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.