ANTH5035 Cont. Chinese Culture
This course provides an overview of China's contemporary social landscape in relation to the impact of globalization and modernization. It draws upon critical and historical anthropological frameworks to explore emerging trends in contemporary Chinese culture and society. The course will focus on post-Mao reform era (1978-present), but will ground an examination of contemporary developments in the pre-socialist past and be particularly concerned with the persistent shaping force of the Maoist era (1949-1978). Topics we will examine include China's economic development, environment, family, kinship, marriage, sex, religion, ethnicity, gender politics, labor migration, popular culture, youth identity, international Chinese students, and collective actions. We will also examine the transnational and globalizing forces that help shape cross-cultural imaginaries of China. The class's aim is to encompass critically within common frames of analysis issues of continuity and change, material practices and mass-mediated cultural forms, the local and the global, and the anthropological approach to cultural diversity.