Topics in Chinese Media Culture

3 units

The screen in modern China has been an important media device for social, political, and cultural transformation. This course invites students to examine Chinese screen culture from the early 20th century to the present. Discussing the screen images, the architectural environment built around the screen, and the screen as an interface that frames social relations, the course will investigate why and how cinema took roots in China, how the Chinese critics took advantage of the attraction of the film screen to instigate cultural reforms, how the socialist regime tried to extend the revolutionary spirit by delivering the screen to the remote villages, and, most recently, how the personal touchscreen introduced a set of new techniques in crafting and exploiting the self-image in the digital economy. This course will introduce critical methodologies to do research on screen culture. It will also give students opportunities to engage with media production, such as podcast and video essays, as a new mode of critical thinking and practice. Fulfills modern elective for EALC major.