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CMLT 4660 POLITICS-FILM-LITClass Time: 9:30AM-10:45AM Tuesday & ThursdayClass room: 113 Joe Brown HallScreening room: 220 Joe Brown HallScreening time: To Be Arranged

Dr. Harrison HuangEmail: hthuang@uga.eduOffice Hours: By Appointment

Course DescriptionThis course is designed to introduce Chinese cinema and contextualize it within the political movements, institutional changes, and cultural shifts of the 20th century.

ScreeningsAt least one film will be screened each Tuesday evening at. The exact time will be announced after time conflicts have been resolved. Missing a screening counts as a full absence.

Course ReadingsAll course readings are available for download on eCommons: http://elc.uga.edu/You are encouraged to either print out the readings, or bring your computer notebook or ebook reader to class, so you can reference the materials during discussion. Please restrict your use of electronic devices to course-related materials only.

GradeAttendance 10%Class participation 10%Response papers 20%Class presentation 10%Mid-term assignment 25%Final paper 25%

Attendance (10%): Two unexcused absences are allowed before it affects your grade negatively. Missing a film screening counts as a full absence. Being tardy for 15 minutes counts as a half absence. Each absence after the second will result in 2 points being deducted from your attendance grade. Absences are excused only in the case of chronic illness and other serious extenuating circumstances. Documentation by the university health center is required to an excuse a health-related absence. The instructor reserves the right to make a judgment about excusable absences in other circumstances.

Class Participation (10%): Remaining silent for multiple class sessions can seriously impact your grade, so you must overcome your discomfort and embarrassment about speaking. To get full points for participation, you must be actively involved in raising questions and responding to discussion topics in class.

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Not being prepared when called upon to discuss the reading or screened film will negatively affect your participation grade.

Response Papers (20%): Each Thursday, you must submit a response paper about BOTH the reading and screening. The response paper should be dated for that Thursday, and should be half a page in length in single-spaced print or a page in double-spaced print. The paper must be printed instead of hand-written.

Class Presentation (10%): Each Thursday, one student will be responsible for preparing a 7-minute presentation about the course reading and screened film. The presentation should further class discussion. An outline of the presentation must be emailed to the instructor by 5PM on Wednesday.

Mid-term assignment (25%): Details be announced.

Final paper (25%): Details to be announced.

Week 1 – Beginnings to 1930s

Reading: Yingjin Zhang, “Cinema and National Traditions 1896–1929” inChinese National Cinema (New York: Routledge, 2004): pp. 13–57.

Peter Brooks, The Melodramatic Imagination (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976): pp. 1–23.

Screening: Yuan Muzhi, Street Angel 馬路天使 (1937)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183828/http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=9746

Week 2 –Film in the 1940s: The End of the Civil War

Reading: Wen-hsin Yeh, “Shanghai Besieged, 1937–45” in Wartime Shanghai (New York: Routledge, 1998): pp. 1–12.

Yingjin Zhang, “Cinema and the Nation-People, 1930–1949” in Chinese National Cinema (New York: Routledge, 2004): pp. 58–112.

Screening: Zheng Junli, Crows and Sparrows 烏鴉與麻雀 (1949)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042054/http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=12907

Week 3 –Film in the 1950s: Representing Lu Xun

Reading: LU Xun, “New Year’s Sacrifice” (1924); and his “Preface” (1922)

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to his first collection of short stories. Both texts available on eCommons.

Screening: Sang Hu, The New Year Sacrifice 祝福 (1956)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049979/http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=12872

Week 4 – Film in the 1960s: Pedagogical Cinema

Reading: Yingjin Zhang, “Cinema and the Nation-State in the PRC, 1949–78” in Chinese National Cinema (New York: Routledge, 2004): pp. 189–224.

Screening: Xie Tieli, Early Spring in February 早春二月 (1963)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057713/http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=14088

Week 5 – Film in the 1960s

Reading: Chris Berry, “Writing on Blank Paper: Pedagogical Cinema 1949–1976” in Postsocialist Cinema in Post-Mao China (New York: Routledge, 2004): pp. 22–86.

Screening: Xie Jin, Stage Sisters 舞台姐妹 (1965)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081553/http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=6163

Week 6– Lust, Caution: Revolution and Playacting

Reading: Eileen Chang, “Lust, Caution” (1979)

Screening: Ang Lee, Lust | Caution (2007)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808357/http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=11668

Week 7 – Films in the 1970s – The Cultural Revolution

Reading: Mao Zedong, “Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Art & Literature,” in Kirk Denton, ed., Modern Chinese Literary Thought (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1996): pp. 458–84.

Screening: The Red Detachment of Women 紅色娘子軍 (1971)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407876/

Carma Hinton, Morning Sun (2003)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381430/

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Week 8 - Films in the 1980s: Assessing the Cultural Revolution

Reading: Paul Pickwicz, “Melodramatic Representation and the May Fourth Tradition of Chinese Cinema” in Ellen Widmer (ed.), From May Fourth to June Fourth: Fiction and Film in Twentieth Century China (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1993): pp. 295–326.

Screening: Xie Jin, Hibiscus Town 芙蓉鎮 (1986)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087301/http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=7003

Week 9 – Chinese Film Enters the World Stage

Reading: "Yellow Earth: an Unwelcome Guest" in Seeds of Fire: Chinese Voices of Conscience (New York: Hill and Wang 1988) pp. 251-269.

Screening: Chen Kaige, Yellow Earth 黃土 (1985)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087433/http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=6688

Week 10 - The Roots Movement

Screening: Zhang Yimou, Red Sorghum 紅高粱 (1987)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093206/http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=7041

Zhang Yimou, Ju Dou 菊豆 (1989)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099902/http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=11070

Week 11 – New Chinese Documentary Film

Reading: Chris Berry and Lisa Rofel, “Alternative Archive: China’s Independent Documentary Culture” in The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Univ. Press, 2010).

Screening: Zhao Liang, Petition 上訪 (2009)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1426381/

Week 12: To Be Announced

In the Heat of the Sun 陽光燦爛的日子 (1994)

Dust in the Wind 戀戀風塵 (1986)

Woman Demon Human 人鬼情 (1987)

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Vive L’Amour 愛情萬歲 (1994)

Platform 站台 (2000)

Edward Yang. Yiyi: A One and a Two 一一 (2000)Spring Subway (2002)The World 世界 (2004)Sunflower (2005)Still Life 三峽好人 (2006)