This sequence of four courses will propose a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of Chinese cultural history conceived of as a succession of modes of rationality (philosophical, bureaucratic, and economic). The focus will be on the moments of paradigm shift from one mode of rationality to another. For each of these moments, cultural facts and artifacts—thought, literature, ritual—will be examined in relationship to changing social, political, and economic systems.
Structuring Values in Modern China
Structuring Values in Modern China
Instructor: Prof. John Lagerwey
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4.7
(34 reviews)
24 hours to complete
3 weeks at 8 hours a week
Flexible schedule
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Assessments
39 assignments
Taught in English
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There are 7 modules in this course
This module explains how science, the market, and the nation became the new structuring values of the intellectual elite in the 20th century and how this led to the destruction of traditional religions; how these religions resisted and incorporated the new values.
What's included
7 videos7 assignments
This module introduces how the traditional Chinese vision of the role of government militated against the development of market-based economics, how the science of economics came into being in 20th century China and how this profoundly modified the practice of government and the way human subjectivity is understood.
What's included
2 videos2 assignments
We are going to learn the distinction between science and scientism, how scientism was used to justify the rejection of traditional religions, and how a more accurate assessment of the nature of science re-opens a space for more traditional moral and religious concerns.
What's included
4 videos4 assignments
This module is about the role of gender bias among the intellectual elite in the 20th century and how various religious traditions, by contrast, promoted women’s empowerment over against the “public patriarchy”.
What's included
7 videos7 assignments
This module presents how lay religious movements, especially spirit writing groups, responded to the crisis of Chinese society in the 19th and 20th centuries; how groups like the Yiguandao went from political repression to acceptance; and how charity in modern China is inseparable from the history of these lay organizations.
What's included
6 videos6 assignments
This module states the power of attraction of charismatic Protestantism today, especially for women, its primarily indigenous origins and its similarities with other forms of popular religion.
What's included
4 videos4 assignments
This module indicates the differences between Chinese and Western dualism and how they were impacted by their different writing systems; the meaning of the terms “patriarchal” and “humanistic” as applied to Chinese culture; how Chinese elite and popular culture were separated by a wide gap that has not yet been closed.
What's included
9 videos9 assignments
Instructor
Instructor ratings
4.9 (14 ratings)Offered by
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