Transfer Student Courses in Chinese (Division 339)

Winter Term, 2000 (January 5 - April 26, 2000)

To see what Transfer Student courses have been added or changed in Chinese this week go to What's New This Week.

Waitlist policy for all courses is 1 - get on the waitlist and go to the first day of class and talk to the instructor.

Students wanting to begin language study in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, at a level other than first year, must take a placement exam to be held on Tuesday, January 4, 1-3pm. Test locations will be posted outside of the Department office in 3070 FB.

Language Courses

Instructor(s): Laura Grande (lsgrande@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Chinese 201. (5). (LR).

Credits: (5).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course is a continuation of work begun in Chinese 201. Students electing the course should have mastered the material presented in the first 10 lessons of Integrated Chinese (Cheng & Tsui, Co. 1997); Lessons 11-22 from that text constitute the focus of this course. The primary goals are (a) continued improvement of aural understanding and speaking competence and (b) achievement of a basic level of reading competence. These goals are approached through classroom drills, oral presentations/skits, out-of-class exercises, and work in the language laboratory. Daily class attendance is required. Students who are native or near-native Mandarin Chinese speakers are not eligible for this course; they should enroll in Chinese 302 (Reading and Writing Chinese), which covers all of the material presented in Chinese 201/202 and is offered in the Winter Term.

Culture Courses/Literature Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Shuen-fu Lin (lsf@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (HU).

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See Great Books 221.001.

Language Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): William Baxter (wbaxter@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Chinese 202 or 362. (4). (Excl).

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: https://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2000/winter/lsa/chin/452/001.nsf

Literary Chinese is the gateway to the vast treasures of Chinese literature, history, and culture. One cannot really come to know traditional China, or even modern China, without the ability to read literary Chinese. It is the language for the overwhelming majority of whatever was written in Chinese from the very beginnings to this century. Although there are some similarities and continuities between literary and modern Chinese, a course of this type is really necessary to help you open up the riches that lie waiting there. The course is designed to serve the needs of both undergraduate and graduate students, of both specialists (or would-be specialists) and those who are just curious about the Chinese literary heritage. Reading materials include a textbook, A First Course in Literary Chinese, and handouts especially picked to reinforce the material in the textbook. In this second half of a two-term sequence, the student will be introduced to many famous works of Chinese literature, the kind of pieces that have been memorized and chanted by Chinese down through the ages. There are brief weekly exercises, as well as a midterm and final.

Language Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Qinghai Chen (chenq@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Chinese 461. (5). (Excl).

Credits: (5).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~chenq/461-2.html

Chinese 461-462 is a two-term Chinese language course sequence with graded readings at an advanced level. Texts chosen from a variety of sources in both Mainland China and Taiwan include 20th-century fiction and essays on various topics. While students are helped to further improve command of structure and vocabulary in a range of language styles, the primary emphasis of the sequence is on reading comprehension with the aim of enabling students to read original materials with less reliance on a dictionary. Development of speaking and writing skills will also be stressed through discussions on the readings. In the second term (i.e., in 462), more longer texts will be used, and efforts will be made to improve reading skills and speed. At times when Chinese 431-432 (Contemporary Social Science Text) is not offered simultaneously, a social science component may be arranged to accommodate to the demand of students. Daily attendance, weekly assignments and vocabulary quizzes as well as unit tests are required. There is no final exam. Classes are conducted largely in Chinese.

Culture Courses/Literature Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Philip Ivanhoe (ivanhoe@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Chinese 263 or another introductory philosophy course is recommended. (3). (Excl).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ivanhoe/phil456.htm

This course is a survey of different interpretations of the early Daoist classic, Zhuangzi. We will examine both traditional and modern interpretations, but we will focus on modern interpreters and approaches. The class will meet twice a week for lectures that introduce the material covered and suggest possible lines for further inquiry. On the third weekly meetings, students will have the opportunity to explore issues raised in lectures and readings.

An additional section will be dedicated to examining textual issues of interpretation in the original (offered as an directed readings course). An advanced level of classical Chinese is required for this last section which is not required for the class.

Culture Courses/Literature Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): David Rolston (drolston@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: No knowledge of Chinese required. (3). (HU).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The focus of this course is the development of drama and fiction in premodern China. Written in vernacular Chinese, these works expand the permissible subjects and modes of literary expression giving the reader an intimate “backstage” view of traditional Chinese culture unavailable elsewhere. Course requirements are several short papers, a final exam, and participation in class discussion. Readings include, depending on availability, plays: Chinese Theater in the Days of Kublai Khan, The Lute, and The Peach Blossom Fan; short stories: Stories from a Ming Collection, Silent Operas; autobiography: Six Records of a Floating Life; and novels: The Plum in the Golden Vase (cc. 1-20), The Tower of Myriad Mirrors, The Story of the Stone (v. 1), and The Travels of Lao Ts’an.

Culture Courses/Literature Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Shuen-fu Lin (lsf@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (HU).

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This interdisciplinary course is taught jointly by faculty specialists in Chinese philosophy, religion, history of art, drama, and literature. It is not a survey course. Instead the main task will be the sustained and critical study of a number of significant and representative works in order to present some major themes of the distinct and complex civilizations of China. In spite of inner tensions, this is a cultural tradition that can be seen as a highly integrated system composed of mutually reinforcing parts, making such an interdisciplinary and multimedia approach particularly effective. Toward the end of the term we will observe the system's collapse as it struggles to adapt to the modern world, consider how our themes continue, persist, or change. Background lectures on history, language, and cosmology will be followed by topics and readings that include: Confucianism (Mencius) and Taoism (Chuang-Tzu); themes in Chinese religiosity, Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism; classical narratives; lyricism and visual experience in poetry and landscape painting; traditional storyteller tales; poetic-musical theater; fiction of modern “revolutionary” and post-Mao China.

Course format: lectures and discussions by Baxter (language); Crump (theater); Feuerwerker (modern fiction); Ivanhoe (philosophy); Lam (music); Lin (poetry); Powers (art history); Rolston (traditional fiction); Sharf (religion).

Students should register for both the lecture section, and one of the three discussion sections. No prerequisites. Requirements: occasional brief responses to readings, three short papers, and final exam.