This graduate seminar examines critical issues and under-studied topics in the histories of Chinese cinema and photography. We study cinema and photography in close relationship to other media forms going through similarly rapid transformations in the Chinese-speaking world, and understand media practices as constitutive of larger historical processes such as war, colonialism, revolution, nation-building, (state)-capitalism, and globalization. Vigorous class discussions will allow students to grapple with both critical traditions and exciting new scholarship in film and media studies, and train students to work with a variety of primary materials in different media. This class is best suited to graduate students who are interested in incorporating audio-visual materials into their research, and to PhD Students who are preparing for a general field examination in Chinese media cultures or comparative media. As students will be trained to work with a variety of primary materials, there is a course language requirement of intermediate to advanced levels of Chinese language. However, the instructor has worked with students whose research languages are not Chinese (for example, Tibetan, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese). Please contact the instructor for approval if you are interested in the course but want to work with a different research language.
Ying Qian