EAASGU4226 GENDER, CLASS AND REAL ESTATE IN CHINA Fall 2024 Wednesday 2:10-4pm, 569 Alfred Lerner Hall Instructor: Dr. Leta Hong Fincher ([email protected], office hours by appointment via Zoom) Course Description: This seminar for advanced undergraduates and graduate students explores the socioeconomic consequences of China’s development of a booming, residential real-estate market since the privatization of housing at the end of the 1990s. We will use the intersecting lenses of gender, class and race/ethnicity to analyze the dramatic new inequalities created in arguably the largest and fastest accumulation of residential real-estate wealth in history. We examine how skyrocketing home prices and state-led urbanization have created winners and losers as China has transformed from a predominantly rural population to one that is majority urban. We look at how growing inequalities have led to new kinds of rights activism. We explore the vastly divergent effects of urbanization on citizens, from the most marginalized communities in Xinjiang and Tibet to hyper-wealthy investors in Beijing and Hong Kong. Although this course has no formal prerequisites, it assumes some basic knowledge of Chinese history. If you have never taken a course on China before, please ask me for guidance on whether or not this class is suitable for you. The syllabus is preliminary and subject to change based on breaking news events and the needs of the class. Topics INTRODUCTION CHINA’S REVOLUTIONS AND THE PURGING OF LANDLORDS STATE-SUBSIDIZED URBAN LIVING IN THE POST-MAO ERA THE PRIVATIZATION OF URBAN HOUSING MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND THE GENDERING OF PROPERTY (1) THE MIDDLE-CLASS REAL-ESTATE DREAM MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND THE GENDERING OF PROPERTY (2) MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND THE GENDERING OF PROPERTY (3) WEALTH AND CLASS INEQUALITIES URBAN LIVING, GENDER AND ACTIVISM RACE/ETHNICITY AND RESETTLEMENT IN CHINA REAL ESTATE AND URBAN-RURAL INEQUALITY CONCLUSION Learning Objectives: Our goal is to learn about inequalities in gender, class, and race/ethnicity in contemporary Chinese society by focusing on urbanization, residential real-estate development and accompanying social problems. Students are likely to hold a wide range of different views on some controversial topics covered in the course and we should all speak and listen in a respectful manner. If anyone feels uncomfortable about the tone of our discussions, please approach me confidentially to express your concerns. I will sometimes assign recent news reports in addition to the syllabus readings so that we can discuss current events related to our course. I hope that students will be able to accomplish the following by the end of the course: ● Develop critical reading and writing skills, and apply these to the analysis of key socioeconomic developments in China’s market-reform era; ● Draw connections between personal experiences and scholarship; ● Think critically about the relationship between individuals and governments; ● Challenge your own assumptions about your role in society and think broadly about how social inequalities are created and perpetuated; ● Examine a given situation from another person’s point of view and engage in reasoned debates with people from diverse backgrounds, who hold different opinions from your own; ● For graduate students: develop a research project on your area of interest in contemporary China. Course Requirements: This is a participative seminar. Students are expected to attend class having completed the assigned readings, fully prepared to participate in the discussions. You should ask thoughtful questions, make respectful observations, and be prepared to re-evaluate and change your views in response to new information and arguments. Attendance and class participation for the entire semester count for 10% of your final grade. Each student is required to give one 10-minute presentation about the assigned readings, worth 15% of your final grade. The presentation should be a summary plus analysis of the content and you may sign up early in the semester. Please create a power point or slideshow to submit to me as part of your presentation. We will have a midterm exam in class on October 23, which is worth 25% of your final grade. Final presentations related to one of the course themes will take place December 4 and account for 15% of your grade. Presentations will be in groups or pairs and may be as creative and multimedia as you like. The presentation will be graded on the quality of your ideas and the clarity of your presentation. The length of final presentations will depend on the total number of students. You will write a final paper related to one of the course themes, which is DUE DECEMBER 15. Undergraduates write an 8-10-page paper, while graduate students write a 15-20-page paper. The paper is worth 35% of your final grade. The papers must be 12-point, double-spaced, Times New Roman. You may choose one of the paper topics I will suggest towards the end of the semester or choose your own topic related to our course themes, as long as I approve of the topic. The final paper should be emailed to me in a simple Word or PDF document. All assignments will be evaluated on the quality and originality of your ideas, how well you demonstrate concepts learned in class to support your arguments, the correct and thorough use of references to support your arguments, and the clarity of your writing. You may choose your own reference style, but I recommend the Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide. Your final grade is based on the following: Overall class participation: 10% 10-minute presentation about the readings: 15% Midterm exam October 23 25% Final group presentations DECEMBER 4: 15% Final paper DUE DECEMBER 15 35% Undergraduate paper 8-10 pages, not including references Graduate paper 15-20 pages, not including references Total: 100% Academic Dishonesty: Academic dishonesty (plagiarism or otherwise submitting work under false pretenses) will not be tolerated. Any student found to be engaging in academic dishonesty will be reported to the university administration for disciplinary action. Disability Allowances: If you are a student with a disability and have an DS-certified ‘Accommodation Letter’ please email me about your accommodation needs. If you believe that you might have a disability that requires accommodation, you should contact Disability Services at 212-854-2388 and [email protected] Links to an external site. . Religious Allowances: If your religious practices might affect your ability to complete a course requirement, please inform me early in the semester and I will provide reasonable accommodations for you. Optional pronoun registration: You may register your pronouns here if you like: I will link to or upload most of our reading in "Files" - resources, or refer to books on reserve. The following books are available for purchase at Book Culture and on reserve at the Starr East Asian Library. Leta Hong Fincher. 2023. Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China. London: Bloomsbury. Tania Branigan. 2023. Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution. 2023. New York: Norton. Ke Li. 2022. Marriage Unbound: State, Law, Power and Inequality in Contemporary China. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Leta Hong Fincher. 2021. Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China. London: Verso. Additional books on library reserve: Deborah S. Davis and Sara L. Friedman (eds). 2014. Wives, Husbands and Lovers: Marriage and Sexuality in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Urban China. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Deborah Davis and Stevan Harrell (eds.). 1993. Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era. Berkeley: University of California Press. Marjorie Garber. 2000. Sex and Real Estate: Why We Love Houses. New York: Pantheon Books. Rebecca E. Karl. 2010. Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth Century World: A Concise History. Durham: Duke University Press. Patricia Kennett and Chan Kam Wah (eds.) 2011. Women and Housing: An International Analysis. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Martin King Whyte and William L. Parish. 1984. Urban Life in Contemporary China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Yunxiang Yan. 2003. Private Life Under Socialism. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Schedule: I have occasionally listed recommended readings in the syllabus (marked with an asterisk *) for students who wish to do more than the required reading. Week 1: INTRODUCTION September 4 Daisuke Wakabayashi. 2024. New York Times. Guess who's angry at China's real estate bailout: Homeowners. Links to an external site. Joy Dong. 2023. New York Times. For single women in China, owning a home is a new form of resistance. Links to an external site. Week 2: CHINA’S REVOLUTIONS AND THE PURGING OF LANDLORDS September 11 Tania Branigan. Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution. 2023. New York: Norton. Prologue through Chapter 5, pp. 1-149. Recommended: *Rebecca E. Karl. 2010. Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth Century World. Ch 6: Stabilizing Society and the Transition to Socialism 1949-1957, pp. 73-98. Ch 7: Great Leap and Restoration: 1958-1965, pp. 99-116. Week 3: STATE-SUBSIDIZED URBAN LIVING IN THE POST-MAO ERA September 18 Deborah Davis. 1993. Urban Households: Supplicants to a Socialist State, pp. 50-76. In Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era (eds Deborah Davis and Stevan Harrell). Martin King Whyte and William L. Parish. 1984. Urban Life in Contemporary China. Ch 4: Social Services and Supplies, pp. 57-106. Week 4: THE PRIVATIZATION OF URBAN HOUSING September 25 Youqin Huang Links to an external site. , Shenjing He Links to an external site. , and Li Gan Links to an external site. . Cities, 2021. Homeownership and housing divide in China Links to an external site. . Barry Naughton. 2010. The Turning Point in Housing. China Leadership Monitor 33: 1-10. Guo Hui-min. 2011. A Gender Study on Housing Rights of Women in Urban China. In Women and Housing: An International Analysis (eds.) Patricia Kennett and Chan Kam Wah, pp. 171-186. Rampell, Catherine. 2013. New York Times. A Place That Makes New York Real Estate Look Cheap - Think it’s Expensive to Buy a Home in New York? Try Moving to China Links to an external site. . Ya Ping Wang and Alan Murie. 1996. The process of commercialization of urban housing in China. Urban Studies 33(6): 971–989. Week 5: MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND THE GENDERING OF PROPERTY (1) October 2 Leta Hong Fincher. 2023. Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China (10th anniversary edition). Preface to tenth anniversary edition, pp. xii-xx). Introduction, pp. 1-15. Ch. 1 China’s ‘Leftover’ Women, pp. 16-54. Ch. 2 How Chinese women were shut out of the biggest accumulation of real-estate wealth in history, pp. 55-87. Ch. 3 China’s giant gender wealth gap, pp. 88-123. Week 6: THE MIDDLE-CLASS REAL-ESTATE DREAM October 9 Wu Peiyue. 2022. Sixth Tone. "We Own It": The Chinese Homeowners Squatting in Unfinished Buildings Links to an external site. .Terry Sicular. 2022. Is China Catching Up with the West? Or, Why Should We Care about China's Middle Class? In The China Questions 2: Critical Insights into US-China Relations, edited by Maria Adele Carrai, Jennifer Rudolph, and Michael Szonyi, pp. 274-282. Rocca, Jean-Louis. 2013. Homeowners’ Movements: Narratives on the Political Behaviours of the Middle Class. In Minglu Chen and David S.G. Goodman (eds), Middle Class China: Identity and Behaviour, pp. 110-134. Marjorie Garber. 2000. Sex and Real Estate: Why We Love Houses. New York: Pantheon Books. Ch. 1 The House as Beloved, pp. 25-47. Ch. 4 The Dream House, pp. 100-119. Week 7: MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND THE GENDERING OF PROPERTY (2) October 16 Ke Li. 2022. Marriage Unbound: State, Law, Power and Inequality in Contemporary China. Ch. 2 Marriage on the Move, pp. 51-75. Ch. 5: Judging Divorce in the People's Courts, pp. 152-188. Ch. 6: Onstage and Offstage, pp. 189-226. Ch. 7: Issues and Nonissues, pp. 227-257. Wen Jing Deng, Joris S. C. M. Hoekstra, Marja G. Elsinga. 2019. Why women own less housing assets in China? The role of intergenerational transfers. In Journal of Housing and the Built Environment (2019) 34:1–22. Week 8: MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND THE GENDERING OF PROPERTY (3) October 23 MIDTERM EXAM Michelson, Ethan. Decoupling: Gender Injustice in China’s Divorce Courts. Cambridge University Press; 2022. Ch. 1: Sisyphus goes to divorce court, pp. 1-34. Ch. 2: The right to decouple, pp. 35-64. Ch. 7: How judges gaslight domestic violence victims in divorce trials, pp. 237-269. Recommended: *Yunxiang Yan. 2003. Private Life Under Socialism. Ch 6: The Politics of Family Property, pp. 140-161. Ch 7: Elderly Support and the Crisis of Filial Piety, pp. 162-189. Week 9: URBAN LIVING, GENDER AND ACTIVISM October 30 Shen Lu and Liyan Qi. 2023. Wall Street Journal. "In China, Young Women Become Accidental Symbols of Defiance." Leta Hong Fincher. 2018. Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China. Ch 1: China’s Feminist Five, pp. 15-32. Ch 2: The Internet and Feminist Awakening, pp. 33-58. Ch 7: China’s Patriarchal Authoritarianism, pp. 159-186. Stephanie Yingyi Wang. 2019, Feminist Studies. "When Tongzhi Marry: Experiments of Cooperative Marriage Between Lalas and Gay Men in Urban China." Week 10: RACE/ETHNICITY AND RESETTLEMENT IN CHINA November 6 Tim Gross. 2020. The Xinjiang Data Project. Transforming Uyghur domestic space: China’s "Three News" housing campaign in Xinjiang. Links to an external site. Gardner Bovingdon. 2010. The Uyghurs: Strangers in Their Own Land. Ch 2: Heteronomy and its Discontents, pp. 40-79. https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/14197173?counter=1 Tsering Woeser. 2014. Voices from Tibet. I: Old Lhasa Politicized, pp. 1-18. IV: Wrecking Nature, pp. 49-60. Megha Rajagopolan, Alison Killing and Christo Buschek. 2020. Buzzfeed. China Built a Vast New Infrastructure to Imprison Muslims. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/china-new-internment-camps-xinjiang-u ighurs-muslims?bfsource=relatedmanual Links to an external site. Week 11: WEALTH AND CLASS INEQUALITIES November 13 Zhexun Mo. World Inequality Lab Issue Brief, 2022. "Is East Asia Becoming Plutocratic? Income & Wealth Inequalities in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (1981-2021)." Kangni Chai and Changchun Feng. Housing Studies, 2021. "Sons, daughters, and differentiated tenure choice of multiple homes: evidence from urban China." Martin K. Whyte. 2014. Soaring Income Gaps: China in Comparative Perspective. Daedalus. 143(2): 39-52. Dan Mattingly. 2019. The art of political control in China. Cambridge University Press. Ch. 3: The Communist Party's Governance Challenge, pp. 56-86. Week 12: REAL ESTATE AND URBAN-RURAL INEQUALITY November 20 Yourong Wang , Yuyao Li , Youqin Huang , Chengdong Yi, Jianyu Ren. Cities, 2020. Housing wealth inequality in China: An urban-rural comparison Links to an external site. . Alexandra Stevenson and Michael Forsythe. 2020. New York Times. Luxury Homes Tie Chinese Communist Elite to Hong Kong's Fate. Julia Chuang. 2014. China's rural land politics. The China Quarterly, 219, September 2014, pp. 649–669. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/stable/24740632?seq=1#metadata_info _tab_contents Lynette Ong. 2022. Outsourcing Repression. Oxford University Press. Ch. 1: Bulldozers, violent thugs and nonviolent brokers. THANKSGIVING BREAK Week 13: FINAL PRESENTATIONS & CONCLUSION 51作业君版权所有