This course is an introduction to the anthropology of modern China and
the various cultures subsumed under the name China.  We will look
broadly at how anthropologists and other social scientists have
constituted China as an object of study and how their scholarship has
been influenced by the history of East-West relations.  The course
will focus on the 20th and 21st centuries, with particular attention
to China’s socialist era and recent decades.  Topics to be discussed
may include gender, kinship, ethnicity, sexuality, popular religion,
socialism, the peasantry, and popular culture.  Course readings and
films will encourage students to think critically about the categories
and assumptions we bring to the study of China.  The course is
appropriate for all levels of undergraduates.  Prior classes in
Chinese studies are helpful but not required.