Media and Visual Culture in Modern China

This course examines print media and visual culture in modern China (1880-1949), as well as the ways in which they interacted with political, social and cultural transformations. Late Qing and Republican China witnessed a flourishing of visual culture thanks to the rapid development of print media (newspapers, pictorials, and film magazines, etc), photography, and cinema. This rich repertoire of visual sources offers valuable insights into the dynamics of societal change in China's modern history. This course explores a number of important visual genres (cartoon, calendar poster, photography, film, and woodcut) as well as individual periodicals. Visual methodologies will be introduced to conduct in-depth analysis of the visual sources. At the same time, a number of themes will be discussed throughout the course, including modernity, nationalism, gender, propaganda, and urbanisation. Students will be required to give presentations, using particular visual methodologies to analyse assigned primary visual materials, with an engagement with assigned secondary literature. The main goal of this course is to enhance students' research skills in dealing with primary sources, and to gain a deeper understanding of the specialised field of media and visuality in modern China. Credit Level: 10 Year taken: Year 4 Undergraduate