Gender and its construction and symbolism have been central to political, social, and literary movements within twentieth century China. In this class we will look at the construction of gender and sexuality in Modern Chinese literature. We will look at gender and sexuality as portrayed in the May Fourth literary movement, socialist realism literature, Post-Mao “scar” and experimental fiction. We will read historical texts, non-fiction narratives, and fiction from the early twentieth century to the present looking at ways that gender is defined for the individual and society in China, and how it is portrayed in both rural and urban settings. Background lectures will help to contextualize the readings within a cultural, literary, and historical context.
Prerequisites:
None
Learning outcomes:
Develop and understanding of a broad range of issues relating to gender and sexuality in recent
Chinese history and contemporary Chinese society
Develop an ability to consider “gender as a category of analysis” when discussing Chinese literature and Chinese society
Gain a familiarity with a spectrum of Chinese literary works (including fiction and non-fiction) from the past century
Introduce students to some of the key themes of recent Chinese history through literature.
Method of presentation:
The course will be lecture with a strong discussion/seminar component
Required work and form of assessment:
• Discussion Leaders: Every student will be responsible for leading discussion twice during our month-long course. (10%)
• Analytic Response Papers: Please bring a one-page single-typed response paper to class every Monday and Thursday. These papers should be analytic rather than descriptive and should critically examine the readings for that day (25%)
• Class Participation: The class is structured as a seminar. I look forward to active class discussions regarding the texts. (25%)
• Paper: A 15-page paper will be due on the last day of class—March 30 (40%)
content:
Week 1
Gender Construction: Symbolism and Allegory
Monday: Introduction
Lu Xun, “New Year’s Sacrifice” pp.17-26 (MC)
Antonia Finane, Changing Clothes in China: Fashion, History, Nation (NY: Columbia University
Press, 2008), pp. 188-200
Tuesday: The Woman Question
Paola Zamperini, “But I Never Learned to Waltz: The “Real” and Imagined Education of a Courtesan in the Late Qing.” Nan nü 1.1 (1999), pp. 116 -124 (e-reserve).
Joan Judge, The Precious Raft of History: The Past, The West, and the Woman Question in China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008) Chapter Two, “Public Women: Licentious or Evolved,” pp. 60-83.
Lu Xun, “Anxious Thoughts on ‘Natural Breasts,” (1927) in Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang trans,Lu Xun, Selected Works vol. II (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1957), pp. 353-355.
Feng Yuanjun, “Separation,” (1923). In Dooling & Torgeson eds., Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 101-113
Lu Yin, “After Victory,”(1925), in Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 135-56
Thursday: The New Woman con’t: Female Subjectivity and Gender Roles
Ling Shuhua, “Embroidered Pillows,” pp. 197-199 (MC)
“The Night of Mid-autumn Festival,” pp. 200-205 (MC) “Once Upon a Time” (1928)
Friday:
Chen Xuezhao, “The Woes of the Modern Woman,” (1927) In Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 169-173
Chen Ying, “Woman” (1929), in Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 279-289
Week 2
Monday: Male Female Subjectivity, Sexuality, and the Chinese Nation
Yu Dafu, “Sinking” (1921)
Ding Ling, Miss Sophia’s Diary (1927)
Tuesday:
Film: Xin nuxing, Dir. Cai Chusheng (1935)
Kristine Harris, “The New Woman Incident: Cinema, Scandal, and Spectacle in 1935 Shanghai”
Thursday: Socialist Construction of Gender
Ding Ling
“When I Was In Xia Village,” pp. 268-278 (MC)
“Thoughts on March 8th,” in I Myself am a Woman: Selected Writings of Ding Ling, pp. 316-317
Ru Zhijuan, “The Warmth of Spring” (1959). In Amy D. Dooling ed., Writing Women in Modern
China: The Revolutionary Years, 1936-76 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), pp. 275-290.
Wang Zheng, “Call Me Qingnian But Not Funü: A Maoist Youth in Retrospect.” In Xueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, and Bai Di editors, Some of Us: Women Growing up in the Mao Era (New Bruinswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001), pp. 27-53
Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)
Friday:
Zhang Xianliang, Half of Man is Woman (1-157)
Week 3
Monday:
Zhang Xianliang, Half of Man is Woman (161-252)
Tuesday:
Film: Army Nurse, Dir. Hu Mei, 1985
Thursday: Nostalgia and the Cultural Revoltuion
WANG Xiaobo, “”2015” and “The Golden Age.” In Wang in Love and Bondage: Three Novellas by Wang Xiaobo. Translated by Hongling Zhang and Jason Sommer. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007)
Friday: Femininity/Masculinity: Responses to Socialist Configurations of Gender
Su Tong, “The Brothers Shu” (Mao)
Chen Ran, “Sunshine Between the Lips,” pp.112-129 (Mao)
Monday: Same Sex Desires
Zhang Mei, “A Record,” In Patricia Sieber, ed., Red is not the Only Color: Contemporary Chinese Fiction on Love and Sex Between Women, collected stories. (New York: Rowan & Littlefield ( 2001), pp. 73-92.
Wang Anyi, “Brothers.” In Red is not the Only Color, pp. 93-141
Lin Bai, “The Seat on the Verandah,” trans. Hu Ying
Wang Xiaobo, “East Palace, West Palace, in Wang in Love and Bondage.
Tuesday: Globalization and Commercial Literature
Wei Hui, Shanghai Baobei
Thursday: Gender and Sexuality Art
Fieldtrip to Dashanzi 798 Art District
Friday: Yu Hua, Brothers, pp. 474-528
Week 5
Monday: Guest Lecture
Tuesday: Paper Due!
Paper Presentations
Required readings:
• Chen Ran, “Sunshine Between the Lips,” In Xueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, and Bai Di editors,Some of Us: Women Growing up in the Mao Era (New Bruinswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,2001)
• Chen Xuezhao, “The Woes of the Modern Woman,” (1927) In Writing Women in Modern China, pp.169-173
• Chen Ying, “Woman” (1929), in Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 279-289
• Ding Ling, Miss Sophia’s Diary (1927)
• Ding Ling, “When I Was In Xia Village,” pp. 268-278, “Thoughts on March 8th,” in I Myself am a Woman: Selected Writings of Ding Ling, pp. 316-317
• Feng Yuanjun, “Separation,” (1923). In Dooling & Torgeson eds., Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 101-113
• Antonia Finane, Changing Clothes in China: Fashion, History, Nation (NY: Columbia University
Press, 2008), pp. 188-200
• Kristine Harris, “The New Woman Incident: Cinema, Scandal, and Spectacle in 1935 Shanghai”
• Lin Bai, “The Seat on the Verandah,” trans. Hu Ying
• Ling Shuhua, “Embroidered Pillows,” pp. 197-199, “The Night of Mid-autumn Festival,” pp. 200-205, “Once Upon a Time” (1928)
• Lu Xun, “New Year’s Sacrifice” pp.17-26
• Lu Xun, “Anxious Thoughts on ‘Natural Breasts,” (1927) in Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang trans, Lu Xun, Selected Works vol. II (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1957), pp. 353-355.
• Lu Yin, “After Victory,”(1925), in Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 135-56
• Joan Judge, The Precious Raft of History: The Past, The West, and the Woman Question in China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008) Chapter Two, “Public Women: Licentious or Evolved,” pp. 60-83.
• Ru Zhijuan, “The Warmth of Spring” (1959). In Amy D. Dooling ed., Writing Women in Modern China: The Revolutionary Years, 1936-76 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), pp. 275-290.
• Su Tong, “The Brothers Shu” In Xueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, and Bai Di editors, Some of Us: Women Growing up in the Mao Era (New Bruinswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001)
• Wang Anyi, “Brothers.” In Red is not the Only Color, In Patricia Sieber, ed., Red is not the Only Color: Contemporary Chinese Fiction on Love and Sex Between Women, collected stories. (New York: Rowan & Littlefield ( 2001), pp. 93-141
• Wang Xiaobo, “East Palace, West Palace” ”2015” and “The Golden Age.” In Wang in Love and Bondage: Three Novellas by Wang Xiaobo. Translated by Hongling Zhang and Jason Sommer. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007)
• Wang Zheng, “Call Me Qingnian But Not Funü: A Maoist Youth in Retrospect.” In Xueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, and Bai Di editors, Some of Us: Women Growing up in the Mao Era (New Bruinswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001), pp. 27-53
• Wei Hui, Shanghai Baobei
• Yu Dafu, “Sinking” (1921)
• Yu Hua, Brothers
• Paola Zamperini, “But I Never Learned to Waltz: The “Real” and Imagined Education of a Courtesan in the Late Qing.” Nan nü 1.1 (1999), pp. 116 -124
• Zhang Mei, “A Record,” In Patricia Sieber, ed., Red is not the Only Color: Contemporary Chinese Fiction on Love and Sex Between Women, collected stories. (New York: Rowan & Littlefield ( 2001), pp. 73-92.
• Zhang Xianliang, Half of Man is Woman
Other Resources:
Articles on Reserve:
Zhong Xueping: “Male Suffering and Male Desire: The Politics of Reading Half of Man is Woman by Zhang Xianglian,” in Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State, ed. Chrisitna K. Gilmartin, Gail Hershatter, Lisa Rofel, Tyrene White, Harvard University Press, 1994, 175-91.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Eileen Vickery has a Master’s degree in Asian Studies (1997) and a doctorate in Chinese Literature and Languages (2004) from the University of Oregon. She studied intensive Chinese at the Stanford Center at Taiwan University in Taipei from 1997-1998 and at Nankai University in Tianjin in 1996. Eileen first came to China in 1992 to teach English at Qufu Teachers’ University in Shandong. Her research focuses on the dilemmas of identity of the modern Chinese woman and representations of illness in modern Chinese fiction. She has been the recipient of several academic awards, notably the Esterline Prize for best academic paper at Asian Studies Pacific Coast Conference and the UC Berkeley Institute for East Asian Studies for Academic Excellence. Her article on Wei Hui’s Shanghai Baobei was published in the ASPAC Journal and her letters from China while teaching in Shandong, were included the book, Dear Alice: Letters Home from Teachers Living in China, UC Berkeley Press. Eileen also taught for IES in Beijing during the 2005-2006 academic year.
Gender and its construction and symbolism have been central to political, social, and literary movements within twentieth century China. In this class we will look at the construction of gender and sexuality in Modern Chinese literature. We will look at gender and sexuality as portrayed in the May Fourth literary movement, socialist realism literature, Post-Mao “scar” and experimental fiction. We will read historical texts, non-fiction narratives, and fiction from the early twentieth century to the present looking at ways that gender is defined for the individual and society in China, and how it is portrayed in both rural and urban settings. Background lectures will help to contextualize the readings within a cultural, literary, and historical context.
None
The course will be lecture with a strong discussion/seminar component
• Discussion Leaders: Every student will be responsible for leading discussion twice during our month-long course. (10%)
• Analytic Response Papers: Please bring a one-page single-typed response paper to class every Monday and Thursday. These papers should be analytic rather than descriptive and should critically examine the readings for that day (25%)
• Class Participation: The class is structured as a seminar. I look forward to active class discussions regarding the texts. (25%)
• Paper: A 15-page paper will be due on the last day of class—March 30 (40%)
Week 1
Gender Construction: Symbolism and Allegory
Monday: Introduction
Lu Xun, “New Year’s Sacrifice” pp.17-26 (MC)
Antonia Finane, Changing Clothes in China: Fashion, History, Nation (NY: Columbia University
Press, 2008), pp. 188-200
Tuesday: The Woman Question
Paola Zamperini, “But I Never Learned to Waltz: The “Real” and Imagined Education of a Courtesan in the Late Qing.” Nan nü 1.1 (1999), pp. 116 -124 (e-reserve).
Joan Judge, The Precious Raft of History: The Past, The West, and the Woman Question in China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008) Chapter Two, “Public Women: Licentious or Evolved,” pp. 60-83.
Lu Xun, “Anxious Thoughts on ‘Natural Breasts,” (1927) in Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang trans,Lu Xun, Selected Works vol. II (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1957), pp. 353-355.
Feng Yuanjun, “Separation,” (1923). In Dooling & Torgeson eds., Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 101-113
Lu Yin, “After Victory,”(1925), in Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 135-56
Thursday: The New Woman con’t: Female Subjectivity and Gender Roles
Ling Shuhua, “Embroidered Pillows,” pp. 197-199 (MC)
“The Night of Mid-autumn Festival,” pp. 200-205 (MC) “Once Upon a Time” (1928)
Friday:
Chen Xuezhao, “The Woes of the Modern Woman,” (1927) In Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 169-173
Chen Ying, “Woman” (1929), in Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 279-289
Week 2
Monday: Male Female Subjectivity, Sexuality, and the Chinese Nation
Yu Dafu, “Sinking” (1921)
Ding Ling, Miss Sophia’s Diary (1927)
Tuesday:
Film: Xin nuxing, Dir. Cai Chusheng (1935)
Kristine Harris, “The New Woman Incident: Cinema, Scandal, and Spectacle in 1935 Shanghai”
Thursday: Socialist Construction of Gender
Ding Ling
“When I Was In Xia Village,” pp. 268-278 (MC)
“Thoughts on March 8th,” in I Myself am a Woman: Selected Writings of Ding Ling, pp. 316-317
Ru Zhijuan, “The Warmth of Spring” (1959). In Amy D. Dooling ed., Writing Women in Modern
China: The Revolutionary Years, 1936-76 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), pp. 275-290.
Wang Zheng, “Call Me Qingnian But Not Funü: A Maoist Youth in Retrospect.” In Xueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, and Bai Di editors, Some of Us: Women Growing up in the Mao Era (New Bruinswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001), pp. 27-53
Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)
Friday:
Zhang Xianliang, Half of Man is Woman (1-157)
Week 3
Monday:
Zhang Xianliang, Half of Man is Woman (161-252)
Tuesday:
Film: Army Nurse, Dir. Hu Mei, 1985
Thursday: Nostalgia and the Cultural Revoltuion
WANG Xiaobo, “”2015” and “The Golden Age.” In Wang in Love and Bondage: Three Novellas by Wang Xiaobo. Translated by Hongling Zhang and Jason Sommer. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007)
Friday: Femininity/Masculinity: Responses to Socialist Configurations of Gender
Su Tong, “The Brothers Shu” (Mao)
Chen Ran, “Sunshine Between the Lips,” pp.112-129 (Mao)
Monday: Same Sex Desires
Zhang Mei, “A Record,” In Patricia Sieber, ed., Red is not the Only Color: Contemporary Chinese Fiction on Love and Sex Between Women, collected stories. (New York: Rowan & Littlefield ( 2001), pp. 73-92.
Wang Anyi, “Brothers.” In Red is not the Only Color, pp. 93-141
Lin Bai, “The Seat on the Verandah,” trans. Hu Ying
Wang Xiaobo, “East Palace, West Palace, in Wang in Love and Bondage.
Tuesday: Globalization and Commercial Literature
Wei Hui, Shanghai Baobei
Thursday: Gender and Sexuality Art
Fieldtrip to Dashanzi 798 Art District
Friday: Yu Hua, Brothers, pp. 474-528
Week 5
Monday: Guest Lecture
Tuesday: Paper Due!
Paper Presentations
• Chen Ran, “Sunshine Between the Lips,” In Xueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, and Bai Di editors,Some of Us: Women Growing up in the Mao Era (New Bruinswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,2001)
• Chen Xuezhao, “The Woes of the Modern Woman,” (1927) In Writing Women in Modern China, pp.169-173
• Chen Ying, “Woman” (1929), in Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 279-289
• Ding Ling, Miss Sophia’s Diary (1927)
• Ding Ling, “When I Was In Xia Village,” pp. 268-278, “Thoughts on March 8th,” in I Myself am a Woman: Selected Writings of Ding Ling, pp. 316-317
• Feng Yuanjun, “Separation,” (1923). In Dooling & Torgeson eds., Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 101-113
• Antonia Finane, Changing Clothes in China: Fashion, History, Nation (NY: Columbia University
Press, 2008), pp. 188-200
• Kristine Harris, “The New Woman Incident: Cinema, Scandal, and Spectacle in 1935 Shanghai”
• Lin Bai, “The Seat on the Verandah,” trans. Hu Ying
• Ling Shuhua, “Embroidered Pillows,” pp. 197-199, “The Night of Mid-autumn Festival,” pp. 200-205, “Once Upon a Time” (1928)
• Lu Xun, “New Year’s Sacrifice” pp.17-26
• Lu Xun, “Anxious Thoughts on ‘Natural Breasts,” (1927) in Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang trans, Lu Xun, Selected Works vol. II (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1957), pp. 353-355.
• Lu Yin, “After Victory,”(1925), in Writing Women in Modern China, pp. 135-56
• Joan Judge, The Precious Raft of History: The Past, The West, and the Woman Question in China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008) Chapter Two, “Public Women: Licentious or Evolved,” pp. 60-83.
• Ru Zhijuan, “The Warmth of Spring” (1959). In Amy D. Dooling ed., Writing Women in Modern China: The Revolutionary Years, 1936-76 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), pp. 275-290.
• Su Tong, “The Brothers Shu” In Xueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, and Bai Di editors, Some of Us: Women Growing up in the Mao Era (New Bruinswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001)
• Wang Anyi, “Brothers.” In Red is not the Only Color, In Patricia Sieber, ed., Red is not the Only Color: Contemporary Chinese Fiction on Love and Sex Between Women, collected stories. (New York: Rowan & Littlefield ( 2001), pp. 93-141
• Wang Xiaobo, “East Palace, West Palace” ”2015” and “The Golden Age.” In Wang in Love and Bondage: Three Novellas by Wang Xiaobo. Translated by Hongling Zhang and Jason Sommer. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007)
• Wang Zheng, “Call Me Qingnian But Not Funü: A Maoist Youth in Retrospect.” In Xueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, and Bai Di editors, Some of Us: Women Growing up in the Mao Era (New Bruinswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001), pp. 27-53
• Wei Hui, Shanghai Baobei
• Yu Dafu, “Sinking” (1921)
• Yu Hua, Brothers
• Paola Zamperini, “But I Never Learned to Waltz: The “Real” and Imagined Education of a Courtesan in the Late Qing.” Nan nü 1.1 (1999), pp. 116 -124
• Zhang Mei, “A Record,” In Patricia Sieber, ed., Red is not the Only Color: Contemporary Chinese Fiction on Love and Sex Between Women, collected stories. (New York: Rowan & Littlefield ( 2001), pp. 73-92.
• Zhang Xianliang, Half of Man is Woman
Articles on Reserve:
Zhong Xueping: “Male Suffering and Male Desire: The Politics of Reading Half of Man is Woman by Zhang Xianglian,” in Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State, ed. Chrisitna K. Gilmartin, Gail Hershatter, Lisa Rofel, Tyrene White, Harvard University Press, 1994, 175-91.
Eileen Vickery has a Master’s degree in Asian Studies (1997) and a doctorate in Chinese Literature and Languages (2004) from the University of Oregon. She studied intensive Chinese at the Stanford Center at Taiwan University in Taipei from 1997-1998 and at Nankai University in Tianjin in 1996. Eileen first came to China in 1992 to teach English at Qufu Teachers’ University in Shandong. Her research focuses on the dilemmas of identity of the modern Chinese woman and representations of illness in modern Chinese fiction. She has been the recipient of several academic awards, notably the Esterline Prize for best academic paper at Asian Studies Pacific Coast Conference and the UC Berkeley Institute for East Asian Studies for Academic Excellence. Her article on Wei Hui’s Shanghai Baobei was published in the ASPAC Journal and her letters from China while teaching in Shandong, were included the book, Dear Alice: Letters Home from Teachers Living in China, UC Berkeley Press. Eileen also taught for IES in Beijing during the 2005-2006 academic year.