AAS 2910 - [It’s All Chinese to Me]

(crosslisted) AMST 2910, ENGL 2910
(CA-AS, ALC-AS, SCD-AS)

Fall. Not offered: 2021-2022. Next offered: 2023-2024. 4 credits. Student option grading.

S. Wong.

In her memoir Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston identified a conundrum familiar to many US-born children of Chinese immigrants when she asked: “What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies?” What is “Chinese tradition”? Does it mean the same thing to people in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, or to Chinese diasporic communities in North America? Does “Chineseness” change across time and space? While there will be occasion to discuss what “Chineseness” means in different Asian contexts, this course will focus primarily on how ideas of “China” and “Chineseness” have been historically constructed by, for, and in the West—particularly in the US. Course materials include readings on the concept of “Chineseness,” Chinese American literature and film, and historical studies of East/West relations.