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Stanley Rosen, political scientist, University of Southern
California is a specialist in Chinese politics and society, Rosen
travels in mainland China at least every year. His current research
project is the political transition in China, seeking to identify
the major debates preoccupying the policy-making elite and those
trying to influence them, to clarify the major fault lines between
different schools of thought, and to ascertain how these debates
enter the political realm.
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Politics and Culture in Post-War
China
October 27-31, 1999
at the University of Central Oklahoma
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In this seminar, participants explored the interplay of politics,
society and culture in post-1949 China. Seminar sessions were
devoted to the values, attitudes and behavior of Chinese youth;
one on the roles and status of Chinese women; one on US-China
relations, including misperceptions; and one on post-1949 China
generally. The format was lecture and discussion.
Evenings were devoted to films and a public lecture given by
Professor Rosen. Participants watched and discussed two feature
films, To Live, which covered the period from
about 1948-1975, and Ermo, "an excellent
1994 film focusing on a strong peasant woman and her efforts
to take advantage of the reforms." One documentary was
shown also, The Mao Years, covering 1949-1976
and The Gate of Heavenly Peace, on the background to Tiananmen
Square.
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The Class Reading List: (These books and articles supplied
by OSLEP)
China's Political System, June Teufel Dreyer.
A basic textbook that provides a good overview.
Streetlife China, Michael Dutton. This book
includes primary source materials as well as a variety of
other methodologies to introduce the relationship between
the state and various layers of the society. Too often in
the U.S. we lose sight of how much China has changed and how
much of what takes place does so outside the purview of "official"
China. I also thought that Li Xiaobing [faculty resource person
for the seminar], coming from China, could help interpret
-- as only someone who was born and raised in China could
-- the material in this book for the students
About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship
with China, From Nixon to Clinton, James Mann. It
is the most recent and probably the best book on this important
subject; it raises provocative questions about Sino-American
relations which we will discuss in class (particularly since
I disagree with some of the arguments).
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