Bard High School Early College – CHI 110: Understanding China through Fiction/Film

Mar 2026 · 2nd Semester

This introductory course will explore 20th and 21st century Chinesefiction and film to help students better understand major cultural, socialand political events in China. Students will study fiction and film as an artform that conveys the life experiences and reflections of the Chinesepeople, as an instrument of political propaganda, and as a medium ofmass entertainment. Students will learn the basics of film history in Chinafrom its inception at the end of the nineteenth century to the present. Theywill also learn about these basic periods of Chinese history: The MayFourth New Culture Movement and the Republican era (1911- 1949), theMaoist era (1949-1978), and the Reform era of globalization(1979-present). Key films and short literary works will be assigned toeach era, and serve as a starting point to address the four main units of thecourse: 1) introduction and the history of Chinese film; 2) issues offamily and tradition, gender and youth as conveyed through fiction andfilm; 3) political movements and the Cultural Revolution; and, 4) reform,modernization and globalization.