| Date | Class Activities | Reading & Viewing Assignments |
| The Republic Revolution and | the May Fourth Movement | |
| 1/15 | Introduction to translation theories and translingualism; read Guo Songtao, official of Qing Empire; | Read A Madman’s Diary and Kong Yiji by Lu Xun; |
| 1/20 | Discuss novellas A Madman’s Diary and Kong Yiji against the backdrop of Orientalism;excerpt of Chinese Exclusion Act; Wang Hui, The Idea of “Asia”; Zhou Zuoren: Humane Literature; Chen Duxiu: On Literary Revolution | Read Chapters by Arthur Smith in Chinese Characteristics: Face and Conservatism; and The True Story of Ah Q; by Lu Xun; |
| 1/22 | Discuss chapters of TheTrue Story of Ah Q; go over Fukuzawa Yukichi Datsu-A Ron; excerpt from Translingual Practice by Lydia Liu, pp.51-76; and Zhang Xuedong ; Will to Allegory; | Read Lao She’s Black Li and White Li; by Lao She and take quiz on The true Story of Ah Q, and quiz on A Madman’s Diary; |
| 1/27 | Discuss novella Black Li and White Li; Leo Lee analysis; go over Unequal Treaties in the 19th Century; Clips from A Tale of Two Cities; | View City of Life and Death, dir. Lu Chuan, take Quiz Lao She’s Black Li and White Li, (1934); |
| 1/29 | Discuss City of Life and Death; History of Imperialism and Colonialism; | view film Family based on the novel by Ba Jin; |
| 2/3 | Discuss film adaptation of Family by Ba Jin; anarchist revolution on the family, and ancestry worship; | Read A Kiss by Shi Tuo and its analysis by Ted Huters (analysis); |
| 2/5 | Discuss novella A Kiss by Shi Tuo; British Selfhoon constructed through depictions of China; | View silent film New Women (1931), dir. Cai Chusheng with subtitles; and read Regret for the Past by Lu Xun; |
| 2/10 | Discuss film The New Woman dir. Cai Chusheng and Regret for the Past by Lu Xun; discuss clips 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; and Lessons for Women by a traditional woman and Confucian history (45-116 A.D.) | Read When I Was in Hsia-Village, by Ding Ling (1911-1942); take quiz on New Woman; View film White Haired Girl and the ballet; |
| The Communist Revolution | and People’s Democracy | |
| 2/12 | Discuss When I Was in Hsia-Village by Ding Ling; discuss film White Haired Girl and the ballet;Zou Rong’s Revolutionary Army; | view film Red Brigade of Women; take quiz on Ding Ling’s When I Was in Xia Village, quiz on Regret for the Past; and quiz on A Kiss; |
| 2/17 | Discuss film Red Detachment; go over Henry Sumner Maine: Ancient Law; Marx and Engles: Manifesto of the Communist Party; clips of English Civil War , Diggers and Levelers; | Read Beloved China by Fang Zhimin; take Quiz on film Red Brigade of Women; |
| 2/19 | Discuss prison diaries Beloved China; communist humanism; Hannah Arendt: On Revolution; and Bertrand Russell: Problem of China; Rule by Law; | Screening film Lei Feng (1963) in class room; internationalists Norman Bethume: Agnes Smedley, Israel Epstein, Sydney Ritternberg (The Revolution); |
| 2/24 | Discuss film Lei Feng; clip of What’s Love Got to do with communism? Alain Badiou on Victor Hugo and Les Miserables; |
View film Hibiscus Town, dir. Xie Jin; Hayek on economic liberalism; |
| 2/26 | Discuss film Hibiscus Town; Wang Qiushe in Hegel’s vision of history; Mao‘s socialist utopia & dystopia; Keynes economics; | Read The Execution of Mayor Yin by Chen Ruoxi; |
| Maoism Discredited | and China Transformed | |
| 3/3 | Discuss The Execution of Mayor Yin; Rene Girard: Sacrificial Violence; Yi Xiaocuo: Blood Lineage in Afterlives of Chinese Communism (pp.17-22); Barbara Mittler: The Culture of Cultural Revolution; |
Read The Scar (pp.108-122) by Lu Xinhua; and quiz on A Small Town Called Hibiscus; |
| 3/5 | Discuss novella The Scar; the clip concealment law;Confucian teachings; and Antigone (441 B.C.); | Read novella by Zhang Xianliang: Old Man Xing and His Dog; |
| 3/10 | Discuss Old Man Xing and His Dog; go over China and the Human by David Eng; | View Blue Kite, dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang; read National Trauma Global Allegory: Construction of Collective Memory in Blue Kite by Zhang Xudong; |
| 3/12 | Discuss Blue Kite; go over Resisting Modernity in Contemporary China by Guo Jian and Does History Make Sense by Terry Pinkard: | View film Coming Home, dir. Zhang Yimou (2015); |
3/30 |
Discuss film Coming Home; go over Remembering Xiao Shan by Ba Jin and Living Hell by Wen Jieruo; |
Read novella Love Must Not Be Forgotten by Zhang Jie; |
| 10/31 | Discuss Love Must Not Be Forgotten; |
Read novella The Corner Forsaken by Love by Zhang Jie; |
| 4/2 | Discuss The Corner Forsaken by Love; go over The Road to Serfdom by Hayek; | View film To Live by Zhang Yimou; read article by Wang; |
| 4/7 | Discuss clips1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; go over Norman O. Brown on the psychoanalytical meanings of history, excerpts of Dialectics of Enlightenment by Horkheimer and Adorno; | View film Lost in Beijing dir. Li Yu;(Lost in Beijin); and take quiz on To Live; |
| The Post-Colonial Hong Kong | and Taiwan Trans-nationalized | |
| 4/9 | Discuss film clips 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Lost in Beijing; go over Carl Jung: The Undiscovered Self; Michael Sandel: What Money Can’t Buy; Clip of Karl Marx was Right; | View Happy Times, dir. Zhang Yimou; read Yi Zhongtian: Sacred Right of private property; |
| 4/14 | Discuss film Happy Times; with clips of Chaplin’s City Lights; go over The Problems of a Sociology of the Novel by Lucien Goldmann: | View A World without Thieves, dir. Feng Xiaogang; |
| 4/16 | Discuss film A World without Thieves; watch clip What’s Love Got to do with communism? go over debates of Hayek and Keynes; | View film by Wayne Wang Chinese Box; read Carl Jung: Modern Man in Search of a Soul; |
| 4/21 | Discuss film Chinese Box; clips1, 2, 3, and 4; go over read Kipling White man’s burden; historical Hong Kong; “Diaspora, Citizenship, Nationality: Hong Kong and 1997” by Sheldon Lu; | View film Comrades, Almost A Love Story; dir. Peter Chan; take quiz on Chinese Box; |
| 4/23 | Discuss film of Comrades, Almost A Love Story; go over The Theory of the Novel by Georg Lukazc: | View Eat Drink Man Woman dir. Ang Lee; |
| 4/28 | Discuss clips 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Eat Drink Man Woman by Ang Lee; | View film Wedding Banquet dir. Ang Lee; read “Breaking the Soy Sauce Jar: Diaspora and Displacement” by Dariotis and Fung; |
| 4/30 | Discuss clips 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Wedding Banquet by Ang Lee; |