The Outline of Chinese Traditional Culture

1. Basic Teaching Information

2. Course Introduction

This course is designed to give students a basic introduction to traditional Chinese culture through a close examination of various aspects of Chinese culture, including literature, calligraphy, music, fine art, festival, tea, mythology, book production and circulation, and different schools of Confucian thought and their practices. Classes will be organized primarily around lectures with occasional breaks into small group discussion and other cultural activities. Readings will include both primary sources (in Chinese and English translation) and secondary scholarship. This course encourages students to think critically about “Chinese culture” and invites them to locate the traditional Chinese cultural experiences in modern and a wider context. Students are expected to participate actively in class discussion and to write a book report (English version) with around 800 words.

3.The Allocation of Content and Lecture Hours

3. Assessment Methods and Marking Criterion

(1) Attendance and participation (20%)：Participate in group discussions, and choose one of them to write a group discussion record (English version). This record mainly includes: discussion topic, discussion main point(around 300 words), discussant name and student number, and discussion date.

(2) Homework assignments (30%): Combining 9 lecture topics, recommend a reference book that you think is helpful for this course, list the publication information of this reference book, and write a recommendation of around  300 words.

(3) Final Project (50%): Select a book from the Course Materials for intensive reading and write a book report (English version) with around 800 words.

4. Textbooks and References

孙正国：《端午节》，北京：中国社会出版社，2006年。

[美]周绍明：《书籍的社会史》，北京：北京大学出版社，2009。

周汝昌（著）、周伦玲（编）：《永字八法》，桂林：广西师范大学出版社，2015年。

[美]何予明：《家园与天下：明代书文化与寻常阅读》，北京：中华书局，2019年。

袁珂：《中国神话通论》，成都：四川人民出版社，2019。

林曦：《书法课》，北京：北京文艺出版社，2020年。

刘礼堂等主编：《中华茶文化概论》，北京：北京大学出版社，2020年。

徐雁平：《清代的书籍流转与社会文化》，南京：南京大学出版社，2022年。

Anne M. Birrell. Chinese Mythology: An Introduction. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Chow, Y. F. and J. D. Kloet. Sonic Multiplicities: Hong Kong Pop and the Global Circulation of Sound and Image. Bristol, Intellect，2013.

 Cui, Jie, and Zong-qi Cai. How to Read Chinese Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

James Legge. Li Chi: Book of Rites. Kessinger Publishing, 2003.

Jones, A. Like a knife: Ideology and Genre in Contemporary Chinese Popular Music, Cornell University East Asia Program，1992.

Lihui Yang and Deming An. Handbook of Chinese Mythology. Santa Barbara, Denver and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Li, Wendan. Chinese Writing and Calligraphy. The University of Hawaii Press, 2010.

Yinzong Wei. Scholars and Their Marginalia in Late Imperial China. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2022.