Chinese 150B Midterm Essay Topics

You are expected to select ONE from the suggested topics below and write an analytical essay. In the case that you propose a topic of your own, you may do so after obtaining permission of the instructor. The essay should be 5-7 pages long. The essay is due on February 13 (at the end of the class). NO late essays will be accepted.  

For the short essay, the use of secondary sources is not required. In other words, you do not have to conduct additional research in order to complete this essay. You may still choose to include secondary sources, if you consider them important or supportive for your writing. 

NOTE: All essays must be submitted in class in hard copy AND in electronic format via Turnitin Assignment on the course website.  Essays should be typed, double-spaced, in a standard font (Times New Roman, 12 point) with standard margins.  Pages should be numbered, and the student’s name should appear on at least the first page of the essay.

Students are expected to be familiar with UCLA policies on plagiarism and academic integrity. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. If you submit any work with your name affixed to it, it is assumed to be your own work with all sources used properly indicated and documented in the text.

1. Analyze the character Yingying and discuss the various changes that her image has gone through in “Yingying’s Story”. Discuss how gender dynamics are represented in the story and how a detached (supposedly male) narrator affects our interpretation of the story. 

2. In the course of telling the story, the narrator of “Jiang Xingge Reencounters His Pearl Shirt” uses explicit comments, inserts verses, and introduces many digressions and seemingly irrelevant details. Discuss their functions and effects on our interpretation. 

3. In Feng Menglong’s collections, bao報 (reward or revenge) and baoying 報應(karmic retribution) are two “narrative templates” that often work together to structure a narrative. Use TWO stories we have read to discuss your understanding of bao and baoying. 

4. Discuss the role of the judge using TWO narratives (could be stories or crime cases) we have read. If the narratives convey a notion of fairness or justice, is it the same as our understanding of those concepts today? Why or why not?

5. We have read several stories that involve passion or desire and their effects on human behavior. How do the stories make us understand passion or desire in premodern China—as something that was always negative, or something complex and multi-dimensional? In those stories, is passion or desire shown to impact men and women differently? Use at least TWO stories to support your argument. 

6. A premodern Chinese writer, such as Feng Menglong, often claimed that his stories serve two purposes: To teach and to entertain. Choose a story to analyze how it serves the two functions. Could the two functions sometimes come into conflict, with one potentially undermining the effect of the other (e.g., love scenes are so fascinating while the moral teachings appear dull and clichéd)? Support your argument with examples. 

*Extra Credit: (You can engage in a piece of creative writing and earn up to 10 points. The actual points earned depend on your quality of writing and creativeness. The points will be added to your midterm grades.)

Try to imitate the style of Feng Menglong and write a story based on one of the crime cases we read in Week 3.