Westerners in Socialist China: Connected Histories, Multiple Experiences HIST S-1627

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1 CA FOSCARI Summer 2013 Time: / 10 am am Syllabus link: LECTURE ROOM:OD Instructor: Laura De Giorgi- degiorgi@unive.it Westerners in Socialist China: Connected Histories, Multiple Experiences HIST S-1627 Course description The course aims at analyzing the the experiences of Westerners in the People s Republic of China from 1949 to the age of the economic reforms at the end of the 1970s in the framework of the history of Socialist China and of its relationship to the outer world during the Maoist era. The course will consider the different experiences and roles played by Western political supporters, journalists and experts, travellers and diplomats. Their experience and their encounters with Chinese society, culture and politics will be analyzed under the perspective of changing Chinese domestic context and foreign policy, of Chinese Communist Party s policy towards foreigners, of the shifts in international context during the Cold War and of Chinese cultural attitude towards the Westerners. The course will focus on Westeners living and working in China and on Western short-term visitors as well. Selected readings from biographies, personal memories and travel reports of Western journalists, diplomats, political sympathizers and intellectuals will be discussed in order to understand both the impact of the China experience on their world view and their place in the history of Socialist China as well. Their role in the representation and reception of Socialist China in Western Europe and in the USA will be analyzed. Finally the interest currently emerging in China in revisiting foreigners experiences in Socialist China will be discussed using Chinese Press accounts and comments. Classes will be structured as lecture and group discussion on the assigned readings. After analyzing some general aspects and trends in Mao s China approach to and attitude towards the world and the foreigners, classwork will mainly focus on the historical, political and cultural contextualization of the experiences of Westerners in Maoist China. Class debates will also focus on issues relating to cultural identity and political ideology in Sino-Western relations. The final exam will verge on both the reading and the class lectures. Formal requirements Although no specific requirement is needed to attend the course, a general knowledge of Twentieth-Century history is recommended. Required readings Anne-Marie Brady, Making the Foreigner Serve China: Managing Foreigners in the People s Republic, Rowman and Littlefield, 2003 Course Pack (Selected readings available at the beginning of the course) Lecture notes One book at choice among the followings: Brady, Anne-Marie Friend of China. The Myth of Alley Rewi, RoutledgeCurzon, Epstein, Israel My China Eye. Memoirs of a Jew and a Journalist. Long River Press, 2000.

2 Hamilton, John Maxwell, Edgar Snow: A Biography. Indiana University Press, MacKinnon, Janice and Stephen R. MacKinnon, Agnes Smedley: The Life and Times of an American Radical Porter, Edgar The People s Doctor: George Hatem and China s Revolution, University of Hawai Press, Rittemberg, Sidney and Amanda Bennett, The Man Who Stayed Behind, Duke University Press, 2001 Strong, Tracy and B. Keyssar, Helene. Right in Her Soul: the Life of Anna Louise Strong O Brien Neil L.O., An American Editor in Early Revolutionary China. John William Powell and the China Weekly/Monthly Review, Routledge, 2003 o TaylorFrancis 2005 Wong, Jan, Red China Blues. My Long March from Mao to Now, Anchor Book, Barlow, Tani E. Lowe Donald M., Teaching China s Lost Generation: Foreign Experts in the PRC, China Books and Periodicals, 1987 Chow, Dao Yuai, Silage Choppers and Snake Spirits. The lives and struggles of two Americans in Modern China, IBON Books, Quezon City, 2003 Recommended readings (selections will be included in the Course Pack) Hollader, Paul. Political Pilgrims. Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society. Revised Edition, Transaction, 1997 Hooper Beverly, China Stands Up: Ending the Western Presence, , Routledge, 1986 Film screening Chung-kuo. (1974) Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. How Yukong Moved the Mountains. (1976) Directed by Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan.

3 Grading Participation 25 % Final Paper 25% This part of the grading will be evaluated based on the demonstration of having done the readings, willingness to answer questions, and attention and response to classmates. A short paper (5-6 pages long, TNR 12 points) on one of the topics dealt during the course should be submitted before the final examination. Final Examination 50 % The final examination will consist in students oral presentations or one or two written questions. Policies and procedures Students must attend all lessons, any absence must be registered by the CFHSS office ( cafoscariharvard@unive.it ). All students are required to read in advance/academic honesty/tutorials. Office location, contact information, tutorial time (tbc):

4 Seminars: Lesson Title and Description Date 1 Course presentation. Historical background: Western presence in Twentieth Century-China. A general overview of policies towards foreigners and foreign institutions in the People s Republic of China. Readings Brady, Making the Foreigner Serve China, chapters 1-2; Course Pack, Part 1 (Hooper, China Stands up pp. 1-28). 2 Western enemies in the early 1950s: the mass campaigns against foreign imperialists and missionaries and the end of old foreign community. Readings Brady, Making the Foreigner Serve China, pp ; Course pack Part 2 (Shai, Aron Imperialism Imprisoned: the closure of British firms in the People's Republic of China, English Historical Review (1989) CIV(CCCCX): ; Hooper, China stands up, pp ) 3 Western intellectuals trajectories through the Chinese revolution. Some exemplary cases. Readings Brady, Making the Foreigner Serve China, Chapter 3; Course Pack Part 3 (Selections from: Hamilton, Edgar Snow: A Biography, 1988; MacKinnon, Agnes Smedley. 1988; Strong, Keyssar, Right in Her Soul, 1983; Epstein, My China Eye ) 4 Lives of Western revolutionaries in Socialist China. Maoist China seen from within. Readings Brady, Making the Foreigner Serve China, Chapters 4-5; Course Pack Part 4 (Selections Porter, The People s Doctor: George Hatem and China s Revolution, 1997; Rittemberg, Bennett, The Man Who Stayed Behind, 2001; Brady, Friend of China. The Myth of Alley Rewi, 2002) 5 Western experts in China through Cultural Revolution: insiders s experiences of Maoist radicalism. Readings Brady, Chapter 6; Course Pack Part 5 (Anne-Marie Brady, Red and Expert: China s Foreign Friends in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution , in Woei Lian Chong (ed.), China Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: Master Narratives and Post-Mao Counternarratives, Rowman and Littlefield, 2002, pp ; Selections from Rittemberg, Bennett; Epstein; Selections from MacKerras, Sinophiles and Sinophobes, 2000) 6 Western diplomatic presence in Maoist China Readings Course Pack Part 6 (J.E. Hoare, Building Politics: The British Embassy Peking , The Pacific Review, vol. 7, n. 1, 1994, pp ; Selections from Hooper, China Stands Up; Lum, Peking , 1960; Fokkema D.W., Report from Peking: Observation of a Western Diplomat on the Cultural Revolution, Hurst and Co., 1972;). 7 Visiting Maoist China: observers and supporters 18 June 20 June 25 June 27 June 2 July 4 July Readings Course Pack Part 7 (Selections from Passin China s Cultural Diplomacy,1961, 9 July pp.1-21; Hollader, Political Pilgrims. Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society, 1978 pp.3-73, ,; Wright, Passport to Peking: A Very British Mission to Mao s China, 2010, pp ). 8 Westerners and the myth of the Cultural Revolution

5 Readings Course Pack Part 8 (Belden Fields, French Maoism, Social Text, 9-10, 1984, pp ; Selections from Alexander, Maoism in the Developed World, 2001; Maciocchi, Daily Life in Revolutionary China, 1972; Wong, Red China Blues. My Long March from Mao to Now, 1999) 9 Visualizing Revolutionary China in the West. Western film director s experiences of Maoist China Readings Course pack Part 9 (Fitzpatrick, China Images Abroad: The Representation of China in Western Documentary Films, The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, 9, 1983, pp ; Umberto Eco: De interpretatione or on the difficulty of being Marco Polo. On the occasion of Antonioni s China Film in Film Quarterly, 30, 4, 1977; Antonioni after China. Art versus Science, in Michelangelo Antonioni, Interviews, edited by B. Cardullo, 2008; Sun Hongyun, Two Chinas? Joris Ivens Yukong and Antonioni s China, Studies in Documentary Film, 3, 1, 2009). 10 Conclusion: Westerners after the end of Maoism. Current Chinese perspectives on Westerners role and history in Socialist China. Students presentations. Brady, Making the Foreigners, Chapters Course pack Part 10 (Selection from Barlow, Lowe, Teaching China s Lost Generation; articles from the Chinese Press and websites) 11 July 16 July 18 July