Job Discussion Forums

[Aislinge]

I have been browsing the job ads and have seen a few for teaching literature in Chinese universities. Myquestion is what do the Chinese consider "literature"? Are they wanting Thomas Hardy novels or is it just the daily newspaper?

I'm new at the cafe and have been browsing the archives. I have a degree and am close to completing a TESOL diploma in Vancouver, Canada.

Strider Ridge

[lagerlout2006]

They do have Anthology type books here. A lot of them have read Jane Austin believe it or not. You could introduce your own things--perhaps photocopy short stories etc. or things from the web.

Anyway it's not newspapers.

[brsmith15]

I am constantly amazed by how much literature -- English and American -- Chinese youngsters know. Here's a typical example of what I've encountered. You probably know that most English-speaking Chinese take on an English name. As I was calling the role (English names) at the beginning of last semester there was an Eva. I said, "You probably don't know it, but you have a very famous name in the US."

"Yes," she said. "I know 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'" I met a young man 2 years ago that knew more about the works of Dickens than many UK students.

[ShapeSphere]

brsmith15:

[Roger]

[ouyang]

I'm currently teaching at a normal university and I once took a very quick look at the book a chinese teacher was using to teach english literature. I believe it started with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. I seem to remember it containing works by the same sort of authors with which high school students were once required to be familiar, but had combined the american ones with the british.

I believe that any literature that is taught must have a chinese translation, so I wouldn't think that you would be free to put together your own reading list. But I don't know this for sure.

While working at a middle school last year, I once helped a college student write a book report on Hemingway's Old man and the sea. She had chosen it because it was the shortest of the acceptable choices. I basically told her everything she needed to know to write the report and she received a high grade. When I asked her about it later she confessed that she never did actually read the book.

But I'm guessing if you're considering this sort of job, you have an interest in literature, and if your interests include traditional western authors then I wouldn't be put off by the lack of genuine interest in western lit by most of the chinese. If you feel confident that you can make it interesting to them, then there's a good chance that you will for many of your students.

[YankeeDoodleDandy]

From my experience, a few students will be really interested in what you have to say. However the majority will be interested in what you are going to ask on your exam and the post-graduate exam. More regurgitation of facts and dates. If you are going to teach, hold them accountable. Award marks for participation and attendance. After you teach what they need to know, try to make the class more teacher centered.It is not easy, but once you cross that bridge, you can start to exchange ideas and get them talking before the period ends. Best of luck.

[YankeeDoodleDandy]

I mean't student centered. Have I been in China too long???

[YankeeDoodleDandy]

[Aislinge]

Thank you for all the replies. There is a bit of clarity in the fog now.

Strider Ridge

[Professor Moriarty]

'Roger' hat den Nagel auf den Kopf getroffen. They know next to nothing about English language literature, modern or otherwise. What they appear to 'know' is merely learnt by rote and is meaningless noises to them and/or is simply 'name dropping'. This is even true for their 'professors' of literature.

[Old Dog]

I usually try to find some light amid the darkness. But, on this one, it's all dark as pitch as far as my experience goes.

I began my time here assisting a friend who taught "English Literature". This arrangement did not last long. Her course was from that blue book that may still be about. It began with Boewulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. As things grew more modern, pieces were chosen with a view to "proving", I suppose, how oppressed the down-trodden masses were under capitalism. We had "Song of the Shirt" and probably some morbid pieces from D*ickens.

I wouldn't have minded if there had been some attempt at experiencing the literature. I finally had to tell Madam that she was not teaching literature at all. Her course would best have been described as "Advanced Dictionary Practice" since most of the students' time - and her total teaching time - was spent in dictionary hunts for the meanings of the obscure language of the literature of some centuries ago.

As for the part that Christian imagery played in the literature - or the Biblical stories or the various myths and legends of the western tradition - since Madam had neither knowledge nor understanding, they may as well not have informed any of the passages she was "teaching" in any way. To her, they did not exist.

In the hands of a literate westerner, maybe the teaching of western literature is possible here - but I fear it is an impossibility in the hands of most Chinese "literature" teachers.

Strange as it may seem, she wanted to get into my pants - for visa reasons rather than lust - and was ready to ditch the long-suffering Ming Fu. She constantly wanted tutorials so she could "understand". Foolishly, I gave her two hours on one occasion trying to explain whatever passage it was from Paradise Lost. It was to no avail. If I could have looked beyond those cold-sore encrusted lips, maybe I'd have done better simply to have "swyved" her. It would have taken less time and maybe she'd have understood more of Heaven and Hell.

[beck's]

I just finished teaching one semester of American literature. The text book was composed of snippets and chapters of many of the classics including the autobiography of Ben Franklin, some a Poe, Emerson, Hawthorne, Ellison, Fitzgerald etc. I "did" one excerpt a week. The students rarely, if ever, did the required reading. They always have too much homework to do any, but that's a story for another day. I concentrated on discussions and debating some of the philosophical issues raised in the lit. For example, when we "did" the Scarlet Letter we discussed whether adultery should be illegal in China or whether or not young girls should date older guys as per Hester and Chillingworth. I tried to connect the dots between Puritanism and Maoism.

I was amazed that the text included many of the ideas that form the foundations of American individualism and freedom of thought--Emerson, Thoreau et al. I was the first foreign teacher to have ever taught this course at my uni. I am betting that I will be the last. My bet is that they will rapidly go back to the memorization of the author's birth and death dates and other trivia that the Chinese teachers are so fond of.

[stavrogin2001]

I have been in China for the last 4 years. I have taught American and British Lit classes at least one semester every academic year. The following are the conclusions that I have come to about teaching lit in China.

1. The main focus of this class is to prepare the students for the post graduate test or post graduate course. The main focus of a Chinese teacher teaching this class is that they will not read any of the works themselves, but rather be told by the teacher about the author, his life, his times, and the outline of his major works. Strict memorization exercises. The bible for this class would be something like "the Norton Anthology....."

2. The class is not an intellectual pursuit in China. I know I will get hammered in this forum for saying this, but let me clarify. My background is lit and I love it. I think that it is very important, but in China it is not. They are not reading books to discover themselves, society, or anything for that matter. There will be a handfull of students that will be interested in the classes, but most students will have a hard time grasping the subject matter, let alone the level of English needed to fully discuss the works.

3. Most classes will be lecture style. I find it has been really hard to get conversations going about the works we have discussed. Most of this comes from the fact that they have not read it, but rather heard the story through me. Even if they have read it, most Chinese students are not good at discussing deep personal feelings about anything other than the motherland in class. They have no problem discussing why the Japanese are bad from the bottoms of their hearts, but could not reasonably discuss Yossarian's Catch-22.

4. If you like to design your own classes and teach what you think is important, this can be a great opportunity. This is one of the only classes I have taught in China where i felt like I was getting anything intellectual out of it. It will be low level intellectual work, but most schools have little or no input into what we are teaching in the classroom <at least in northern China>. I have been able to do creative things like Ginsberg's America, Bob Dylan as a poet, film as the new pop literature, etc in conjunction with the basics like Emerson, Whitman, Twain, etc.
It beats the heck out of teaching all conversation classes, thats for sure.

[Atlas]

Shapesphere wrote: