INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

This is an introductory Chinese history and culture course for the students enrolled in the Bachelor's Degree Programme in "Language, Culture and Society of South-East Asia".

By the end of the course the students will have gained a basic knowledge of Chinese language and culture and the tools necessary to understand their diachronic development, their fundamental characteristics and to distinguish the influence of Chinese language and culture on other civilisations of the Asian continent and especially on those of south-east Asia.

This is a first year introductory course and it does not have specific requirements, but it is desirable that the students begin the course being acquainted with the geography of Asia.

The course is structured in two macro-units:
Unit 1:
- Introduction to the history of imperial "China": excursus on the main steps in the development the culture of the different Chinese empires, against the backdrop of their historical contexts and putting them in critical perspective.
- Introduction to the history of Chinese thought: an excursion into the main schools of thought and religions of China, including Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism.
- Introduction to the modern and contemporary Chinese culture and society: an excursus on the socio-cultural debate arising from the impact of imperialism; evolution of socialist culture from the Maoist period to contemporary times.

Unit 2: Introduction to the history of the Chinese language and its role in the process of the construction of a Chinese identity; linguistic geography.

The following are the basic readings:

Kai Vogelsang, "Cina. Una storia millenaria". Torino: Einaudi, 2018.
Beatrice Gallelli, "La Cina di oggi in otto parole". Bologna: Il Mulino, 2021.
Magda Abbiati, "La lingua cinese". Venezia: Cafoscarina, 1992.

Additional materials and lecture notes will be uploaded on the Moodle page of the course during the semester.

Knowledge acquisition will be verified by means of a 60-minute written test consisting of open-ended questions. Grading is in thirtieths, and each open-ended question is worth 6 points. The award of honours is determined not only by the correctness of the answer but also by the presentation of relevant connections that add value to the argument.

Lectures employing PPT presentations, complemented by multimedia materials.

Italian

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development