Subject Area: Chinese Studies

This course is intended to serve as an introduction to the evolution of Chinese cinema in its cultural, literary and historical context. We will examine issues related to "modernization," communism, nationalism, cultural conflict, war, revolution and gender roles against a backdrop of Chinese history and politics provided in class via lecture and discussion. At the end of this course, students can expect to have developed some or all of the following to a basic degree: have viewed critically representative filmic productions of the modern and contemporary Chinese historical periods, which reflect the political and social milieu of the times; acquired a basic understanding of major events in recent Chinese history; done close comparative reading of some important Chinese literary texts of the modern and contemporary periods, on which a number of filmic adaptations are based; developed reflective and critical thinking skills; developed essay writing skills.