History 608, Urban China

Course Description

Professor Christian Henriot

Professor Henriot is Carroll Visiting Professor of Urban Studies for fall quarter 2002. He has been Professor of History and Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Lyon, France and is now Associate Director of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). A distinguished historian of modern Chinese urban history, Professor Henriot is the author of many books and articles. His most recent book is Prostitution and Sexuality in Shanghai: A Social History 1849-1949 (Cambridge University Press, 2001).

The Carroll Professorship brings eminent historians, political scientists and geographers to the University of Oregon to enrich teaching and research in urban studies. Professor Henriot's colloquium should be of interest to students in a range of social science disciplines as well as Asian Studies and East Asian Literatures and Languages.

Description

In seminar format, this course will introduce to the major issues and problems in modern Chinese urban history. Specifically, we consider the transformation of urban space, economy, society and culture through the epochal era from the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Topics include definition and concept of Chinese cities, urban planning and architecture, social organization and fragmentation, municipal power and urban governance, social elites, shimin (urbanites) and marginals, urban culture and leisure, women and urban life. Based on representative works in English, the seminar covers various urban settings and contexts. The realm is the historical; the questions and tools are interdisciplinary and set in a comparative perspective. The first part of the seminar will examine selected topics in Chinese urban history, and the second part will be devoted to supervised research and writing of a term paper.

Course Policies

Requirements

This seminar requires active class participation and reading.

1. Class attendance/participation (20%)
2. Two critical reading reviews (5 pages) (30%)
3. One term research paper (50%)

Required Texts

The following books are required for the course. The books may be purchased from the university bookstore.
Frederic Wakeman Jr., The Shanghai Badlands: Wartime Terrorism and Urban Crime 1937-1941

Frederic Wakeman, Policing Shanghai, 1927-1937

Robert Bickers, Britain in China

Christian Henriot, Prostitution and Sexuality in Shanghai: A Social History, 1849-1949

Brian Martin, The Shanghai Green Gang: Politics and Organized Crime, 1919-1937

Bryna Goodman, Native Place, City and nation: Regional Networks and Identities in Shanghai, 1853-1937

William T. Rowe, Hankow: Commerce and Society in a Chinese City, 1796-1889

Elizabeth Perry, Shanghai on Strike

Marie-Claire Bergère, The Golden Age of the Chinese Bourgeoisie

Titles to be provided later

Course Schedule

2 October: class
9 October: no class
16 October: class
23 October: class
30 October: class
6 November: class
13 November: class
20 November: class
27 November: discussion of papers
4 December: conclusion