Course syllabus

Subject and Catalogue Number: Course Name

SEMESTER 2, 2018

15 points

 
Course Convenor: 

 Xuelin Zhou - x.zhou@auckland.ac.nz

Teacher:

Course delivery format:

2 hours of lectures and 1 hour of tutorial

(Timetable and room details can be viewed on Student Services Online)

 Summary of Course Description:              

 How has the rapid economic growth of the past three decades transformed Chinese society in general and Chinese media in particular? How has the increasing commercialisation of Chinese media reconfigure the relationship between the state and the media? What are the media interactions inside the Greater China Area of Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Mainland? What is the role that contemporary Chinese media play in the global communication system? This course sets to consider these questions and beyond. Through investigating a range of media formats in relation to media policies and media production, media circulation and media consumption, the course examines the development and transformation of media and communication practices in the contemporary Chinese context. Study topics include culture and tourism, reception of Jin Yong (金庸) and Qiong Yao (琼瑶), advertising and environmental issue, cyber culture and youth media consumption, rock ’n’ roll music and reality TV, blockbuster movie and live performance of light-and-sound spectacles.

 Course outcomes:

Students who successfully complete the course are expected to

• Develop a comprehensive knowledge about the largest national media system in the world
• Better understand the conceptual and theoretical elements of Media Studies
• Increase awareness of the significance of creative cultural industry
• Be more capable of evaluating, applying and presenting information
• Have the ability to structure, shape and synthesize information
• Enhance communication skills in a globalised context

 Assessment Summary:

1. Tutorial Participation: 10%
2. Assignment 1: Writing a Literature Review (1,500 words; 30%)
3. Assignment 2: Research Essay (2,000 words; 40%)
4. Assignment 3: Online Quiz (20%)

Weekly Topics:

• Environmental Communication
• Cyber Culture
• Youth and Media Consumption
• Culture and Tourism
• Advertising
• Popular Music
• Reality Television
• Blockbuster Movies
• “Qiong Yao Fever”
• “Jin Yong Phenomenon”
• “Qiong Yao Fever” (Qiong Yao is a woman writer born in mainland China and grew up in Taiwan. She has published 64 novels, from which 50 films and 22 TV drama series have been adapted. Her stories and films and television dramas adapted from them – all set to explore the poetics and subtlety, ambiguity and complexity, pain and pleasure, love and hate of heterosexual romances – have been enthusiastically received and passionately consumed by readers/viewers at home and overseas, creating multiple waves of the “Qiong Yao craze” among Chinese communities across the world. Using “Qiong Yao fever” as a case study, we examine a significant of contemporary Chinese media – interactions and inter-influences of popular media between Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China.)
• “Jin Yong Phenomenon” (The section continues the study of the “dialogues” in the popular culture area between Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. We turn to Hong Kong-based martial arts writer Jin Yong. Martial arts literature (including film) is arguably a major genre that, not infrequently, is used to define the notion of “Chineseness” especially from an international point of view.  A New School martial arts literature and film emerged in the Chinese mediascape in the 1970s. And the most prominent of all New School martial arts works are the novels of Jin Yong, a native of Chinese Mainland and relocated to Hong Kong in the late 1940s. The introduction of Jin Yong novels into mainland China following the country’s open-door policy in the late 1970s generates a most important aspect of the “popular culture crave and its implications continue to the present time.)

Prescribed Texts:

Refer to Talis Reading List

 Recommended Texts:

Refer to Talis Reading List

 Workload and deadlines for submission of coursework:           

The University of Auckland's expectation is that students spend 10 hours per week on a 15-point course, including time in class and personal study. Students should manage their academic workload and other commitments accordingly. Deadlines for coursework are set by course convenors and will be advertised in course material. You should submit your work on time. In extreme circumstances, such as illness, you may seek an extension but you may be required to provide supporting information before the assignment is due. Late assignments without a pre-approved extension may be penalised by loss of marks – check course information for details.