Semester: Fall
Lecturer: Prof. LIU Jialin
Credit: 2
Course Description:
- This course aims at an introduction to the overseas (American in particular) life writing by or on Chinese people since 1840s from the perspective of modern biography. For over one century, numerous Chinese people have been going or emigrating to America, among of these sojourners are labors, students, merchants, intellectuals or politicians. A lot of diaries, letters, autobiographies and biographies have been produced or published in the United States. On the other hand, as a result of rapid changes and developments of China in 20th century, more and more Chinese politicians became the subjects of American biographers. This course focuses on some important and typical Chinese characters and their auto/biographies, tries to investigate the impacts of Sino-American politics and bilateral relations on the life writing of Chinese people, its varied interpretations in terms of different cultures and values. It also tries to outline the difficult process of modern China and the changing images of the Chinese in the eyes of American biographers.