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HIST 1503 China Pop: the Social History of Chinese Popular Culture Spring 2014 Professor Rebecca Nedostup Tth 1-2:20 Depart

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HIST 1503 China Pop: the Social History of Chinese Popular Culture Spring 2014 Professor Rebecca Nedostup Tth 1-2:20 Depart HIST 1503 China Pop: The Social History of Chinese Popular Culture Spring 2014 Professor Rebecca Nedostup TTh 1-2:20 Department of History Smith-Buonanno 201 Sharpe House 206 An exploration of how the artifacts of visual, material, aural and ritual culture illuminate the practices and beliefs of people at various levels of Chinese society from the late imperial period to the present. Topics include arrangements of space and time, popular entertainment, religion and performance, the growth of mass media, and the relationship of cultural forms to politics, protest and global forces. In addition to lectures, discussions and papers, students will have the opportunity to create research presentations using multiple media formats. Course goals: 1) To investigate what it means to use popular culture as an area of rigorous historical inquiry. 2) To gain literacy in key concepts of Chinese popular culture; to be able to describe important geographic and demographic variations in those concepts and to understand major points of change since roughly 1800, with a particular focus on the last century. 3) To learn ways of analyzing historical documents – including visual and aural sources as well as written records – and evaluating how scholars from various disciplines (e.g. anthropology, musicology, film studies, religious studies, architecture) define and interpret mass culture. 4) To research and present in various formats group projects on topics of special interest. Course requirements: * Attendance and participation: 15%. Regular and punctual attendance, obviously, is critical to overall success in the class and to a good participation grade; you are permitted two unexcused absences without penalty. Students should come to every class having done the readings assigned for that day and ready to discuss them. Quizzes on the reading can be expected (see below.) IMPORTANT: Attendance is also required for four of five evening film screenings (see below.) If possible these films will also be made available via library streaming. Participation grades will factor in the quality of completed worksheets for the films, and your final exam will be based in part on your viewing of the films. In addition, at least one of our classes will take place at the Haffenreffer Museum, and you will be writing a separate paper based on your work with museum objects. Please read the syllabus with attention and consider your schedule carefully when choosing to take this course. • Participation grading: o A range: students who attend regularly, demonstrate an engagement with the material, and consistently make cogent contributions to discussion. Actively and thoughtfully watch the films. o B range: students who come but don’t necessarily show that they’re engaging with the material, miss 1 or 2 classes beyond the limit, or contribute only sporadically in class. If you feel that you’re on top of the material yet have trouble speaking up, come talk to me, and we’ll work on it! o C range: students who miss 3 or 4 classes beyond the limit; don’t say anything or conversely talk a lot without doing the reading; or try to make up everything at the last minute. China Pop 2 o Below C range: if you’re missing more than or contributing even less than the above, you need to come see me! * Weekly quizzes: 20%. Each Tuesday (except when noted) we will have a simple in-class quiz on the main concepts of the reading assigned for that week and, to a lesser extent, on the previous week’s discussion. There will be 10 quizzes in all, beginning Tuesday, February 4; I will drop the lowest two quiz grades, for a total of 8 counted grades. * Short paper (based on the Haffenreffer Museum collection): 20%. A 5-7 page “material culture in context” paper in which you work in the Haffenreffer CultureLab with objects from their China collection (mostly religious objects or textiles collected in the 19th century). You will receive an additional handout describing this assignment. Due in class March 20. * Group research project and MediaKron module: 25%. This will allow you to explore topics of interest to you in greater depth by collectively researching a project in groups of 2-4 people, designing a set of entries for a module in our course MediaKron site (drawing on text, audio, video, and visual sources as appropriate), and then individually composing those entries. Though you will choose from a general list of subject areas and will be provided with format guidelines and starting points for research, the ultimate design and presentation of the project is up to you. The projects are due in Unit Three, but you may draw on the material of any course unit for your topic. An additional handout will describe this assignment in greater detail). Please read the syllabus and handout thoroughly, skim ahead in the readings, and be prepared to sign up for a group and topic on March 13. * Final exam: 20%. This will consist of a take-home essay based on the films, course readings and lectures. It is due May 12, 5pm. Extra credit policy: The grading system is constructed to allow flexibility (multiple assignments drawing on different skill sets.) I am happy to help students make full use of these choices rather than create extra credit assignments. Course expectations: All assignments, tests and exercises are due as indicated on the syllabus. Please let your instructor know if you encounter any difficulties at all in the course, including any associated with deadlines. Unexcused delays will result in a half-grade penalty for each day the assignment is late. There will be no make ups or extensions for written assignments or the exam except for medical emergency, in which case you will need to produce a note from a doctor or other medical practitioner, or under circumstances so compelling that you can convince a Dean to intervene on your behalf. The basic standard for this course is simple: all final work must be your own, except on the rare occasions when stated otherwise. The parameters of collaborative assignments will be clearly specified. For the research project, you will be graded both for your individual efforts and for the group results as a whole: therefore finding a way to share responsibility with your collaborators is an important part of the exercise. Each member of the research group is expected to make a full contribution to the project and account for his or her efforts toward the end result. Aside from that project, you do not need to research anything beyond the reading, listening and looking assigned for class. In your writing, you must provide all words, paraphrases of words and ideas created by others with a proper citation, regardless of the original source (that is, printed material, course China Pop 3 reading and web sources all deserve citation equally.) In particular, you must demonstrate that you have watched the course films yourself and can produce ideas about them that fit with the course discussion (i.e. not movie reviews or plot synopses. You may even have seen these films in other contexts or courses, but it will be useful to think of them anew. ) We will discuss the (admittedly complicated!) parameters of citing different sorts of media when the time comes, but if you ever have the slightest doubt or do not know the proper way to cite something, please do ask!. The same advice applies when you’re feeling overwhelmed by deadlines and perhaps most tempted to cut corners - talk to me or a Dean. The consequences of having to submit a paper late pale in comparison to those associated with academic dishonesty. Finally, during course time it is expected that you will limit your use of laptops or other electronic devices to note taking or directed work online for the class. Course readings and other materials: I: Books on order at Brown Bookstore and on reserve at the Rock: SMITH, Richard J. China’s Cultural Heritage: The Qing Dynasty, 1644-1912. Second edition. Boulder: Westview, 1994. FINANNE, Antonia. Changing Clothes in China: Fashion, History, Nation. New York: Columbia, 2008. PU Songling. Romance of the Ghost Maiden (Nie Xiaoqian). Adapted by Wang Yongsheng, illustrated by Hu Rong, translated by Wu Jingyu. Singapore: Asiapac Books, 1997. JORDAN, David K.; MORRIS, Andrew D.; MOSKOWITZ, Marc L., ed., The Minor Arts of Daily Life: Popular Culture in Taiwan (Hawai’i, 2004) II: Readings and multimedia in Canvas and MediaKron: All other resources listed below can be found via the course Canvas site and at the China Pop MediaKron site (https://tmkp.bc.edu/chinapop/mediakron/welcome) Canvas is where you will find the syllabus, your calendar, PDFs, handouts, assignments, and discussion boards. MediaKron is your access point for multimedia: maps, timelines, images, streamed film and audio clips, and short texts. Often we will use MediaKron in class as well as for preparation; after a week or two you will get used to the rhythm of moving between Canvas and MediaKron, and start thinking about creating your own MediaKron module. III: China Gateway website: www.bc.edu/chinagateway. This website is designed to be your starting point for reference and research on China, with an emphasis on modern history and culture. Here you will find tools and links that will help you with chronology, pronunciation, background, in-depth historical and cultural information, and info on China-related resources. Some of your readings are here, and along with the bibliographies, footnotes, and unassigned chapters of your readings, and with the Rock, it is a main starting point for your group research projects. Please familiarize yourself with it during the first week of class.
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