will be expected to do field trips and perform local investigations on the Chinese environment in addition to the weekly readings and discussions.

Course Requirements

Research Paper: fifty (50) percent of your final grade will be determined by the quality of your final research paper.

Research Presentation: twenty (20) percent of your final grade will be determined by your overall commitment to the research project and the end-of-the-semester in-class presentation. Students will develop one of their weekly assignments into a scholarly project that should be both descriptive and analytical. They may choose one of the following topics: talks on the Chinese dinner tables and parties, internet, residence registration, community schools set up by immigrants from countryside, sex culture, karaoke bars, gambling, sports participation and spectatorship, qigong, fengshui, taiji, aspects of material culture, alternative culture, blog sites, cyberliterature, etc.

Response to Weekly Readings: thirty (30) percent of your final grade will be based on your responses to the weekly reading assignments.  Each week students will do investigative work finding examples of the form of popular culture dealt with that week and present them briefly to the class. They should consider these possible sources: internet (for TV and radio channels, popular music, fashion, advertising), Chinese grocery stories for DVDs of TV and films, and Fudan and Shanghai library loan for journals and books. To focus your thoughts and prepare for class discussion, bring to class either a one-page write-up or a list of ten questions as points for discussion.  Try to identify, in your view, what constitutes the most important issues concerning the week’s readings.  Your contributions will be graded in terms of their level of engagement with the assigned texts.

Instructor-Student/Group Conference:

In the fifth week of the semester I will begin scheduling conferences with each student/group to access your progress on a research topic and offer assistance.  It is likely I will meet with each student/group more than once during the semester.

My Class Attendance Policy:

Each student is granted two (2) absences during the semester.  If you miss three (3) or more classes, I reserve the right to assign you a failing grade (“F”) for the course.  In case of emergency, contact me as soon as possible so we can discuss your situation.

Possible Research Topics:

1. Anti-Corruption Campaign

2. China’s Rise in Economy

3. The Emerging Middle Class

4. The Concepts of Qi (breath), Fengshui (wind and water), Eight Diagrams, Yin-yang (femality and masculinity), etc.

5. China’s Education

6. The Chinese Food

7. The Chinese Martial Arts

8. The Contemporary Chinese Artists

9. The Chinese Minorities

10. The Gender and Marriage Issues

11. The Commercial Culture

12. The Important Holidays and Their Cultural Connotations

13. The Chinese Medicine, Massage, and Acupuncture

14. The Chinese Music

Course Materials

Required Text: All required readings are in electronic format.

Web Resources:

http://chineseculture.about.com http://old.cnta.gov.cn/ http://www.gov.cn http://www.chinadetail.com http://www.answers.com http://www.chinesefolkculture.com http://confucianism.com.cn/jiaoyu/

Class Schedule and Assignments

Week 1: Introduction.

--Have students share some important experiences in China and ask what types of things they are interested in learning about this semester. Plan a group trip.

--Next week’s homework: collect advertisements using women and answer questions about them.

--Going out for lunch together in order to get to know the names of the Chinese. 

Week 2: Chinese commercial culture

Part 1: Lecture on the Chinese commercial culture...shopping experience...online shopping...commercial media...large corporations and businesses...the rising importance of luxury status in China and the reasons for it. Tell stories of my friends and family.

Part 2: Students present the things that they found about the homework advertisements.

Next week’s homework: Write and present about an aspect of your own countries customs.

Week 3: Customs of China

Part 1: My lecture about the cultural customs of China. Etiquette. Teach them how to be polite, modest and respectful. Gift giving. Dining etiquette. Public etiquette...etc. Tell stories of my own experiences and friends and family that help them to understand people’s feelings. Have each student briefly tell a story about a time where they made an etiquette mistake in China (e.g. They gave someone a green hat as a gift, brought apple to the hospitalized person in Shanghai, or bought a clock for an older person...etc.).

Part 2: Student home-country culture/etiquette presentations. Homework: Watch a Chinese movie this week.

Week 4: Movie (The Empire of Silver)

Watch a Chinese movie in class.

Homework: Do some research about the topic of the movie during the week.

Week 5: Finish Empire of Silver and the end of “Old China”

Part 1: Finish the movie.

Part 2: Tell them about some popular directors and famous movies. Give them a “Professor Jiang’s Top 10 Chinese Movies” List.


Homework: Find a popular TV show in China and watch a couple episodes.

Week 6: Television Part 1 of 2

Part 1 Lecture: Give an overview of popular TV shows from after the Cultural Revolution until now. What were popular shows that the Chinese children watched growing up? What shows did the Chinese kids love to watch when they grew up? What are really popular shows now?

Part 2: Watch some parts of different popular TV shows. (They can watch these shows on their own; explain why Chinese people like these shows.

Homework: Find some popular Chinese music to listen to and try to learn how to sing one song.

Week 7: Chinese Popular Music

Part 1: Tell them about the last 20-30 years of pop music in China. The different “genres” of music that people listen to: country, rap, pop, rock, jazz, classical...etc. Who would be the Chinese Michael Jackson...etc. Tell the big names and major musicians of this time and today.

Part 2: Continue my lecture but also ask some students about what music they listened to this week.

Week 8: TaiJi Part 1 of 2

TaiJi Lesson 1 with guest teacher. A serious introduction to the practice and philosophies in TaiJi. Of course, two lessons is not enough, but we would like to go as deep into this subject as we can, preparing them to explore this topic on their own outside of class. We will bring in an expert in this field. We can meet for these classes at one of the many nice outdoor places in Fudan’s campus.

Homework: we will have a more serious paper/presentation about contemporary Chinese artists. Tell students in advance (this week) to begin preparing for that, going to museums and researching. Also, practice what we learned in TaiJi lesson 1.

Week 9: TaiJi Part 2 of 2

TaiJi Lesson 2

Homework: Go to a museum or otherwise research a living Chinese artist and their work, write a paper on it and present in class. Try to focus on a particular aspect/piece of their work, not try to give an overview of all their work as an artist.

Week 10: Contemporary Chinese Artists

Part 1: Tell them about some contemporary (still living) Chinese artists. The student presentations will probably be longer so.

Part 2: Everyone gives a 10 minutes presentation on their artist and the research that they did about them. Try to focus on a particular aspect/piece of their work, not try to give an overview of all their work as an artist.

Week 11: Introduction to Majiang & checkers game

- Do a whole class teaching them the rules and some strategies of playing Majiang. Providing a handout/document that helps to explain the game.

- Homework: Interview some Chinese friends and ask them about their “folk philosophies.” What do they believe about eating, food, health, medicine, sex, exercise, spirits...etc. (Chinese Medicine, health massage...etc.)

- Homework: talk to your Chinese friends and make a list of their “folk beliefs” about eating, food, health, medicine, sex, exercise, spirits...etc. Write a short paper/explanation about these.

Week 12: Folk Philosophies

- Part 1 and 2: Professor Jiang lectures on Folk Philosophies. He offers his personal experience about the commonly held philosophies that people believe in China. Eating, food, health, medicine, sex, exercise, spirits...etc. The stories from my past, friends and family to illustrate these examples.

Homework: Look into some common Chinese sayings, popular phrases and short poems that most people would be familiar with...ask some of your Chinese friends.

Week 13: Chinese idioms, popular wise sayings, common phrases, and short poems

Part 1: In this lecture, teach Chinese idioms, sayings, phrases and very short passages of poetry that most Chinese people are familiar with. Tell them about things that my family told me, tell them my favorite sayings. What short pieces of ancient poetry can most Chinese people recite? Let them know the things that are present in most people’s minds...popular culture. Give them a handout with a collection of these sayings (pinyin and English).

Homework: learn a couple of these phrases in Chinese and be able to recite them.

Week 14: Chinese Literature and Poetry 1 of 3:

Three classes is not enough time to do hardly anything, but perhaps I can show them some of the more popular poetry and literature.

Homework: read some Chinese poems.

Week 15: Chinese Literature and Poetry 2 of 3

Discuss some of the contemporary novels.

Homework: read some Chinese novels.

Week 16: Chinese Literature and Poetry 3 of 3 (Last Class)

Discuss some of the contemporary novels.

Homework: read some Chinese novels.

Final Exam: Write a paper about modern Chinese culture. 

Required Reading

Louie, Kam. 2008. The Cambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture. Cambridge University Press. 

References

Kuiper, Kathleen. 2011. Understanding China: The Culture of China. Britannica Educational Publishing. (Priority)

Dingbo, Wu & Patrick D. Murphy. 1994. Handbook of Chinese Popular Culture. Westport, Connecticut, London: Greenwood Press.

Du, Feibao and Du Bai. 2002. Things Chinese. China Travel and Tourism Press.
Chinese Civilization Center. 2007. China: Five Thousand Years of History and Civilization. City University of Hong Kong Press.