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CCCH9048 China: Culture, State and Society
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Course Description
History is vital in navigating our own time and in planning for the future, as well as for providing identity and meaning to a community. But, for China, does it tend to function in this way or has it also turned into an obstacle to its rise and modernization? This course grapples with the weight of China’s history, its institutions, ways of life, belief and power relations upon China today, and how this affects China’s potential to continue its modernization process. It also scrutinizes the fabrication of history in China, asking how master narratives have been created and what facts have been selected, actively forgotten or silenced? How has, for example, museum design addressed questions of historical consciousness, identity and history? How have different forms of material cultural heritage been used and how is local history represented and imagined? On an individual level, what are the social effects of creating history ‘blind spots’ concealing events that people have actually experienced? The course asks what purposes history serves and has served, from the ‘abject’ past of modern China to the very cornerstone the leadership builds its legitimacy on. In doing so it engages students with historical memory and its projection into the future, arguably the most important raw material that has been used over the last two decades to construct China’s national identity.
Course Learning Outcomes
On completing the course, students will be able to:
- Explain major problems and controversies relating to China’s history culture.
- Analyse the importance of history in the establishment and development of the People’s Republic of China.
- Discuss critically issues relating to history and heritage in contemporary China.
- Explain the importance of history and historical consciousness for the future of the Chinese state and society.
Offer Semester and Day of Teaching
Second Semester (Wed)
Study Load
Activities | Number of hours |
Lectures | 24 |
Tutorials | 8 |
Reading / Self-study | 48 |
Assessment: Oral history project | 40 |
Total: | 120 |
Assessment: 100% coursework
Assessment Tasks | Weighting |
Tutorial participation | 30 |
Project | 30 |
In-class pop quizzes | 30 |
Required Reading and Viewing
- Buruma, I. (2017, Jun 19). Are China and the United States headed for war? The New Yorker. From https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/are-china-and-the-united-states-headed-for-war
- Johnson, I. (2016, June 8). China’s memory manipulators. The Guardian. From https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/08/chinas-memory-manipulators
- Lim, L. (2015, December 3). The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen revisited.
- Lin, C. Year Hare Affair. From https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Year+Hare+Affair+first+season [First season]
- Louisa Lim, The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INeBetlLKSs [Lecture delivered in USC US-China Institute]
- Ng, O. -C., & Wang, Q. E. (2005). Mirroring the past: The writing and use of history in imperial China. University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu. From https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/23078/%2347_Ng.pdf?sequence=1
- Oral History Society. (2012). Is your oral history legal and ethical? From http://www.ohs.org.uk/advice/ethical-and-legal/
- Scott, J. C. (2013). Crops, towns, government. London Review of Books, 35(22), 13-15. From https://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n22/james-c-scott/crops-towns-government [Review of The World until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?]
- Spiegelman, A. (1986). Maus I: A survivor’s tale: My father bleeds history. Pantheon.
- The Australian National University. (2005, March). Beijing: The fate of the old. China Heritage Newsletter. From http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/features.php?searchterm=001_beijing.inc&issue=001
Course Co-ordinator and Teacher(s)
Course Co-ordinator | Contact |
Dr J.P. Johansson Vig School of Humanities (History), Faculty of Arts |
Tel: 3917 7935 Email: pejoh@hku.hk |
Teacher(s) | Contact |
Dr J.P. Johansson Vig School of Humanities (History), Faculty of Arts |
Tel: 3917 7935 Email: pejoh@hku.hk |