2023-2024 University Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2023-2024 University Catalog archived

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HIST 105 - Scenes from Chinese History


FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
Credits: 3

Film is one of the 20th century’s most influential forms of mass communication and, consequently, has been one medium for the creation and maintenance of nation-states. In this sense, no film can be considered as mere entertainment entirely divorced from the social, political, economic and, ultimately, historical context in which it was produced. This is particularly true of modern nation-states invented during the 20th century like the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This course is intended to explore how contemporary PRC cinema has interpreted Chinese history, as represented by some of that history’s pre-PRC milestones of conflict in the Qin and Qing dynasties as well as the Republican period. Students evaluate the films critically as historical products of their own times as well as current historical narratives of the past by examining each event through a pair of films produced at different times in PRC history. Students also examine post-1949 changes in China and its interpretation of its pre-1949 history, and so, by seeing how a country interprets its history at a given time.



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