- CC 300 EX - China's Cities in Literature & Film
- 3 Credits
TR 2:00-3:15pm - Professor Ridgway
(Cross-listed with EAST 390AX & CHST 590AX - fulfills Diversity requirement)
With the rapid pace of China’s current economic boom and the growth of China’s urban centers following massive migration from countryside to city, city life and urbanization have become the foci of much debate in the media and in the university. Yet what has often been overlooked is how the current growth of China’s cities relates to the complex cultural history of China’s modern cities in the past. In this class we will explore the cultural history of a few of China’s most iconic cities, both ancient and modern, to explore how the city has shaped everyday life and how it has been imagined and represented in literature and film during three key historical moments. Readings and class discussion in the first half of the class will focus on the three premodern cities of Chang’an, Kaifeng, Hangzhou, with special attention to the cultural history during the first phase of urbanization during China’s medieval (8th to 13th centuries) and late imperial (16th to 18th centuries) periods . In the second half of the class we will turn to examine the three cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei, whose image in Chinese literature and film is directly tied with China’s transition to modernity during the 20th and 21st centuries.
Throughout the course, primary materials, from classical poetry and vernacular fiction to modern fiction and film, will be paired with secondary readings on the historical context of China’s urban centers. There will also be critical readings from the field of geography and by theorists of space, place, and the city.