Undergraduate

Building up on fascinating recent research on thought reform, social control, reeducation, spycraft, and police work in the early PRC, we will examine how the new state sought to mold and reeducate its people. We will begin by reading some of the recent English language literature and then move on to read self-criticisms, confessions, petitions, denunciation letters, and police reports in Chinese. Third year Chinese or equivalent is required.

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.

How can we reconstruct the life experience of "ordinary" people at a time of revolutionary change? What are the sources for a history of the Chinese revolution? What can we learn from newspaper articles and official publication? What kind of information can we expect to find in unpublished sources, such as letters and diaries? How useful is oral history, and what are its limitations? We will look at internal and "open" publications and at the production of media reports to understand how the official record was created and how information was channeled, at official compilations such as the Selections of Historical Materials (wenshi ziliao), at "raw" reports from provincial archives, and finally at so-called "garbage materials" (laji cailiao), i.e. archival files collect from flea markets and waste paper traders.

This course examines the political, economic, social, cultural, racial, and military aspects of the major Asian wars of the twentieth century (e.g., Pacific, Korean, Vietnam). The first part of the course, pays particular attention to just war doctrines. We then use two to three books for each war (along with several films) to examine alternative approaches to understanding the origins of these wars, their conduct, and their consequences.

This course examines conceptions of desire in ancient China and ancient Greece through an array of early philosophical, literary, historical, legal, and medical texts. We will explore the broader cultural background of the two ancient periods, and engage with theoretical debates on the history of sexuality, feminist and queer studies, and East/West studies.