Writing Assignments

The assignments are meant to be exercises for you to think ethically. Length-wise, about 2500 words, double space, 4 pages, with a meaningful title. In the 2nd paper, you discuss no less than five texts, fictional, philosophical, biographical to develop a coherence by nuanced reading and textual analysis. This is also the draft for your final in-class oral presentation; unless you deal with something not assigned in this class, no need for summary. The due dates: March, 3rd, and April 18.

First Paper

It is foolish for total strangers to talk about their deeply held personal beliefs and discuss their moral takes on issues of social justice. The importance of this paper is for us to get to know each other better, our values, attitudes, and personal history that has shaped our sense of right and wrong. It is therefore not an expository essay but a loose autobiography in which (3-4 pages) you write as concretely and specifically as you can about your religious upbringing, your family and childhood, your gender and race, that are the bedrocks of your experience and identity as a moral being.

For example, Christian morals crystalized when Jesus said to a crowd about to stone an adulteress to death, “let he who is without sins cast the first stone”. Likewise, Confucian humanism became distinct when Confucius heard his friend say: “Among us here are those who may be styled upright in their conduct. If their father have stolen a sheep, they will bear witness to the fact,” and replied, “Among us, in our part of the country, those who are upright are different from this. The father conceals the misconduct of the son, and the son conceals the misconduct of the father. Uprightness is to be found in this.” 

Write about the moments or events in which you saw Evil, received Kindness, and understood Justice, and in which Morality becomes crystalized for you. The personal information that you share with me stays private. I’ll do the same as I read your paper and share my personal experience growing up in China.

Second Paper

the topics include but are not limited to the following

  • Oriental Identity and Eurocentric World History. Chinese historian and scholar Wang Hui argues that “the idea of Asia is not an Asian invention but a European one”. But the idea was actually a joint invention by such Asians such as Fukuzawa Yukichi, who proposed the “Datsu-A Nyu-O (脱亚入欧) for Japan to depart from Asia and join the Europeans.” In recent decades, many scholars have begun arguing for “restoring the times of history to China” and “China-centered history of China” to resist Hegelian Eurocentric biases against non-Western cultures. How is this Oriental self-identity being negotiated in no fewer than five texts as Chinese self-reinventions and self-representations:
    • Family by Ba Jin
    • Xiaoxiao, the Girl from Hunan by Shen Congwen;
    • A Madman’s Diary, The True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun;
    • Black Li and White Li by Lao She;
    • Love Must not be Forgotten by Zhang Jie;
    • To Live by Yu Hua and Zhang Yimou
    • Farewell My Concubine by Chen Kaige
    • Ermo dir by Zhou Xiaowen
    • Chinese Box, dir by Wayne Wang

  • Class Struggle and Social Equality. Hannah Arendt argues that “the social question began to play a revolutionary role only when, in the modern age and not before, men began to doubt that poverty is inherent in the human condition”. Identify instances in no fewer than five works in which the Chinese entered into this “modern age” and began to think as Marx who “…spoke of the social question in political terms and interpreted the predicament of poverty in categories of oppression and exploitation”. Is our personal identity determined by our socioeconomic conditions and can inequality be eradicated when poverty is eliminated?
    • On New Democracy by Mao Zedong
    • The Great Union of the Popular Masses by Mao Zedong;
    • When I Was in Hsia Village by Ding Ling;
    • Black Li and White Li by Lao She;
    • Red Detachment of Women by Xie Jin;
    • The White Hired Girl by Wang Bing
    • Happy Times, dir Zhang Yimou
    • Blind Shaft, dir Zhou Xiaowen

  • Socialism or Capitalism. Zynmunt Bauman points out that “Since socialism and capitalism were children conceived in the cradle of the great project of modernity, they were both doomed to follow suit in this respect.” (p.69) In the West, the project of modernity was debated most vehemently between Keynes calling for a central planning economy and Hayek advocating liberal market economy. This ideological rift also underscores the bloody conflict between the Communists and Nationalists in China. To Alain Badiou, revolution was an inevitable step toward freedom and equality, as is depicted in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. He argues, “if we were forced to make a choice between the barbarians of civilization and the civilized men of barbarism, we should choose the barbarians”. Discuss no fewer than five works that help you articulate your positionality, as Bauman made clear his take on this issue: “Like the phoenix, socialism is reborn from every pile of ashes left day in, day out, by burned-out human dreams and charred hopes. It will keep on being resurrected as long as the dreams are burnt and the hopes are charred, as long as human life remains short of the dignity it deserves and the nobility it would be able, given a chance, to muster. And if it were the case, I hope I’d die a socialist.” 
    • Black Li and White Li, by Lao She
    • Spring Silkworms and Family Shop of Mr. Lin by Mao Dun
    • Red Detachment of Women by Xie Jin;
    • The White Hired Girl by Wang Bing
    • Fanshen by William Hinton;
    • Old Man Xing and His Dog, by Zhang Xianliang
    • Breaking with Old Ideas dir. Li Wenhua,
    • Lei Feng dir. Dong Zhaoqi;
    • Hibiscus Town by Gu Hua and dir. Xie Jin
    • Blue Kite by Tian Zhuangzhuang;
    • Corner Forsaken by Love, Zhang Xian
    • Ermo, dir. Zhou Xiaowen
    • Happy Times, dir. Zhang Yimou;
    • Lost in Beijing, dir Li Yu;
    • Farewell My Concubine by Chen Kaige;
    • The Execution of Mayor Yin by Chen Ruoxi;
    • In Search of Lin Zhao’s Soul by Hu Jie;
    • Remembering Xiao Shan by Ba Jin
  • Mass-Mindedness and Collective Psychology. Humanity does not change much despite social progress. How do you understand violence, bloodshed, and destruction that came to the fore in the course of social revolution? While Hegel, Marx and Mao understood modern history in terms of freedom and democracy against totalitarianism, Rene Girard and Carl Jung studied political persecutions as rituals of scapegoating to satisfy the needs of the collective unconscious, driven by human mimetic desires. What do you think, linear social progress or unchanging human nature?
    • True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun;
    • White Haired Girl, dir. Shui Hua and Wang Bin
    • Red Brigade of Women, dir. Xie Jin
    • The Execution of Mayor Yin by Chen Ruoxi
    • Blue Kite, dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang
    • Coming Home, dir. Zhang Yimou
    • Half of Man Is Woman, by Zhang Xianliang
    • The Scar, by Lu Xinhua
    • Farewell My Concubine, dir. Chen Kaige

  • Feminism and Genger Identity. In the twentieth-century, “the Chinese” and “the human” are constantly being redefined by changes in cultural values. This includes femininity as a cultural construct changing constantly in the course of social progress through phases of communism and capitalism. Have the social conditions for Chinese women been improved for Chinese women, waking them up to the female self-consciousness as autonomous and free agents of history?
    • Xiaoxiao, by Shen Congwen
    • The New Woman, dir. Cai Chusheng
    • White Haired Girl, dir. Wang Bin and Shui Hua
    • Red Brigade of Women, dir. Xie Jin
    • When I Was in Hsia Village, Ding Ling
    • Blue Kite, dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang
    • In Search of Lin Zhao’s Soul, by
    • Lost in Beijing, dir. Li Yu
    • Ermo, dir. Zhou Xiaowen
    • Chinese Box, dir. Wayne Wang