EALC 550

Fall 2014

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Credit: 4 hours.

Seminar on selected topics. Topic varies with instructor.

May be repeated to a maximum of 12 hours. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.

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CRN Type Section Time Day Location Instructor Section Details
45337
Lecture-Discussion
A
2:00PM -4:20PM
M
G48 Foreign Languages Building
Martin, J
Part of Term:
1
Date Range:
08/25/14-12/10/14
Credit:
4 hours
Section Info:
Topic: The Ethnography of Chinese Modernity. This seminar is an exercise in the application of ethnographic methods to understand modern Chinese society. We focus on the proposition that "guanxi" defines a culturally distinctive ideal of social relationships. This focus allows us to consider two questions, one substantive and one methodological. The substantive question is this: is modern Chinese society somehow different from other modern societies? To evaluate this, we will survey some of the ways descriptions of guanxi are mobilized as the basis of arguments for Chinese cultural exceptionalism. Arguments about cultural difference can be contentious. Those who champion the cause of Chinese (or Asian) exceptionalism range from autocratic advocates of ?Asian Values? to progressive practitioners of a postcolonial ?Asia as Method.? Locating a survey of the guanxi literature within this wider field of intellectual and political dispute supplies us with material to engage our second, methodological question, i.e: How do different participants in debates over cultural exceptionalism claim to know what they are talking about? The methodological component of the course is concerned with identifying what makes a given piece of evidence solid ground for building arguments for or against cultural difference. Here we will pay particular attention to the value attached to specifically ethnographic data (broadly understood as empathetic testimonials about qualitative aspects of human life). Within the interdisciplinary field of debate about the cultural qualities of Chinese modernity, what kind of truth rides on specifically ethnographic knowledge? Students completing this course will: (1) become familiar with the literature on guanxi and its place in debates about cultural exceptionalism, and (2) develop their capacity for critical analysis of the relationship between cultural arguments and different kinds of evidence.
Restriction(s):
Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
31769
Lecture-Discussion
S
2:30PM -4:50PM
W
G48 Foreign Languages Building
Xu, G
Part of Term:
1
Date Range:
08/25/14-12/10/14
Section Info:
Topic: Seminar in Contemporary Chinese Visual Culture
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