This course introduces students to the performing arts in contemporary China
(with an emphasis on the People's Republic of China), focusing on genres
with music as a central component.  It will include varied forms and
contexts--folk, art, popular, touristic, state--and in different parts of
the country.  The issue of diversity lies at the heart of the course,
bringing into the discussion regional, gender, generational, ethnic, and
class differences within contemporary Chinese culture as seen through the
performing arts.

Although the course focuses on performance today, we will begin with a brief
foray into Chinese musical history to set a context and to become familiar
with the development of performance genres.  Many older forms and
instruments--including 2,000-year old bronze bells--can be heard today
albeit in different contexts and surrounded by discourses that comment on
the relation between the past and present.  After surveying the range of
musical styles and performance contexts in which music plays today, we will
focus on particular case studies through which to explore relations between
music and culture and the interrelations between the arts.

Other goals include gaining a general familiarity with current scholarship
on the performing arts and with what is going on musically in China today.
Thus, course materials range from specialized scholarship to magazines,
newspapers, websites, films, and radio programs.

Assignments/Grading: Students will be expected to prepare for and
participate actively in discussions based on course readings, audio tapes
and videos.  Assignments will include listening to audio tapes (available in
the Archives of Traditional Music or in the Music Library) and viewing
videos (in the main library), brief bibliographic and research reports, and
a final research paper of 15-20 pages on a topic chosen in consultation with
the instructor.  Students will find opportunities to pursue interests in
particular regions, genres, and topics in these flexible assignments.  A
portion of class time will be devoted to student presentations and to
student-led discussions of our readings.

Class Materials: Apart from audio and video tapes (available only in the
library), materials include a Reader of selected articles, Music of the
Billion (Liang; an overview text), and several book-length case studies of
the performing arts.  All required readings will be in English;
Chinese-language materials will be available for
students with Chinese-language skills.

FOLK F600 is cross-listed in the Department of East Asian Languages and
Cultures; it is an "area course" in the Ethnomusicology Program.