Date

Topics/Readings

Please read before coming to class

Web/Movies and other Resources

Please Watch before coming to class.

September 15

Introductions to the Course, Students and Requirements.

China and Chinese Aesthetics. Broad overview.

Readings;

  1. How we are all Connected. Aesthetics in China

 

China: A Century of Revolution (part 1)

September 22

PART ONE: 

The Aesthetics of Oneness with the World

Confucian and Neo-Confucian thinking.

Readings:

 

1.      From Rites and Music Tradition to Politics and art

2.     Roger T. Ames, Achieving personal Identity

 

 

  1. literati aesthetics- calligraphy, painting and poetry:

 

  1. West Meets East The arts of China

September 29

Imperial Breakdown and Western Invasion
Readings:

  1. Music and Ritual In Pre Han China
  2. Philip J. Ivanhoe; Oneness, Chap1
  3. Chinese Landscape Paintings.


1 Individuality to Collectivity

October 6 &

 

PART II

October 13th.

Class Discussion On The Aesthetics of Oneness

______________

 Part II: From Empire to People's Republic: 
Readings:

"No Art for Art's sakes"

  1. Mao's Yenan Talks
    "Be Concerned with the Well-being of the Masses"
    "Serve the People"

 

  1. "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains"
  2. "On Contradiction"
  3. . West Meets East the Chinese the great Artistic Movements.

October 20

Maoism: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Readings:
 1. What was the Cultural Revolution?

  1. Cultural Revolution, The Guardian
  2. The Morning Sun

Please Watch

  1. China: A Century of Revolution (part 2)

Class Discussion On Cultural Impact of Mao’s Policies.

October 27

PART III: A New Era For Chinese Art
Move Over Mao: Do China's artists serve a new master?
Contemporary art movement.

 The Scar paintings
Watch : Contemporary Art Movement.

 

Posters of Progress
End of Mao Era
Post Mao Era

November 3

Beijing Spring and the Democracy Wall Movement
85 Movement: Denouncing conservatism and calling for freedom of expression
Li Xiaoshan :"The End and Death of Chinese Painting" in Jiangsu Pictorial.

Robert Rauschenberg's : Chinese public's first opportunity to see original works by a contemporary western artist.
"The Tank Man," 
"The Gate of Heavenly Peace"

November 10

PART IV: Chinese avant-garde art : Political Pop trend of the early 1990s
1. Wang Guangyi's Mao Zedong No. 1
2. Andy Warhol and Political Pop

3. Cynical Realism

The White Snake Opera: A dialogue between artistic
avant-garde and socialist realism
Beijing the New Artistic center: 798 Art Zone or Dashanzi art district.

 

November 17


Chinese Contemporary Art as Social and Political Commentary

Pandemic and Politics

Ai Weiwei's "Remembering" and the Politics of Dissent

Ai- Weiwei, " Never Sorry"
Beijing the New Artistic center: 798 Art Zone or Dashanzi art district.

Art at a Time like this.

November 24

Thanksgiving Break. No Class:
 Work on Final Presentation.

December 1

Discourses of "Harmony" as national  image management
When Politics Become ‘Olympic’ Art; By Susan Brownell
The Confucian Revival: Harmonius Society and "Peaceful Rise"

Zhao Bin. 1997. "Consumerism, Confucianism, Communism: Making Sense of China Today," New Left Review 222:43-5 

December 8

Work On Final Project and Presentations

Reviving Tradition in China
Confucius Comes Home, Move over, Mao

Reconciling Socialism and Confucianism?: Reviving Tradition in China, Daniel A. Bell

December 15

Presentations