READINGS

ASSIGNMENTS

LINKS

This course is designed to acquaint you with the peoples around the periphery of China, particularly but not exclusively those that are included today within the boundaries of the People's Republic of China. Its specific approach is a systemic one, which sees these peoples as part of a larger world-system (in Immanuel Wallerstein's terms, a world-empire) and then as part of a modern state. At the same time, it attempts to present the view outward from the local peoples' own perspectives. We will consider five cases: the Mongols and other peoples of the steppes to the North; the Muslim cultures of the Northwest and Elsewhere; the Tibetans of the plateau to the West, the ethnically mixed areas of the Southwest, and the multilayered identities of Taiwan. In every case, the life of peripheral peoples will be examined as part of the Sinocentric world; at the same time, we will attempt to hear not just the voices of the Chinese observers and overlords, but the voices of the local people as well. Lectures will be supplemented with videotapes, slide presentations, guest lectures, etc.

There will be five paper assignments, one for each of the five case study units, each posted on the first day of the unit and due at the time stated on the assignment page. You are required to hand in papers on three of these five assignments. If you want to hand in four or five, you may drop the lowest grade of your four or the lowest two grades of your five. There will be no exams; your entire class grade will be based on your papers.

Books and Reserve Readings:
There are seven required books for this class:
Familiar Strangers, by Jonathan N. Lipman
Between Mecca and Beijing, by Maris Boyd Gillette
The Snow Lion and the Dragon,by Melvyn C. Goldstein
Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet, edited by Melvyn C. Goldstein and Matthew T. Kapstein
Perspectives on the Yi of Southwest China, edited by Stevan Harrell
Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China,, by Stevan Harrell
The Age of Wild Ghosts, by Erik A. Mueggler

Most other readings are accessible as .pdf files from links on this website. A few are on electronic reserve.