“China and the Scientific Imagination”

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“China and the Scientific Imagination” Course Syllabus CHIN 428 Fall 2012 - Emily Wilcox, College of William and Mary Chinese 428: Advanced Seminar in Chinese Studies “China and the Scientific Imagination” Instructor: Professor Emily Wilcox Fall 2012, T Th 11:00 am -12:20 pm Instructor Office Hours: T Th 5:00-6:00 pm and by appointment Email: [email protected], Office: 316 Washington Hall Course Description and Objectives As the required capstone course for the Chinese major, the advanced seminar prepares students to use their Chinese language skills and critical cultural knowledge of China in professional and independent research settings. The course has the following objectives: • Master important methodological, topical, and theoretical issues in modern Chinese studies, through close reading of foundational texts in the course theme and independent research that builds on existing scholarly research; • Recognize and use advanced Chinese vocabulary related to the course theme, and develop a critical understanding of the cultural significance of specific words and ideas in the history of Chinese thought; • Complete an independent research project using Chinese and English-language scholarly sources, exercising and strengthening skills in research, analysis, critical thinking, and academic writing in Chinese studies; • Gain experience presenting independent ideas and China-related independent research in a formal setting. Class readings and discussions are held in Chinese and English. Therefore, students should have completed the third-year course in Chinese language or its equivalent before taking this course. This year’s seminar explores scientific thought in Chinese culture. Required readings introduce students to major debates in the history and cultural studies of Chinese science, including comparative perspectives. Students spend the latter half of the semester preparing individual research papers of 15-20 pages each, with a focus on critical reflection on the relationship between ideas and culture. Students will have an opportunity to present their research at the China Majors Forum in the spring semester. Grade Breakdown Attendance and Participation 15% English 7.5% Chinese 7.5% Reading Responses and Quizzes 35% Reading Responses (7) 20% Vocab Quizzes (6) 15% Research Paper Preparation 25% Book Presentation and Review 5% Research Responses (6) 10% Final Paper Presentation 5% Final Paper 25% 1 Course Syllabus CHIN 428 Fall 2012 - Emily Wilcox, College of William and Mary READINGS All required articles and primary source texts will be available online or on Blackboard. The following four books are required reading for this course, available for purchase at the William and Mary bookstore. All books are on reserve in Swem, available for 2-hour periods. • Shapin, Steven. 1996. The Scientific Revolution. The University of Chicago Press. • Lloyd, Geoffrey and Nathan Sivin. 2002. The Way and the Word: Science and Medicine in Early China and Greece. Yale University Press. • Kaptchuk, Ted. 2000. The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine, 2nd Edition. McGraw-Hill. • Greenhalgh, Susan. 2008. Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng’s China. University of California Press. In addition to the four required books, each student will choose ONE additional book from the following list to read as preparation for the final research paper. Only one student is allowed per book. All books are either on reserve for 7-day periods in Swem or are available as e-books. • Andreas, Joel. 2009. Rise of the Red Engineers: The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China's New Class. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. • Bivins, Roberta. 2001. Acupuncture, Expertise, and Cross-Cultural Medicine. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. (on order) • Farquhar, Judith and Qicheng Zhang. 2012. Ten Thousand Things: Nurturing Life in Contemporary Beijing. New York: Zone Books. • Flad, Rowan. 2011. Salt Production and Social Hierarchy in Ancient China: An Archaeological Investigation of Specialization in China’s Three Gorges. Cambridge University Press. • Hart, Roger. 2011. The Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra. Johns Hopkins University Press. (on order) • Hostetler, Laura. 2001. Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. • Jones, Andrew F. 2011. Developmental Fairy Tales: Evolutionary Thinking and Modern Chinese Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. • Liu, Xin. 2009. The Mirage of China: Anti-humanism, Narcissism, and Corporeality of the Contemporary World. Berghahn Books. • Nappi, Carla. 2009. The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China. Harvard University Press. • Rogaski, Ruth. 2004. Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty- port China. Berkeley: University of California Press. • Schäfer, Dagmar. 2011. The Crafting of the 10,000 Things: Knowledge and Technology in Seventeenth-Century China. University of Chicago Press. • Schmalzer, Sigrid. 2008. The People's Peking Man: Popular Science and Human Identity in Twentieth-Century China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. • Wu, Yi-Li Wu. 2010. Reproducing Women: Medicine, Metaphor, and Childbirth in Late Imperial China. University of California Press. 2 Course Syllabus CHIN 428 Fall 2012 - Emily Wilcox, College of William and Mary The following books are recommended reference readings for use in your research papers. Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. 1993. Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. 2nd ed., rev. and expanded. New York: Free Press. ______. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. New York: Cambridge University Press. Elman, Benjamin A. 2000. A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press. ______. 2005. On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550-1900. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ______. 2006. A Cultural History of Modern Science in China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Furth, Charlotte. 1999. A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China's Medical History, 960-1665. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hsu, Elisabeth. 1999. The Transmission of Chinese Medicine. Cambridge ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Hua, Shiping. Scientism and Humanism: Two Cultures in Post-Mao China, 1978-1989. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. Needham, Joseph, and Ling Wang. 1954. Science and Civilisation in China. Cambridge: University Press. Volumes 1-7. Needham, Joseph. 1955. Science, Religion & Reality. New York: G. Braziller. ______. 1958. Chinese Astronomy and the Jesuit Mission: An Encounter of Cultures. London: China Society. ______. 1951. Human Law and the Laws of Nature in China and the West. London: Oxford University Press. ______. 1964. The Development of Iron and Steel Technology in China. Cambridge, England: published for The Newcomen Society by W. Heffer & Sons. ______. 1965. Time and Eastern Man: The Henry Myers Lecture 1964. [London]: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain & Ireland. Needham, Joseph, Ling Wang, and Derek J. de Solla. 1986. Price. Heavenly Clockwork: The Great Astronomical Clocks of Medieval China. 2nd ed. with suppl. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Needham, Joseph, Shigeru Nakayama, and Nathan Sivin. 1973. Chinese Science; Explorations of an Ancient Tradition. Cambridge: MIT Press. Sivin, Nathan. 1968. Chinese Alchemy: Preliminary Studies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ______. 1995. Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. Aldershot, Hampshire, Great Britain ; Brookfield, Vt., USA: Variorum. Spence, Jonathan D. 1984. The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. New York, N.Y.: Viking Penguin. Strickmann, Michel, and Bernard Faure. 2002. Chinese Magical Medicine. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. Unschuld, Paul U. 1985. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. Berkeley: University of California Press. ______. 1986. Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. ______. 2000. Medicine in China: Historical Artifacts and Images. Munchen New York: Prestel 3 Course Syllabus CHIN 428 Fall 2012 - Emily Wilcox, College of William and Mary SCHEDULE Notes: • All readings listed under a class date are to be completed before class on that day. • All assignments marked with * are due at the start of class on the day listed. • All quizzes marked with * will take place in class on the day listed. • Late assignments and missed quizzes may be made up only with prior consent of the instructor or in case of emergencies, in which case appropriate documentation must be provided. PART I: Foundational Readings in the Cultural Studies of Science in China Week 1 – Introduction to the Course Thursday, Aug 30 Course expectations and introduction Week 2 – Why Study Science in China? Tuesday, Sept 4 Hart, Roger “Beyond Science and Civilization: A Post-Needham Critique.” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine no. 16 (1999):88-114. MacPhail, Theresa. “The ‘Problem’ of Science in China.” East Asian Science, Technology and Society: an International Journal (2009) 3:27–50. *Reading Response 1 due Thursday, Sept 6 “胡锦涛强调,要深入贯彻落实科学发展观 ”2007 年 10 月 15 日 新华社 . (Hu Jintao. 2007 speech on “Scientific Development” at the 17th National Party Congress) http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/104019/104098/6378312.html *Vocab Quiz Week 3 – The Idea of Modern Science Tuesday, Sept 11 Shapin, Steven. 1996. The Scientific Revolution. The University of Chicago Press. “Introduction,” “Chapter
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