ANTH2410/UGA2180 Chinese Culture and Society
Lecture time:
Wednesday 2:30-4:15
Venue: NAH 213
Tutorial time:
Wednesday 4:30-5:15
Venue: NAH 401
Thursday 1:30-2:15
NAH 401
Lecturer: Dr. Antonella Diana ([email protected])
Office: Room 322 Humanities Building
Tel: 2609-7707
Consultation Hours: Tuesday 1:30 p.m. and by appointment
Teaching Assistant: Yuan Changgeng ([email protected], office NAH 301)
Course Description
This course examines Chinese society and culture from the perspective of sociocultural anthropology. The topics that we
will address—family, kinship, social relations, the state, gender, class, religion and belief, ethnicity, education, nationalism,
and space— are central concerns of the discipline of anthropology as well as crucial sites for understanding the
distinctiveness of Chinese culture and society. By focusing on both the ‘traditional’ and the contemporary the course poses
the question of how to explain cultural and social continuity in a country as large and diverse as the People’s Republic of
China.
Learning Outcomes
Students will be made to reflect on how social, cultural, and political institutions in imperial, socialist and post-socialist
times provide lenses for understanding China.
Upon completing this course, students will be able to:
-analyze Chinese culture and society holistically
- recognize the core cultural features and main social institutions of China throughout history
-reflect on the ways in which religion, gender, family, education, social relations and spatial organization are intertwined
with governing in both imperial and contemporary China
- use the analytical tools they have acquired during the course to understand China, Hong Kong and Chinese overseas
communities.
Medium of Instruction
Lecture: English
Tutorial: English
Course Assessment
There are 4 assessment components: tutorial participation and a group oral presentation, a take-home exam, and a research
essay. Students must complete all assessment components to pass the course.
Assessment
Percentage
Word
duration
length/time Due Date
1 Tutorial Participation
&
Group Oral Presentation
2 Book reviews
Take-home Exam
15%
40%
45%
On-going
15 minutes
3,000 words in total
3,000 words
Chosen tutorial week
29 February
25 April
Tutorial Participation & Group Oral Presentation (15%)
Part of students’ responsibility is regular attendance and participation in class discussion. The awarding of high
participation points comes with good attendance and active, thoughtful, consistent class participation, the kind that reveals
thorough preparation and engagement with class materials. This means contributing ideas as well as providing constructive
responses to other students’ comments.
Each student is required to attend lectures and a minimum number of 9 tutorials to pass the course. Attendance sheets
will be used for tutorials. If you miss more than 2 tutorials without adequate documentation (doctor’s certificate or
counselling certificate), you will gain 0 mark for tutorial participation.
Note: Tutorial 1 is on (week 2)
By the second week of the course students should form work teams of 5-6 members each (number of members will vary
according to the total enrolments in the course). Each team will choose a tutorial week on which they will give a
presentation on the week’s theme. The presentation will be based on two extra readings other than those required for the
lecture. Readings for the presentation won’t be provided by the lecturer but students should search them independently or
seek teacher’s advice to identify suitable readings.
Teams should notify the tutor about their chosen presentation date on week 2. The presentation is expected to provide a clear
introduction and critical engagement with the chosen readings, as well as raise questions for the following class discussion.
Note: On the first tutorial week (week 2) there will be no presentations but all students should contribute to a general
discussion on the week’s lecture theme.
Book Reviews (40%)
Students are required to write two 1,500-word reviews each of a book related to Chinese Culture and Society.
Further details regarding the book review will be provided on week 1. The paper should follow the department’s citation
style. A list of books is provided below in the syllabus.
You can hand the reviews to your tutor or in the Anthropology Department. The book reviews are due on 29 February.
Take-home exam 45%
This will take place during the mid-term period. You will have one week to complete 3 out of 5 questions that draw on the
lecture and tutorial readings (there will be no requirement for further research). The take-home exam paper should be
3,000 words in length. The questions will be circulated on week 6. The take-home exam paper will be due on 25 April.
There will be no extensions for the research essay without adequate documentation (such as a doctor’s or counselling
certificate) or negotiation with me. Late assignments will be penalised at 5% every working day. Papers more than 2 weeks late will not
be marked.
The grading scale follows the University policy.
For extensions, the same rules indicated for the book reviews apply.
Note on readings:
2 Students are expected to come to the lecture having read the Required Readings. Since the lectures will be mainly based on
this material, reading it in advance will facilitate interaction between the students and the lecturer and produce deeper
engagement with the topic.
3 Overview of course themes
Part One: Introduction
Week 1
11 January
Introduction: Geography, History, and the Anthropology of China
Week 2
18 January
Meanings of Chineseness
Part Two: The Pillars of Chinese Society and Culture
Week 3
1February
Religions and Worldview
Week 4
8 February
Family and Kinship
Week 5
15 February
Social Structure
Week 6
22 February
Guanxi and other Social Relations
Part Three: Nation-building and Social Change under Socialism and Post-Socialism
Week 7
29 February
Gender Relations
Week 8
7 March
Ethnicity and Nationalism
Week 9
14 March
Urban and Rural Transformations
Week 10
21 March
Educational Cultures, Social Mobility, and “Quality”
Week 11
28 March
Space, Class and Power
Week 12
11 April
Chinese Overseas
Week 13
18 April
Conclusion and Review
4 Schedule of Classes and Readings
Part One: Introduction
Week 1
11 January
Introduction: Geography, History, and the Anthropology of China
Required Reading
Wolf, Eric Robert. 1969. Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. New York: Harper and Row, Chapter on China, pp. 103-155.
Week 2 :
18 January
Meanings of Chineseness
Required Reading
Cohen, Myron. 1991. “Being Chinese: The Peripheralization of Traditional Identity.” Daedalus (120):113-134.
Watson, James. 1991. The Renegotiation of Chinese Cultural Identity in the Post-Mao Era. Occasional Paper No. 4. Social Sciences
Research Center, and Department of Sociology. University of HK, pp. 3-26.
Part Two: The Pillars of Chinese Society and Culture
Week 3
1 February
Religions and Worldviews
Required Reading
Shahar, Meir, and Robert P. Weller. 1996. “Introduction: Gods and Society in China” In M. Shahar and R. P. Weller, eds.
Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, pp. 1-36.
Li, Yiyuan. 1998 (1993). “The traditional Chinese view of the cosmos and the practices of everyday life.” In M.R. Dutton,
ed. Streetlife China. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, Pp. 31-38.
Week 4
8 February
Family and Kinship
Required Reading
Freedman, Maurice. 1966. Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung. “Village, Lineage, and Clan”, London : Athlone
Press ; New York : Humanities Press, pp. 1-42.
Davis, Deborah and Stevan Harrell. 1993. “Introduction: the impact of Post Mao Reforms on family life” In D. Davis and
S. Harrell, eds. Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp 1-22.
Film: “Yellow Earth”
Week 5
15 February
Social Structure
Required Reading
Fei, Hsiao-Tung. 1946. “Peasantry and Gentry: An Interpretation of Chinese Social Structure and its Changes.” American
Journal of Sociology (52): 1-17.
Mao, T'se-tung. 1975. Selected Works of Mao T'se-Tung. volume 1, “Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society” and “Report of
an Investigation into the Peasant Movement in Hunan.”. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, pp. 13-59.
5 Week 6
22 February
Guanxi and Other Social Relations
Required Reading
Yang, Mayfair Mei-hui. 1994. Gifts, Favors, and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China. “The Scope and Use of
Guanxi”. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 75-108.
Yan, Yunxiang. 1996. The Flow of Gifts: Reciprocity and Social Networks in a Chinese Village. “The Gift Economy and Guanxi
Networks.” Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 74-97.
Part Three: Nation-Building and Social Change under Socialism and Post-socialism
Week 7
29 February
Gender Relations
Required Reading
Mann, Susan. 2002. “Grooming a Daughter for Marriage” In Susan Brownell and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom eds Chinese
Femininities, Chinese Masculinities : a Reader. Berkeley : University of California Press, pp. 93-119.
Evans, Harriet. 2002. “Past, Perfect, or Imperfect: Changing Images of the Ideal Wife” In Susan Brownell and Jeffrey N.
Wasserstrom eds., Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities : a Reader.; Berkeley : University of California Press, pp.
335-360.
Book Reviews due (soft copy will be posted on Moodle)
Week 8
7 March
Rural and Urban Transformations
Wang, Fei-Ling 2005. Organizing through division and exclusion: China's Hukou system. “The Origin and Evolution of China’s
Hukou System”, Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2005, pp. 32 – 60.
Solinger, Dorothy. 1999. Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State, and the Logic of the Market. Ch 6
“Urban Bureaucracies II: Peasants Enter Urban Labor Markets”, pp. 194-240
Week 9
14 March
Ethnicity and Nationalism
Required Reading
Harrell, Stevan. 1995. “Introduction: Civilizing Projects and the Reactions to Them”. In S. Harrell, ed. Cultural Encounters on
China's Ethnic Frontiers. Seattle: University of Washington Press, pp. 3-36.
Wu, David. 1990. “Chinese Minority Policy and the Meaning of Minority Culture: The Example of Bai in Yunnan, China.”
In Human Organization 49(1): 1-13.
Week 10
21 March
Educational Cultures, Social Mobility, and “Quality”
Required Reading
Kipnis, Andrew. 2011. Governing educational desire: culture, politics, and schooling in China. Ch1 ‘Introduction’ and Ch 4
‘Historicizing Educational Desire: Governing in the East Asian Tradition’. Chicago: University of Chicago Press ,
pp. 1-17, 90-130.
Bakken, Børge. 2000. The Exemplary Society: Human Improvement, Social Control, and the Dangers of Modernity in China. Ch 3
‘Socialization, Moral Education, and 'Moral Science'’. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 85-126.
Week 11
28 March
Space, Class and Power
6 Required Readings
Zhang, Li. 2001. “Migration and Privatization of Space and Power in Late Socialist China”. American Ethnologist 28(1):179205
-
(2010) In Search of Paradise: Middle-Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis. Ch 4 ‘Spatializing Class’. Ithaca and London:
Cornell University Press. pp. 107-136.
Week 12
11 April
Chinese Overseas
Required Reading
Kwong, Peter. 2005. In Chinese America: The Untold Story of America’s Oldest New Community. “Introduction.” NY: New Press
pp. ix - xvii
Suryadinata, Leo. 1997. Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians. “Ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia: Overseas Chinese, Chinese
Overseas or Southeast Asians?” London: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, pp. 1-24
Week 13
18 April
Conclusion and Review
Wu, David YH. 2002. “The Construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese Identities.” In Susan D. Blum and Lionel M.
Jensen. China off Center: Mapping the Margins of the Middle Kingdom. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp.167-184.
Take-home exam due on 25 April
7 Course Texts and Suggested Books for Reviews:
Bakken, Børge. 2000. The Exemplary Society: Human Improvement, Social Control, and the Dangers of Modernity in China. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Blum, Susan D. and Lionel M. Jensen. 2002. China off Center: Mapping the Margins of the Middle Kingdom. Honolulu: University
of Hawaii Press
Buoye, Thomas. et al.. 2002. China: Adapting the Past, Confronting the Future. Ann Arbor, Mich. : Center for Chinese Studies,
University of Michigan.
Chau, Adam. Yuet. 2006. Miraculous Response: Doing Popular Religion in Contemporary China. Stanford: Stanford University
Press.
Croll, Elisabeth. 1995. Changing Identities of Chinese Women: Rhetoric, Experience, and Self-Perception in Twentieth-Century China. HK:
HKU Press.
Davis, Deborah and Stevan Harrell eds. 1993. Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Fei, Xiaotong. 1992 [1947]. From the soil, the foundations of Chinese society: a translation of Fei Xiaotong's Xiangtu Zhongguo. X. Fei,
G.G. Hamilton, and Z. Wang, eds.. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Freedman, Maurice. 1958. Lineage Organization in Southeastern China. London: Athlone Press.
-- 1970. Family and Kinship in Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
-- 1971. Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung. London : Athlone Press ; New York : Humanities Press.
Friedmann, John. (2005) China's urban transition, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Guest, Ken. 2003. God in Chinatown: Religion and Survival in NY’s Evolving Immigrant Community. New York: New York
University Press.
Harrell, Stevan ed..1995. Cultural Encounters on China's Ethnic Frontiers. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
--2001. Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Ikels, Charlotte. 2004. In Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Kipnis, Andrew B.. 1997. Producing Guanxi: Sentiment, Self, and Subculture in a North China Village. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press.
--2011. Governing educational desire: culture, politics, and schooling in China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kwong, Peter. 2005. Chinese America: The Untold Story of America’s Oldest New Community. New York: New Press
Li, Yiyuan. 1998) [1993]. Streetlife China. M.R. Dutton, ed. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Liu, Xin. 2000. In One Own's Shadow: An Ethnographic Account of the Condition of Post-Reform Rural China. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Mao, T'se-tung. 1975. Selected Works of Mao T'se-Tung. volume 1, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.
Nieto, Gladys. 2003. China Today: Economic Reforms, Social Cohesion, and Collective Identities. . London: Routledge Curzon
Palmer, David. 2007. Qinggong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China. New York: Columbia University Press.
Perry, Elizabeth J and Mark Selden. 2010. Chinese Society: Change, Conflict, and Resistance.. London ; New York : Routledge
8 See, Chinben. 1992. The Chinese Immigrants: Selected Writings of Professor Chinben See. De La Salle University
Skinner, G. William ed.. 1977. The City in Late Imperial China. California: Stanford University Press.
Solinger, Dorothy. 1999. Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State, and the Logic of the Market. Berkeley :
University of California Press, c1999.
Suryadinata, Leo. 1997. Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians. London: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Wang, Fei-Ling. 2005. Organizing through division and exclusion: China's Hukou system. Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University
Press.
Watson, Rubie and Watson, James L. .2004. Village life in Hong Kong: politics, gender, and ritual in the New Territories. HK:
Chinese University Press.
Wolf, Arthur P.. 1974. Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society. A. P. Wolf, ed. pp. 131-182. Stanford: Stanford University
Press.
Wolf, Margery. 1972. Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Yan, Yunxiang. 1996. The Flow of Gifts: Reciprocity and Social Networks in a Chinese Village. Stanford: Stanford University Press
Yang, C.K.. 1961. Religion in Chinese Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Yang, Mayfair Mei-hui. 1994. Gifts, Favors, and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press.
--1999. Spaces of Their Own: Women's Public Sphere in Transnational China., Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Zhang, Li (2001) Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power, and Social Networks within China's Floating Population.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
--2010. In Search of Paradise: Middle-Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
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