This course examines China as a cultural “Orient” in world literature, focusing primarily on its representation in Western works. Unlike the Islamic world, China has never fought continually with Europe in wars until the nineteenth century. Nor was it under prolonged colonial rule like India. This relative autonomy, together with its parallel historical development with Europe, turned it into an enduring object of Western fascination and imagination. Through close readings of selected Western literary and intellectual works featuring China, this course explores how various aspects of China, including its natural landscape, philosophy, local traditions, and history, were represented, interpreted, and conceptualised by European writers and intellectuals. In so doing, we will critically rethink Orientalist knowledge production in its historical and contemporary formations, as well as the issue of writing the “Other”.
By the end of the course, students should be able to
- Trace the historical evolution of “the idea of China” in selected Western texts
- Approach the history of East-West knowledge and cultural exchanges through a literary and intellectual lens
- Deploy the framework of Orientalism and its critiques to interrogate the power asymmetries and ideologies in the European conceptualisation of China
- Critically examine the ethics of writing the cultural “Other”
- Reflect on the repercussions of historical representations in contemporary cultural understanding
• Edward Said, Orientalism, and its contemporary critiques
• China’s early representations in Europe
• China in pre-modern writings
• China in philosophical writings
• China in the Nineteenth-Century writings
• China in the Twentieth-Century writings
The course comprises weekly lectures/seminars, in-class discussions and casual sharing.
Assessment (100% coursework)
• Mid-term essay (30%)
• Term paper (50%)
• Class participation (20%)
1. Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Vintage Books.
Other critical works and primary texts will be provided on Moodle.