21 - 30 of 110 results for: CHINA

A survey of Chinese drama from its origins to late imperial China. Explores theories of the origins of Chinese drama, contrasting theories with the documented beginnings of theater and its first texts. How traditions turned into "elite theater" in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and how esthetic norms and moral values went into the process of theatrical transformation.

Sophisticated, organized entertainment in China is evident at least as early as nnthe second century B.C. in the court spectacles described in the early histories nnand in the depictions of jugglers, dancers and acrobats represented in tomb nnbas-reliefs. The importance attached to entertainment from ancient times both at court and in society at large is manifest not just in the establishment of nnimperial institutions such as the Music Bureau, but also in the appearance of nnlarge entertainment districts within the cities where people would invest nnextraordinary amount of resources in the pursuit of pleasure, and in small scale nngatherings. This class will look at the representation of play and pleasure in nnChinese culture from a variety of sources (art, history, literature and nnperformance) in different periods of Chinese history. In the process we will nnaddress the place of pleasure in Chinese culture, as well as ethical, socio-nnpolitical and economical concerns. Held in old Knight Bldg., 521 Memorial Way, Rm. 102.

Korea and China have long been intertwined in their political, economic, and cultural histories. The depth of this historical relationship has enormous ramifications for East Asia today. This course will investigate the history of Korea-China relations from its deep roots in the ancient past, through its formative periods in the early modern period and the age of imperialism, to the contemporary era. Topics to be covered include formation of Chinese and Korean national identity, Sino-Korean cultural exchange, premodern Chinese empire in East Asia, China and Korea in the wake of Western and Japanese imperialism, communist revolutions in East Asia, the Korean War, and China's relations with a divided Korea in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Particular attention will be paid to how the modern and contemporary ramifications of past historical relations and how contemporary Chinese and Koreans interpret their own and each others' pasts.nThis course will ask students to engage with diverse interpretations of the past and to consider how a common history is interpreted by different audiences and for different purposes. What are the implications of divergent memories of a single historical event for Chinese and Korean political, cultural, and ethnic identities? How are political, cultural, and ethnic identities constructed through engagement with difference? And what is at stake in different constructions of identity?In addressing these issues, students will also engage in social inquiry. They will be asked to understand how political ideology, economic organization, and social forces have shaped the character of Sino-Korean relations. What are the economic and political institutions that influence these relations in each time period? How do ideologies like Confucianism, Communism, or free-market liberalism interface with Chinese and Korean societies and impact their relations?

In the early modern period, East Asian societies featured long-established institutions of learning and traditions of knowledge. This course examines the relationship between knowledge and power in East Asia societies prior to 1900. It explores how knowledge production operated in late imperial China (1550-1900), Chos'n Korea (1392-1910), and Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868). Among the themes addressed are: the state's role in patronizing science and knowledge; major intellectual movements; engagement with Western science and religion; East Asian statecraft; and East Asian understandings of space and geography. nTaking a holistic perspective, it places science and technology in 1) a social and cultural context 2) in relation to other bodies and fields of knowledge 3) in comparison to other societies in a similar historical time period. A socially embedded perspective on knowledge and science seeks to appreciate how politics, society, and knowledge are integrated, and in particular how science and knowledge can be both instruments and sites of political power. By exploring these links, the course will also illustrate how our modern disciplinary categories of natural science,social science and the humanities cannot be taken for granted and the areas of knowledge they cover can be deeply intertwined. nnThe course will also address these issues historically and across geographic regions in East Asia and beyond. The comparative lens and frameworks these perspectives can offer will bring an awareness of the diverse traditions of knowledge production in East Asia. Its examination of East Asian encounters with Western paradigms of knowledge throughout the early modern period will also illustrate how communication occurs across cultural, social, and linguistic barriers and how diverse world-views were managed in these encounters. These encounters of knowledge-exchange between Jesuit missionaries, Ming literati, Korean aristocrats, and Japanese doctors also show how cultural identities were constructed, reinforced, and challenged. These identities, expressed through the mastery of knowledge, are essential for understanding how East Asian reckoned with growing pressures to adopt Western industrial technology and military science in the late nineteenth century.

What is tyranny? When does political power cease to be legitimate and government become tyrannical? And what can individuals do in the face of tyranny? This course will explore East Asia's long political tradition through the problem of tyranny and its resistance. We will cover a wide range of material. We begin with how seminal political thinkers in East Asia, including Warring States philosophers such as Mencius and Han Feizi, understood the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate authority. We will also look at the strategies used by various political actors, including government officials, cultural or social elites, and common people, when they confronted what they perceived to be the unjust exercise political power, whether in the form of despotic monarchs, corrupt authorities, or general misrule. Our discussions will be wide-ranging. We will pay particular attention to how these historical examples from China, Korea, and Japan¿s past have resonated with modern and contemporary political discussions in contemporary East Asian societies.

New interpretation of the history of China-U.S. relations, 1784-2008, using image studies. Attention to people-to-people communication, cultural interaction, and political imagination during different times and power structures. Discussion of change and continuity of cultural images in textual descriptions, visual materials, symbolic and virtual identities in historical context. Understand how people in China and the United States created, presented, interpreted, and remembered cultural images of each other and how these images affected and were affected by their foreign policies and bilateral relations.

This course discusses a story of twin cities ¿ Beijing and Shanghai, from the imperial period to the present day. The historical movement of people, goods, knowledge, thoughts, technology and shifting of political power and cultural authority has closely linked the two cities together. No other two cities in the Chinese map have more communications, interactions, and mutual influences than Beijing and Shanghai. Indeed, geographic localities, ethnic traits, material lives, and foreign contacts have produced distinct cultural landscapes and patterns of urban development of the twin cities, which provide us with a good case of comparative studies. In Beijing and Shanghai, contemporary forces, including migration, industrialization, marketization, decentralization and globalization are transforming the urban societies. Both of them take center stage in China¿s drama of explosive growth and unprecedented changes. They continue to compete and influence each other in many ways.

Introduction to the reading and interpretation of classical Chinese poetry, with attention to the language of poetry, aesthetics, expressive purposes, and social roles. Readings in Chinese. Prerequisite: three years of modern Chinese or equivalent.

Social roles and literary images of two groups on the margins of traditional Chinese society; historical and comparative perspectives.