FOST3501: Comparative Studies in US and Chinese Film

This course compares major issues, theories, and methods in Chinese and American cinema. The course is organized around a series of keywords, comprising a living vocabulary of culture, power, social change, identity, nationhood, and globalization. Through these and related terms, we will analyze the construction of class, gender, politics and other relationships of power central to the U.S. and Chinese society. Course materials are interdisciplinary and, in addition to film, will also include history, cultural studies, fiction, and popular culture. Assignments include reading, writing, discussion, and a field trip exploring public memory at the China National Film Museum in Beijing. Students analyze similarities and differences between films produced in Hollywood and Beijing, gaining a transnational understanding of film studies and a critical perspective on Chinese and American film traditions. The course also has a strong cultural focus, highlighting the differences in history, economy, social structure, and values systems in the two countries, as seen through the prism of cinema.

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