Chinese (CHIN)

An introduction to spoken Mandarin and written Chinese. Providing a foundation in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and communication skills and an introduction to the Chinese culture.

An introduction to spoken Mandarin and written Chinese. Providing a foundation in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and communication skills and an introduction to the Chinese culture.

An introduction to the history, geography, literature, and social issues of China through readings, films, music, poetry, and web-based resources. Taught in English. Three class hours weekly. One unit.

A critical survey of modern Chinese popular culture, focusing on the growing cultural influence and widespread popularity of cultural productions from the Sinophone world. The core focus will be on popular culture from the Peoples Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Students will examine the socio-political and economic contexts in which Chinese popular culture has gradually gained regional and global recognition. Special attention will be paid to the roles of aesthetic and intellectual movements, ideological shifts, technological innovations, and government regulatory strategies that have shaped these cultural phenomena. Through analysis of a wide range of genres and cultural forms, students will explore topics such as media globalization, literary adaptation, and cultural censorship. The course will span from martial arts TV dramas to commercial blockbusters, and from 1930s Jazz music to 2020s Douyin videos.

This course explores humananimal relationships in China from past to present, examining how animals (both supernatural and worldly) have shaped cultural imagination, social life, and storytelling. Students will investigate animals as cultural symbols, humananimal encounters across historical and social contexts, and ethical and philosophical debates about animals and humanity. Through critical analysis of literary works in dialogue with Chinese philosophy, religion, art, popular culture, and modern media, students will explore the complex and ongoing interactions between humans and animals throughout Chinese history and society.

What can a butterfly, a monkey, or a fox teach us about being humanand about worlds beyond the human? This course explores how animals shape storytelling, cultural imagination, and everyday life in Sinophone societies. Reading across ancient myths, philosophical texts, modern literature, and contemporary film, we encounter animals as companions, laborers, commodities, shape-shifters, and beings with lives of their own. How do stories draw and unsettle boundaries between species? How do animal figures express desires, organize social hierarchies, or challenge ideas about gender, morality, and power? What happens when we approach animals as living beings whose experiences exceed the meanings humans assign to them? Drawing on ecocriticism, animal studies, and posthumanist thought, we examine how narrative form and perspective invite us to imagine other creatures sensory worlds and question human-centered understandings of agency and value. We also situate these narratives within changing practices of agriculture, urbanization, and technological development, connecting cultural representation to the material conditions of multispecies life. Through discussion, close reading, film analysis, and creative projects, students explore how storytelling can reshape our responsibilities toward other beings and our visions of a shared future.

Continued focus on the development of oral and written communication skills and on the strengthening of cultural competency in Chinese through the use of written texts and multimedia resources. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units each semester.

Continued focus on the development of oral and written communication skills and on the strengthening of cultural competency in Chinese through the use of written texts and multimedia resources. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units each semester.

Introduction to major works in traditional Chinese literature. One Unit.

An exploration of Chinese culture through 20th- and 21st-century Chinese cinema. Taught in English. One unit.

An overview of the history and structure of the Chinese language.

This course explores the intersection of language, migration, and aging, with a focus on the experiences of immigrants from different age groups, including a case study of Asian American immigration stories.

Have you eaten yet? As one of the most common greetings among people in China, it suggests the important role food plays in Chinese culture and society. This course examines the Chinese culinary tradition and practice from antiquity to the present and explores diverse representations of food in historical accounts, literature, traditional arts, and the modern media. In this journey to Chinese cultures heart through its stomach, we will savor every bite: both food for thought and food for stomach. While digging into our food, we will also discuss a variety of topics related to the subject of Chinese food, such as food and culture values, food and identity, food and hunger, and Chinese food in the West. Students will develop critical eating skills and will further embrace cultural diversity through food.

How does imagining the future change the way we understand the present? This course explores contemporary Chinese science fiction through its depictions of humanenvironment relations. Focusing on twenty-first-century literature, we ask: How do speculative narratives envision Earth and its possible futures? What do these imagined worlds reveal about contemporary understandings of nature, technology, and planetary life? How might they help us rethink the relationships among humans, nonhuman beings, and their environments? From ecological catastrophe to visions of sustainable societies, from transformed landscapes to vast planetary systems, we examine how science fiction both responds to present conditions and imagines alternative ways of inhabiting the world. We pay particular attention to how these narratives connect Chinas social and environmental transformations to questions of resource use, technological development, and collective survival. Through close reading, discussion, and critical analysis, students develop an ecocritical approach to literature, exploring how setting, narrative perspective, and scale shape representations of environmental change. Throughout the course, we consider how speculative storytelling can challenge familiar assumptions about humannature relations and open possibilities for more just and sustainable futures.

Continued focus on the development of oral and written communication skills and cultural competency through the use of traditional Chinese readings and multimedia resources. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units each semester.

Continued focus on the development of oral and written communication skills and cultural competency through the use of traditional Chinese readings and multimedia resources. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units each semester.

Continued development of oral and written communication skills and cultural competency through the use of readings, videos, and other multimedia resources. One unit each semester.

Continued development of oral and written communication skills and cultural competency through the use of readings, videos, and other multimedia resources. One unit each semester.

This course continues its focus on the development of higher level skills in spoken Mandarin and formal, written Chinese.

An introduction to the classical literary language of China.