Shanghai Stories

Catalog description

This course provides an introduction to the history and culture of Shanghai through the eyes of fiction writers. We will read short stories (in English translation) by Chinese, British, American, Japanese, French, Polish, and South African writers who lived in the city between 1910 and 2010. Their stories will take us on an imaginary city tour through time and space: from businessmen, politicians, and prostitutes gathering in the nightclubs of the old Bund, to Jewish refugees struggling to find a home in the poor shikumen neighborhoods of Hongkou, to teachers and students fighting political battles at the university campuses during the Cultural Revolution, and young urban youth pursuing cosmopolitan lifestyles in the global city of today. The course also includes trips to various places featured in the stories and guest lectures by some of Shanghai’s most famous writers today. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS Chinese Media, Arts, and Literature; Humanities Major Other Introductory Courses.