Chinese Popular Culture

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course introduces Chinese popular culture through the lens of contemporary Chinese cultural phenomena, including food culture, popular music, documentary films, martial arts movies, copycat culture, youth culture, and social media. It will be organized thematically. The lectures will introduce the major themes, including gender issues, social justice, government censorship, subcultures, family and state, localization and globalization, in a broad form and employ examples and case studies to provide students with a better understanding of actual Chinese society as it exists today. We will investigate the historical, sociopolitical, and aesthetical roots and impacts of the cultural phenomena. All readings are in English, no prior knowledge of Chinese language or culture is required.