The Body in Contemporary Chinese Cultures

What is the relationship between the body and biotechnology in contemporary life? How do questions of race, gender, post-coloniality, and trans/nationalism shape medical and scientific understandings of the body? This discussion-intensive course explores these questions through a focus on embodiment in Chinese cultures. No Chinese language skills are required. We will contextualise common assumptions about race, gender, and other seemingly “natural” categories in science and medicine by reading a range of materials, which may include such topics as Chinese science fiction, speculative art, queer studies, or critical writing on the body in film and popular media. While we draw heavily on examples from Chinese, Asian, and Ethnic or Diasporic Studies, the course also welcomes interested postgraduate students from diverse disciplinary and area-studies backgrounds who are interested in postcolonial understandings of corporeality, and discussions in class will build on readings and students’ individual research presentations. Students are expected to bring or develop their own project on a topic related to the body in medicine, science, visual culture, queer studies, or popular media to introduce and present over the course of the class.