Syllabus
Weekly Reading Schedule
Note: please keep an eye on the online syllabus as it may be modified slightly over the course of the semester. Books and anthologies from which chapters and essays have been copied for e-reserves are available on main reserve. See reserve list (link can be found at top of each page of the course website).
PART ONE. INTRODUCTION TO CITIES IN CHINA
WEEK ONE :: Grids and Graphs for the Course and for the City
blog assignment 1.0: introduce yourself to colleagues in the conference by posting a photograph of your favorite city (anywhere in the world, of course). Please come to conference on Wednesday prepared to share your thoughts about it -- what makes it distinctive and memorable as a city to you? Sep 1 (W): What is a city? Critical problems of power and space. WEEK TWO :: Re-presenting Architecture Sept 6 (M): LABOUR DAY VACATION Sept 8 (W): Basic Building Blocks: Walls, Gates, Brackets, Bays (Cities in the Paleotechnological Age) WEEK THREE :: Representing Manchu Cultural Identity Sept 15 (W): Manchu Costume WEEK FOUR :: Cultural Identity in Architecture blog 4.0: draw a site map of the Retreat at Chengde based on STEPHEN WHITEMAN'S description (he has included a map in his article, but make sure you've got all of the main points of architectural interest and understand how they relate to each other); post to blog by Sunday at 10 pm. No textual description this time around. Sept 20 (M): Retreat for Escaping the Summer Heat at Chengde: Manchu Mandala or Disneyland? Sept 22 (W) - Visit to MACS. MEET @ GALLERY A IN THE TELUS CENTRE, 11 am sharp. (The Telus Centre is next to the Timms Centre, and Gallery A is directly on your right as you walk through the double doors from the direction of FAB) WEEK FIVE :: Collecting the World Sept 29 (W): The Gigantic: Monument and Monumentality WEEK SIX :: Republican-era (1911-1949) Repositionings blog 6.0: locate one book in the Rutherford Library by an old "China hand" (i.e., a European or American who traveled through or lived in China) published between 1850-1949 (there are many!). You'll need to skim read a chapter ot two. Consider how it treats Chinese things and culture. Post a quotation by Sunday at 10 pm. (250 words). Oct 4 (M): Collecting the Forbidden City in Europe and America Oct 6 (W): The Palace Museums: Taipei and Beijing We'll continue our discussion of loot in this session, and then turn to Chinese understandings of their own "patrimony" and the Forbidden City as one place it is housed. WEEK SEVEN :: Workshopping research projects blog 7.0: post a photograph of an architectural structure or work of visual art that will serve as the central focus of your research project by Saturday, at 5 pm, along with the object exploratory (see requirements page). Oct 11 (M): THANKSGIVING VACATION
Oct 13 (W): WORKSHOP WEEK EIGHT :: From Imperial Utopia to Communist Utopia Oct 20 (W): Tiananmen Gate WEEK NINE :: From Communist Utopia to Post-Socialist Vision Instead of a blog post, redraft your exploratory into a 1-page thesis and email to Lisa by Friday at 5 pm. Include with it an annotated bibliography of four sources. If you have never written an annotated bibliography before, please consult the Cornell University website "How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography" or the University of Toronto website on the development of writing skills. Basically, I am asking you to summarize the content of the article/book/chapter and to indicate how it is relevant to your project. Oct 25 (M): Into the Panopticon: Mao and Tiananmen Gate Oct 27 (W): Revisiting Mao WEEK TEN :: The New City blog 9.0 Chose a performance or visual work from the readings (or from your own explorations online --any image/video/performance piece of your choice) that you would like to discuss in conference and post it to the blog by Sunday by 8 pm. Identify the artist, the title of the piece, and its date. No other textual description needed. Nov 1 (M): Tiananmen Square: Site for Performance Art and Installation Nov 3 (W): The Beijing Olympics 2008: Spectacle and the City WEEK ELEVEN :: READING WEEK! Enjoy those books blog 10.0 load a photo of a heterotopia to the blog (anywhere on the planet) Nov 15 (M): 798 as Heterotopia THIS CLASS WILL MEET VIA ZOOM Nov 17 (W): Other Experimental Art Spaces Nov 22 (M): Symposium Nov 29 (M): Symposium Dec 1 (W):Symposium & Closing the City Gates
blog address: https://hadvc311forbiddencity.blogspot.com
blog 2.0: design a structure using historical Chinese building techniques (be as imaginative as you like); post drawing to blog by Tuesday at 10 pm. No textual description required this time. To help you with your blog assignment, in addition to the Ledderose, you may want to browse:
PART TWO. THE FORBIDDEN CITY IN LATE IMPERIAL CHINA (Qing dynasty 1644-1911)
blog 3.0: select one painting or robe/textile object from any of the articles we're reading this week and post it to the blog
Sept 13 (M) - The European Jesuits at the Qing Court (1644-1911): Qing Court Style or Jesuit Style?
Visit to MACS. MEET @ GALLERY A IN THE TELUS CENTRE, 11 am sharp. (The Telus Centre is next to the Timms Centre, and Gallery A is directly on your right as you walk through the double doors from the direction of FAB)
Paraphernalia of the Qing Dynasty," in China's Imperial Modern, ed. Lisa Claypool (Edmonton: University of Alberta Museums, 2012), pp. 48-55 in the PDF; pp. 99-105 in the catalogue. (PDF)
blog 5.0: post an image of one miniature object from the Forbidden City, and think carefully about its display. Post Sunday by 10 pm.
Sept 27 (M): The Miniature: Architecture as Treasure Box
PART THREE. POST-IMPERIAL CITY (1912-2021)
presenting
discussant
1. Amy
Diane
2. Nita
Camille
3. Alysha
Jill
4.Hannah
Emilie
5.Jinying
Da Eun
6.Sarah
Jungeun
7. James
Kate
8. Ellie
Katie
9. Diane
Eva
blog 8.0: draw a map of Tiananmen Square as it looked in 1960 or 1980 and consider how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) transformed a relic of the feudal past into an emblem of the socialist present; post by Tuesday at 10 pm. For photographs of the Forbidden City and Beijing dating to 1972 for your reference, please consult the "Serve the People" database (search terms: historical sites, Beijing). Please post the map -- no need to write anything for this blog assignment.
Oct 18 (M): WORKSHOP
presenting
discussant
10. Eva
Ellie
11. Katie
James
12. Kate
Sarah
13. Jungeun
Jinying
14. Da Eun
Hannah
15.Emilie
Alysha
16. Jill
Nita
17. Camille
Amy
MEET TODAY AT THE TELUS CENTRE Mactaggart Art Storage 11 am sharp
WEEK TWELVE :: Art spaces as heterotopias
WEEKS THIRTEEN + FOURTEEN :: CLASS SYMPOSIA!
SPEAKER
1 Camille
2 Nita
3 James
4 Da Eun
Nov 24 (W): Symposium
SPEAKER
5 Jinying
6 Alysha
7 Diane
8 Kate
SPEAKER
9 Emilie
10 Sarah
11 Jungeun
12 Eva
SPEAKER | |
13 Hannah | |
14 Amy | |
15 Jill | |
16 Katie
|
Dec 6 (M): Course wrap-up and CELEBRATION!
- I will review very briefly where we have been over the course of the semester, some of the questions that we seem to keep circling back to, and then we will celebrate!
- final project due December 13 by 5 pm EMAIL project to me as a word document (see details about format on course requirements page).