67027 - Chinese 2 A

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will acquire a first set of intermediate level skills in the Chinese language; he/she will be able to deepen the related literature and related issues, referring to the most updated bibliography.

Course contents

The 6-credit course includes a language part and a culture part, for which the student will submit a paper at least one week before the written exam.

The paper may be in Italian or English and must contain:

notes, bibliography and a glossary of Chinese key words and names and toponyms mentioned.

Language program:

The program will follow that of Chinese 1 a.y. 2020-2021:

Wu Zhongwei Contemporary Chinese, Beijing, Sinolingua, (lessons  7-11)

In detail, the grammar will include:

1-The directional verbs (simple and compound)
2- The locators and directions
3- The past tense with 过
4- The modal le 了 and the aspectual le 了
5- Actions in progress, actions in contemporaneity

6- The phrase 是... 的

In addition, we will take attention to the identification of radicals and formative principles of frequent characters.

Culture

Students can choose the topic of the paper among the following:

1. Women positioning in Chinese society and literature in the pre-modern era.
2. The foundations of anthropology in China: Fei Xiaotong and peasant societies
3. The minorities issue in contemporary China
4. Modern reinterpretations of an ancient thought: Confucianism between fixed categories and variability

Readings/Bibliography

Language:

Mandatory
Wu Chongwei Cinese contemporaneo, Beijing, Sinolingua (textbook+workbook)（Vol 1/I） Cafoscarina.

Grammar
Abbiati (1998) Grammatica di cinese moderno, Cafoscarina.

Recommended:

Madaro (2016) La parola - lingua cinese moderna standard, Cafoscarina.

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

Dictionaries
Xu, Ardizzoni (2014) Dizionario cinese-italiano per lo studio della lingua cinese, BUP.
Zhao Xiuying (2013) Il Dizionario di cinese, Zanichelli.

Online dictionaries:
www.mdbg.net
www.infocina.net

General references:

Cheng, A. Storia del pensiero cinese (Voll. 1 e 2), Einaudi, 1997 (also available in Englinsh and French).

Gernet, J. Il mondo cinese - Dalle prime civiltà alla Repubblica Popolare, Einaudi, 1978 (also available in Englinsh and French)

Lanciotti, L. Letteratura cinese, ISIAO, 2007

Lavagnino, Pozzi, Cultura cinese, Carocci, Roma, 2013.

Mair, V. (ed.), The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, 2001

Masi, E. Cento Capolavori della Letteratura Cinese, Quodlibet

Sorace, Franceschini, Loubere. Afterlives of Chinese Communism, ANU Press and Verso Books, Australia (DOI: 10.22459/ACC.2019), 2019.

 

Literature: the Four Books

Cheng, A. Storia del pensiero cinese (Voll. 1 e 2), Einaudi, 1997 (Vol. 1 pp. 5-71; 101-130; 149-206; 249-264). (also in English and French)
Confucio (Tiziana Lippiello, a cura di) Dialoghi-Testo cinese a fronte, Einaudi, 2006.
Andreini, Scarpari, Daoismo, Il Mulino, 2007
Zhuangzi, Zhuang-zi [Chuang-tzu], Adelphi 1982
Laozi, Il Tao Te Ch'ing, Adelphi, 1994

Chinese Anthropology, Minorities Issue:

Fei Xiaotong, From the Soil: the Foundation of Chinese Society, 1992 (available also in Chinese)

Fei Xiaotong, Peasant life in China: a field study of country life in the Yangtze valley, 1992. (available also in Chinese)

Hu, H.; Wang, J.; Zhang, H. (Andrea Pia, a cura di), Storia dell’antropologia cinese. SEID, 2014 (2006).  (available also in Chinese)

Wang, H. La questione tibetana tra Est e Ovest (Sabrina Ardizzoni, a cura di). ManifestoLibri, 2011. (available also in English, Chinese)

Women positioning in pre-modern Society and Literature

Ardizzoni, S. "The Paradigm of Hakka Women in History", Asian Studies, 2021 [DOI: 10.4312/as.2021.9.1.31-64]

Ebrey, P. The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung period, 1993.

Elisseeff D., La donna nella Cina imperiale, 1991.

Hinsch, Bret “The Origins of Separation of the Sexes in China”. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2003.123 (3), 595-616.

Indraccolo, Lisa (ed.), Precetti per le donne e altri trattati cinesi di comportamento femminile. Einaudi, 2011.

Pang-White, A. The Confucian Four Books for Women: A New Translation of the Nü Sishu and the Commentary of Wang Xiang, Translation Edition, Oxford Univeristy Press, 2018.

New confucian interpretations

Crisma, Amina, Il cielo, gli uomini: percorso attraverso i testi confuciani dell'età classica, 2000.

Lippiello, Tiziana Confucianesimo, Il Mulino, 2003.

Rosker, J. "Between Tradition and Modernity: Modern Confucianism as a Form of East Asian Social Knowledge", Asian Studies, 2017 [DOI: 10.4312/as.2017.5.2.43-62]

Scarpari, M., Ritorno a Confucio: la Cina di oggi fra tradizione e mercato, 2015.

Students are invited to do an autonomous bibliographic search and discuss it with the teacher in preparation for the exam, during office hours or via email.

These books are found in the library of the Dept. of History and Civilization, Via Zamboni, 33

Students who have not attended will bring the same texts and the same program.

Teaching methods

1. Mixed lessons (in class and on Teams platform)
2. Small groups work in subgroups for the preparation of liguistic tasks to share with the class.

3.  ppt, videos, listening to songs for listening competence;

4. Use of sites for the writing exercise and for the memorization of characters;

5. Self-study for the culture part (bibliographic research, compilation of an academic paper)

 30 hours of lessons, will need 50 hours of individual study.

Assessment methods

This course (6CFU) is a component of the Integrated Course "CINESE 2B (C.I.) (LM)". If the student has the Integrated Course (12CFU) in the study plan, the final grade will be the arithmetic mean of the grades obtained in the two components [CINESE 2A e CINESE 2B (LM)].

At the end of the course students must take a written exam  (2 hours in class, or 90 minutes online) without dictionary.
In one year there will be six written and six sessions (March, May, June, September, November, January).

The written exam will focus  on the linguistic-communicative part and on grammar (see programme).(30% online; 50% in class)

Students who pass the written exam will be admitted to the oral test.
Students who have not passed the exam or who are not satisfied with the grade can repeat the exam at one of the next sessions.

The oral exam is divided into two parts (70%):

1. Linguistic assessment of communicative skills achieved (language dialogue), reading and grammar skills. (50%online; 30% in class

2.Discussion on the submitted paper, from a methodological and content point of view. (20% of the evaluation)

At the oral session, students will show to the teacher a portfolio with their study activities: a folder containing the learning materials , with the exercises of hand-copying of the lessons, glossaries, exercises (grammar, reading, translation).

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

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

Written test: same as other students. Please note that they can access the complete materials in pdf from the course website. - Oral test: same as those attended for the linguistic part. For the historical-literary part, they also will  present a 5 page paper on one of the topics in the program.
The text must be accompanied by notes, bibliography and a glossary of Italian-Chinese keywords (proper names, toponyms, concepts) and can be agreed with the teacher personally or by e-mail.

STUDENTS with Chinese as their first language: besides the written test as other students, students of Chinese mother tongue will be asked to translate a short piece of modern literature (Chinese-Italian)
For the oral part, they are requested to follow general rules for the paper - which has to be in italian or English. 

CRITERIA FOR ORAL ASSESSMENT:

Linguistic competence
The assessment of the oral test will take into account the student's ability to engage in dialogue in Chinese on a known subject; to read a text in semplified characters, without pinyin transcription; to answer questions about the text; to give instructions on how to access library services in Chinese; to identify and explain the grammatical points addressed in class in the first and second year.

Culture

For the culture part, he/she will have to demonstrate her/his competence in the sources and bibliographic materials s/he used to draw useful information that has allowed him/her to produce the work on the chosen theme, framing it in a general perspective of the time and the categories involved, knowing how to make connections within a wider framework of knowledge acquired during the course of study.

They will then be evaluated on:
- The fluency and accuracy of the statement (four tones, the initials, the endings of syllables and the intonation of the sentence)
- Listening ability
- Grammatical competence, on an operational and theoretical level
- The ability to analyse linguistic elements in a text.

The achievement by the student of an organic vision of the topics addressed in the lesson together with their critical use, good expressive mastery and specific language will be evaluated with marks of excellence. A mnemonic knowledge of the subject, together with the ability to synthesis and analyse it in a correct but not always appropriate language, will lead to discreet evaluations. Gaps in training and/or inappropriate language will lead to grades that do not exceed sufficiency. Training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials offered during the course will be evaluated negatively.

Teaching tools

Online teaching platform (Teams) - Virtuale platform for teaching materials and homework submission - Audio- video - power point - internet

Office hours

See the website of Sabrina Ardizzoni