The Kenyon College faculty voted to change from Kenyon units to semester hours. This change will go into effect for all students who start at the College in the fall of 2024. Both systems will be used throughout the course catalog with the Kenyon units being listed first.
This is the first half of the basic introductory language course in Modern Standard Chinese (Putonghua). This course develops students' basic communicative competence in the Chinese language and their understanding of the Chinese culture. Throughout the course, students develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills across the three communicative modes: interpretive, interpersonal and presentational. The bulk of in-class work is devoted to developing oral and aural skills. The Chinese writing system also is introduced. This course includes required practice sessions with aa teaching assistant, which are scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Students enrolled in this course are automatically added to CHNS 112Y for the spring semester. No prerequisite. Offered every fall.
This is the second half of the basic introductory language course in Modern Standard Chinese (Putonghua). This course develops students' basic communicative competence in the Chinese language and their understanding of the Chinese culture. Throughout the course, students develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills across the three communicative modes: interpretive, interpersonal and presentational. The bulk of in-class work is devoted to developing oral and aural skills. The Chinese writing system also is introduced. This course includes required practice sessions with a teaching assistant, which are scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Prerequisite: CHNS 111Y or equivalent with the permission of the instructor. Offered every spring.
In the first semester, all the basic grammar of Modern Standard Chinese (Putonghua) and another 300 Chinese characters are introduced. There are extensive oral and written assignments. In the second semester, basic grammar is reviewed through in-class oral work and the elements of Modern Written Chinese grammar are introduced. This course includes required practice sessions with a teaching assistant, which are scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Students enrolled in this course are automatically added to CHNS 214Y for the spring semester. Prerequisite: CHNS 111Y-112Y or equivalent. Offered every fall.
In the first semester, all the basic grammar of Modern Standard Chinese (Putonghua) and another 300 Chinese characters are introduced. There are extensive oral and written assignments. In the second semester, basic grammar is reviewed through in-class oral work and the elements of Modern Written Chinese grammar are introduced. This course includes required practice sessions with a teaching assistant, which are scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Prerequisite: CHNS 213Y or equivalent. Offered every spring.
This course serves as an introduction to Chinese literary traditions from the first millennium B.C. to 1911. Readings include the most beloved literary texts that unify Chinese civilization through its long history, selected from early poetry and history, Confucian and Daoist classics, tales of the strange, Tang Dynasty poetry, short stories and drama written in vernacular language, and novels from the late imperial period. The discussion-based seminar explores how Chinese literature, seen as a means of achieving immortality along with virtue, confirms social values or challenges them, and how it articulates the place of the individual in a thoroughly Confucian and patriarchal society. No background in Chinese language or culture required. This course is taught in English translation. No prerequisite. Generally offered every other year.
This course examines roles, images and writings of women in ancient and modern China. The integration of gender relations into cosmological and sociopolitical patterns set the tone for the representation of women in Chinese literature, theater, film and religious texts, but the notion that women were oppressed and silenced throughout imperial China is overly simplistic and needs to be re-examined. Our discussion focuses on three main themes: the gap between Confucian ideals of womanhood and the complex realities of female social roles, the construction of a feminine voice by both female writers and men writing as women, and the issue of female agency and its various manifestations within and without the domestic realm. This course is taught in English translation. No prerequisite. Generally offered every other year.
With a selection of short stories and fiction by prominent writers whose careers span the 20th century, this course examines Chinese modern literature that can be seen in part as the result of a constant negotiation between the social use of literature and the autonomy of literature as an art form. Emerging in the contexts of nation-building, anti-imperialism and westernization, what does literary modernity mean for a third-world literature with its literary discourse so closely linked with national discourse? We trace the evolution from literary revolution to revolutionary literature before 1949 and examine various manifestations of resistance to the master narrative of communism before and after the Mao era. Primary texts concern a wide range of themes such as national identity, historical memory, visions of rural life and primitive communities, modernity and female subjectivity, family and romance. This course is taught in English translation. No prerequisite. Offered every other year.
This seminar explores how the image of modern China has been constructed through a variety of cinematic and literary representations. Background readings and documentaries provide basic historical narrative. Class discussions focus on how cultural, social and political changes find expression in film and fiction and, more important, how China has come to be imagined and represented as primitive, exotic, oppressive, revolutionary, modern and, most recently, postmodern and economically appealing. Some of the key issues include gender, youth, family, ethnicity, modernity, visuality, violence, identity and cultural stereotyping. The course aims to acquaint students with major works of 20th-century Chinese filmmaking and to promote students' critical understanding of Chinese literature, culture and society. This course is taught in English translation, but advanced Chinese language students also have the opportunity to watch movies in Chinese and write short essays in Chinese. No prerequisite. Generally offered every other year.
This course is for students who wish to develop and refine their ability to understand, speak, read and write Modern Standard Chinese. Extensive reading deals with aspects of Chinese culture and society. Reading assignments serve as points of departure for discussion and composition. Video materials also are used for this purpose. This course is recommended for students wishing to specialize in any field related to China. The course may be repeated for credit for a maximum of 1.5 units when taught with different reading assignments and supplementary material. Prerequisite: CHNS 213Y-214Y or equivalent. Offered every year.
This course is for students who wish to develop and refine their ability to understand, speak, read and write Modern Standard Chinese. Extensive reading deals with aspects of Chinese culture and society. Reading assignments serve as points of departure for discussion and composition. Video materials also are used for this purpose. This course is recommended for students wishing to specialize in any field related to China. The course may be repeated for credit for a maximum of 1.5 units when taught with different reading assignments and supplementary material. Prerequisite: CHNS 321 or equivalent. Offered every year.
The course is an upper-level course for students at the Intermediate High or Advanced Low Level (on an OPI scale) who wish to further develop their communicative competence in the Chinese language and their understanding of the Chinese culture. Throughout the course, students develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills across the three communicative modes: interpretive, interpersonal and presentational. The course adopts a theme-based approach to learning advanced Chinese. Reading materials include newspaper articles and other authentic material such as short essays on aspects of Chinese culture and contemporary issues. Materials are arranged by thematic units and serve as points of departure for critical analysis of the content and for oral discussion and composition. Films also are used in this course. The course is conducted entirely in Chinese and recommended for students wishing to specialize in any field of research related to China. The course may be repeated for credit for a maximum of 1.5 units. Prerequisite: CHNS 322 .
Through essays, short stories and science fiction by some of China’s most acclaimed writers of the 20th century, along with selected poems and films, this course aims to offer insights into Chinese culture and language, and examine its modern history and contemporary society from fresh perspectives. Topics might appear trivial but are profoundly revealing upon further examination, ranging from Chinese naming conventions, the flux of words and fashion, and quibbles about women’s vices to human memory and various animal allegories. Also included is a collection of Yu Hua’s essays that juxtapose his accounts of coming of age in the Mao era and his reflections on post-Mao societal changes. This course is designed for advanced Chinese learners and native speakers of Chinese. With few exceptions, students are provided with both Chinese texts and their English translations. Through a combined method of intensive and extensive reading, this course seeks to enhance students’ proficiency in the target language, foster critical thinking and develop the skills of literary analysis and creative writing. Prerequisite: CHNS 322 or equivalent; none for native speakers. Offered every two to three years.
This course offers an opportunity to study on an individual basis an area of special interest — literary, cultural or linguistic — under the regular supervision of a faculty member. It is offered primarily to candidates for honors, to majors and, under special circumstances, to potential majors and minors. Individual study is intended to supplement, not to take the place of, regular courses in the curriculum of each language program. Staff limitations restrict this offering to a very few students. To enroll in an individual study, a student must identify a member of the MLL department willing to direct the project and, in consultation with him or her, write a one-page proposal for the IS. It must be approved by the department chair before the individual study can go forward. The proposal should specify the schedule of reading and/or writing assignments and the schedule of meeting periods. The amount of work in an IS should approximate that required on average in regular courses of corresponding levels. Typically, an IS earns the student 0.25 or 0.5 units of credit. At a minimum, the department expects the student to meet with the instructor one hour per week. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of the proposed individual study by the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek departmental approval.