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EVENTS & PROGRAMS
October 2008 Events
October 14, 2008
12:00PM - 1:00PM, Room 1636 School of Social Work Building, 1080 South University
Fall 2008 CCS Noon Lecture Series - Shuen-fu Lin
Description:
In this lecture, Professor Shuen-fu Lin will present a close reading of a song lyric (ci) reportedly written by the scholar-official Wen Jiweng (fl 1253-1275) while reveling on the West Lake with fellow scholars on the occasion of their passing the Civil Service Examination for the jinshi (or highest-level) degree. Wen Jiweng's song lyric will be examined in the context of the mode of life of prosperity, social elegance, and graceful leisure of the Southern Song educated elite on the eve of the Mongol conquest of China.
A former Director of the Center for Chinese Studies and a former Chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Shuen-fu Lin is now Professor of Chinese Literature at the University of Michigan. Professor Lin specializes in the literature and culture of pre-modern China, with special research interests in the poetry and aesthetic theory of the middle periods. He is also interested in early Daoist philosophical literature, the literary dream in poetry and fiction, and garden aesthetics. His recent publications include an article entitled "Those Who Can Fly without Wings: The Depiction of the Ideal Person in the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi"; a chapter on "Long Song Lyrics on Objects," included in Zong-qi Cai, ed., How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology published by Columbia University Press; and a chapter on the literature of the Southern Song (1127-1279) for inclusion in the forthcoming The Cambridge HIstory of Chinese Literature being edited by Stephen Owen of Harvard University and Kang-i Sun Chang of Yale University.
October 23, 2008
7:00PM - 8:00PM, Room 1636 School of Social Work Building, 1080 S. University, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Fall 2008 CCS Public Lecture Series - Yasheng Huang
Description:
The year 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of Chinese reforms. It is high time to take stock of and assess where the Chinese economy is today. This presentation will show that much of the foundation of China's miracle was laid down in the 1980s and experienced substantial reversals in the 1990s. Even after 30 years of reforms, the reforms are far from complete.
Yasheng Huang teaches international management at Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics (Cambridge 2008). In collaborative projects with other scholars, Professor Huang is conducting research on engineering education and human capital formation in China and India and on entrepreneurship. Professor Huang is the recipient of the Social Science-MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the National Fellowship.
October 25, 2008
7:00PM - 8:00PM, Auditorium A of Angell Hall, 435 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Fall 2008 CCS Chinese Documentary Film Series - Red Capitalism: China's Economic Revolution
Description:
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1995; 57 minutes (English and Chinese with English subtitles). An economic revolution is turning China into the world's largest economy. The birthplace of Chinese capitalism is Shenzhen which has exploded from a farming village to an industrial center of 3 million people. This film shows how Western corporations are moving factories to Shenzhen to profit from cheap labor and join one of the world's largest consumer markets. Currently there are 58,000 joint venture corporations - from Proctor & Gamble to Volkswagen - for an annual economic growth of ten percent. So desirable is it to work in Shenzhen that the city must be patrolled to keep out the teeming hopefuls. Scientists are working as clerks, and teachers on assembly lines because they earn more doing menial work here. This Mecca of free enterprise has its seamy side as crime and prostitution abound. Yet, from Avon salesladies to manic millionaires, its inhabitants exhibit boundless enthusiasm for the future.
October 28, 2008
12:00PM - 1:00PM, Room 1636 School of Social Work Building, 1080 South University
Fall 2008 CCS Noon Lecture Series - Giovanni Vitiello
Description:
This presentation focuses on the figure of the male libertine in pornographic fiction to argue that the boundaries of his sexuality and masculinity were drawn and redrawn, and in the process significantly altered, from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. While pointing at a shift in the representation of masculinity and male-male sexuality in fiction, these developments might also signal an attempt to meet the new moral and legal standards of the mid-Qing period.
Professor Vitiello obtained a Laurea in Oriental Languages from the University of Rome, and MA and Ph.D. degrees in Chinese from the University of California at Berkeley. His research and publications focus on late imperial Chinese fiction and the history of sexuality. He has just completed a book manuscript by the title of "The Libertine's Friend: Homosexuality and Masculinity in Late Imperial China–1550-1850." He is currently Associate Professor of Chinese Literature at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
November 01, 2008
7:00PM - 8:00PM, Auditorium A, Angell Hall, 435 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Description:
A film by Sharon Connolly, Susan Lambert and Stefan Moore for Film Australia; 2002; 55 minutes (English and Chinese with English subtitles). This unique film examines the battle raging to control China's airwaves. Working with a government that allows nothing of social or political import to be broadcast, entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia bring their full complement of consumerism and mindless entertainment to the millions or Chinese greedy for a glimpse of the outside world. Prof. Leonard Chu of Hong Kong Baptist University sees the arrival of television to the villages of China as a positive development, even with its limited programming. He applauds the new openness, providing a "window on the world." On the other hand, we hear from the director of Shanghai Communications whose only interest is in selling. He sees television solely as a tool for promoting Chinese products in their developing market. Gary Darcy, CEO of Murdoch's Star Network describes how BBC News was cancelled from the schedule because the Chinese government would never allow a newscast from abroad. Dr. Geremie Barme, a widely respected observer of Chinese society says, "Chinese television is a negation of the social contract which provided free educations, pensions, and social services to the people and peasants. Instead, the self sacrificing citizen of the past is being turned into a consumer."
November 04, 2008
12:00PM - 1:00PM, Room 1636 School of Social Work Building, 1080 South University
Fall 2008 CCS Noon Lecture Series - Yanjie Bian
Description:
How do we understand the increasing roles that guanxi plays in Chinese transition economy? Sociologist Yanjie Bian proposes a theoretical model in which the role of guanxi is a function of institutional uncertainty and market competition. He tests some empirical implications of this model by analyzing several surveys on job mobility and growth of economic enterprises from 1978 to 2003.
Yanjie Bian is professor of sociology at University of Minnesota, funding director of the Survey Research Center at HKUST, and the PI of the Chinese General Social Survey.
November 04, 2008
12:00PM - 01:00PM, Room 1636 School of Social Work Building, 1080 S. University
Fall 2008 CCS Noon Lecture Series - Yanjie Bian
Description:
How do we understand the increasing roles that guanxi plays in Chinese transition economy? Sociologist Yanjie Bian proposes a theoretical model in which the role of guanxi is a function of institutional uncertainty and market competition. He tests some empirical implications of this model by analyzing several surveys on job mobility and growth of economic enterprises from 1978 to 2003.
Yanjie Bian is professor of sociology at University of Minnesota, funding director of the Survey Research Center at HKUST, and the PI of the Chinese General Social Survey.
November 08, 2008
7:00PM - 8:00PM, Auditorium A, Angell Hall, 435 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Fall 2008 CCS Chinese Documentary Film Series - Last House Standing
Description:
A film by Chao Gan and Zi Liang; China, 2005; 54 minutes (English and Chinese with English subtitles). As China continues its unprecedented economic growth, this documentary captures the poignant story of an elderly man caught between his country's past and future. In Shanghai, yet another district is scheduled for demolition and redevelopment. The residents have all been relocated except for one. The owner of an old mansion, Mr. Jiang steadfastly refuses to leave. Mr. Jiang was born in this house and has watched the history of Shanghai unfold from its balcony. Vividly depicting the relationship between an individual and a changing society, this is an intimate appreciation of the vast changes sweeping through China today.
