A. China Today
In China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, the author Jeffery Wasserstrom provides an insightful and far-reaching discussion of contemporary China and the histories behind it. Read this book and post two questions to the course site (in the blog stream) that help to contextualize the ways we might start thinking about Chinese culture, heritage, and tradition.
B. Orientation to ChinaVine.org
Participants in this fieldschool will be preparing materials for posting on ChinaVine.org. For this reason it is important for you to have an understanding of this website and the approaches used on the website for interpreting China’s cultural heritage.
Please spend some time on ChinaVine.org and familiarize yourself with the materials that are posted.
Next read “Re-configuring Museums” by Peter H. Welsh. In this article he presents a model for understanding how museums position themselves in relationship to audiences, collections, and interpretation. While ChinaVine.org is not a museum, it does collect cultural materials for the purpose of interpreting those materials for children, youth, and adults.
After reviewing ChinaVine.org and reading the article by Welsh, respond to the following questions. Post your answers to the course site.
1. Welsh describes the domains of museums as materiality, engagement and representation. In your opinion are these domains applicable to ChinaVine.org? If yes, please provide examples from the website for each domain. If no, please support this response through references to the article and the website.
2.Welsh describes museums as repositories, educational, celebratory, stewards, learning centers, collaborative, conceptual, and reflexive. Describe how ChinaVine falls into each of these categories. Use at least one example for each supporting your opinion. If you believe that ChinaVine.org is not addressing one of these categories describe how it could do so.
C. Orientation to Conceptions of Culture
Each of the readings below in some ways addresses culture and conceptions of culture as influenced by formal and informal networks, organizations and institutions. As such, our experience in China can be informed by the points of view of these authors.
For each of these articles write two questions that you will keep in mind during the residency portion of the field school (i.e. when we are in Beijing). Undergraduate students should choose 1 (one) of the articles to read, while graduate students will read all 3 (three) of the articles.
Post your questions to the course site, in the blog stream.
Readings for assignment C (find electronically via UO Libraries or access on the readings/resources page):
Baron, R. (2010). Sins of objectification? Agency, mediation, and community cultural self-determination in public folklore and cultural tourism programming. Journal of American Folklore 123 (487), 63-91.
Hufford, M. (1995). Context. Journal of American Folklore 108 (430), 528-549.
Pocius, G. L. (1995). Art. Journal of American Folklore 108 (430), 413-431.
D. Orientation to Field Work
While we are in Beijing we will be studying “local culture.” In Jianguo and Song Zhuang we will be studying and documenting local culture as it manifests in language, the arts, food, behaviors, beliefs, institutions, and interpersonal communication.
This assignment will prepare you for our work in China by asking you to reflect upon your own cultural setting. Because much of our work in China will pair oral narratives with images. Parts 1 & 2 ask you to consider how you and your family represents yourselves in oral stories and photographs. Part 3 asks you to consider food within your family.
Post your response to this assignment on the course site (in the blog stream).
Part 1. (250 words)
Please describe:
How does your family remember people, places, and events?
What are some of the objects in your home that have stories connected to them?
Does your family use photos to remember?
What is the oldest photo your family has?
Who takes pictures in your family?
Who takes care of the photos?
Where are the photos kept?
When does your family look at photos?
Part 2. (250 words)
Post a photo or video to the course site (in the blog stream; tag and/or label it accordingly).
Talk with a family member about this photograph or video.
What stories are represented by the photo or video?
How does this photo or video represent the values, attitudes and beliefs of your family?
What symbols appear in the photograph or video that represent your family’s culture?
Part 3. (250 words)
Food is another way that a family’s culture is represented.
What distinctive foods did your parents, grandparents, great-greats eat?
Post a favorite family recipe and write about why you chose it.
Write a detailed account of what happens in your kitchen while food is being prepared.
What makes a good meal? How should it be served? Who should be there? Who cooks, sets the table, serves, entertains, does dishes?
Part 4. (250 words)
Based on Chapters 3 and 5 from the reading Visual Storytelling, and the material collected above, describe the story you found that could be the subject of a video documentary.
What story does the documentary tell?
Who are the characters in the documentary?
What activities would you show?
Who would you interview on camera?
Would there be narration and if so what would be narrated?
Would you include music and if so what type?
Would you include photographs or historic film or video?