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Courses offered by the Chinese SectionIn addition to being some of the most “practical” classes I took at Swarthmore, Chinese classes were almost invariably some of the most fun, too. After all, how many classes feature dim sum trips and comic video renditions of the Confucian Analects? Chinese language courses and study abroad in Beijing also became my entry points into a series of other China-related studies, including Chinese history, politics, and calligraphy. — Tina Wong ('99)
First-year Seminar : Literary and Cinematic Presentation of Modern China
CHIN 001B-002B. Introduction to Mandarin ChineseStudents who start in the 00lB-002B sequence must complete 002B to receive credit for 001B. This course sequence is an intensive introduction to spoken and written Mandarin Chinese, with emphasis on oral practice. Designed to impart an active command of basic grammar. Introduces 350 to 400 characters and develops the ability to read and write in simple modern Chinese. 1.5 credits. CHIN 003B-004B. Second-Year Mandarin ChineseDesigned for students who have mastered basic grammar and 350 to 400 characters. Combines intensive oral practice with writing and reading in the modern language. Emphasis is on rapid expansion of vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and thorough understanding of grammatical patterns. Prepares students for advanced study at the College and in China. CHIN 004B is a primary distribution course.
CHIN 005. Chinese for Advanced Beginners Designed for heritage students who are able to communicate in Chinese on simple daily life topics and perhaps read Chinese with a limited vocabulary (about 100 characters). An intensive introduction to spoken and written Mandarin Chinese, with emphasis on the development of reading and writing ability. Prepares students for advanced studies at the College and in China. CHIN 006. Chinese for Advanced Beginners II Designed for students of Chinese heritage who are able to communicate in Chinese with a command of basic grammar and a vocabulary (about 800 characters). An intensive introduction at the intermediate level to Mandarin Chinese, with emphasis on the development of reading and writing ability. Prepares students for advanced studies at the college and in China. CHIN 008. First Year Seminar: Literary and Cinematic Presentation of Modern ChinaCross-listed as LITR 008CH. This course will explore modern China through carefully chosen texts in both literary and cinematic forms, with a focus on the issues concerning the nation, family, and self in a fast-changing society. Through intensive reading and discussion, students will get a better understanding of modern China as well as how China has been presented in literature or on screen. All readings are in translation and films with English subtitles. No prerequisites and no knowledge of Chinese or of China are required. 1 credit.
CHIN 009. First Year Seminar: Heaven, Earth, and Man: Ways of Thought in Traditional Chinese CultureCross-listed as LITR 009CH. This introductory course explores the most influential currents of thought and culture in traditional China, through directed readings and discussions of original sources in translation. No prerequisites and no knowledge of Chinese or of China are required. CHIN 011. Third-Year ChineseConcentrates on strengthening and further developing skills in reading, speaking, and writing modern Chinese, through a diversity of materials and media. Classes conducted in Chinese, with precise translation also a component. To be taken in conjunction with CHIN 011A. Prerequisite: CHIN 004B or equivalent language skills. CHIN 011A. Third-Year Chinese Conversation A 0.5-credit course that meets once a week for 75 minutes and concentrates on the further development of skills in speaking and listening through multimedia materials (including selected movies/clips). Students are required to read chosen texts (including Internet materials and short stories) and prepare assignments for the purpose of generating discussion in class. Moreover, students have to write out skits or reports for oral presentation in Chinese before they present them in class. The class is conducted entirely in Chinese. CHIN 012. Advanced ChineseA multimedia course concentrating on greatly expanding skills in understanding and using modern Chinese in a broad variety of cultural and literary contexts, through a diversity of authentic materials in various media, including the Internet. Prerequisite: CHIN 011 or equivalent language skills. CHIN 012A. Advanced Chinese Conversation A 0.5-credit course that meets once a week for 75 minutes. The course concentrates on the further development of skills in speaking and listening through multimedia materials (including movies/clips). Students are required to read chosen texts (including Internet materials and short stories) and prepare assignments for the purpose of generating discussion in class. Moreover, students have to write out skits or reports for oral presentation in Chinese before they present them in class. The class is conducted entirely in Chinese. CHIN 016. Substance, Shadow, and Spirit in Chinese Literature and Culture Cross-listed as LITR 016CH — This course will explore the literary and intellectual world of traditional Chinese culture, through original writings in English translation, including both poetry and prose. Topics to be discussed include Taoism, Confucianism, and the contouring of Chinese culture; immortality, wine, and allaying the mundane; the religious dimension, disengagement, and the appreciation of the natural world. The course also will address cultural and literary formulations of conduct and persona, and the expression of individualism in an authoritarian society. CHIN 017. The Legacy of Chinese Narrative Literature: The Story in Dynastic ChinaCross-listed as LITR 017CH — This course explores the development of diverse genres of Chinese narrative literature through readings of original writings in translation. Readings include tales of the strange, biographies and hagiographies, moral tales, detective stories, literary jottings, drama, novellas and novels, and masterworks of the Chinese literary tradition throughout the centuries of imperial China. 1 credit. CHIN 018. The Classical Tradition in Chinese LiteratureCross-listed as LITR 018CH — Exploration of major themes, ideas, writings, and literary forms that have contributed to the development of traditional Chinese civilization through directed readings and discussions of English translations of original sources from early through medieval times. No prerequisites and no knowledge of Chinese or of China required.
CHIN 019. First Year Seminar: Singular Lives and Cultural Paradigms in Early and Imperial China
CHIN 020. Readings in Modern ChineseThis course aims to perfect the student’s Mandarin Chinese skills and at the same time to introduce a few major topics concerning Chinese literature and other types of writing since the May Fourth Movement. Prerequisite: Three years of Chinese or its equivalent. CHIN 021. Topics in Modern ChineseReading and examination of individual authors, selected themes, genres, and periods, for students with strong Chinese language proficiency. All readings, writing, and discussion in Chinese. Prerequisite: CHIN 020 or its equivalent. CHIN 023. Modern Chinese Literature: A New Novelistic Discourse (1918-1948)Cross-listed as LITR 023CH — Modern Chinese literary texts created between 1918 and 1948, presenting a series of political, social, cultural, and ideological dilemmas underlying 20th-century Chinese history. The class will discuss fundamental issues of modernity and new literary developments under the impact of the May Fourth Movement. No previous preparation in Chinese is required. 1 credit. CHIN 025. Contemporary Chinese Fiction: Mirror of Social ChangeCross-listed as LITR 025CH — Literary narratives of post–Mao China in translation. The selected stories and novellas articulate the historical specificity of ideological dilemmas and cultural dynamics, in the imaginary process of dealing with love, politics, sex, morality, economic reform, and feminist issues. All the readings are in English translation. 1 credit. CHIN 027. Women Writers in Twentieth-Century ChinaCross-listed as LITR 027CH — This course will be a close study of the literature written by Chinese women, particularly focusing on social, moral, political, cultural, psychological, and gender-related issues through their texts as well as on their writing styles and literary contributions to modern Chinese literature. The chosen women writers will include those from Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas expatriate Chinese writers as well as from different social and political groups. All the readings are in English translation. 1 credit. CHIN 033. Introduction to Classical ChineseCross-listed as LING 033 — This is an introductory course on reading one of the world’s great classical languages. The course is open to all interested students and has no prerequisites; no previous preparation in Chinese is required. Classical Chinese includes both the language of China’s classical literature as well as the literary language used for writing in China for well over two millennia until earlier this century. Complemented with readings in English about Chinese characters and about Classical Chinese, this course imparts the principal structures of the classical language through an analytical presentation of the rudiments of the language and close reading of original texts. The course is conducted in English. It is not a lecture course and requires active, regular participation on the part of the student, with precise translation into English an integral component. The course is conducted in English and is open to all interested students with no prerequisites; no previous preparation in Chinese is required. 1 credit.
CHIN 035. Readings in Classical ChineseIn this class, we will read some fantastic, enduring writings from Classical China, all in the original. Readings will cover many genres, including stories, biographies, history, philosophy, and poetry, and will range over the centuries of ancient and imperial China. 1 credit.
CHIN 055. Contemporary Chinese Cinema: The New WavesCross-listed as LITR 055CH — Cinema has become a special form of cultural mirror representing social dynamics and drastic changes in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan since the mid-1980s. The course will develop a better understanding of changing Chinese culture by analyzing cinematic texts and the new wave in the era of globalization. 1 credit. CHIN 056. History of Chinese Cinema (1905-2000)Cross-listed as LITR 056CH — This course investigates Chinese cinema in its 90-year development throughout different political regimes and cultural milieus. Cinema in China, as a 20th-century cultural hybrid of West and East, reflects social change and intellectual reaction, both collectively and individually, in a changing era. 1 credit. CHIN 063. Comparative Perspectives: China in the Ancient WorldCross-listed as LITR 063CH — Topics to be explored include obligation to self and society, individualism and the role of withdrawal, the heroic ethos, the individual and the cosmos, and the individual and gender roles. No prerequisites; no knowledge of Chinese required. CHIN 066. Chinese PoetryCross-listed as LITR 066CH — This course explores Chinese poetry and Chinese poetic culture, from early times to the present. Although readings and discussion will be in English, and no knowledge of Chinese will be expected, an integral component of the class will be learning how to read a Chinese poem and learning a number of poems in the original. 1 credit.
CHIN 069. The Art of Living: Taste and Aesthetics in Chinese Cultural TraditionsCross-listed as LITR 069CH. This course will explore various dimensions of taste and aesthetics in traditional Chinese culture, from the earliest times into the recent past. Broader aspects of the course will include concept, form, and substance in classical literary, and philosophical formulations; ritual practice and ceremonial performance; and continuities and disjunctures in private vs. public, individual vs. societal taste. More focused readings and discussions will concern food, alcohol, tea, and the culinary arts; appreciation, aesthetics, and poetics in music, painting, calligraphy, literature, sculpture, and theater; the harmony of the human body and the evaluation of beauty and suitability in men and women; landscape appreciation and visions of the natural world; leisure and the passa tempo pursuits of Go, flower and tree arrangement, and elegant gatherings. No prerequisites, no knowledge of Chinese required; all readings in English. Not offered 2009-2010. Berkowitz. CHIN 071. Invaded Ideology and Translated Modernity: A Comparative Study of Modern Chinese and Japanese Literatures at Their Formative Stages (1900-1937)Cross-listed as LITR 071CH — This course will study selected Chinese and Japanese literary texts from the late 19th century up to 1937 that illustrate the political, social, ideological, and cultural dilemmas underlying the modernization of the two neighboring nations. The focus of the course is on shared concerns, such as the clash between tradition and modernity at both the national and personal levels; and on the transformative cultural interchanges between China and Japan during this era of modernization. All readings will be in English. 1 credit. CHIN 081. Transcending the Mundane: Taoism in Chinese Literature and Culture Cross-listed as LITR 081CH and as RELG 081 — Chinese civilization has been imbued with Taoism and Taoist topoi for some two-and-one-half millennia, from popular belief and custom to intellectual and literary culture. In addition to consideration of the texts and contexts of both philosophical and religious Taoism, the class will examine the articulation and role of Taoism in Chinese literature and culture, and the enduring implications of the Taoist ethos. All readings will be in English. 1 credit.
Chinese 090: Practicum in Bridging Swarthmore and Local Chinese Communities CHIN 091. Special Topics in Chinese Literature and Culture in Translation "From Modern Spoken Opera to Experimental Little Theater--Chinese Theater in the 20th Century." (Cross-listed as LITR 091 CH)This course chronologically traces the literary and cultural developments of modern Chinese drama since the early twentieth century to the present day with an emphasis on a comparative approach between the Eastern and Western dramatic traditions. Since the rise of modern Chinese drama cannot possibly be separated from the influence of Western theatre, we will read dramatic texts from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (in translation), as well as dramatic theories and plays by dramatists from the Continent and America. This course will emphasize the literary, productive, as well as performative aspects of each dramatic work. No prerequisite and no knowledge of China required; all readings in English. CHIN 092. Special Topics in Chinese Literature and Culture in ChineseThis course will concertrate on selected themes, genres, or critical problems in Chinese literature. 1 credit. CHIN 103. Lu Xun and His Legacy in 20th-century ChinaThis seminar is focused on topics concerning modernity, political/social change, gender, and morality through close examination of intellectuals' responses to the chaotic era reflected in their literature writing in 20th century China. Literary forms, styles, and changing esthetic principles are also included for discussion. Literary texts, chosen from Lu Xun to Gao Xingjian, will be analyzed in a social and historical context. 2 credit seminar. CHIN 104. Chinese Poetry
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