CHIN 40
Popular Culture in Modern Chinese Societies
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Examination of modern Chinese popular culture in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas Chinese communities. From fiction to film, music to MTV, and cartoons to karaoke, probing of popular as it has manifested itself in Chinese societies and tracing of its development over last century. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - I wouldn’t recommend this class unless you already have a strong background or personal interest in Chinese history and culture. The course is designed to give a broad overview of everything from music to art to politics, and while the workload itself is manageable (just two essays) (not counting the movies and books he assigns), the class really lacked structure. There’s no midterm—only a final—so it was hard to figure out what to focus on. Since the course covers so much content, it felt overwhelming, and without clear guidance on what would actually be tested, I went into the final pretty much blind. Dr. Berry is clearly knowledgeable and passionate, and he’s a great lecturer, but if you don’t have prior knowledge going in, this class can be really difficult to follow. The only reason I did okay was because a few students made a comprehensive study guide, which I relied on heavily. The final itself isn’t hard if you know the key people, movements, and concepts—but the challenge is figuring out what those are. His slides weren’t very helpful, and the sheer amount of material made it easy to get lost. Also, while movies and readings were assigned throughout the quarter, I don’t think most students actually completed them because it would’ve taken up way too much time on top of everything else.
Winter 2025 - I wouldn’t recommend this class unless you already have a strong background or personal interest in Chinese history and culture. The course is designed to give a broad overview of everything from music to art to politics, and while the workload itself is manageable (just two essays) (not counting the movies and books he assigns), the class really lacked structure. There’s no midterm—only a final—so it was hard to figure out what to focus on. Since the course covers so much content, it felt overwhelming, and without clear guidance on what would actually be tested, I went into the final pretty much blind. Dr. Berry is clearly knowledgeable and passionate, and he’s a great lecturer, but if you don’t have prior knowledge going in, this class can be really difficult to follow. The only reason I did okay was because a few students made a comprehensive study guide, which I relied on heavily. The final itself isn’t hard if you know the key people, movements, and concepts—but the challenge is figuring out what those are. His slides weren’t very helpful, and the sheer amount of material made it easy to get lost. Also, while movies and readings were assigned throughout the quarter, I don’t think most students actually completed them because it would’ve taken up way too much time on top of everything else.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - As a heads-up, this was more of a history of Chinese pop culture than a class about pop culture, with a focus on political movements that are dead and/or dying. Still interesting, but very little of it could be considered modern popular culture, very little of the class dealt with stuff from after 1990. Not sure if it was me being burnt out from COVID, but quite honestly, the class felt like a slog. Organization wasn't quite there; I was frequently confused about which lectures were and weren't required, and when stuff was due. Furthermore, lectures were quite long. Normally, two 75 minute lectures are scheduled, for a total of 2.5 hours, but this quarter, we usually had 3-4 hours of lectures. Not what I signed up for. Now in terms of workload and grading, this class is really easy; the curve really is that good. Furthermore, the professor nerfed the class, removing the final essay and final exam. Therefore, 40% of the grades was writing a forum post about the content for the week. Ostensibly, it's supposed to be about the readings, but you can easily get away with writing about the lectures. Basically 40% free points. Note that the readings can be quite a lot and can be quite dense; the professor thinks it's our only class. Now how does this class have a 4 for workload? You don't actually have to do the readings. The other 60% of the grade was from 3 short papers. Of course, the grade depends on your TA, but the paper is generally graded generously and the topic is very open.
Winter 2021 - As a heads-up, this was more of a history of Chinese pop culture than a class about pop culture, with a focus on political movements that are dead and/or dying. Still interesting, but very little of it could be considered modern popular culture, very little of the class dealt with stuff from after 1990. Not sure if it was me being burnt out from COVID, but quite honestly, the class felt like a slog. Organization wasn't quite there; I was frequently confused about which lectures were and weren't required, and when stuff was due. Furthermore, lectures were quite long. Normally, two 75 minute lectures are scheduled, for a total of 2.5 hours, but this quarter, we usually had 3-4 hours of lectures. Not what I signed up for. Now in terms of workload and grading, this class is really easy; the curve really is that good. Furthermore, the professor nerfed the class, removing the final essay and final exam. Therefore, 40% of the grades was writing a forum post about the content for the week. Ostensibly, it's supposed to be about the readings, but you can easily get away with writing about the lectures. Basically 40% free points. Note that the readings can be quite a lot and can be quite dense; the professor thinks it's our only class. Now how does this class have a 4 for workload? You don't actually have to do the readings. The other 60% of the grade was from 3 short papers. Of course, the grade depends on your TA, but the paper is generally graded generously and the topic is very open.
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