The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Subject Description Form
Please read the notes at the end of the table carefully before completing the form.
Subject Code
CC2H02/CC2H02P
Subject Title
Chinese Geography and the Culture of Travel
中國的地理與旅遊文化
Credit Value
3
Level
2
Prerequisite /
Corequisite/
Exclusion
Objectives
Intended Learning
Outcomes
(Note 1)
Exclusion subjects for CC2H02: CC2H02P and CC229
Exclusion subjects for CC2H02P: CC2H02 and CC229
This subject explores the interaction between geography and cultural history.
Natural and man-made boundaries and routes by land and water have defined
China’s past and present. The subject will describe the resources and ecology
that favoured building the first settlements and then cities in the loess plateau by
the Yellow River and later shifted population eastward. It sketches the role
mountains such as the Five Sacred Peaks held in religious and political life. By
introducing hypotheses of how cities relate to the surrounding countryside, it
will offer critical perspectives on geography. The subject charts changing
conceptions of the Chinese world from “all under heaven” to a nation situated
on the continent of Asia and seeks to show how notions of sovereignty changed
the perceptions of travel from a harsh necessity for civil service, trade, or
pilgrimage to a leisure pastime and route to self knowledge. Through close
reading of texts on geography and travel and literary and visual texts depicting
cities, mountains and streams, students can discover how cultural values,
events, and relationships define China’s geography. They can also appreciate
human impact on the land and the role cultural memory plays in Chinese life.
Upon completion of the subject, students will be able to:
(a) comprehend the geography of China and its interaction with culture for
defining major regions and dialect groups, transportation routes and borders;
(b) chart the changing concepts of Chinese sovereignty from “all under heaven”
(tianxia) to a nation (guojia) located on the continent of Asia and how the state
enabled, hindered, or protected travellers;
(c) describe the factors causing cities and monuments to be first built in the
loess plateau along the Yellow River and subsequently shifted eastward;
(d) state the variety of purposes for travel, for civil service, trade, pilgrimage,
exile, or leisure and document the factors supporting to travel;
(e) read and comprehend texts on geography, exploration, famous sites, and
travel with attention to cultural and historical context and bring them to the
service of personal enrichment;
(f) fulfil Chinese Reading and Writing Requirements. Students who complete
the Chinese-language subject will be able to complete Reading and Writing
Requirements (CR, CW). CC will be responsible for the writing tutorials and
oversee CR, CW tasks.
Please explain how stated learning outcomes relate to the three essential
features of the GUR courses, Literacy, Higher-order thinking, and skills
for life-long learning
Literacy: The subject introduces geographical records and poetry, rhapsodies,
memoirs, and personal essays describing sites and people of the past. The study
materials introduced in the first weeks are in the classical language (or
translated from Classical Chinese). For students to comprehend them will
require intensive effort. Students will learn to draw key concepts out of a wealth
of detail concerning cities and towns, routes linking various parts of the Chinese
world, and the aims and rewards of travel. Reading, formulating responses
orally and in writing, and discussion will strengthen students’ ability to express
their thinking clearly and cogently.
Higher-order thinking: This is a multi-disciplinary subject. It builds on the
premise that geography is more than study of the physical world and is
structured by relationships, cultural perceptions of distance, and destinations
that one perceives as valuable, safe, and civilized—or the opposite. Students
can discover how the boundaries of the Chinese world changed over time and,
in turn, the ways in which the goals, risks, and rewards of travelling changed.
The subject asks them to synthesize information about imperial cities and
monuments, economy and circulation of goods and people, in order to
understand how attitudes toward travel took shape and changed over time.
Students will have a chance to discover why the Five Peaks (Wuyue) are sacred
places and sources of epiphany, for example, in the past and in the present.
Numerous texts describing cities, monuments, famous sites, temples or steles
were written long after cities fell, structures were ruined, and their makers
passed away. Therefore students must read texts on geography and travel with
sensitivity for the information places can yield about the rise and fall of a
dynasty, or a person’s life and death. Intended learning outcomes (a), (b), (c),
and (d) highlight the interaction between culture and place. The subject asks
students to integrate conceptual frameworks with study of factual materials.
Skills for life-long learning: The subject allows students to consider what sites
and landscapes reveal about past dynasties and individuals. It also invites them
to reflect on the many reasons for travel in the past and to reflect on their own
travels and experiences in the present and future. It requires students to think
critically about geography as a nexus of cultural, political, economic and social
practices. The subject also deals with human impacts on geography, at a time
when geography, resources and ecology are issues of critical importance. The
study of how mountains, rivers and streams, cities and villages came to be
destinations for travel (whether as the site for a battle or a poetry contest) can be
a source of considerable personal enrichment.
Subject Synopsis/
Indicative Syllabus
(Note 2)
1. China’s Geography in Cultural Perspective: “All under Heaven” (Tianxia)
2. Rivers and Seas: Water and Mythical Beasts as Factors in State Formation
3. The Nine States, Tribute Vessels, and Monuments to the Past
4. The Imperial Cities and Countryside: Who Lives Beyond the Walls?
5. The Five Peaks, Sacred Mountains and Pilgrimage
6. The Silk Road: Merchants, Monks and Trade with Central Asia
7. China’s Neighbors, Barbarian Cultures and Lands
8. A Tale of Two Cities: The architecture legacy of the Ming dynasty capitals
9. The Buddhist influence on travel, temples and disappearing statues
10. Regional culture, landscape and its reflection in painting
11. Landscape Poetry: Occasions for Writing and Reading Poems on Place
12, Consumer Culture and the Business of Printing Travel Guides
13. Great Cities and Trans-regional Networks: Skinner’s Model and His Critics
14. Visiting Famous Sites and Remembering the Past
Teaching/Learning
Methodology
(Note 3)
Lectures and tutorials are structured to foster teacher-student interaction as well
as respectful, active dialogue among students. Lectures will cover the material,
introducing the physical geography of China, key texts, and frameworks for
understanding geography and travel (both historical concepts and analytic
approaches). Students will be asked to formulate questions on the readings
before class; they will have chances to question one another in lecture. Students
will be asked to demonstrate their understanding of the items assigned for major
readings (CR) in a brief oral reports and in short abstracts of two books or
articles. The tutorial aims to build skills in identifying key themes, concepts,
and values and elaborating on the content of literary and visual materials.
A midterm paper, 3-5 pages, will ask students to explicate an idea or image that
they find interesting, in order to show the connection between geography and
cultural history and social relationships as well as travel. The final paper,
broadly conceived to cover the content of the subject, will ideally build on the
“Explication essay” and comments received at mid-term, to bring together the
key concepts learned in class and thus synthesize all five learning outcomes.
Assessment Methods
in Alignment with
Intended Learning
Outcomes
Specific assessment
methods/tasks
%
weighting
Intended subject learning outcomes to
be assessed (Please tick as
appropriate)
A
(Note 4)
B
1. Participation,
including questions
for discussion and an
oral report on major
readings CR
20%
√
√
2. Midterm paper
20%
√
√
c
√
D
√
E
√
√
f
CR
CR
CW
3. Quizzes
4. Final paper
20%
√
√
√
√
40%
√
√
√
√
√
√
CW
Total
100 %
For the fulfilment of CR and CW: students must demonstrate understanding of
CR readings in short reports to the class, as well as learning to annotate and
capture the gist of an article briefly and concisely.
Explanation of the appropriateness of the assessment methods in assessing
the intended learning outcomes:
The aim of the subject is to integrate knowledge the Chinese world, its
resources and ecology with conceptual frameworks through which one may
know the world. Participation in lecture and tutorials is weighted heavily.
Students will be asked to prepare responses to readings before class. Each
student will report on the readings orally, first, and then share their annotations
on major readings with classmates. This exercise will ask them to engage the
material. The student’s questions will reveal the grasp of facts and concepts;
they will also show where the student might be encountering difficulty. A quiz
will test their comprehension in week 9. A midterm paper requires students to
explain the significance of a place or monument; it is an Explication essay.
Their final paper will build on the Explication essay, by highlighting debate
over the significance of a place or monument, using critical sources to assess
two conflicting points of view.
The writing assignments require students to apply the concepts and frameworks
discussed in lecture and tutorials. There is a progression from simple reports on
readings (CR/CW) to focused discussion and explication of their interest in a
site, a monument, or an individual who visited there in the past.
One of the desired learning outcomes is that students will acquire the habit of
discussing and questioning ideas respectfully. The process of writing, revising,
and commenting on one another’s drafts will reinforce this habit of life-time
learning, listening, and attention.
Student Study Effort
Expected
Class contact:
•
Lectures
26 Hrs.
•
Tutorials
13 Hrs.
Other student study effort:
•
Reading
38 Hrs.
•
Writing
35 Hrs.
•
Group-based research (10-minute oral report)
Total student study effort
Reading List and
References
8 Hrs.
120 Hrs.
1. (CR) 葛劍雄著《人在時空之間 : 穿越千年時空, 體驗人文意境 》
北京：中華書局，2006。頁 3-48, 49-74。
2. 葛劍雄著《往事和近事》北京 : 生活．讀書．新知三聯書店, 1996。
3. (CR)葛劍雄著《長城》。
4. (CR)錢穆 著《古史地理論叢》臺北：東大圖書有限公司，1982。
頁 96-133, 134-139, 209-244。
5. 周振鶴著《長水聲聞》上海：復旦大學出版社，2010。
6. 譚其驤著《長水集》北京：人民出版社，1987。
7. 《禹貢》半月刊（河北，石家莊：華山文藝出版社，1994）。
8. 卜正民 (Timothy Brook)著《縱樂的困惑 : 明代的商業與文化》方駿,
王秀麗, 羅天佑譯 ; 方駿校（北京：生活、讀書、新知三聯出版社，
1994）。
9. 卜正民著《維梅爾的帽子 : 從一幅畫看十七世紀全球貿易 》黃中
憲譯 （臺北：遠流出版事業股份有限公司，2009）。
10. 卜正民著《為權力祈禱 : 佛教與晚明中國士紳社會的形成 》 張華
譯（南京:江蘇人民出版社，2008）。
11. (CR) 葉舒憲、蕭兵、鄭在書合著《山海經的文化尋蹤：想像地理
學與東西文化碰撞 》武漢市：湖南人民出版社，2004。第一、二
章。
12. 瓊 瑤 著《剪不斷的鄉愁》香港：皇冠出版公司 ，1996。
13. 施堅雅(G. William Skinner)著《中國農村的市場和社會結構》史建
雲, 徐秀麗譯 ; 虞和平校訂。北京：社會科學，1998。
14. (CR) 蘇曉康等著《河殤集外集》臺灣：風運時代出版公司，1990。
15. Gatrell, Anthony C. Distance and Space: A Geographical Perspective
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1983).
16. De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Stephen
Rendall (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2011).
17. Williams, Raymond. The country and the city (London: Chatto and
Windus, 1973).
18. Skinner, G. William, Marketing and social structure in rural China
(Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 1964).
19. Su Xiaokang and Wang Luxiang, Deathsong of the River: A Reader's
Guide to the Chinese TV Series Heshang, translated by Richard
Bodman and Pin Pin Wan (Ithaca, NY: East Asia Program, Cornell
University, 1991).
20. Chao, Paul K. I. with Foreword by Joseph Needham. The Changing
Geography of China (Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, 1990).
21. Brook, Timothy. Geographical Sources for Ming-Qing History (Ann
Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies, 2002).
22. Timothy Brook. Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of
Gentry Society in Late Ming China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1993).
23. Mote, Frederick. “The Transformation of Nanking, 1350-1400,” in G.
William Skinner, ed., The City in Late Imperial China (Stanford, CA;
Stanford University Press, 1977), pp. 101-154.
24. von Glahn, Richard. “ ‘All Under Heaven’”: Borders of Land and Sea,”
in Edward L. Shaughnessy, ed., China: The Land of the Heavenly
Dragon (London: Duncan Baird, 2000), pp. 12- 23.
25. Strassberg, Richard. Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from
Imperial China (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1994). Introduction (pp. 1-56), and pp. 63-66, 67-72.
26. Strassberg, Richard. A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the
Guideways through the Mountains and Seas (Shanhai Jing) (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2002).
27. Appadurai, Arjun. “How Histories Make Geographies: Circulation and
Context in Global Perspective.” Transcultural Studies No. 1 (2010):
4-13.
28. Liu, Lydia. Clash of Empires: The Invention of China in Modern World
Making (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994).
29. Brook, Timothy. Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the
Dawn of the Global World (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008).
30. Fa Hien, translated by James Legge. A record of Buddhistic kingdoms;
Being an account by the Chinese monk Fa‚-Hien of his travels in India
and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of
discipline (New York: Dover Books, 1965).
31. Pallis, Marco. Peaks and Lamas: A Classic Book on Mountaineering,
Buddhism, and Tibet.
32. Wu Hong. Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture
(Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995).
33. Clapp, Anne de Coursey. The Painting of Tang Yin (Chicago, Ill:
University of Chicago Press, 1991).
34. Juliano, Annette and Judith Lerner, et al. Monks and merchants : Silk
Road treasures from Northwest China, Gansu and Ningxia, 4th-7th
century (New York: Harry N. Abrams with the Asia Society, 2001),
Preface, Parts I and II, pp. 3-153.
35. Paul Theroux. Riding the Iron Rooster, By Train Through China (UK:
Penguin Books, 1989).
36. John Einarsen. The Sacred Mountains of Asia (Shambhala, 1995).
Note 1:
Intended Learning Outcomes
Intended learning outcomes should state what students should be able to do or attain upon completion of the subject.
Subject outcomes are expected to contribute to the attainment of the overall programme outcomes.
Note 2:
Subject Synopsis/ Indicative Syllabus
The syllabus should adequately address the intended learning outcomes. At the same time over-crowding of the
syllabus should be avoided.
Note 3:
Teaching/Learning Methodology
This section should include a brief description of the teaching and learning methods to be employed to facilitate
learning, and a justification of how the methods are aligned with the intended learning outcomes of the subject.
Note 4:
Assessment Method
This section should include the assessment method(s) to be used and its relative weighting, and indicate which of the
subject intended learning outcomes that each method purports to assess. It should also provide a brief explanation of
the appropriateness of the assessment methods in assessing the intended learning outcomes.