Instructions for response papers:

From time to time throughout the semester I will be assigning short response papers, basically a 300– to 600-word response to one of the assigned texts.

What I will be looking for in these papers is:

1. evidence that you read the text: a brief summary (no longer than a paragraph) of what the text is about, with some attention to who wrote it and why. If it is a secondary source (as in assignments 1 and 3—see below), identifying the author’s thesis and argument would be useful.
2. evidence that you thought about how the text enhances or complicates our understanding of modern Chinese art and/or culture in a given time or place. This should form the bulk of the paper.
3. good writing

Within these parameters, you can go in any direction you want with these papers. If the text makes you think about the nature of modern Chinese politics or society, please write about it. I am hoping that these papers will stimulate your thinking about Chinese culture and that this will deepen your understanding of modern Chinese art. Please note, though, that I am not interested in thoughtless criticism of Chinese art or culture. If you have a negative reaction to the text, you need to stop to reflect on how the values of Chinese society in a particular period might differ from Western values. If you find the text confusing, it is fine to focus on one part of it.

Please refer to the notes in your syllabus about appropriate formats for written work and about plagiarism. You should be using information from the assigned text in your paper, and thus you should be including parenthetical references or footnotes in Chicago-style citation in the body of the paper and a list of works cited at the end of the assignment.

If you have further questions about writing response papers, you might visit the HWS Writes website.

Assignments:

1. Mingzheng Shi, “From Imperial Gardens to Public Parks: The Transformation of Urban Space in Early Twentieth-Century Beijing,” Modern China 24, no. 3 (July 1998): 219–54; due Friday, Feb. 7.


2. Li Xianting, “Apathy and Deconstruction in Post-’89 Art: Analyzing the Trends of ‘Cynical Realism’ and ‘Political Pop’ (1992),” trans. Kela Shang, in Wu, Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents, 157–66.
   
   -OR-
   
   Huang Zhuan, “Appendix: The Misread Great Criticism (Da Pipan) (2008),” trans. Jeff Crosby, in Wu, Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents, 167–71; due Wednesday, Apr. 1.


3. Shuishan Yu, “Courtyard in Conflict: The Transformation of Beijing’s Siheyuan During Revolution and Gentrification,” The Journal of Architecture 22, no. 8 (2017): 1337–65; due Wednesday, Apr. 29.