ICLP worth it?

[John Yu]

I once tried to audit an undergraduate level class about the history of Chinese literature and the teacher spent the whole first day showing us a hocus movie called "The Secret" (about the power of positive thinking) instead of learning anything about literature.

After reading Feiren's post, though, I realize this is but the tip of the iceberg.

[Jive Turkey]

I didn't even come close to achieving those goals. One problem is that the people in these programs (faculty and students) are True Believers in Chinese culture. In their world view, a foreigner is simply incapable of penetrating the ineffable mystery of it all. This is evidenced most clearly when he has the temerity to ask questions. Another problem is that most of the pre-modern faculty in literature or history are actually philologists, not historians or literary scholars that you would find teaching those subjects in North America.

This was all 20 years ago. Things may have changed, but I seriously doubt it.

I think that you might have a very different experience if you studied modern Taiwanese history or a western-derived discipline focused on some aspect of the present.

This rings really true in my ears. Here in Hong Kong, I teach a writing course that aims to help students of Chinese history and literature identify and use English-language sources relevant to their interests, and present their work in written English. The students of modern history and lit are really easy to talk to. They're open to feedback on all aspects of their writing, whether it focuses on content and argumentation, or more on language accuracy. I'd say I've learned a whole lot from reading their stuff and talking to them about their writing.

I dread tutorials with the students working on pre-modern stuff. At first I thought it was just because I am pretty ignorant of the stuff these students write about; I certainly don't score any points by not being able to read a lot of their texts in original form. Later I realized that their whole approach is different. Whereas the modern history or literature students approach things in a way similar to students of the humanities in the west, the pre-modern students are relatively romantic-minded about their subject and in their "methods," if you could call them that. I then looked at some of the publications by the people who teach these two groups of students, and there was a pretty clear division in methods and rhetorical style. Now that I think about it, I'd also say your label of "philologists" applies to these students.

[pzkpfwmmiv]

Thanks for the wonderful feedback! What all of you have said about the pre-modern scholars' pedagogical styles jives with my experiences in the Mainland as well. I personally believe that the study of classical Chinese is important for a more complete understanding of modern syntax and grammar, but my research interests are confined to 民初 and later - my undergraduate thesis focused on the Hunanese author 沈從文 and his place within the 新文學運動 expressed through approaches to stylistic and narrative realism. I was interested in 沈從文 because of the manner in which he tailored a prose filled with the lexical and syntactic qualities of 文言文 to eulogize the demise of pastoral innocence - deliberately creating a sort of anachronistic style around modern narrative techniques. I am eager to explore the Taiwanese corpus of 鄉土文學, looking at its intersections with 文言 and premodern culture in general, but concentrating on the expression of a modern sensibility bound up in notions of Taiwan as a province, country, political entity, discrete cultural entity, etc. I'm also interested in Taiwanese political and cultural history more broadly - especially the dislocations associated with retrocession, 二二八, KMT language policy, and centralized economic development.

So, I give this background by way of asking the question, would an MA in history (in Taiwan) be more appropriate for a person of my interests and background? I take your point on the pre-modern faculty but wonder if the professors specializing in modern literature take a more western approach to scholarship? I have always thought that reading literary works, essays, and commentaries are the best way to simultaneously develop my language skills along with my understanding of Taiwanese culture, but am not too interested in getting mired in the whole "philological" sinkhole of what we might call traditional scholarship. I would like to repeat feiren's question, are there any programs offered by the Academica Sinica in modern literature/literary history? Who has experience studying in these fields?

To feiren:
What was your specialty in your Chinese literature program at NCCU? Would it be required to take classes in pre-modern literature for a modern literature student? Any impressions of the other departments? And how did you get the scholarship - directly applied?

[Feiren]

To feiren:
What was your specialty in your Chinese literature program at NCCU? Would it be required to take classes in pre-modern literature for a modern literature student? Any impressions of the other departments? And how did you get the scholarship - directly applied?

I think a few classes in literary Chinese are probably enough to help you with the simplified literary Chinese embedded in modern texts.

Shen Congwen is one of my favorites.

I think Taiwanese history or even Taiwan studies might be good. For Taiwanese history, good Japanese is probably essential.

NCCU has a graduate institute in Taiwanese literature.

http://tailit.nccu.edu.tw/main.php

Looks like NTU, Qingda, and Chunghsing all have them. I bet there is one in Tainan as well. I'd check the faculty profiles and see who looks more interesting.

I think I applied for admission and they told me about the scholarship. That reminds me of an important point. Although the info may be available online, I'd strongly recommend going by the office of wherever you are applying and asking about the application process and the program. This is always a good idea in Taiwan where in-person contact is king and usually leads to important details that you will not find out about otherwise. One thing would be to ask about support for international students.

I'll PM you with a couple of contacts in the field who might have some advice.

[California]

Anyone who chooses MTC over ICLP is a absolute madman. Just thought I should tell you.

[ironlady]

Anyone who truly believes there is a substantive difference reflective of the price differentials between any two programs on the island these days could very well be a madman.