Type of Credit: Partially Required
Credit(s)
Number of Students
We explore how Western images of China and Taiwan have changed over time, while attempting to understand both the how and why stereotypes and distortions occur. The course covers a range of images and time periods, from the ancient world to contemporary Western images in Europe and the United States. We will look at written texts, visual images, and film. We study the possibility that Western images of China/Taiwan are self-referential, that analysis of these stereotypes might tell us something about Western observers and commentators. We will also be sensitive to Chinese/Taiwanese attempts to shape Western images of China.
能力項目說明
The course will be especially valuable to students who wish to develop their English-language reading, speaking, and writing skills while studying the intellectual/cultural/political history of Western perceptions of China and Taiwan.
教學週次Course Week | 彈性補充教學週次Flexible Supplemental Instruction Week | 彈性補充教學類別Flexible Supplemental Instruction Type |
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1 - September 13 – Introduction to the Course; Early Images; Jesuits, Philosophes, and Chinoiserie
– Colin Mackerras, Western Images of China chapters 1 & 2
– DuHalde, General History of China (1741)
– Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
– François Quesnay, Le despotisme de la Chine (1767)
2 – September 20 – Changing Fashions: Nineteenth Century Images of China
– John Barrow, Travels in China (1804)
– Rev. Arthur Smith, Chinese Characteristics (1894)
3 – September 27 – Early Western Images of Taiwan; Psalmanazar’s Fraud
– George Psalmanazar, Description of Formosa (1704-5)
http://www.romanization.com/books/psalmanazaar/index.html
– George Mackay, From Far Formosa (1895)
– Janet B. Montgomery, Among the Head-Hunters of Formosa (1922)
4 - October 4 – Western Images of Republican China/Imperial Japan
– Frank J. Goodnow, “Reform in China,” American Political Science Review (May 1915)
– Adam Warwick, “A Thousand Miles Along the Great Wall of China,” National Geographic (February 1923)
– Herge, Tintin: Blue Lotus (1935)
– Tobias Grey, “What Tintin Taught Europeans About China,” Wall Street Journal (December 25, 2020)
– “The Sack of Nanjing,” Reader’s Digest (June 1938)
– “We were in Nanjing,” Reader’s Digest (October 1938)
5 - October 11 – Edgar Snow’s Red Star over China
– Edgar Snow, Red Star over China (1937)
6 – October 18 – Allies: China and World War II
– Theodore H. White, “Life Looks at China,” Life (May 1, 1944), pp. 99-110 (Google Books)
– Video (in-class): “Why We Fight: The Battle of China” (Frank Capra 1944) and discussion
7 – October 25 – The Civil War and Communist Takeover of China, KMT and Taiwan
– Derk Bodde, Peking Diary (1950)
– Edgar Snow, The Other Side of the River: Red China Today (1961)
– “Progress on Formosa,” Time (July 28, 1952)
– “Formosa: A Question of Justice,” Time (June 3, 1957)
– “Formosa: Ten Years Later,” Time (November 30, 1959)
– “Formosa: Success Story,” Time (March 8, 1963)
8 – November 1: The Cultural Revolution and the West
– Jan Myrdal, China: The Revolution Continued (1970)
– Julia Lovell, Global Maoism (2019)
– Paul Hollander, Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba 1928-1978 (1981)
– Robin D.G. Kelley and Betsy Esch, “Black like Mao: Red China and Black Revolution,” Souls (Fall1999)
– “Visualizing Early 1970s China through the Lens of the Committee of Concerned Asian
Scholars (CCAS) Friendship Delegations,” Cross-Current: East Asian History and Culture Review
– “Repudiating Antonioni’s Anti-China Film,” Peking Review (February 22, 1974)
– Video (excerpts, in class): “Chung Kou” (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1972)
9 – November 8 – Midterm examination
10 – November 15 – Nixon in China
– Video (in-class): “Nixon in China (The Film)” (1972) and discussion
– “An Unacceptable Deal,” Washington Post (December 11, 1974)
– James Mann, About Face excerpts
11– November 22 – Western Feminism and Maoist China
– Shirley MacLaine, You Can Get There from Here (1975)
– Michael J. Hathaway, “China’s Forgotten Role in Western Second-Wave Feminism,” Asian Perspectives (2018)
12 – November 29 – Post-Mao: Deng Xiaoping’s opening to the World/Taiwan’s Democratization
– Jay Mathews, “China, U.S. Steel Sign Contract for $1 Billion Plant,” Washington Post (January 6, 1979)
– Edward Friedman, “Exploding the China Myth,” Washington Post (June 13, 1982)
– Joseph Kraft, “Don’t Overrate China,” Washington Post (April 24, 1984)
– Arnold Isaacs, “Lost in the Translation: AMC’s Failed Experiment in China,” Washington Post (January 30, 1990)
– “Taiwan: The other China Changes Course,” National Geographic (1993)
– James Mann, About Face selections
13 – December 6 – Western Eyes and Tiananmen Square June 4, 1989
– Daniel Southerland, “Students Press Deng for Rapid Changes,” Washington Post (January 4, 1987)
– James Mann, About Face selections
14 – December 13 – China’s Rise/Beijing 2008
– John Pomfret, “China Making Life Tougher for Foreign Firms,” Washington Post (December 19, 1998)
– Carla Hills, “Seize the Deal,” Washington Post (November 21, 1999)
– E.J. Dionne, “China: Profit and Principle,” Washington Post (September 15, 2000)
– “After the China Vote,” Washington Post (September 23, 2000)
– Nicholas Kristof, “China’s Rise Goes Beyond Gold Medals,” New York Times (August 21, 2008)
– Keith Bradsher, “Speedy Trains Transform China,” New York Times (September 23, 2013)
15 – December 20 – After Beijing 2008: From Soft Power/“China’s Rise” to “Sharp Power”
– Joshua Ramo, Brand China (2007)
– “Buying love; Soft power,” Economist (March 25, 2017)
– “Sharp power; China and the West,” Economist (December 16, 2017)
– “A Chinese Mirror,” Economist (April 4, 2020)
16 – December 27 – Final Examination
Flexible learning weeks (17&18): to be announced
Evaluation criteria:
– late essay accepted December 28 – 10% reduction; January 4 – 20% reduction
– 4-6 double-spaced, typed pages
– Subject: “Critical analysis of one source of Western Images of China and/or Taiwan”
– more details to be announced in class
see course syllabus
書名 Book Title | 作者 Author | 出版年 Publish Year | 出版者 Publisher | ISBN | 館藏來源* | 備註 Note |
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Course Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1hAfDAN3H4cVeM9xmpUHq7nd6W3L_Ly3z