Syllabus
Weekly Reading Schedule
Note: please keep an eye on the online syllabus as it may be modified slightly over the course of the semester. Books and anthologies from which chapters and essays have been copied for e-reserves are available on main reserve. See reserve list (link can be found at top of each page of the course website).
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION TO CITIES IN CHINA
Week One: Grids and Graphs for the Course and for the City
blog assignment 1.0: introduce yourself to colleagues in the conference by posting a photograph of your favorite city (anywhere in the world, of course) and your thoughts about it (what makes it distinctive as a city to you) this week (as this is the first week, I will ask you to post at your own convenience, but for future weeks there will be due dates for posting). Please pose a picture with your text.
blog address: http://www.chinaurban.blogspot.com
Aug 31 (M): Introduction to course: What is a city? Critical problems of power and space.
- Geremie Barmé, The Forbidden City (London: Profile Books, 2008), Introduction pp ix- xvi (bookstore and main reserve). For your information, there is a reader's guide to this book by the China Heritage Project available online at http://chinaheritageproject.org/theforbiddencity/index.php#contents
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Henri Lefebvre, "The Specificity of the City" (1968), in Visual Culture: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, eds. Joanne Morra and Marquand Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 3: 102-105. (PDF)
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Michel de Certeau, "Railway Navigation and Incarceration" (1980), in Visual Culture: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, eds. Joanne Morra and Marquand Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 3: 114-116. (PDF)
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Jean Baudrillard, "The Ecstacy of Communication" (1968), in Visual Culture: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, eds. Joanne Morra and Marquand Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 3: 227-234. (PDF)
Sept 2 - (W): City Planning and (Political) Belief Systems in China: A Study of Fengshui "Wind and Water" Geomancy (natural environment) vs. the Gridded City (ideal built environment)
- Henderson, John. "Chinese Cosmological Thought: The High Intellectual Tradition." In The History of Cartography: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies. Ed. JB Harley, David Woodward, Vol 2, Bk 2: pp. 203-227. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994. (PDF) a word of warning: Henderson tosses around some Chinese terms with somewhat alarming frequency; read for the basic information, and don't let the terms alarm you.
- Yifu Tuan, Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perceptions, Attitudes, and Values (New York: Prentice Hall, 1974), 18-29; 37-38. (e-reserves).
- Barmé, The Forbidden City, ch 2.
- object: 18th-century maps of Taiwan and prints showing architectural details (Special Coll NA3583.A53 1948)
Week Two: Re-presenting Architecture
blog assignment 2.0: design a structure using historical Chinese building techniques; post drawing to blog by Tuesday at 10 pm
Sept 7 (M) - Labor Day, think of your comrades laboring back in the PRC and enjoy your long weekend!
Sept 9- (W): Basic Building Blocks: Walls, Gates, Buildings
- Ledderose, Lothar.Ten Thousand Things. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. chapter on architecture (4 copies on main reserve; may also be available through e-reserves)
- Zhu, Jianfei. Chinese Spatial Strategies: Imperial Beijing 1420-1911. New York and London: Routledge, 2004. Chapter 3 "Social Space of the City," 45-90 and excerpt from ch 4, 97-103 (main reserve)
To help you with your blog assignment, you may want to browse:
- Liang Sicheng. A pictorial history of Chinese architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984 (main reserve). please browse
- Sun, Dazhang. Ancient Chinese Architectural Drawings [Zhongguo gudai jianzhu caihua]. Beijing: China Architecture and Building Press, 2006. please browse pp. 192-303.
- and in Special Collections (LL2), the book of architectural paintings, Special Coll NA3583.A53 1948
PART TWO: THE FORBIDDEN CITY IN LATE IMPERIAL CHINA (Qing dynasty 1644-1911)
Week Three: Representing the Manchu Cultural Identity
blog 3.0: select one painting from any of the articles we're reading this week and post your thoughts about what you find to be its peculiar ethnic meanings by Sunday at 10 pm
Sept 14 (M) - The European Jesuits at the Qing Court (1644-1911): Qing Court Style or Jesuit Style?
- Berinstein, Dorothy. "Hunts, processions, and telescopes: A painting of an imperial hunt by Lang Shining (Guiseppe Castiglione)." Res 35 (Spring 1999): 171-184. (PDF)
- Hong, Wu. "Emperor's Masquerade--'Costume Portraits' of Yongzheng and Qianlong." Orientations 26, no. 7 (July/August 1995): 25-41. (PDF)
- Pasztory, Esther. "Identity and Difference: The Uses and Meanings of Ethnic Styles." In Cultural Differentiation and Cultural Identity in the Visual Arts. Eds Susan Barnes and Walter S Melion. Washington, DC: National Gallery, 1989. (e-reserve)
Sept 16- (W): The Hyperreal City
- Wei, Dong. "Qing Imperial 'Genre Painting:' Art as Pictorial Record." Orientations 26, no. 7 (July/August 1995): 18-24. (PDF)
- Zhu, Jianfei. Chinese Spatial Strategies: Imperial Beijing 1420-1911. New York and London: Routledge, 2004. Excerpt from Chapter 9 "Formal Compositions: Visual and existential," 230-244 (beginning with "The theory and practice of scroll painting") (main reserve; PDF)
- Yee, Cordell. "Cartography and the Visual Arts: Conceptual and Stylistic Conventions." In The History of Cartography: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies. Ed. JB Harley, David Woodward, Vol 2, Bk 2: 139-147. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994. (main reserve, PDF)
Look carefully at the copy of Xu Yang's Picture of the Flourishing Suzhou in the 18th Century on main reserve, Oversize DS796.S65K8 1999 chose one section of the scroll that you would like to focus on in discussion; scan and post to blog before conference begins. We will compare it with: 1) copperplate engravings of border wars, The Pacification of Sinkiang, based on a draft by Castiglione, in Special Collections, and 2) a Song-dynasty handscroll known as "Spring Festival on the River" (Qingming shanghe tu), available online through the Hum 230 website.
Week Four: Cultural Identity in Architecture
blog 4.0: draw a site map of the Retreat at Chengde based on Foret's description; post to blog by Sunday at 10 pm
Sept 21 - (M): Retreat for Escaping the Summer Heat at Chengde: Manchu Mandala or Disneyland?
- Foret, Phillipe. "The intended perception of the Imperial gardens of Chengde in 1780." Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 19, no. 3/4 (July-December 1999): 343-63. (e-reserves)
- Tuan, Yifu. "Disneyland: Its place in world culture." In Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance. Ed. Karal Ann Marling, 191-198. New York: Flammarion, 1997. (PDF)
- Leidy, Denise Patrick, and Robert Thurman, eds. Mandala: Architecture of Englightenment. New York: Tibet House, 1997, excerpts pp 17-24, "Mandalas in Tibet," 40-43. (PDF)
- OPTIONAL: Venturi, Robert. Learning from Las Vegas. 2d Ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977, 3-72. (PDF)
- For Library of Congress map of Rehe dating 1736-74, click here
- China Design Now: The Commune by the Great Wall (Sophie)
Sept 23 (W) - Gardens and Theater: Architecture as Illusion
- Nie, Chongzheng. "Architectural Decoration in the Forbidden City: Trompe-l'oeil Murals in the Lodge of Retiring from Hard Work." Orientations 26, no. 7 (July/August 1995): 51-55. (PDF)
- Cao Xueqin. The Story of the Stone. Vol. 1.: Golden Days. Trans. David Hawkes. New York: Penguin, 1973. Chapter 17 "The inspection of the new garden becomes a test of talent." (main reserves)
- Bukatman, Scott. "The Artificial Infinite," in Visual Display: Culture Beyond Appearances, eds. Lynne Cooke and Peter Wollen (Seattle: Bay Press, 1995).
- Steinhardt, Nancy, ed. Juanqinzhai in the Qianlong Gardens. World Monument/Scala, 2008. (main reserves) browse
- click here for images of the gardens, with a few additional paintings not included in Nie's article
- China Design Now: Liuyeyuan Stone Sculpture Garden (Sonia); Red River Project at Tanghe River Park (Miranda)
SEPT 27 SUN 4:30 PM PACIFIC NW FILM CENTER
BIRD'S NEST--HERZOG & DE MEURON IN CHINA
GERMANY 2008
DIRECTOR: CHRISTOPH SCHAUB, MICHAEL SCHINDELM
BIRD'S NEST follows star Swiss star architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron (London's Tate Modern, Barcelona Forum, San Francisco's de Young Museum), as they literally and metaphorically built bridges between two cultures, two architectural traditions, and two political systems. (88 mins.)
PLEASE KEEP YOUR TICKETS AND RECEIPTS SO THAT I CAN REIMBURSE YOU AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER
Week Five: Collecting the World
blog 5.0: study two images: one of a miniature, the other of the empress' rooms in which miniatures are displayed: think about the problems of raised by Stafford and Stewart in the readings about the viewing experiences that "treasure boxes" encourage (click here for images). Post Tuesday by 10 pm.
Sept 28 - (M): The Gigantic: Monument and Monumentality
we'll begin by finishing the conversation about the sublime and phenomenology by looking at : Liuyeyuan Stone Sculpture Garden (Sonia); Red River Project at Tanghe River Park (Miranda)
- Stewart, Susan. On Longing. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993. "The Gigantic." (e-reserves)
- Kahn, Harold. "A Matter of Taste: The Monumental and Exotic in the Qianlong Reign." In The Elegant Brush: Chinese Paintings under the Qianlong Emperor. Ed. Chou Ju-hsi, 288-302. Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, 1985. (to scan down to mid-page for the article online, click here)
- Barmé, The Forbidden City, ch 3.
- China Design Now: National Swimming Pool/ The "Cube" (Salim).
Sept 30 - (W): The Miniature: Architecture as Treasure Box
- Stewart, Susan. On Longing. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993. "The Miniature." (e-reserves)
- Stafford, Barbara Maria and Frances Terpak. Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2000, 1-20, 148-165. (e-reserve)
- Barmé, The Forbidden City, ch 4.
- China Design Now: Digital Beijing (Laura).
PART 3: POST-IMPERIAL CITY (1911-2009)
Week Six: Republican-era Repositionings
blog 6.0: locate one book in the Reed Library by an old "China hand" (i.e., a European or American who traveled through or lived in China) published between 1850-1949 (there are many!). Consider how it treats Chinese things. Post your thoughts by Sunday at 10 pm.
Oct 5 - (M): Collecting the Forbidden City in Europe and America
- Hevia, James. "Looting Beijing: 1860, 1900." In Tokens of Exchange. Ed. Lydia Liu, 192-213. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. (e-reserve)
- Thirez, Régine. Barbarian Lens: Western Photographers of the Qianlong Emperor's European Palaces. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach Publishers, 1998, ch 2 "Foreigners in Beijing, 1860-1925," 17- 26, ch 4 "The European Palaces in the Photographers' Time," 35-48, Ch 5 "The European Palaces in the Eighteenth Century," 49-53, Ch 6 "The Rape of the Summer Palace and Its Aftermath," 55-65. (e-reserve)
- Barmé, The Forbidden City, ch 5.
- China Design Now: Ma Qingyun's Jade Village (Angela) and Father's House (Kelly); Turenscape's Rice Paddy Campus (Nate) (consider how these spaces arguably preserve traces of the past)
- objects that I will bring to conference: album of photographs of the Forbidden City, 1906; books on porcelain and antiquities, 1897; porcelain in the Reed Library collection
Oct 7 - (W): The Palace Museums: Taipei and Beijing
We'll continue our discussion of loot and its strange "art" analog, photography, in this session, and then turn to Chinese understandings of their own "patrimony" and the Forbidden City as one place it is housed.
- Chang Lin-sheng, "The Formation of the Collection of the National Palace Museum," Orientations 26, no. 9 (October 1995): 50-57. (PDF)
- Barmé, The Forbidden City, ch 6.
- Lisa Claypool, "Seeing the Nation" (PDF)
- OPTIONAL: Shambaugh Elliott, Jeannette, with David Shambaugh. The Odyssey of China's Imperial Art Treasures. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2005, 56-92. (PDF)
- China Design Now: Beijing Airport (Caleb)
Week Seven: From Imperial Utopia to Communist Utopia
blog 7.0: draw a map of Tiananmen Square and consider how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) transformed a relic of the feudal past into an emblem of the socialist present; post by Sunday at 10 pm. For photographs of the Forbidden City and Beijing dating to 1972, please consult the "Serve the People" database (search historical sites, Beijing)
Oct 12 - (M): Tiananmen, The Gate of Heavenly Peace
- Wu Hung, Remaking Beijing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), introduction and chapter 1 (bookstore and main reserve)
- Pierre Nora, "Between Memory and History: Les Lieux des Mémoire," Representations 26 (Spring 1989): 7-24 (JSTOR)
- Barmé, The Forbidden City, ch 7.
- China Design Now: Olympic Medal (Tim)
- see http://tsquare.tv/tour/
Oct 14 - (W): Into the Panopticon: Mao and Tiananmen Gate
- Hung, Wu. Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), ch 2.
- Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Random House, 1977), "Docile Bodies," pp 135-169 (main reserve).
- DUE TODAY: one half-page of bulleted "talking points" for your object (historical information), along with a page of prose discussing how you would teach this structure.
Oct 17-25 Fall Break
Week Eight: China Design Now and Beijing
blog 8.0: post a photograph of an architectural structure and work of visual art that will serve as the central focus of your research project by Friday at 10 pm
Oct 26 (M): conference will meet at the Portland Art Museum: please meet at Eliot Circle at 3:10. We'll drive to the museum, which will be open especially for us to practice our docent training (on Monday the museum is closed to the public).
Oct 28 - (W): docent training at the Portland Art Museum
NOV 1- (Sun): Wong Kar-wai's "In the Mood for Love" (2000), 4:00-6:00, Psychology 105 auditorium
----------------- Further Reading | Links ------------------
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Week Nine: Remaking Beijing: 798
blog 9.0 Does the catalog we will read for Monday provide its readers with a heterotopic space? Consider how a book evokes architecture and a city. You might want to go back to Lefebvre for help on thinking through the relationship of these three spaces.
Nov 2 (M): 798 as Heterotopia
- Michel Foucault, "Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias" in Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory, ed. Neil Leach (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), 350-56. (PDF)
- Beijing 798: Refections on Art, Architecture, and Society in China (Hong Kong: Timezone 8, 2004), essays by Luo Peilin, He Wenzhao, Wu Hung, "New Dashanzhai/798 as Seen from Southern California Institute of Architecture" starting on p. 174. (main reserve; please note that there is only ONE copy of this catalog on main reserve, so you'll have to be especially careful to share it)
Nov 4 (W): 798 as Shopping Mall
- Dutton, Michael. Beijing Time. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008, ch 6 "Market Art, Art Market" (e-reserves)
- Cheng Lei and Zhu Qi, eds. Beijing 798 Now: Changing Arts, Architecture and Soceity in China. Hong Kong: Timezone 8, 2009), read essays "Voices from the panel discussion 'Beijing and the World,'" Zhu Qi, Leng Lin, Shu Yang, Xu Yong, Cang Xin, Alexander Ochs, Marc Hungerbubler (main reserve)
Weeks Ten and Eleven: Course Project Symposia
blog 10.0 remember to post project proposal to blog by midnight on Saturday
Nov 9 (M): symposium: projects to be reviewed today will be listed on Sunday
NOV 9 (M): Mark Swislocki, Reed '92, Brown University, will speak on Shanghai food culture from 5-6, Biology 19
Nov 11 (W): conference will NOT meet at regular time; instead, we will attend Xu Bing's talk at the Portland Art Museum, 5:30-6:30 (complimentary tickets will be disbursed on Monday; Caleb and Sonia are driving)
Nov 16 - (M): symposium
Weeks Eleven and Twelve The New City
Nov 18 - (W): Tiananmen Square: Site for Performance Art and Installation
- we will finish up reviewing final two project proposals
- Barmé, The Forbidden City, ch 8.
- Wu Hung, Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), ch 5.
Nov 23 (M): MA QINGYUN, Conference Guest
NOV 23 (M): Ma Qingyun speaks on his most recent work, Psychology 105 5:30-6:30 pm
Nov 25 (W): conference will not meet. Have a very happy Thanksgiving!
November 26-29 Thanksgiving Vacation
Week Thirteen: The City as Spectacle
Nov 30 - (M): The Beijing Olympics 2008
- Wu Hung, Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), "Coda: Entering the New Millennium," 234-244.
- Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, first chapter on the culmination of separation (click here) Consider especially how Debord is theorizing power.
- images: 2008 Olympics website
Dec 2 - (W): Youtube Beijing (actually, we'll focus on RMB City, but I like the title Youtube Beijing)
- Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991), 149-181 (e-reserve)
- "Realities and Other Absurdities: A Conversation with Cao Fei," interview by Joni Low with translation assistance by Stephen Tong, Yishu (December 2006): 73-81. (e-reserve)
- Maya Kovskaya, "Heroes of the Mundane: The Syncretic Imagination of Cao Fei," Yishu (December 2006): 82-85. (e-reserves)
Week Fourteen: The End
Dec 7 - (M): workshop on final project
Dec 9 (W): Course wrap-up and CELEBRATION!
- final project due December 14, 5 pm EMAIL project to me as a word document preferably .doc NOT .docx (see details about format on course requirements page)