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Course Home Class schedule E-mail the class READINGS Time & Space Persons Family & Gender Rural Urban Migration Nation & People ESSAYS Family & Gender Rural Urban Migration Nation & People RESOURCES Maps of China ANTH Writing Center JSIS Writing Center |
This section is about the arrangement of cities, both in terms of space and in terms of social class. We will first look at the ways in which different regimes have conceived of and tried to design cities, and the kinds of residents and the kinds of distinctions that have emerged from these plans and from the fact that the plans don't always work. We will then take a closer look at the physical and social transformations as China's cities have joined the modern world. Friday, February 15: The imperial city and the rise of treaty ports; danwei and dependency in High Socialism We begin with imperial cities and their early modern descendants, and the way Western culture and ideas shaped the transition. You should start out by reading the first two chapters of David Strand's Rickshaw Beijing to get a flavor of what the transition was like. Then proceed to Barry Naughton's Danwei: The Economic Foundations of a Unique Institution to get the flavor of what the city was like during the period of high socialism, when planning almost succeeded in creating a city in the image of the planners. Wednesday, February 20: The physical transformation of the modern city One thing that has effected urban social structure greatly is the influx of rural migrants, both temporary and permanent, something we will consider in detail in Unit VI. For the time being, you need to consider the partial breakdown of the hukou, or household registration system, as detailed by Kam Wing Chan in The Household Registration System and Migrant Labor in China. Then you need to read the first half (introduction and chapters 1-3) of Li Zhang's In Search of Paradise, which is all about middle-class living and aspirations in Kunming. We will also watch J.P. Sniadecki's eerily magnificent film Demolition. Friday, February 22: The physical transformation of the modern home Today we will talk more explicitly about consumption, consumerism, and social class, and also relate this material back to the changes in family, gender, and patriarchy that we covered in Unit III. Read the second half (chapters 4-7 and the epilogue) of In Search of Paradise.
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