An introductory course that teaches the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese. Emphasis is on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and communication. Computer programs for pronunciation, listening comprehension, grammar, and writing Chinese characters will be used extensively.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: None. Open only to students with no Chinese language background.

Instructor: M. Chen

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

An introductory course that teaches the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese. Emphasis is on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and communication. Computer programs for pronunciation, listening comprehension, grammar, and writing Chinese characters will be used extensively.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 101 or placement by the department.

Instructor: M. Chen

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

An introductory course that teaches the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese. Emphasis is on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and communication. Computer programs for pronunciation, listening comprehension, grammar, and writing Chinese characters will be used extensively.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Placement by the department. Open to students who can speak some Chinese (Mandarin or other Chinese dialects), or who have some knowledge in reading and writing Chinese characters.

Instructor: Zhao

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

An introductory course that teaches the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese. Emphasis is on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and communication. Computer programs for pronunciation, listening comprehension, grammar, and writing Chinese characters will be used extensively.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 103 or placement by the department.

Instructor: Tang

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Further training in listening comprehension, oral expression, reading, and writing.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 102 or placement by the department.

Instructor: Tang

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Further training in listening comprehension, oral expression, reading and writing.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 201 or placement by the department.

Instructor: Chen

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Further training in listening comprehension, oral expression, reading, and writing.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites:  CHIN 104 or placement by the department.

Instructor: Chen

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Further training in listening comprehension, oral expression, reading, and writing.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 203 or placement by the department.

Instructor: Zhao

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Variously known in English as Dream of the Red Chamber, A Dream of Red Mansions, and The Story of the Stone, Honglou meng is the most widely discussed Chinese novel of all time. Written in the mid-eighteenth century, the novel offers telling insight into Chinese culture as it once was and as it remains today. The novel is still wildly popular due to its tragic love story, its sensitive depiction of the plight of the talented woman in late imperial culture, and its narrative intricacies. The goal of the course is to understand the novel both as a literary text and as a cultural phenomenon. Optional extra sessions will accommodate those who wish to read and discuss the novel in Chinese.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 311.

Instructor: Widmer

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CHIN 311.

What are emotions? Are they innate and universal, or do they vary across time, societies, and languages? How do humans express and describe emotions? How should individuals and societies relate to the experience and expression of emotions? Such questions sparked an animated debate among early Chinese thinkers (5th c. BCE–220 CE), a debate we will continue in this course. We begin by surveying ancient and modern theories of emotion. The subsequent unit turns to the representations of different emotions in early Chinese literature and philosophical writings, where we explore whether our experiences of love, joy, and grief are comparable across ancient and modern contexts. In the final unit, we evaluate different philosophical proposals—from Confucian, Daoist, and Legalist lineages—for how to cultivate and regulate emotions.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Instructor: Du

Distribution Requirements: EC - Epistemology and Cognition

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The Ming (1368) was a glorious dynasty, and its fall was “heard round the world." The course approaches its glory and fall through novels (such as The Water Margin and The Plum in a Golden Vase), short stories (by Feng Menglong and others), and dramas like Peach Blossom Fan. Elsewhere in East Asia, too, the Ming was a theme in literature, especially at the time of its fall. Works by Chikamatsu (Japanese) and Ho Kyun (Korean) serve as illustrations. Additionally, dramas from Holland and England provide some measure of the impact of this event in Europe. In the last third of the course we will survey this group of writings by non-Chinese and use them to show how reactions varied, depending on the nationality of the observer. Finally, we will read a Cantonese opera composed in the twentieth century. It is one sign of the topic's continuing currency throughout the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and it highlights south China's longstanding resistance to the Qing.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 320.

Instructor: Widmer

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CHIN 320.

Of China's six great novels, four (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh, Journey to the West, and Plum in the Golden Vase) were products of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).  What were the reasons for this important new development in Chinese literature?  They include new patterns in consumption and publishing, among other factors.  And how did this development lead to the emergence of a theory of the novel in the mid-seventeenth century?  Here we will seek to understand the approaches of major theorists.  Finally, how do the four masterworks contrast with the Chinese short story, which underwent a parallel advance at exactly the same time? The difference between complex and simple plots will be our key to an answer.  We will spend two to three weeks on each of the four novels then conclude with a look at some short stories.  Readings and discussions will be in English. Optional sessions discussing short selections of each novel in Chinese will be offered intermittently.  

Two short papers, one short report, and one final paper are required.  No prerequisites for entering the course.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 333.

Instructor: Widmer

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: The course is also offered at the 300-level as CHIN 333.

This course introduces students to the Chinese cultural and literary tradition through the lens of modern reception and cinematic representation. Beginning with Confucius and ending with the last emperor of the imperial period (221 BCE–1911 CE), we will explore key historical turning points, influential philosophical works, and major literary genres. By pairing historical writings (in English translation) with iconic blockbusters and arthouse films, students will analyze in what ways and to what ends film adaptations transform their source materials. We will also delve into the complex and often fraught relationships between the past and present in contemporary Sinophone contexts.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 237

Prerequisites: None

Instructor: Du

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Confucius in the Analects asserts that “The Master never spoke of the strange, the violent, the disorderly, and the numinous.” Yet “recording the strange” was a thriving literary genre in classical and imperial China—one collection of supernatural tales was in fact entitled What the Master Never Spoke Of. How do we understand this contradiction? This course is a survey of stories and essays on ghosts, spirits, talking animals, and spooky events, beginning from the earliest Chinese writings incised on turtle shells to the twentieth century. We will examine changing worldviews and religious practices during these three millennia, retracing the storylines retold around East Asia and across media ancient and modern.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Instructor: Du

Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy; LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course explores the cinematic conventions and experiments employed by Chinese filmmakers over the past hundred years. Unique Chinese film genres such as left-wing melodrama, martial arts films and model play adaptations, as well as the three "new waves" in China's recent avant-garde cinema, will be examined and discussed. Individual filmic visions and techniques experimented with by important directors such as Fei Mu, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Zhang Yimou, and Jia Zhangke will be closely analyzed. Class discussions will aim to help students understand the history, politics, and aesthetics of Chinese cinema. Theoretical aspects of film studies will also be incorporated into class readings and discussions. No prior knowledge of China or film studies is required.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 20 3

Prerequisites: None

Instructor: M. Song

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video; LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course covers three basic categories of traditional theater in China. It begins with the short form known as zaju of the Yuan Dynasty (thirteenth to the fourteenth centuries), when dramatic works began to be written by identifiable authors. Next come the long and elaborate chuanqi (or kunqu) of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (fourteenth to twentieth centuries), including the still performed Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu. The last category is Peking opera, a form that originated during the second half of the Qing Dynasty, around 1790, and is regularly performed today. Most of our dramas were written by men, but we will also look at a few by women. The interrelation between forms will be discussed, as will the effects of the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 on Peking opera and other opera forms. Lastly such perennial themes as Mulan and The White Snake will be surveyed.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 344.

Instructor: Widmer

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CHIN 344 with additional assignments.

The period 1850-1950 witnessed five political revolutions in China. Each one had an impact on the status of women. By the end of the hundred years, the stay-at-home, bound-footed gentlewoman was no more, and old-style dreams in which women changed gender to pursue careers or fight wars had faded away. Instead a whole new reality for women had emerged. This course explores these changes through the writings of male sympathizers, western missionaries, and most importantly Chinese women themselves. In bridging the “late imperial” and “modern” eras and in its emphasis on women’s voices, it offers a distinctive take on the period under review. Although the story is Chinese, it is a part of women’s history worldwide.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 345.

Instructor: Widmer

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CHIN 345.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

This course is designed to further expand students' comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Reading materials will be selected from newspapers, short stories, essays, and films. Students will study Chinese and China from different perspectives. In addition to authentic audio and videotapes, Chinese learning APPs will also be used as study aids. The class is conducted in Chinese.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 202 or placement by the department.

Instructor: Zhao

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Advanced language skills are further developed through reading, writing, and discussions. Reading materials will be selected from a variety of authentic Chinese texts. Students will study Chinese and China from different perspectives. In addition to authentic audio and videotapes, Chinese learning APPs will also be used as study aids. The class is conducted in Chinese.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 301 or placement by the department.

Instructor: Tang

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course is designed to further expand and refine students' language skills through intensive reading of authentic Chinese materials, such as novels, short stories, essays, and plays and through viewing of contemporary Chinese films. Particular attention will be paid to increasing levels of literary appreciation and to enriching understanding of the sociocultural contexts from which our readings have emerged.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 204 or CHIN 302 or placement by the department.; students entering the course through CHIN 301 are strongly encouraged to first complete CHIN 302 as well.

Instructor: Chen

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Variously known in English as Dream of the Red Chamber, A Dream of Red Mansions, and The Story of the Stone, Honglou meng is the most widely discussed Chinese novel of all time. Written in the mid-eighteenth century, the novel offers telling insight into Chinese culture as it once was and as it remains today. The novel is still wildly popular due to its tragic love story, its sensitive depiction of the plight of the talented woman in late imperial culture, and its narrative intricacies. The goal of the course is to understand the novel both as a literary text and as a cultural phenomenon. Optional extra sessions will accommodate those who wish to read and discuss the novel in Chinese. This course may be taken as CHIN 211 or, with additional assignments, as CHIN 311.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: One previous course on Chinese history or culture. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 211.

Instructor: Widmer

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as CHIN 211.

The Ming (1368) was a glorious dynasty, and its fall was “heard round the world." The course approaches its glory and fall through novels (such as The Water Margin and The Plum in a Golden Vase), short stories (by Feng Menglong and others), and dramas like Peach Blossom Fan. Elsewhere in East Asia, too, the Ming was a theme in literature, especially at the time of its fall. Works by Chikamatsu (Japanese) and Ho Kyun (Korean) serve as illustrations. Additionally, dramas from Holland and England provide some measure of the impact of this event in Europe. In the last third of the course we will survey this group of writings by non-Chinese and use them to show how reactions varied, depending on the nationality of the observer. Finally, we will read a Cantonese opera composed in the twentieth century. It is one sign of the topic's continuing currency throughout the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and it highlights south China's longstanding resistance to the Qing.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 220.

Instructor: Widmer

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as CHIN 220.

Of China's six great novels, four (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh, Journey to the West, and Plum in the Golden Vase) were products of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).  What were the reasons for this important new development in Chinese literature?  They include new patterns in consumption and publishing, among other factors.  And how did this development lead to the emergence of a theory of the novel in the mid-seventeenth century?  Here we will seek to understand the approaches of major theorists.  Finally, how do the four masterworks contrast with the Chinese short story, which underwent a parallel advance at exactly the same time? The difference between complex and simple plots will be our key to an answer.  We will spend two to three weeks on each of the four novels then conclude with a look at some short stories.  Readings and discussions will be in English. Optional sessions discussing short selections of each novel in Chinese will be offered intermittently.  Compared to CHIN 233, this course will have one extra paper and one extra report.

Three short papers, two short reports, and one final paper are required. Students should have taken one previous course in Chinese culture or history.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 233.

Instructor: Widmer

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: The course is also offered at the 200-level as CHIN 233.

This course guides students to explore Chinese literary modernity through authentic literary texts written by major Chinese writers of the past hundred years. It aims to give students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of modern China in both its historical and cultural practice. Instead of language training, literary and cultural analyses will be emphasized. Class discussions will be conducted in Chinese, and students are expected to offer their critical responses to readings through oral presentations and papers written in Chinese.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 306 and CHIN 307 or placement by the department.

Instructor: Du

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course covers three basic categories of traditional theater in China. It begins with the short form known as zaju of the Yuan Dynasty (thirteenth to the fourteenth centuries), when dramatic works began to be written by identifiable authors. Next come the long and elaborate chuanqi (or kunqu) of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (fourteenth to twentieth centuries), including the still performed performed Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu. The last category is Peking opera, a form that originated during the second half of the Qing Dynasty, around 1790, and is regularly performed today. Most of our dramas were written by men, but we will also look at a few by women. The interrelation between forms will be discussed, as will the effects of the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 on Peking opera and other opera forms. Lastly such perennial themes as Mulan and The White Snake will be surveyed.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: One previous course in Chinese history or culture. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 244.

Instructor: Widmer

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as CHIN 244.

The period 1850-1950 witnessed five political revolutions in China. Each one had an impact on the status of women. By the end of the hundred years, the stay-at-home, bound-footed gentlewoman was no more, and old-style dreams in which women changed gender to pursue careers or fight wars had faded away. Instead a whole new reality for women had emerged. This course explores these changes through the writings of male sympathizers, western missionaries, and most importantly Chinese women themselves. In bridging the “late imperial” and “modern” eras and in its emphasis on women's voices, it offers a distinctive take on the period under review. Although the story is Chinese, it is a part of women's history worldwide. Additional reading and writings will be assigned to students with advanced-level Chinese reading proficiency. This course may be taken as CHIN 245 or, with additional assignments, as CHIN 345.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: One prior course in EALC, EAS or WGST. Not open to student who have taken CHIN 245.

Instructor: Widmer

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as CHIN 245.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Instructor:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 360 and permission of the department.

Instructor:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

This seminar offers an intensive study of the writings of Eileen Chang, one of the most important Chinese writers. Close analysis of her literary style will be combined with discussions on such key concepts of the Chinese literary modernity: gender, nation, cosmopolitanism, affectivity, subjectivity, and diaspora. Her major works will be read in biographical, historical and cultural contexts, with considerations of the classical novels influencing her as well as the modern and postmodern writers and filmmakers working under her influences.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: One course at the 200 or 300 level on Chinese literature, history or culture, or by permission of the instructor.

Instructor: M. Song

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This seminar guides students to explore the political, cultural, and epistemological changes represented in Chinese science fiction. It contextualizes the genre’s evolution in the intellectual history of modern China, where imagining the future of China is often the focus of contending ideologies and intellectual trends. The course introduces students to three booms of Chinese science fiction, which all happened when China went through drastic changes. The contemporary new wave of science fiction particularly presents a subversive vision of China’s pursuit of power and wealth, a dystopian counterpart to the government-promoted “Chinese dream.” This course examines the cutting-edge literary experiments that characterize the new wave, and studies the transgression of gender, class, and nation in science fiction that evokes sensations ranging from the uncanny to the sublime, from the corporeal to the virtual, and from the apocalyptic to the transcendent.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 382

Prerequisites: One course at the 200 or 300 level on Chinese literature, history or culture, or by permission of the instructor.

Instructor: O'Krent

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: