1 ANTH/GWSS/JSISA 328 GENDER & SEXUALITY in CHINA Course

ANTH/GWSS/JSISA 328 GENDER & SEXUALITY IN CHINA Course URL: https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/961186

Professor Sasha Welland

Office: Padelford B-110P Winter 2014 Office Hours: M 3:30-5:00 Time: TTh 11:30-1:20 Email: [email protected]* Classroom: MEB 246

*Please note: Every effort will be made to respond to email within 72 hours.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course provides a comprehensive survey of gender and sexuality as key aspects of China’s process of modernization, from the late Qing dynasty through the building of the Republic, Communist revolution, and post-Mao economic reform. It examines, through historical, anthropological, and cultural studies scholarship, the centrality of these social constructs in terms of family, state, labor, body, and ethnicity. The course focuses on Mainland China, but there are opportunities for students through course assignments to broaden this field of inquiry to Greater China, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other diasporic areas of Sinophone cultural formation. For students of Chinese history and culture, the course introduces important scholarship that has transformed the field. While gender and sexuality were once considered marginal pursuits in the study of China, they are now seen as central to the development of the modern Chinese nation- state, revolutionary politics, and post-socialist opening to transnational capitalism, as well as everyday experiences of family, work, and politics. For students of anthropology, the course offers an exploration of gender and sexuality as significant dimensions in understanding culture and power and argues for the importance of historical change and transnational encounter in what might seem like culturally specific, stable categories of social life. For students of gender and sexuality, the course provides an extensive non-Western case study of the social construction of these categories; feminist thought and movements; and the articulations and tensions between local and transnational influences in shaping normativizing ideologies, resistances, and struggles for social justice.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• To understand the centrality of gender and sexuality in modern Chinese history, sociocultural formation, and processes of change. (close reading, listening, and comprehension) • To examine, in a non-Western context, the cultural specificity of gender and sexuality as social constructs that shape ideologies and experiences of family, state, labor, body, and ethnicity. (close reading, listening, and comprehension) • To examine how transnational encounters shape these social constructs; and how the “local” and “global” interact and influence each other in producing and challenging powerful norms. (close reading, listening, and comprehension) • To explore how these constructs are made, maintained, and modified at the macro and micro level, and their implications in power relations and struggles for social justice. (analytic and writing skills)

1 • To gain in-depth knowledge about a specific area of interest through giving a classroom presentation and leading a discussion. (research and oral presentation skills) • To engage in a deep and sustained interdisciplinary conversation about gender, sexuality, culture, power, history, and change. To learn from each other’s expertise in cultural critique, gender analysis, and Chinese history and culture. (collaboration skills)

COURSE TEXTS

EReserves: Book chapters and articles marked with R in the syllabus are available through the UW Libraries Electronic Reserves: http://eres.lib.washington.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=10288. Books listed with the annotation (eBook) are available as electronic books through the University of Washington Libraries (UW NetID required).

Books: Available at The University Bookstore and on 4-hour reserve at Odegaard Library. • Susan L. Mann, Gender & Sexuality in Modern Chinese History (eBook) • Lydia H. Liu, Rebecca E. Karl, Dorothy Ko, The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory • Christina Kelly Gilmartin, Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, Communist Politics, and Mass Movements in the 1920s (eBook) • Lisa Rofel, Other Modernities: Gendered Yearnings in China (eBook)

The following reference books may be helpful for your class presentation or research projects. All of them, except the titles available as eBooks, are on reserve at Odegaard, with a 4-hour loan period. • Bryna Goodman and Wendy Larson, eds., Gender in Motion: Divisions of Labor and Cultural Change in Late Imperial and Modern China • Susan Brownell and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities (eBook) • Christina K. Gilmartin, Gail Hershatter, Lisa Rofel, and Tyrene White, eds., Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State • Gail Hershatter, Emily Honig, Susan Mann, and Lisa Rofel, eds., Guide to Women’s Studies in China • Gail Hershatter, Women in China’s Long Twentieth Century (eBook) • Mayfair Mei-Hui Yang, ed., Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China

ASSIGNMENTS & EVALUATION

Each student’s performance will be evaluated as follows:

Class Participation 10% Short Essays (3 total, 20% each) 60% Discussion Board Post for Class Presentation (Solo work) 5% Class Presentation (Group work) 5% Final Reflection Paper 20%

Grading Criteria: 4.0 – achievement outstanding relative to the level necessary to meet course requirements 3.0 – achievement significantly above the level necessary to meet course requirements

2 2.0 – achievement meeting the basic course requirements in every respect 1.0 – achievement worthy of credit that does not meet basic course requirements

Class Participation: Active, prepared participation in each class session is a requirement of this course. Attendance, a pre-requisite of participation, is therefore critical. Students are expected to complete the readings by the day they are listed in the syllabus and to discuss them in an exchange of questions, explanations, and viewpoints about readings and key ideas. For each class meeting, please have notes written and ready to draw from for the basis of discussion. Please bring the assigned texts to class each day so that you can refer to them. If you are using electronic versions of the texts, you still need to develop a note-taking method and make sure you have easy access to them in class. Reading and contributing to the class discussion board constitute part of your class participation, and you should post at least one comment or question per week.

Short Essays: You will write three (3-page/750 words) responses. Prompts will be given one week in advance and will ask you to reflect critically on lectures and assigned readings in relation to the wider themes of the course as stated in the objectives section above. Good essays will demonstrate close and careful reading of the assigned materials, an ability to integrate readings with lectures and issues raised in class discussion, and an analysis of how these materials matter in how we understand gender, sexuality, culture, power, history, and change. A grading rubric will be provided, and only whole number grades (1-4) will be given.

Class Presentation: This assignment has two parts, one component to complete on your own in preparation for the second part, a group presentation in class. You will sign up in advance for a specific class period focused on a topic you would like to explore in greater depth. You will do research that involves finding at least one additional reading relevant to the topic (a few weeks already have suggested readings). It is fine if everyone in your group does the same additional reading or if members focus on different readings, but it’s probably best to limit the total number addressed by the group to two. On your own, post on the course discussion board a summary (2- pages/500 words) that does the following: 1) summarizes the main argument of the reading you selected; 2) identifies the evidence and support the author used to make that argument; 3) analyzes how your reading relates to the assigned readings for that day; 4) explains how what you learned extends or challenges your thinking in terms of other ANTH, GWSS, or JSISA courses you’ve taken as part of your course of study; and 5) sparks discussion among your peers by raising questions. It will help your group organization if you can do this at least one class meeting before your presentation day. As a group you will then prepare a 20-minute class presentation, with each member participating equally. Please use the first 10 minutes to introduce and reflect upon your reading(s); and the second 10 minutes to generate class discussion of questions you would like to explore further. You can peruse the reference books on reserve for the class for ideas and/or come talk to me in advance during office hours if you would like advice on selecting an appropriate reading.

Final Reflection Paper: You will write a final paper (6-8 page/1,500-2,000 word) reflecting upon what your learned over the course of the quarter. A handout with prompts to choose from will be distributed on the last day of class.

Class Policies: Extensions are granted only in cases of emergency with prior permission from the instructor. Assignments submitted late will be marked down one whole grade for every day they are late unless prior arrangements have been made. Please feel free to speak with me for further clarification of assignments or if you have questions about the materials. I make every effort to respond to email within 72 hours. Students who have lengthy or complex questions should meet with me during office hours.

3 GRADING AND ACADEMIC CONDUCT

Student Conduct

Admission to the university carries with it the presumption that students will conduct themselves as responsible members of the academic community. As a condition of enrollment, all students assume responsibility to observe standards of conduct that will contribute to the pursuit of academic goals and to the welfare of the academic community. That responsibility includes, but is not limited to: Respecting the rights, privileges, and property of other members of the academic community and visitors to the campus, and refraining from any conduct that would interfere with university functions or endanger the health, welfare, or safety of other persons; complying with the rules, regulations, procedures, policies, standards of conduct, and orders of the university and its schools, colleges, and departments. Misconduct includes student conduct that intentionally and substantially obstructs or disrupts teaching.

Plagiarism

Students at the University of Washington are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic conduct. Most UW students conduct themselves with integrity and are disturbed when they observe others cheating. The most common form of cheating is plagiarism, presenting someone else’s work as your own. The University of Washington takes plagiarism very seriously. Plagiarism may lead to disciplinary action by the University against the student who submitted the work. To avoid unintentional misconduct and clarify the consequences of cheating see the Student Academic Responsibility Statement at the following link: http://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf

Grade Appeal Procedure

A student who believes that an instructor erred in the assignment of a grade, or who believes a grade recording error or omission has occurred, should first discuss the matter with the instructor, before the end of the following academic quarter. If the student is not satisfied with the instructor's explanation, the student, no later than ten days after his or her discussion with the instructor, may submit a written appeal to the chair of the department, with a copy of the appeal also sent to the instructor. Within ten calendar days, the chair consults with the instructor to ensure that the evaluation of the student's performance has not been arbitrary or capricious. Should the chair believe the instructor's conduct to be arbitrary or capricious and the instructor declines to revise the grade, the chair, with the approval of the voting members of his or her faculty, shall appoint an appropriate member, or members, of the faculty of that department to evaluate the performance of the student and assign a grade. The dean and Provost should be informed of this action. Once a student submits a written appeal, this document and all subsequent actions on this appeal are recorded in written form for deposit in a department or college file. (UW Student Guide, General Catalog, Grading)

Incompletes

An Incomplete is given only when the student has been in attendance and has done satisfactory work until within two weeks of the end of the quarter and has furnished proof satisfactory to the instructor that the work cannot be completed because of illness or other circumstances beyond the student's control. A written statement of the reason for the giving of the Incomplete, listing the work which the student will need to do to remove it, must be filed by the instructor with the head of

4 the department or the dean of the college in which the course is given. (UW Student Guide, General Catalog, Grading)

Concerns about a Course, an Instructor, or a Teaching Assistant

If you have any concerns about a GWSS course, instructor or teaching assistant, please see the instructor or teaching assistant as soon as possible. If you are not comfortable talking with the instructor or teaching assistant, or are not satisfied with the response that you receive, you may contact the chair of the department in Padelford B-110.

POLICIES, RULES, RESOURCES

Equal Opportunity

The Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) supports the University’s compliance with the law and spirit of equal opportunity and affirmative action as it relates to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, or status as a disabled veteran or Vietnam-era veteran, or other protected veterans. For more information see: https://ap.washington.edu/eoaa/

Disability Resources for Students

Embedded in the core values of the University of Washington is a commitment to ensuring access to a quality higher education experience for a diverse student population. Disability Resources for Students (DRS) recognizes disability as an aspect of diversity that is integral to society and to our campus community. DRS serves as a partner in fostering an inclusive and equitable environment for all University of Washington students. The DRS office is in 011 Mary Gates Hall. http://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/

Sexual Harassment

University policy prohibits all forms of sexual harassment. If you feel you have been a victim of sexual harassment or if you feel you have been discriminated against, you may speak with your instructor, teaching assistant, the chair of the department, or you can file a complaint with the UW Ombudsman's Office for Sexual Harassment. Their office is located at 339 HUB, (206)543-6028. There is a second office, the University Complaint Investigation and Resolution Office, who also investigate complaints. The UCIRO is located at 22 Gerberding Hall. http://www.washington.edu/about/ombudsman/role.html http://f2.washington.edu/treasury/riskmgmt/UCIRO

Other Student Resources

A list of helpful links regarding all aspects of student life can be found here: http://f2.washington.edu/treasury/riskmgmt/UCIRO/links/students

5 SCHEDULE & READINGS

Week 1 T 01/06 Introductions

• Gail Hershatter, “Disquiet in the House of Gender,” The Journal of Asian Studies 71(4): 873-894. R (Please read for the first day of class.) • Introduction to course • Student introductions

Th 01/08 Gender, Sexuality, and the State

• Susan Mann, Gender and Sexuality in Modern Chinese History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), Introduction and Part I: Gender, Sexuality, and the State, pp. 1-79.

Week 2 T 01/13 Gender, Sexuality, and the Body

• Susan Mann, Gender and Sexuality in Modern Chinese History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), Part II: Gender, Sexuality, and the Body, pp. 83-134. • SUGGESTED: Charlie Zhang, “Deconstructing National and Transnational Hypermasculine Hegemony in Neoliberal China” R

Th 01/15 Body Politics

• Dorothy Ko, “The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeenth-Century China,” Journal of Women’s History 8(4): 8-27. R • Dorothy Ko, “Cinderella’s Dreams: The Burdens and Uses of the Female Body” in Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 187-229. R • PAPER PROMPT #1 DISTRIBUTED

Week 3 T 01/20 Feminism and the Women’s Movement

• Lydia Liu, Rebecca Karl, and Dorothy Ko, The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013). • SUGGESTED for students who read Chinese: Original Chinese texts of those that appear in translation in The Birth of Chinese Feminism R

Th 01/22 • Lydia Liu, Rebecca Karl, and Dorothy Ko, The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013). • SUGGESTED: Sasha Welland, “Into the Streets” in A Thousand Miles of Dreams: The Journeys of Two Chinese Sisters (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 117-129. R • PAPER #1 DUE

Week 4 T 01/27 Sex and Modernity

• Gail Hershatter, “Modernizing Sex, Sexing Modernity: Prostitution in Early-Twentieth-Century Shanghai” in Susan Brownell and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 199-225. R • Wenqing Kang, “Introduction” and “Sexology” in Obsession: Male Same- Sex Relations in China, 1900-1950 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009), 1-18; 41-59. R

Th 01/29 Modern Girl Around the World

• Excerpts from FILM: Goddess (Shennü 神女), Shanghai: Lianhua Film Studios, 1934. (Also on course reserve at the Library Media Center.) • Madeleine Yue Dong, “Who Is Afraid of the Chinese Modern Girl?” in The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008), 195-219. R • Xie Bingying, “War,” except from A Woman Soldier’s Own Story: The Autobiography of Xie Bingying (New York: Berkeley Books, 2001), 51-91. R

Week 5 T 02/03 Engendering the Revolution

Th 02/05 Engendering the Revolution

• Christina Gilmartin, Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, Communist Politics, and Mass Movements in the 1920s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), Part II: The Politics of Gender in the National Revolution. • Ding Ling, “Thoughts on March 8,” in Tani E. Barlow with Gary J. Bjorge, eds., I Myself Am a Woman: Selected Writings of Ding Ling (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), 316-321. R • PAPER PROMPT #2 DISTRIBUTED

Week 6 T 02/10 Cultural Revolution

• Chapters from Rae Yang, Spider Eaters: A Memoir (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), pp. 101-216. R

Th 02/12 The Gender & Sex of Rebels

• Elizabeth J. Perry and Nara Dillon, “‘Little Brothers’ in the Cultural Revolution: The Worker Rebels of Shanghai,” in Susan Brownell and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 269-286. R

7 • Emily Honig, “Maoist Mappings of Gender: Reassessing the Red Guards,” in Susan Brownell and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 255-268. R • Emily Honig, “Socialist Sex: The Cultural Revolution Revisited,” Modern China 29(2): 143-175. R • PAPER #2 DUE

Week 7 T 02/17 Gendered Yearning after Socialism

• Lisa Rofel, Other Modernities: Gendered Yearings in China after Socialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), pp. 1-95.

Th 02/19 Gendered Yearning after Socialism

• Lisa Rofel, Other Modernities: Gendered Yearings in China after Socialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), pp. 96-187. •

Week 8 T 02/24 Labor across the Socialist-Post-Socialist Divide

• Lisa Rofel, Other Modernities: Gendered Yearings in China after Socialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), pp. 188-284.

Th 02/26 Rural-Urban Politics of Gender and Labor

• Yan Hairong, “Spectralization of the Rural: Reinterpreting the Labor Mobilitiy of Rural Young Women in Post-Mao China,” American Ethnologist 30(4): 578-596. R • Discussion with guest, GWSS PhD student Shuxuan Zhou about her dissertation research, “Gendered Labor, Narrative, and Resistance: Forestry Workers in Chinese Enterprise Restructuring, 1950s-2010s” • PAPER PROMPT #3 DISTRIBUTED

Week 9 T 03/03 Gender, Sexuality, and the Other

• Susan Mann, Gender and Sexuality in Modern Chinese History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), Introduction and Part III: Gender, Sexuality, and the Other, pp. 138-200. R • Louisa Schein, “Gender and Internal Orientalism in China,” in Susan Brownell and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 385-411. R • PAPER #3 DUE

Th 03/05 The Gender of Memory / Critical Historiographical Consciousness

• Gail Hershatter, “The Gender of Memory: Rural Chinese Women and the 1950s,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28(1): 43-70. R • Sasha Welland, “Camouflaged History: Lei Yan as Chinese Guerilla Girl,”

8 in Monumental Ephemeral: Gender and Globalization in Chinese Contemporary Art (Durham: Duke University Press, forthcoming). R

Week 10 T 03/10 Queer Temporalities

• Fran Martin, “Love and Remembrance” and “Critical Presentism: New Chinese Lesbian Cinema,” Backward Glances: Contemporary Chinese Cultures and the Female Homoerotic Imaginary (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), 1-28; 147-179. R • Ling Shuhua, “Once Upon a Time,” in Amy D. Dooling and Kristina M. Torgeson, eds., in Writing Women in Modern China: An Anthology of Women’s Literature from the Early Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 185-195. R • FILM: Fish and Elephant (Jinnian xiatian 今年夏天), Director: Li Yu, 2001. In-class screening.

Th 03/12 Disquiet in the House of Gender and Sexuality

• Lisa Rofel, “Qualities of Desire: Imagining Gay Identities,” in Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), 85-110. R • Discussion of Fish and Elephant • Class wrap-up via return to “Disquiet in the House of Gender” • FINAL PAPER PROMPT DISTRIBUTED

Finals T 03/17 DUE: Final Reflection Paper Week