Representing History In Contemporary China

AY2015/2016 Semester 2

When a country's present and future needs and self-image change, so do its representations of the past. Since the start of the reform era, China has embraced market reforms and it has increasingly been integrated into the global economy. At the same time, however, the country is still tied to its revolutionary legacy, as the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains based on the 1949 revolution. What do this changing reality and revolutionary legacy imply with regard to the production of history in China? This course looks into representations of modern Chinese history since the First Opium War (1839-1842) in post-1978 China in a variety of media. These media include, among others, museums, textbooks, documentaries, TV series, and films. On a broad level, the course addresses questions regarding historical production and representation and the uses and abuses of history. Secondly, it familiarizes students with aspects of the domain of public history through a discussion of changing museum practices and shifting notions of places of memory. Finally, the course also engages with the theme of representations of history in the age of media and new media and how to ?read? visual and digital materials that are not ?texts? in the traditional sense of the word.