Friday, March 02, 2007

SD373 Cultural Identity Outline (revised)

Subject Title: Cultural Identity
Subject Code: SD373
Number of Credits: 3
Year / Semester of Study: Year 2 / Semester 2
Subject Co-ordinator: SIU King Chung
Lecturers: LEUNG Po-shan, Anthony (leungpo@gmail.com )
CHENG Wai-pang (tinywest@gmail.com)
Class room: A104K
Discussion blog: http://sd373-07.blogspot.com/
Pre-requisites: Completed at least one DCT subject
Co-requisites: Nil


Teaching / Learning Activities and Hours Assigned:
6:30-8:30 lecture 8:30 -9:30 tutorial

Teaching & Learning Activities Hours/Week No. of Weeks Time-tabled Hours
Lecture 2 7 14
Presentation 2 7 14
Tutorial 1 14 14
Total Time-tabled Hours 42


Method of Assessment:
Students will be evaluated through tutorial (30%), as well as a final essay (50%) that identifies relevant arguments and offers reflections towards the issues of cultural identity. Quality of class participation, and students’ understanding towards relevant theoretical literature and local phenomenon are assessed in various preliminary research assignments (20%) leading towards their final essay.



Role and Purpose:
This subject deals with the problems of cultural identity in the midst of universal cultural hybridisation and globalisation. The focus is on the imagined “membership” in community formations and the outward signs of the participation, especially the new challenge of cultural economy. Students will discover processes of objects and images appropriation may become means for identity representation and differentiation. Forms of cultural rhetoric are, therefore, explored and analysed with reference to the underpinned values, beliefs and power relations. Special references will be directed to the Hong Kong context

Learning Outcomes:
On successfully completing the subject, students will able to:

l examine and comment upon the problems of cultural identity in the midst of universal cultural hybridization, globalization and localization;
l comprehend theoretical texts and make arguments against the different forms of cultural rhetoric as appear in the scholarly debates;
l make connections with learnt theories and explore critical issues in relation to, say, “the cultural others”, “spaces of identity”, “cultural representation”, etc. in our contemporary world;
l identify and analyze the underpinnings (e.g. values, beliefs and power relations) behind the outward signs of cultural representation or the imagined “membership” of certain communities;
l interpret how the processes of objects and images appropriation, (i.e. the processes of design) may become means for identity representation and differentiation;
l research and select local examples in explaining the above understanding through writings, presentations and seminars.
l continue to develop cultural sensitivity in societies of multicultural characters by augmenting knowledge of our own and others’ cultures;
l appreciate the diversity in our society and the world in which we lived and combat stereotype, prejudice and discrimination;
l perform more acute observations and make decision appropriately by making reference to necessary social and cultural conditions in real life settings.

Indicative Content:

Basic Concepts:
- culture, identity and cultural politics

Cultural Manifestations
- representation and art
- cultural intermediary
- visual & material culture

Cultural Economy
- basic concepts: identification, representation, production, consumption, regulation
- cultural industry and its critique

Cultural Identity of Hong Kong
- Hong Kong cultural identity- why matters?
- Hong Kong art and its Chineseness
- Culture of everyday life: tourism and shopping mall
- Hong Kong Culture in a space of disappearance
- Cultural identity/ identities of Hong Kong

Topics in cultural identity
- Politics of cultural identity: self, other, community
- Cultural Memories, Histories and Formation of Culture
- Cultural imaginings: Cultural Identity in Making

Global and Local
- urban spectacle, cosmopolitanism, regional identity and globalization (TW)

Round-up: a story with no end
From Identity to Subjectivity


Teaching/Learning Approach:
Weekly lecture and tutorial, complemented by students’ presentation; each student is required to apply learnt concepts in thinking, researching and writing about a selected cultural issue from the Hong Kong context. There will be an interim group research project, from which students are required to arrange a formal presentation and derive their own topics for their final essays.

Assignments:
1.Reading Tutorial(30%):
Form into groups of 3 to 4 students and present assigned readings with no more than 2 pages of reading notes (no powerpoint is needed).

2.Preliminary study(20%):
Prepare an interim group research project, from which students are required to arrange a formal presentation.

3.Final essay(50%):
Identify a cultural issue, conduct a research with the learnt concepts and theories, then produce an essay in English; word amount unlimited. Deadline: one week after term end.



Content
19 Jan
Lecture: Introduction (LP)
26 Jan
L: Cultural Manifestations (LP)
2 Feb
L: Cultural Economy I (LP)
T: Kathryn Woodward ed., “Introduction”, Identity and Difference, Sage: 1997, pp.8-19.
Simon During, “Going global”, Cultural Studies: A Critical Introduction, London: Routledge, pp.5-13.
9 Feb
L: Cultural Economy II (LP)
T: John Fiske, “Communication, Meaning and Signs”, Introduction to Communication Studies, London & New York: Routledge, 1990, pp.39-63.
16 Feb
Cultural Identity of Hong Kong (LP)
Representation of Hong Kong I
T: *Special task of the tutorial: Please illustrate the “cultural circuit” model with the case of Chinese cinema.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): “Introduction”, Production of Culture/Cultures of Production, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications, pp. 1-10.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): “Designing the Walkman: Articulating Production and Consumption”,Doing Cultural Studies: the story of the Sony walkman, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications, pp.62-74. (reserved- HM621 .D64 1997 )
徐百柯:「导演贾樟柯称商业大片像细菌破坏社会基本原则」,載《中國青年報》,2007年01月10日02:18。
http://news.qq.com/a/20070110/000353.htm
23 Feb
No Class
2 Mar
Cultural Identity of Hong Kong (LP)
Visualizing Hong Kong II
T: Abbas, Ackbar., Culture in a Space of Disappearance, Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance, Hong Kong University Press, pp.1-15.
9 Mar
Cultural identity/ identities of Hong Kong (TW)
T: Sung Hung-mui, “Heterotopologies: South Asians in Media and Spatial Representations”, from Approaching South Asians in Hong Kong (M. Phil thesis), Lingnan University, 2005, pp. 119-133.
16 Mar
Presentation: preliminary study (students)
23 Mar
Presentation: preliminary study (students)
30 Mar
Topics in cultural identity (LP)
Invention of tradition
T: 羅永生:「後殖民評論與文化政治」,Pun Ngai & Yee Lai-man, Narrating Hong Kong Culture and Identity, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.95-112.
13 Apr
Topics in cultural identity (LP)
Invention of Tradition (museum and tourism)
T: John Urry, “Introduction”, The Tourist Gaze, Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1990.
20 April
Topics in cultural identity (TW)
Cultural Identity in Making
T: Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place : urban landscapes as public history, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England: MIT Press, 1995, pp.44-78. (F869.L857 H39 1995)
27 April
Global and Local (TW)
Regional identity and globalization
T: Stuart Hall, “The Local and the Global: Globalization and Ethnicity”, Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation, and Postcolonial Perspectives, Anne McClintock & al. (ed.), Minneapolis & London: University of Minneapolis Press, pp.173-187.
5 May
L: Round-up: a story with no end (TW & LP)
T: Final essay consultation

General References:
梁文道: “寶貝總是國家的話、眼睛卻是我們的”信報1998年3月4日。
周蕾:《寫在家國以外》:香港:牛津大學出版社 1995。
梁秉鈞:《雅俗文化之間的文化評論》,載於黃淑嫻編:《香港文化多面睇》,香港:香港藝術中心1997.p.p.3 - 21
馬傑偉:《電視與文化認同》,香港:突破出版社,1996年。
陳清僑編:《文化想像與意識形態》,香港:牛津大學出版社1997。
也斯:「文化身份的探索 : 東西視藝」,《香港文化》, 香港藝術中心1995.
洛楓:「歷史的記憶與失憶」,載於《世紀末城市》,香港:牛津大學出版社,1995年,頁60 – 75。
Ackbar Abbas (1997) Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance. Hong Kong University Press.
Appadurai, Arjun (1988) "How to make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India". Comparative Study of Society and History 30(1): 3-24.
Bennett, Tony, Culture: A Reformer’s Science, London: Sage, 1998.
Cheung, Sydney (1996) "Cultural Tourism and Hong Kong Identity", Working Paper no. 4. Department of Anthropology, CUHK 1996 p.p.1 - 21
Ecker, David. (1990) "Cultural Identity, Artistic Empowerment, and the Future of Art in the Schools," Art Education. January/February 1990.
Evans, Grant.& Tam. Maria. (eds.) (1997) Hong Kong: The Anthropology of a Chinese Metropolis. Curzon.
Hall, Stuart et al. (eds.) (1992) "Identity in Question", Modernity and Its Futures. Polity Press & The Open University. p.p. 274-280.
Hall, Stuart et al. (eds.) (1992) "National Cultures as 'Imagined Communities' " Modernity and Its Futures. Polity Press & The Open University. p.p. 291-299
Stanley, Nick & Siu, King Chung (1995) "Representing the Past as the Future: The Shenzhen Chinese Folk Culture Villages and the Marketing of Chinese Identity." Journal of Museum Ethnography, no. 7, 1995.
Woodward, Kathryn (1997) "Why does the Concepts of Identity Matters" in Woodward, Kathryn (ed.) (1997) Culture, Media and Identities: Identity and Difference. SAGE.

Special Topics (you may select from the followings to start off your essay):
On Cultural Economy:
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): “Introduction”, Production of Culture/Cultures of Production, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications, pp. 1-10.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): Doing Cultural Studies: the story of the Sony walkman, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications. (reserved- HM621 .D64 1997 )

On Hong Kong:
Oscar Ho, “Hong Kong: A curatorial journey for an identity”, Art Journal, Winter 1998, pp. 39-42.
Mathew Turner, “Building on Appearance”, Hong Kong Four-cast, Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, the University of Hong Kong, 2005, pp.6-7.
David Faure, “Introduction”, David Faure ed., Hong Kong: A Reader in Social History, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.xiii-xxx.
Abbas, Ackbar., Culture in a Space of Disappearance, Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance, Hong Kong University Press, pp.1-15.
*Matthew Turner, “60/90s Dissolving the People”, Matthew Turner & Irene Ngan ed., Hong Kong Sixties Designing Identity, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Art Centre, pp.13-34. (Do read the English version for it is the original writing of the author)
Clarke,. David (1996) "Between East and West: Negotiation With Tradition and Modernity in Hong Kong Art" in Art and Place: Essays on Art from a Hong Kong Perspective. The Hong Kong University Press.
羅永生:「後殖民評論與文化政治」,Pun Ngai & Yee Lai-man, Narrating Hong Kong Culture and Identity, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.95-112

On nationalism & post-colonial studies:
Anthony Giddens, ‘Introduction’, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991, pp.1-9. (On modernity and identity)
Eric Hobsbawm & Terence Ranger, “Introduction: The Invention of Tradition,”, The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. (1996 edition pp. 1-15.)
香港嶺南學院翻譯系文化/社會研究譯叢編委會編:《解殖與民族主義》,香港:牛津大學出版社,1998年。
廖炳惠:「後殖民研究的問題及前景」,《當代》,1997年9月1日,第121期,頁48-61。


On museum, monumentality and tourism:
Tony Bennett, “The Formation of The Museum”, The Birth of the Museum, History, Theory, Politics, London & New York: Routledge, 1995, pp.17-58.
James Clifford, “Histories of the Tribal and the Modern” & “On collecting art and culture”, in Predicament of Culture: Twentieth- Century Ethnography, Literature and Art, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988, pp. 189-214 & pp. 215-252.
Three cases:
Wu Hung, “Tiananmen Square: A political history of monuments”, Representations, no.35, Summer 1991, pp.84-117.
Wu Hung, “The Hong Kong Clock- Public Time-telling and Political Time/Space”, Public Culture, vol. 9 no.3, Spring 1997, pp.329-354.
Marita Sturken, “The Wall, the screen, and the Image: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial”, Representations, no.35, Summer 1991, pp.118-141.
John Urry, The Tourist Gaze, Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1990.

On visual culture
呂紹理著﹕《展示臺灣:權力、空間與殖民統治的形象表述》,台北﹕麥田出版社,2005年。
彭麗君著﹕〈城市觀光-香港旅遊業的視覺論述〉,宋耕編著﹕《全球化與中國性﹕當代文化的後殖民解讀》,香港大學出版社,2006年,頁233-245。
Jonathan Crary, Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England: MIT Press, 2000.

On Shopping Mall
Meaghan Morris, “Things to do with Shopping Centres”, The Cultural Studies Readers, Simon During (ed.), London and New York: Routledge, 1993, pp.295-319.
John Fiske, “Shopping for Pleasure: Malls, Power, and Resistance”, The Consumer Society Reader, Juliet B. Schor and al. (ed.), New York: The New Press, pp. 306-328.

On global and local
David Harvey, The condition of postmodernity : an enquiry into the origins of cultural change, Oxford, England : Blackwell, 1989.
Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis & London: University of Minneapolis Press, 1996.

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