Prerequisites
CHIN 0800-level
Texts
Selected short stories and essays by 20th-century Chinese writers.
Course Description
These two courses are designed for students who have completed a minimum of four years of college level Mandarin classes or equivalent. They can be taken in reverse order. The objectives of the courses are three-fold: 1) to facilitate the development of students’ advanced reading and writing proficiency; 2) to help students gain an in-depth, multi-faceted and non-judgmental perspective of Chinese people, society and culture; and 3) to develop students’ analytical and critical thinking skills when evaluating literary works. These objectives are achieved primarily through close reading and discussion of original literary texts by 20th– century Chinese writers. The reading texts are diverse in terms of time, location and ideology. Six broadly-defined topics are covered in the two courses: family and kinship, education (tradition and ideology), women and equality, love, sexuality and marriage, “face” and rule by law, political movements and human nature.
Sample Text:
我爸爸是个不苟言笑的严肃老头，别看就我一个女儿，他可从没对我说过一名疼爱的话。我对他也是冷冷的。我考上昆明一所学校要走了。妈妈轻轻啜泣着，爸爸却说：“哭什么?咱丫头有福气，那地方是全国有名的宝地，四季如春，咱一辈子还到不了那宝贝地方呢！”我心里真不高兴，到校好多天也没给家里写信。写第一封信的称呼也只有妈妈，看他气不气。春节放假了，我回家，发现爸爸的脾气越来越怪了。明明另一个频道有电视剧他不让看，偏得从头到尾把中央台的天气预报看完才让人换频道，妈妈都不敢干涉他。我偏不信，气呼呼地说：“人老了就是毛病多，这有什么好看的？真是！”（From靳凤羽《天气预报爱好者》）