Graduate

Like all New Waves, Chinese New Waves are first and foremost an international event. From the late 1970s on and throughout the 1980s, three “New Wave” cinemas from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China appeared on the international stage, representing the historical debut of Chinese-language cinema to the world cinephiles. This course will investigate how the “universal” New Wave issues, such as their stylistic treatment of youth, city and violence, engage with historical local experiences. Films include major works by important New Wave directors, such as Tsui Hark, Wong Kar-wai, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Chen Kaige, and Zhang Yimou. 

This course takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of craft production in Early China, adopting perspectives developed in anthropological archaeology, history, and art history. The course will be divided into two parts, with the first devoted to reading anthropological literature and case studies of craft production in other ancient civilizations. The second half of the course is devoted to the analysis of Chinese data, which range from pottery making, bronze casting, to the making of Qin terra cotta soldiers. Students are expected to become familiar with prevalent theoretical discussions in anthropology and are encouraged to apply, adopt, or revise them in order to analyze examples of craft production of their own choice. Students not specializing in China are required to consult the instructor before taking the course.

Anyang, or Yinxu, the ruins of Yin, is one of the most important archaeological sites in China. The discoveries of inscribed oracle bones, the royal cemetery, clusters of palatial structures, and industrial-scale craft production precincts have all established that the site was indeed the last capital of the Shang dynasty recorded in traditional historiography. With almost continuous excavations since the late 1920s, work at Anyang has in many ways shaped and defined Chinese archaeology and the study of Early Bronze Age China.

This course intends to examine the history of research, important archaeological finds, and the role of Anyang studies in the field of Chinese archaeology. While the emphasis is on archaeological finds and the related research, this course will also attempt to define Anyang in the modern social and cultural contexts in terms of world heritage, national and local identity, and the looting and illegal trade of antiquities.

What is philosophy and why does looking at Japanese philosophy make a difference? By examining  Buddhist, Confucian, Shinto and modern academic philosophical traditions this course will provide a history of ideas found in Japan and central to thinking about being/non-being, government, ethics aesthetics, economics, faith and practice.

This seminar explores the diverse range of human rights crises confronting China and Chinese people today. Co-taught by Teng Biao, an internationally recognized lawyer and advocate for human rights, and University of Chicago China historian Johanna Ransmeier, this course focuses upon demands for civil and political rights within China. Discussions will cover the Chinese Communist Party's monopoly on power, the mechanisms of the Chinese criminal justice system, and the exertion of state power and influence in places like Tibet, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Taiwan, as well as the impact of the People's Republic of China on international frameworks. We will discuss the changing role of activism and the expansion of state surveillance capacity. Students are encouraged to bring their own areas of interest to our conversations. Throughout the quarter we will periodically be joined by practitioners from across the broader human rights community.

Open to undergraduates and gradute students who do not read Chinese, although those who can do so will be expected to read the text in its original form. Paper will be required end of second course. A careful reading and discussion of this major work of traditional Chinese fiction in both the original language and in English translation, with excursions into the relevant secondary scholarship.

Thousands of Chinese manuscripts dating between the fifth century B.C. and the tenth century A.D. have been discovered since the beginning of the twentieth century, with new discoveries continuing to the present. This seminar addresses theoretical and methodological approaches to engaging in research on the manuscripts.

Are there spatial dispositions particular to China? How do historical and culturally specific projects reify or challenge spatial categories? This course is an object-orientated exploration of space as an analytical category for the interpretation of Chinese cases: we may consider burials, temples, imperial cities, landscape, etc. Readings will include seminal and recent texts on space and place, and writings in area studies which make use of these concepts. Particular attention will be paid to hierarchical arrangements that conceptualize as infrastructures of power, in particular those that are institutional and/or geopolitical in nature.

We will read and discuss important English-language works on modern Chinese history that have appeared in the past five years or so. The emphasis is on social and cultural history, with some flexibility to accommodate interests of participating students. The aim of the course is to introduce graduate students in EALC, history, and related disciplines to current debates in the field. Expect to read two books per week.

The early Chinese book attributed to Master Zhuang seems to be a patchwork of fables, polemical discussions, arguments, examples, riddles, and lyrical utterances. Although it has been central to the development of both religious Daoism and Buddhism, the book is alien to both traditions. This course offers a careful reading of the work with some of its early commentaries.