We will discuss and analyse discourses and political practices related to identities of race, nation and gender in China (and to some extent Taiwan). As a point of departure, we will look into the concept of race, and especially how the modern European invention of the concept of race became integrated into traditional Chinese ways of perceiving cultural difference. This leads us to further explore politics and practices of identity in China as connected to gender, as in the case of urban queer communities, the #MeToo (#我也是) movement and rural-urban migrants, and to ethnicity and discourses on the nation. While the focus is first and foremost on modern China, we will also go back in time to understand some of the debates and issues that infuse identity discourses in today's China. We'll even go back as far as 500,000 years to explore how the discovery of a branch of Homo Erectus has been taken hostage by Chinese nationalist discourse, and we will have the pleasure of a Chinese media researcher explaining us how the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 has been instrumental in shaping Chinese national identity today.
Teaching: Thursdays 10:15-12:00 in SB. Seminar room 5
Teachers: Mette Halskov Hansen, Koen Wellens, Li Hongtao
A detailed teaching plan will be published in Canvas.