Spring 2007
Professor Charlene Makley
Office: 312 Vollum
Phone: 771-1112, ext. 7461
Office Hours: Mon. 3:30-5; Fri. 9-10:30

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, state leaders have struggled to chart a course to a Chinese modernity that would break with the perceived humiliations of European domination in the 19th century and bring China commensurate status in a newly configured world stage of nations. Since Deng Xiaoping's post-Mao reforms in the early 1980s, the PRC has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world. As such, it is poised to have major impacts globally, and especially since the PRC's entrance into the World Trade Organization in 2001, these meteoric socioeconomic changes have complex implications for the PRC's diverse1.3 billion people. This course draws on anthropological theories of modernity, capitalism, globalization and development emerging in the 1980s and 90s to turn a critical eye on discourses and practices of "development" (ch. fazhan) in the PRC.

Drawing on theoretical, historical and ethnographic writings, as well as on other media such as government policy papers, advertising and documentary films, we consider the contexts and contradictions of various development efforts just before, during and after the Maoist period, focusing especially on the post-Mao era of economic reforms. The PRC thus will serve as a case-study for our broader examination of theories conceptualizing the relationships between global capitalisms and local realities.
prerequisite: anthro. 211

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