Contemporary China through Film Students study basic concepts and approaches of film analysis, while examining aesthetics, themes, and techniques of masterworks directed by Chinese Fifth Generation directors. Through readings of cinema theory and criticism and class discussions, students explore artistic merits in these films and aspects of Chinese society and culture in contemporary China, particularly the changes which occurred since 1978 with China's Four Modernizations. All readings are in English. Intermediate Chinese I, II Students continue to develop listening and reading comprehension and use of basic structures through speaking and writing. The vocabulary for reading and writing increases to 1,000 characters.
Class meets five hours weekly, including two hours of drill sections.
Language laboratory is required. Chinese 231 or equivalent is prerequisite to 232. This course spans the development of poetry and prose in the classical language from the beginnings to its culmination in the T'ang dynasty. The history of literature is viewed against the background of the religious, social, and historical tradition, with attention to the identification of distinct Chinese literary values through close readings of the texts. Offered alternate years in Fall Semester.