EAS273H1S Modern Chinese Cities (Summer 2023)
Course Time and Location: Tuesday & Thursday, 7pm-9pm, RW142
Office Hour: Friday, 3pm-5pm, or by appointment, Robarts Library 14214
Instructor: Nan Wang (jas.wang@mail.utoronto.ca)
Course Description
The goal of this course is to engage the transformation of Chinese cities throughout the twentieth century. On top of a chronological overview of imperial, colonial, republican, socialist and post-socialist Chinese cities, the course will also examine a wide range of urbanization-related issues, including but are not limited to city planning, historical preservation, welfare of city animals, environment degradation, rural-urban dichotomy, the role of cities as sites of governmentality, revolution, dys/utopian desires, and aesthetic expression. The course will encourage students to reflect upon the socio-political, historical and cultural production of urban space in China from the imperial finale to the pandemic present, and at the same time imagine a more habitable future city of their generation by examining critically their own urban living experience.
Course Materials
Reading: Required and suggested readings are all available on Quercus. The lectures are intensively associated with the readings, so you are expected to read all the materials before the scheduled time of the lecture.
Films/Documentaries: All the visual materials will be available through the University of Toronto MyMedia site or on YouTube, subtitled in English. If unfortunately, a film or documentary becomes unavailable during the course, a replacement will be announced in advance.
Course Evaluation
The course evaluates your performance in a variety of ways, from the participating attitude (attendance and in-class discussion), the comprehension of texts (quiz and discussion), to the analytical ability (essay), these diversified and comprehensive evaluations aim to promote your engagement with the course.
Attendance (10%)
You are expected to leave a short note (1-3 sentences) after each lecture. It is both a low-bar attendance record (you would get points regardless of the quality) as well as brief feedback of the lecture. As an accommodation for introduction weeks, you are allowed to skip any two attendances without points being deducted.
Participation/Group Presentation (10%)
This is evaluated based on your in-class engagement, which includes the response of lecture questions and group presentation.
Discussion (10%)
There are 2 postings on the discussion board, each accounting for 5%. Your posting should be between 150-200 words and address the discussion question.
Quiz (20%)
There are 4 short quizzes, each accounting for 5%. The quiz questions will test your comprehension of the lecture and the assigned materials, covering the contents from last quiz onwards. The quizzes are due on several Fridays (11:59pm) as listed below, via Quercus.
Analysis Essay (20%)
You are expected to choose one assigned film/documentary and write a critical essay (1000-1200 words) of it.
Final Essay (30%)
You are expected to write a socio-autography (1200-1500 words) which combines the critical themes we discussed throughout the course and your own urban living experience.
Late Penalty: 1% per day of lateness.
Course Schedule
Week 1 (Jul 4) Introduction and Concept of the City
Documentary: The Chinese Mayor (2015), Zhou Hao (dir.)
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (2016), Matt Tyrnauer (dir.)
Week 2 (Jul 6) Diversified Placemaking in Pre-Modern Chinese Cities
Craig Clunas, “The Fruitful Garden,” Chapter 1 in The Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture in Ming China (London: Reaktion Books, 1996), 16-59.
Wang Di, “The Street,” Part One in Street Culture in Chengdu: Public Space, Urban Commoners, and Local Politics, 1870-1930 (Stanford University Press, 2003), 23-68.
Peter Hessler, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001. chapter 1.
July 7 (Fri) Quiz 1 (Background Survey) due.
Week 3 (July 11) Quest for Modernity: Creating a National New Capital
Madeleine Yue Dong, “From Imperial Capital to Republican City,” Chapter 1 in Republican Beijing: The City and Its Histories (University of California Press, 2003), 21-53.
Wang Jun, “Liang-Chen Proposal” Chapter 3 in Beijing Record: A Physical and Political
History of Planning Modern Beijing. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2011.
Peter Hessler, River Town. Chapter 4 (excerpt)
Week 4 (Jul 13) Modernity and its Variations: Shanghai as Case
Meng Yue, Shanghai and the Edges of Empires (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), Introduction, viii-xxx.
Eileen Chang, “Notes on Apartment Life” and “Days and Nights of China,” in Written on Water, translated by Andrew Jones, Columbia University Press, 2005 [1944].
Peter Hessler, River Town. Chapter 7, 8 (excerpt)
[optional] Film, Street Angel (1937), Yuan Muzhi (dir.)
July 14 (Fri) Quiz 2 due.
Week 5 (Jul 18) Producing the Socialist Cities
David Bray, “Danwei Space,” Chapter 6 in Social Space and Governance in Urban China: The
danwei System from Origins to Reform (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), 123-156.
Documentary, Chung Kuo, Cina (1972), Michelangelo Antonioni (dir.)
Peter Hessler, River Town. Chapter 10.
Week 6 (Jul 20) Spatial Politics: Rural-Urban Dichotomy and Migrant Labour in Post-Mao Era
Gao Mobo, “Reforms since the Late 1970s,” Chapter 10 &11 in Gao Village: a Portrait of Rural Life in Modern China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999)
Juan Du, “Introduction: The Myth of Shenzhen,” in The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China’s Instant City (Harvard University Press, 2022), 1-17.
Documentary, We are SMART (2019), Li Yifan (dir.)
July 21 (Fri) Quiz 3 due.
Week 7 (Jul 25) [Guest Lecture] Beyond Rural-Urban Dichotomy: Town Life and the Intermediary Narration
Peter Hessler, River Town. Chap 11, 12.
Film: Xiao Wu (1998), Jia Zhangke (dir.)
Discussion Board 1
Week 8 (Jul 27) Essay Prep
Jing Nie, “A City of Disappearance: Trauma, Displacement, and Spectral Cityscape in Contemporary Chinese Cinema” (excerpt).
Jin Liu, Dislocation and displacement: An analysis of Wang Jiuliang’s Plastic China, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 14:3, 181-198.
[optional] Film, Shower (1999), Zhang Yang (dir.); The World (2004), Jia Zhangke (dir.)
Documentary, Plastic China (2016), Wang Jiuliang (dir.)
July 28 (Fri) Quiz 4 due.
Week 9 (Aug 1) Multiplying Hong Kong
Ackbar Abbas, “Building on Disappearance: Hong Kong Architecture and the City.” Public Culture 6, no. 3 (1994): 441–64.
Xi Xi, “The Floating City,” translated by Linda Jaivin and Geremie Barme.
Film, The Crossing (2018), Bai Xue (dir.)
Week 10 (Aug 3) City Animals: Seeing the Unseen
Documentary, Blackfish (2013), Gabriela Cowperthwaite (dir.)
Cowspiracy (2014), Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn (dir.)
Aug 4 (Fri) Analysis Essay due.
Week 11 (Aug 8) Urban Infrastructure and The Toxic Invisible
Nathan McClintock, “Why Farm the City? Theorizing Urban Agriculture through a Lens of Metabolic Rift.” Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 3, no. 2 (2010): 191–207.
Documentary, Beijing Besieged by Waste (2011), Wang Jiuliang (dir.)
Talk, Wang Jiuliang, “20 Pictures from the Land of China.” (English Subtitled by turning on CC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuAG2SBcwg0&t=837s
Discussion Board 2
Week 12 (Aug 10) Towards the Future City
Jane Jacob, “The Use of Sidewalks: Contact,” Chapter 3 in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Random House, 2002), 55-73.
Xiang Biao, “The Nearby: A Scope of Seeing.” Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (Great Britain) 8, no. 2-3 (2021): 147–65.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (Minnesota: Milkweed Editions, 2013), chapter 1 & 2.
Aug 20 (Sun) Final Essay Due
Accessity Needs
Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. In particular, if you have a disability/health consideration that may require accommodations, please feel free to approach me and/or Accessibility Services at 416-978 8060; studentlife.utoronto.ca/as.
Academic Integrity
The University of Toronto treats cases of academic misconduct very seriously. Academic integrity is a fundamental value of learning and scholarship at the UofT. Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in this academic community ensures that your UofT degree is valued and respected as a true signifier of your individual academic achievement.
The University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters outlines the behaviours that constitute academic misconduct, the processes for addressing academic offences, and the penalties that may be imposed. You are expected to be familiar with the contents of this document. All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be investigated following the procedures outlined in the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. If you have any questions about what is or is not permitted in this course, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you have questions about appropriate research and citation methods, you are expected to seek out additional information from me or other available campus resources like the College Writing Centres, the Academic Success Centre, or the U of T Writing Website.
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