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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : Asian Studies

Undergraduate Course: Chinese Silent Cinema: 1920-1935 (ASST10138)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis is an interdisciplinary course that deals with history, cultural studies, film studies and involves actual film production. Students will view and analyze eleven early, silent-era, feature films made in China and learn how to use visual sources to understand historical phenomena. More specifically, the course will examine a number of important themes in modern Chinese history. The themes include modernity, urban transformation, gender, migration, consumption patterns, marriage and family, class, sexuality and nationalism. In spatial and chronological terms, the main focus is on the Shanghai global metropolis and its vanguard role in China and in East Asia during the pre-war 1920s and early 1930s. In order to sharpen their critical and interpretive capacities, small groups of students will made 20 minute films modeled on the thematics and aesthetics of silent-era Chinese films.
Course description WEEK 1
Sessions 1 & 2 Modernity, the Shanghai Urban Arena, and the May Fourth Critique of Tradition

Sep 16 Film: 'Romance of the Fruit Peddler', 1921, d. Zhang Shichuan
Sep 18 Reading: Zhang, Zhen. "Teahouse, Shadowplay, Bricolage: Laborer's Love and the Question of Early Chinese Cinema." in Zhang, Yingjin, ed. Cinema and Urban Culture in Shanghai, 1922-1943. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1999, pp. 27-50.
Schwartz, R. Vanessa. "Film and History." in Donald, James, and Michael Renov. The SAGE Handbook of Film Studies. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 2008, pp. 199-215.
"Introduction: The Testimony of Images" in Peter Burke, Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence. London: Reaktion Books, 2001, pp. 9-19.

WEEK 2
Sessions 3 & 4 The Fragility of the New Urban Middle Class
Sep 23 Film: 'String of Pearls' 1925, d. Li Zeyuan
Sep 25 Reading: Ding Ling, "Diary of Miss Sophia" (1927).
Yu Dafu, "Sinking" (1921)

WEEK 3
Sessions 5 & 6 Masculinity and the Nation: Controversial Cultural Artifacts
Sep 30 Film: 'Romance of the Western Chamber' 1927, d. Hou Yao
Oct 2 Reading: Kristine Harris, "The Romance of the Western Chamber and the Classical Subject Film in 1920s Shanghai" in Zhang Yingjin, Cinema and urban culture in Shanghai, 1922-1943.
Lu Xun, "Diary of a Madman" (1918)

WEEK 4
Sessions 7 & 8 In Search of the Modern Marriage
Oct 7 Film: 'Oceans of Passion, Heavy Kissing' 1928, d. Xie Yunqing (2 pts)
Oct 9 Reading: Lu Xun, Paul G. Pickowicz, "Shanghai Twenties: Early Cinematic Explorations of the Modern Marriage"¿ (Quiz#1)

WEEK 5
Session 9 Men Representing Women: The Horror Genre
Oct 14 Film: 'Orphan in the Snow' 1929, d. Zhang Huimin (2 pts)

Session 10 Melodramatic Imagination
Oct 16 Reading: Paul G. Pickowicz, "Melodramatic Representation"

Midterm exam (UG)/essay preparation (PG)

WEEK 6
Sessions 11 & 12 Village vs. City: Spiritual Pollution
Oct 21 Film: 'Peach Blossom Weeps Tears of Blood' 1931,
d. Bu Wancang (2 pts)
Oct 23 Reading: Paul G. Pickowicz, "The Theme of Spiritual Pollution"
Mao Dun, "Spring Silkworms" (1932), "Autumn Harvest" (1933), and "Winter Ruin" (1933)

WEEK 7
Session 13 Culture as Social Science: Urban Perceptions of Rural People
Oct 28 Film: 'Daybreak' 1933, d. Sun Yu (2 pts)

Session 14 The Low-brow Novel of Manners: The Mandarin Duck and Butterfly Mode
Oct 30 Reading: Zhang Henshui, Shanghai Express (1934)
Link, Perry. Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular fiction in early twentieth-century Chinese cities. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.
Consultations on Film Projects

WEEK 8
Sessions 15 & 16 Patriotism, Class, and Sexuality: Sorting out the Components
Nov 4 Film: 'The Big Road' 1933, d. Sun Yu (2 pts)
Nov 6 Reading: Mao Dun, "Shop of the Lin Family"

WEEK 9
Sessions 17 & 18 Prostitution as an Urban Form
Nov 11 Film: 'The Goddess' 1934, d. Wu Yonggang
Nov 13 Reading: Henriot, Christian. Prostitution and sexuality in Shanghai: a social history 1849-1949. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. (Quiz#2).

WEEK 10
Session 19 Sex, Anti-liberalism, and the Quest for Order

Nov 18 Film: 'Queen of Sports' 1934, d. Sun Yu

Session 20 Decadent Shanghai
Nov 20 Reading: Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern (Quiz#3)

Consultations on Film Projects

WEEK 11
Sessions 21&22 Proletarian Culture and the Problem of Gender

Nov 25 Film: 'New Women' 1935, d. Cai Chusheng
Nov 27 Reading: Harris, Kristine. "The New Woman Incident: Cinema, Scandal, and Spectacle in 1935 Shanghai." in Lu, Sheldon H. Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1997, pp. 277-302.
Reading: Qian Xingcun, "The Bygone Era of Ah Q" (1928)

Dec 5 Golden Chopsticks Award Ceremony
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 22, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22, Summative Assessment Hours 1, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 151 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 40 %, Coursework 30 %, Practical Exam 30 %
Additional Information (Assessment) 4 five-hundred word film critiques (30%)

1 20-minute film as a collaborative project (30%)

1-hour centrally arranged exam (40%)
Feedback Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet Paper Name Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)1:00
Learning Outcomes
The primary objectives of the course include: (1) exposing students to materials and theoretical approaches that emphasise new modes of understanding the complexities of modern Chinese history; (2) introducing students to the strikingly global aesthetic strategies deployed in China in the early twentieth century by examining the case of the early Chinese film industry; (3) sharpening student ability to analyze and interpret visual materials; (4) pointing to the difference between visual culture and print culture; (5) demonstrating the ways in which student film production activities improve the ability of students to learn from film artifacts produced nearly 100 years ago.
Reading List
Fiction:
Lu Xun, "Diary of a Madman" (1918), "The True Story of Ah Q" (1921), and "New Year"s Sacrifice" (1924).

Zhang Henshui, Shanghai Express (1935).

Mao Dun, "Spring Silkworms" (1932), "Autumn Harvest" (1933), "Winter Ruin" (1933), and "The Shop of the Lin Family" (1932).

Yu Dafu, "Sinking" (1921).

Ding Ling, "Diary of Miss Sophia" (1927).

Criticism:
Liang Qichao, "On the Relationship between Fiction and the Government of the People" (1902).

Hu Shi, "Some Modest Proposals for the Reform of Literature" (1917).

Chen Duxiu, "On Literary Revolution" (1917).

Qian Xingcun, "The Bygone Era of Ah Q" (1928).

Studies:
Paul G. Pickowicz, "Shanghai Twenties: Early Cinematic Explorations of the Modern Marriage," China on Film, chapter 1.

Paul G. Pickowicz, "Melodramatic Representation and the "May Fourth" Tradition of Chinese Filmmaking," China on Film, chapter 3.

Paul G. Pickowicz, "The Theme of Spiritual Pollution in Chinese Films of the 1930s," China on Film, chapter 2.

Leo Ou-fan Lee, "Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945."

Zhang Yingjin, ed. Cinema and urban culture in Shanghai, 1922-1943. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1999.

Link, Perry. "Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular fiction in early twentieth-century Chinese cities." Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.

Henriot, Christian. "Prostitution and sexuality in Shanghai: a social history 1849-1949." Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Recommended Reading:
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China, pp. 271-434.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsChinese cinema; silent film; history
Contacts
Course organiserDr Julian Ward
Tel: (0131 6)50 4226
Email: Julian.Ward@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMr David Horn
Tel: (0131 6)50 4227
Email: david.horn@ed.ac.uk
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