C LIT 322 Autumn Quarter, 2004
Beijing in Transition

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #1 (DUE 10/5)
1. What are the unique characteristics of a hutong? How does it convey a “sense of history”? (Jiang and Cheek, introduction to Small Well Lane)
2. How does architecture influence social relations in Beijing? (Dutton)
3. What does de Certeau mean, in your opinion, by stating "places are fragmentary and inward-turning histories"?

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #2 (DUE 10/7)
1. How is the lane portrayed?
2. What is the relationship between the lane and Beijing as a whole?
2. What view of history does the play convey?

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #3 (DUE 10/12)
1. How was eating at McDonald's in Beijing in the mid-1990s different from doing the same in the U.S.? Why?
2. How does Yoyo turn cultural capital into economic capital (terms used in Jing Wang's essay)?

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #4 (DUE 10/19)
1. What is a liumang? What is "liumang culture"?
2. In what way do the young men who run 3T (in The Troubleshooters) comport with the attributes of the liumang?
3. What are the similarities and differences between the liumang in The Troubleshooters and Yoyo in Big Shot's Funeral?

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #5 (DUE 10/21)
1. How were the "culture T-shirts" a form of street performance, an extension of folk sayings and satire?
2.Why did people like "culture T-shirts"? Why were the shirts so popular?
3. How did the shirts connect to liumang culture? Why were they regarded as a political problem?

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #6 (DUE 10/26)
1. How does rock music function as an alternative ideology in the PRC?
2. What is the significance of the lyrics of "I Have Nothing"?
3. What is the significance of teh lyrics of "A Piece of Red Cloth"?

QUESTION FOR READING RESPONSE #7(DUE 10/28)
This is also going to be the question for the midterm:
How does performance -- either in Beijing opera (in Farewell My Concubine), street-wise behavior (in The Troubleshooters and In the Heat of the Sun), or the staging of commercial events (in Big Shot's Funeral) -- function as a form of self-expression and resistance to authority? Discuss ONE of the films viewed in class in light of Jing Wang's, Geremie Barmé's, and Andrew Jones's writings. Pay close attention to specific performative strategies.

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #8 (DUE 11/2)
1. In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown and a republic was established. How did Beijing's spatial symbolism change as a result?
2. How did the new traffic infrastructure modify the symbolic layout of Beijing?

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #9 (DUE 11/4)
1. What role do Beijing spaces play in Farewell My Concubine?
2. Why was creating maps and monitoring real estate important for Beijing's new city government? What form did the relationship between city government and residents take?

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #10 (DUE 11/16)
1. Who are the main characters and what do they stand for?
2. How does the play compare with the later Small Well Lane? What are the similarities and differences?
3. What, in your opinion, is the playwright's intention in writing this piece?

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #11 (DUE 11/18)
1. What was the significance of the new city parks? How was Beijing turned into a touristy spot?
2. What parts of the new vision of Beijing remained visible in 1949, judging by Dragon Whisker Creek?

QUESTIONS FOR READING RESPONSE #12(DUE 11/23)
1. What was the role of the government, the residents, scholars such as Fang Ke, and of journalists such as Johnson in the dynamics of demolition and relocation?
2. What differences do you find in the attitude toward demolition and relocation among the people described by Ian Johnson on one hand and in Shower on the other?

Final exam: What vision of urban renewal does the ending scene of Shower convey? How does the scene convey its message? Compare the representation of urban renewal in Shower to either Dragon Whisker Creek or Small Well Lane (you may also refer to On the Beat and Grandpa Jing and His Clients).