Clit 2087: Rebellions & Revolutions (The PRC)

11 September 2017                           

                                        CLIT 2087: REBELLIONS & REVOLUTIONS

Prof. Daniel Vukovich

Lecture/Venue: Thursdays, 1:30 -- 4:20 @ CPD-3.29 (Jockey Tower)

 * There are no separate tutorial sections, since this is a three hour slot. Sometimes we’ll meet as a group for that “extra” hour; other times we’ll end after 2 hours.

Phone: 3917 7934 Office: 934 R.R.S. Arts Bldg.

Office Hours: Mondays, 2:30—3:30 and by appointment.

Email: vukovich@hku.hk *for email allow 24 hrs. response time, at min. You can always see me before and after class too.

DESCRIPTION:

This course focuses on the culture, history, and politics of modern China, almost an entire century of revolutions, rebellions, and social transformation. It includes tragic failures, epochal struggles, and undoubted achievements and successes. The question, for us, is how to interpret or make sense out of all of this.

This is an inter-disciplinary course that contests conventional wisdom about the PRC by taking it seriously as a revolutionary state and then a post- or even counter-revolutionary one. We’ll look at the development of the PRC from the 1920s onwards. We’ll study media, ethnographic, scholarly, and historical or non-fiction documents from China, and from foreign/Western scholars as well as former participants writing about China.

We have two basics aims: first to understand some of the basic events, terms, or texts themselves; and then to interpret, evaluate, or otherwise reflect on them as sources of knowledge about the PRC as well as the world, in political or any other ways. Course materials will be bilingual in so far as possible, but lecture and discussion are in English.

We’ll think about how this complex revolutionary history is at odds with “common sense” as well as official views of communist China, be they from the PRC, Hong Kong, or the US-West. We will not try to be objective or definitive, neither of which are possible or desirable when dealing with matters of culture (ideology) and politics. What we will try to do instead is to see if we can learn or unlearn anything that we thought we already knew. Can we start from scratch and first try to understand what the revolution and its progression meant to the people involved? What were the intentions as well as the effects? What was China trying to do in its Maoist phase? What were the protestors trying to do in Tiananmen Square in 1989? Were the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution bizarre ‘oriental’ disasters, or was there a rationality and positive significance to them, despite their evident failures?

What is a “revolution” anyway, and did/does China have one?

We will proceed chronologically, from the May 4th moment to the “reform and opening up” (改革开放). But most of our attention will be spent on the most controversial and under-studied era: that of Mao and the pursuit of communism (1927-1976). We’ll focus on the signature mass-mobilization campaigns: the land reforms and political revolution of the 30s and 40s; the Great Leap Forward and the ‘agrarian strategy” and rural vision before and after this; and then the Cultural Revolution through the death of Mao. Following this we’ll examine the “cultural fever” of the 1980s (via He Shang 河殇 ) and the 1989 Tiananmen Protests, aka Democracy Movement, aka Incident, aka World’s First Global Media Event, aka End of the Revolution. The latter weeks include conservative and liberal/humanist reactions against Maoism as well as a return to questions of capitalist or ‘global’ and ‘normal’ modernity. We will thus form a loop (perhaps an untied one).

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course students should be better able to:

l   Understand some fundamental aspects/events of the PRC. as well as their interpretation

l   critically reflect upon your own ways of seeing China and the world

l   speak and write in English through class assignments, papers, and discussion.

Teaching Philosophy:

I don’t do power-point and don’t ask you to memorize anything. What I try to do, after establishing basic information, is to emphasize the complexity of the questions and texts and events we’ll cover. It will be your job to sort this out, to make sense of the material and lectures, and in so doing to learn how to learn on your own. And in dialogue with others.

CLASS TEXTS:

1. Course Reader. The various texts are all bundled together in “Coursepacks” and/or separate pdf at the course googlesite below. You are responsible for downloading and printing on your own. The packs are numbered but let me know if anything is confusing.

2. https://sites.google.com/site/honggangdaxue Class Website. Find 2087 tab on top. This houses all the coursepacks/readings, class notes/outlines, and other docuemnts and links. I’ll update it weekly or bi-weekly. Note that I do NOT use Moodle except to email the whole class.

GRADING:

Prompts for each essay will be given in class. Each essay will be about 1k to 1.5 k words.

10% Participation and attendance. These do count. If you miss class too much or do not seem to be doing the reading or trying (I can tell), then your participation grade will suffer. Speak up in class at least sometimes and dare to ask any type of question, from “why are we reading this?!” to “what is this reading actually saying?” to “what is the point?” to …anything.

30% Paper 1: May 4th to the Communist Solution. Due date: October 10

30% Paper 2: Continuing the Revolution.      Due date: November 20 Monday 

30 % Paper 3: Reform, Opening, Reaction. Due date: December 15

.

LATE WORK POLICIES:

• 1. Late work is NOT accepted, except under verifiable medical or other emergencies. If you need an extension for an assignment, you must see me several days in advance and commit to a new due date.

• 1. You must complete ALL major assignments to pass the course.

PLAGIARISM:

A writer who presents the ideas or words of another as if they were the writer’s own commits plagiarism. Plagiarism is a disciplinary offense in this course and at H.K.U. Consult these websites for further information if needed (or ask me): http://ec.hku.hk/plagiarism & http://www.hku.hk/plagiarism

SCHEDULE

1.      If you miss class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed.

2.     “Recommended” readings listed below are not required but are for your further research. I do expect you to do the first, required ones before class.

3.     Film screenings will take place outside of class. The films will be placed in the library or dept. office for individual viewing, and linked online if possible.

Week 1,: Sept 7: Syllabus Review & Introduction

In-class: Syllabus/course Intro., plus clips from Lee Feigon’s documentary, The Passion of the Mao. You can also check this film out at the dept. office (958, RRS) or library anytime.

Week 2, Sept 14: New Culture, New China?: May 4th & Evolution vs. Revolution

Readings

• 1. Chen Duxiu/陈独秀, “Call to Youth.”

• 1. Hu Shi/胡适, “The Significance of New Thought.” [Liberalism]

• 1. Liang Chi-Chao/梁启超, “Review of China’s Progress.”

• 1. Mao Zedong, “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan” (1927) in The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party: Documents and Analysis. [Marxism; Maoism]

• 1. Recommended: Li Dazhao/李大钊, “The Victory of Bolshevism”

  2. Recommended: Sun Yat-Sen, “Theory of Knowledge and Action.”

*You can skip any recommended readings and any other extra stuff in the coursepack for this week-- purely optional. 1-4 above are the key ones. 

Week 3, Sept 21: Fanshen/ 翻身 I. : China Shakes the World, Maoism Shakes China

Readings:

• 1. Maurice Meisner, “The Yenan Way.” Mao’s China and After. [Maoism; Populism]

• 1. Jack Belden, China Shakes the World (selections) [Land Reform]

• 1. William Hinton / 韓丁, Fanshen (selections)

*We'll also look at clips from Lee Feigon's "Passion of the Mao" documentary. This C-pack is quite long, so read the Meisner, Belden and HInton in that order-- just get through as much as you can. 

Week 4, Sept 28: Fanshen / 翻身 II, Revolutionary Culture

Readings:

1.     Ma Ke / 马可, “Man and Wife Learn to Read” (a 秧歌 or yannge play/song); D. Holm, “Introduction to Ma Ke” [Populism; Feminism]

2.      Zhang Tian-yi / 张天翼, “Hatred” (short story). [Populism; Solidarity; Nationalism]

3.     Qu Qiubai/瞿秋白, “Who’s We?” (essay).

4.      Qu Qiubai, “The Question of Popular Literature and Art.

* If you like this stuff and have more time, look for the Zhao SHuli story in files below for an extra fictional account of land reform and the revo. 

Week 5, Octo 5: No Class. Holiday

Essay #1 due October 10

Week 6, October 12: Revolutions After the Revolution: Culture, Leaps, Intensities.

Readings:

• 1. SCREENING: Juelie ( 決裂) (“Breaking With Old Ideas”), dir. Li Wenhua. 1975. http://www.archive.org/details/Breaking_With_Old_Ideas [Segue to the CR later]

     2.  Jack Gray, “The Great Leap Forward.” Chapter 15 of his Rebellions and Revolutions (Oxford UP, 2001).

     3.  Mao Zedong. "The Vision of the Great Leap Forward." [extracts from primary documents). 

Week 7, October 19: READING WEEK, NO CLASS

Week 8, Oct 26: Great Leap I: Famine and Revision

Readings:

• 1. Li Zhun, "A Brief Biography of Li Shuangshuang," 

  2. Zhang Yigong, “The Story of the Criminal Li Tongzhong”. Both of these stories are from Richard King, Heroes of China's Great Leap Forward: Two Stories. (UHP, 2009)

Week 9, Nov 2:  The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, I. “It is Right to Rebel.”

Readings:

1.    Knight and Mackerras, “The CR—China.” Encyclopedia of Modern Asia (New York: Charles Scribners’ Sons, 2002), Volume 2, pp. 221-225.

2.    Selected Red Guard/youth writings (various) from Not a Dinner Party: China’s Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969, (ed. M Schoenhals)

3.    Wild Lilies, Poisonous Weeds (ed. G Benton). Documents 15, 16, 17, 19. IF YOU HAVE TIME READ DOCUMENT 18 ALSO. (18 and 19 are          longer ones, the rest are short). 

* MORE CLIPS FROM FEIGON'S 'PASSION OF THE MAO' FILM 

Recommended: Mao et al., official documents from the CR...... REFERENCE READING ONLY. 

Week 10, Nov. 9 :  G.P.C.R., II. The Unknown Cultural Revolution.

Readings:

1.   Final chapter from Richard Kraus: The CR: A Short Introduction.

   1.  Gao Mobo, “Debating the Cultural Revolution,” Critical Asian Studies.  

   2. Wang Zheng, “Call me Qingnian but not Funu: A Maoist Youth in Retrospect”; Some of Us: Chinese Women Growing Up in the Mao Era.

Week 11, Nov. 16 : TBA

Paper #2 Due date: November 20 Monday 

Week 12, Nov. 23: Cultural Fever & the 1980s. Back to the Future?

Readings :

• 1. Extracts from Su Xiaokang & Wang Luxiang’s Deathsong of the River: A Reader's Guide to the Chinese TV Series He Shang. [Parts 4 and 6 on “Blueness” versus “Yellowness”]

SCREENING: Xia Jun’s He Shang (Parts 4 and 6)

河殤 [錄影資料] / 中央電視臺 ; 總撰稿蘇曉康, 王魯湘 ; 製片黃每文 ; 製片人王宋, 郭寶祥

SAMPLE: http://www.archive.org/details/ddtv_40_china_presenting_river_elegy

FULL version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39j4ViRxcS8

Week 13, November 30: “The Tiananmen Incident”: 1989 & the Fate of the Revolution

Readings

• 1. Selected posters (dazibao), documents, and interviews from 1989, from Cries for Democracy (Ed. Han Minzu) and Voices From Tiananmen Square (Eds. Mok Chiu Yu and J. Frank Harrison)

• 1. Sun Xiaogang’s poem “The Rites of Marx.” (In Chinese and English.)

  2. http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1257295/independent-thinker-horace-chin-treads-bold-path  << read this as a cross-text for HOng KOng and its recent debate on the meaning of Tiananmen and the annula vigil here. 

• 1. Recommended: Vukovich, "Uncivil Society," from China and Orientalism. Read the first one-third of this—for a quick overview/history of the protests. You can skip the rest or plow through it if you want to read your teacher for fun and thrills. :-) 

• 1. Recommended The Gate of Heavenly Peace, a documentary by Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon that reflects the dominant view of 1989 (outside of China). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoqnKuBD5AI

     1. We will look  at some clips from this in class......  The whole thing is long and deeply biased in at least two directions (weirdly anti stduent in some parts and extremely anti-Mao)  but nonetheless worthwhile viewing. 

* LAST CLASS: Course Overview after the Tiananmen/1980s discussion. [Liberalism? Democracy? Counter-revolution? Global convergence?]

** Student evals, last assignment handed out.

FINAL PAPER: Finals Week, due Dec. 15.