75703 - Chinese Language and Literature 2B (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will have achievede a deep and complete intermediate level skills in the Chinese language; they will be able to improve their knowledge of the relevant literature and related issues, referring to recent  bibliography.

Course contents

This course is subsequent to the Chinese course 2A.
For Second Cycle Degree students (LM), it is possible to attend both courses (Chinese 2A and 2B) in the same academic year, consecutively.

Language

Listening, reading and translation of 3 narrative texts.

 
Elements of Chinese languages for specific purposes will be introduced, in particular for the study of history and geography.
The written language register 書面語.

The following grammatical elements will be studied in depth:

verbal complements (complement of degree; result complement; directional complement; potential complement)

- lexical and figurative use of 起来

- causative verbs: 请，让，叫， 使

- durative aspect particle 着

-  把 and 将  phrase

- high numbers

- expressing fractions and percentage (fenzhi)

- 除了.... 以外 (之外)

- Passive marker 被, 所, 让

- morphological suffixis: 场, 所, 化, 性, 代...

Literary/anthropological area
Students are requested to carry on an individual research. Please, see next section.

Readings/Bibliography

Language:

AA.VV. Graded Chinese reader 2000 words: Selected Abridged Chinese Contemporary Short Stories, Sinolingua, Beijing, 2014 (con file audio per ascolto)

Romagnoli, Wang (2016) Grammatica d'uso della lingua cinese, Hoepli.

Romagnoli, C., Grammatica cinese: le parole vuote del cinese moderno Hoepli, 2012

Handouts of the class lessons on the Virtuale platform.

Reference books:

Besides the books in 2A program, we add

- Madaro, F. La frase: lingua cinese moderna standard: la frase semplice, il periodo composto, il periodo complesso, Cafoscarina, 2016.

- Pozzi, S., Il carattere e la lettera, Hoepli, 2022

Literary/anthropological area

L students:

Extensive reading: Students shall submit a 3-5 page presentation on one book by one of the following authors: 

Acheng, Su Tong, Yan Lianke, Mo Yan, Yu Hua, Wang Shuo, Fang Fang, Zhang Ailing, Wang Anyi, Liu Sola, Yan Geling, Lisa See, Sheng Keyi, Liu Heng, Xu Xiaobing, Gao Xinjian, A Lai, Zhang Chengzhi, Han Shaogong, Cao Wenxue, Jia Pingwa, Ma Jian.

Other authors by students' choice may be negotiated with the teacher.

LM students:
LM students shall submit a 10-page paper on one contemporary China topic. The area of the individual research will be chosen among the following ones:

1. Contemporary narrative literature
2. Being a woman in today's China
3. The rural issue
4. The minorities issue

General References

1. Cheng, A. Storia del pensiero cinese (Voll. 1 e 2), Einaudi, 1997
2. Denton, K. The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature, Columbia Un. Press, 2016.

3. Gallelli, B. La Cina di oggi in otto parole, Il Mulino, 2021

4. Jacka, Tamara 2013. Contemporary China: Society and Social Change

5. Louie, K. (a cura di) 2008. Modern Chinese Culture, New York: Cambridge University Press

6. Mair, V. (ed.), The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, 2001
   
7. Masi, E. Cento Capolavori della Letteratura Cinese, Quodlibet
8. Pesaro, Pirazzoli, La narrativa cinese del Novecento. Carocci, 2019
9. Sorace, Franceschini, Loubere. Afterlives of Chinese Communism, ANU Press and Verso Books, Australia (DOI: 10.22459/ACC.2019), 2019.

Recommended bibliography per topic:

1. Contemporary narrative literature

See Authors in section "L students" above.

Moratto, Ardizzoni, Voci letterarie dal Levante: dialoghi con autori cinesi in tempo di pandemia, Bonomo, 2021

Moratto, Choy, The Routledge Companion to Yan Lianke, Routledge, 2021

Sabattini, Santangelo, Il pennello di lacca: la narrativa cinese dalla dinastia Ming ai giorni nostri, Laterza, 1997 (o successiva)

2. Being a woman in today's China

Ardizzoni, S., Hakka Women in Tulou Villages, Brill, 2022

Barlow, T. In the Event of Women, Duke Un. Press, 2021

Evans, H. "Past, Perfect or Imperfect: Changing Images of the Ideal Wife", in Chinese Femininity, Chinese Masculinity - A reader (Brownell, Wasser Wasserstrom ed.), 335-360. University of California Press, 2002

Hershatter, G., Women in China's Long Twentieth Century, University of California Press, 2007

Hong-Fincher, L. Leftover women: the Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China, 2014

Jacka, Tamara 2013. Contemporary China: Society and Social Change

Pascucci, A. Potere e società in Cina: Storie di resistenza nella grande trasformazione, Edizioni dell'Asino, 2013

Wang Zheng, Finding Woman in the State, University of California Press, 2017.

Zhu, P, Xiao, H., Feminism with Chinese Characteristics, Syracuese Un,. Press, 2021

3. The rural issue

Chen, G., Wu, C., Può la barca affondare l'acqua?: vita dei contadini cinesi, Marsilio, 2007

Eisenman, J., Red China's Green Revolution, Columbia Un. Press 2018

Gao, M., Gao Village Rivisited: The Life of rural people in contemporary China, Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2018

Han, Y., Ardizzoni, S. Mao Zedong. Dalla nascita alla grande rivoluzione, Bononia University Press, 2018

Hershatter, G., The Gender of Memory: Rural Women and China's Collective Past, University of California Press, 2011

Hinton, W. Fanshen: un villaggio cinese nella rivoluzione, Einaudi, 1969.

Pascucci, A. Potere e società in Cina: Storie di resistenza nella grande trasformazione, Edizioni dell'Asino, 2013

Louie, K. (a cura di) 2008. Modern Chinese Culture, New York: Cambridge University Press

Sun, W., Subaltern China: Rural Migrants, Media, and Cultural Practices, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014

Wang Xiaowei, Blockchain Chicken Farm, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020

4.The minorities issue

See 2A.c program

 

The books indicated in the bibliography of the courses of previous years (Chinese 2A and Chinese 1) may also be considered as  individual study texts for the paper.

Students are invited to attend seminars related to the Chinese subject.

Teaching methods

1. Lectures and cooperative work in small groups

2. ppts, videos, listening to songs for listening reinforcement.

3. Use of websites for writing practice and character memorisation;

4. Bibliographic research and individual study.

For 30 hours of lessons, students are asked to carry out at least 50 hours of individual work.

Assessment methods

This course (6CFU) is a component of the Integrated Course "Cinese 2A LM". If the student's study plan includes the integrated course (12CFU), the final mark will be the arithmetic mean of the marks obtained in the two components ("Cinese 2A" and "Cinese 2B").

At the end of the course students must take a written exam (120 min) with dictionary (for the translation part).

In one year there will be six written and six oral sessions:

2023: May, June, September, December

2024: January, February

The written exam will be a translation of a narrative text of 800/1000 words and on grammar (see programme) (50 % of the evaluation).

If the candidate passes the exam, he/she can take the oral exam.
Students who have not passed the exam can repeat it at the following session.

The oral exam is divided into two parts:
1. Linguistic assessment of achieved communicative skills  (dialogue in Chinese), reading and grammar skills. (30% of the evaluation)
2.Discussion on the submitted paper, from a methodological and content point of view. (20% of the evaluation).

Students will show the teacher the portfolio of study activities: a folder containing  learning materials, with the exercises of hand-copying of the lessons, glossaries, exercises (grammar, readings, translations).

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

Please note that all registered students can access the complete materials in pdf form from Virtuale, with a password given by the teacher.

Language: the same as for attending students

Literary/anthropological area: individual research as above. L students shall read two books instead of one, and submit two papers: LM students are invited to negotiate an individual research plan with the teacher.

The paper must be accompanied by notes, bibliography and a glossary of Italian-Chinese keywords (proper names, toponyms, concepts) and can be negotiated with the teacher.

ORAL ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
Students must prove that they are able to engage in dialogue in a language on a known topic, of an academic nature; to read a text in simplified characters; to answer questions about the text; to identify and explain the grammatical points addressed in class also in the first and second year; to identify the thematic issues related to the text, as addressed in class (in Italian).
For the literary part, hthey must prove that they are able to refer to relevant sources and bibliographic material in order to obtain the  information necessary to produce the paper on their chosen theme, framing it in a general perspective of the time and of the categories involved. They are required to connect to the wide scope of the knowledge acquired during their course of study.

They will then be evaluated on:

- The fluence and accuracy of spoken Chinese (four tones, initials, endings of syllables and intonation of the sentence)

- Listening competence

- Grammatical competence, on an operational and theoretical level - - The ability to analyse linguistic elements in a text 

- The ability to summarise and analyse themes and concepts
- The ability to express oneself adequately and in a language appropriate to the subject being dealt with.

Students who achieve a global vision of the topics addressed, together with their critical use, godd expressive skills, and specific language, will be awarded top marks.

A mnemonic knowledge of the subject, together with the ability to synthesise and analyse it in a correct but not always appropriate language, will be awarded with average evaluation.

Gaps in training and/or inappropriate language will lead to barely passing grades. Training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials offered during the course will be evaluated negatively.

The student who has presented the contents with particular ease, without hesitation and without errors, will be judged with top marks and praise.

Teaching tools

All teaching materials are available on the course website by clicking on the link "teaching materials". See Sabrina Ardizzoni website.

Office hours

See the website of Sabrina Ardizzoni

See the website of