Course Number: CMNS 445
Course Title: Media and Popular Culture in China
Credit Hours: 4 Vector: 2-0-2
Course Description
An exploration of the media and popular culture scene in reform-era China. A wide range of media and popular culture forms and practices (including films, television shows, lifestyle magazines, street tabloids, and popular rhymes) are analyzed in their concrete institutional settings and dynamic relationships with official ideologies, market imperatives, and the everyday struggles and cultural sensitivities of various social groups during a period of epochal transformation in China.
Prerequisite: 75 credit hours including CMNS 240, and 261 or 262; and one of CMNS 310, 331, 345, or 346.
Recommended: N/A
Corequisite: N/A
Special Instructions: Students who have taken CMNS 428 or 487 with this topic may not take CMNS 445 for further credit.
Course(s) to be dropped if this course is approved: N/A
This course adds depth to our existing curriculum, and addresses students' growing interest in the area. Course has been successfully offered as special topics twice before (01-2 CMNS 428; and 02-1 CMNS 487), and is scheduled for 03-2 (CMNS 487), with enrollments of at least 36 each time. Excellent course/instructor evaluations have been received. Communication has a lack of "regular" offerings at the 400-level.
Will this be a required or elective course in the curriculum; probable enrolment when offered?
It will be an elective course. CMNS Majors and Honours students are required to take at least 2 regular CMNS 400-level courses as part of their degree programs. Enrollment when offered will probably be 35-40.
Indicate Semester and Year this course would be first offered and planned frequency of offering thereafter.
Which of your present CFL faculty have the expertise to offer this course? Will the course be taught by sessional or limited term faculty?
Course would be taught by Dr. Yuezhi Zhao or Dr. Pat Howard. Sessional or limited-term instructors would only be used for study leave replacement.
Are there any proposed student fees associated with this course other than tuition fees?
Is this course considered a `duplicate' of any current or prior course under the University's duplicate course policy? Specify, as appropriate.
2004/5 Calendar
Note: Senate has approved (S.93-11) that no new course should be approved by Senate until funding has been committed for necessary library materials. Each new course proposal must be accompanied by a library report and, if appropriate, confirmation that funding arrangements have been addressed.
Provide details on how existing instructional resources will be redistributed to accommodate this new course. For instance, will another course be eliminated or will the frequency of offering of other courses be reduced; are there changes in pedagogical style or class sizes that allow for this additional course offering.
Course will use existing instructional resources.
Does the course require specialized space or equipment not readily available in the department or university, and if so, how will these resources be provided?
No.
Does this course require computing resources (e.g. hardware, software, network wiring, use of computer laboratory space) and if so, describe how they will be provided.
No.
An exploration of the media and popular culture scene in reform-era China. A wide range of media and popular culture forms and practices (including films, television shows, lifestyle magazines, street tabloids, and popular rhymes) are analyzed in their concrete institutional settings and dynamic relationships with official ideologies, market imperatives, and the everyday struggles and cultural sensitivities of various social groups during a period of epochal transformation in China.
Yuezhi Zhao, Media, Market, and Democracy in China: Between the Party Line and Bottom
Line (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1998).
Michael Dutton, Streetlife China (Cambridge, Mass:, Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Perry Link, Richard Madsen, and Paul Pickowicz (eds.), Popular China: Unofficial Culture in a Globalizing Society (Boulder, CO: New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).
The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will follow Policy T10.02 with respect to "Intellectual Honesty" and "Academic Discipline" (see the current Calendar, General Regulations section).
Extra readings will be on reserve in the Library.