CHIN 346 - Modern China on the Silver Screen: From Allegories to Documentaries

This course introduces students to important Chinese-language films created over the past 100 years or so, starting from early pioneering works in the silent era, and going all the way to contemporary documentaries made in the digital age. The focus of the course will be on cinema produced in mainland China, with occasional exceptions. With its advent in China more or less coeval with the beginning of the nation’s modern chapter, cinema affords us a unique window to look into a diverse and rapidly changing China throughout the twentieth century and beyond. The films we watch in this class cover a broad range of topics: the woman question, family and gender, revolution, the urban/rural divide, economic reform and migrant labor, LGBTQ issues, health care and an aging population, etc. Through a combination of closely viewing, reading and writing, conference discussion and presentations (one collaborative), we’ll familiarize ourselves with the historical and cultural contexts of these films’ creation and representation, and identify values and attitudes expressed in them as well as the formal means of their expression. We will explore films made by critically acclaimed directors, such as Cai Chusheng, Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Jiang Wen, Wang Xiaoshuai, Wang Bing, Jia Zhangke, Xu Anhua, and Wu Hao, among others. Readings are in translation, and films selected are subtitled in English. Students who take the course for Chinese credit meet for additional instruction and readings in the original Chinese.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing. For Chinese credit, CHIN 212 or equivalent.
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Cross-listing(s): LIT 313
Not offered: 2024-25
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).