China What are some ways to define China

China • What are some ways to define China? • How do these methods vary in history? • How does this problem compare to other regions we’ve talked about?

China: Emic or Etic • Is China any different for you in terms of the emic-etic problem? • Argue for and against a position. • How does reading an outsider’s vision of Chinese society differ from reading the other texts? Or does it?

China in 1920 • What conditions prevailed in China in 1920 when Maugham was traveling there? • What difficulties faced the traveler at that time? • What was China’s relation to the West like?

China and the Foreigner • What kinds of people probably would go there and for what purpose? • How does this compare to today’s situation?

Taiwanese Situation • What range of foreigners are in Taiwan today? • What qualities do you regard as negative in foreigners? Which are positive? • What affects the range of people here? • Keep in mind that by foreigner, I do not simply mean white people.

W. Somerset Maugham (1874 -1965)

Works • On a Chinese Screen (1922) • Cakes and Ale • The Moon and Sixpence

Selections • • “Dr. Macalister” “The Taipan” “The Missionary Lady” “The Vice-Consul” • To which we might add “The Last Chance”— what was that about?

Themes: “Dr. Macalister” • What is a mission? A missionary? What are missionary objectives? How do you feel about them? • What do you need from “home”? • What functions can photographs have? —this is a broad question, so imagination is necessary. • Name a place that you think you would have difficulty living? Why should this be the case?

Situating the Doctor • Describe Dr. Macalister’s career. • Is the narrator critical of anyone in the first parts of the text (the doctor, the missionaries)? • What did the doctor do which alienated his group? Why could the doctor make money with a hotel and store? What does he supply?

The Old Photograph • What effects arise from viewing the old photograph? • passage: 48 • In this case, what does it reveal about the doctor? Is the narrator critical of the picture (either in thought or speech)?

Expectation vs. Reality • What are the doctor’s perceptions of China before he came there? • How did his expectations differ from reality? What do you think of that reality? • Why did the doctor want some sort of martyrdom? • Did he betray his principles?

Missing Experience • Whose experience is not mentioned in this text? • How does this story provide insight into the way experience is framed? • How does the narrator conclude? • passage: 49

Themes: “The Taipan” • What are the conventions of the ghost story? • What psychological types are prevalent among the foreign population here? —this will more likely produce stereotypes, but what the hell.

Maugham’s Application • “The Taipain” has the effect of a ghost story. What are the supernatural elements in the story? • Does Maugham explain away the mystery? • How does it compare with other instances of the supernatural, either real (Kleist), imagined (Pushkin), the product of madness (Hoffmann), or explained away (Doyle)?

Nature of the Critique • The story is a critique; that much seems clear. • Who is being criticized? • Which qualities does the narrator single out?

Dead People • What does the cemetery signify? Is it a metaphor? • What is his relation to dead people? • passage: 126

Identities • What is the function of class in the story? • How does travel obscure these western distinctions? • Is China or Taiwan used in the same way by foreigners today?

Enlarging upon Psychology • The psychology of the Taipan is complex, and, I think, pathological. Try to put together a psychological picture of this man’s goals, character, and attitudes. • Why does he drink so much? • What is his feeling towards his station in life? • Do you believe that he really thinks himself to be that successful (in business, hobbies, personal competition, love, etc. )?

Security • What is the function of security in the story? • How is it variously defined? • passage: 130

Themes: “The Missionary Lady” • What is skepticism? • What do you not doubt? —or, alternatively, what do you have complete faith in? • Is there anything that you know that you cannot articulate?

Skepticism and Its Other • What does it mean to never have a doubt? • Is this a positive quality for the narrator? • Is the narrator a doubter? • passage: 99

Knowing and Saying • “She knew what she meant…and meant what she said. ” What is implied by this line—both in positive and negative terms? Consider the whole passage (100). • Does the narrator possess this quality?

Critique of Aunt Sophie • This vignette is easy to read as criticism—there is certainly a lot of irony in the way that Aunt Sophie (an ironic name) claims to know both sides of an issue (and then proceeds to platitudes). • passage: 100 -101

Knowledge and Doubt • Is it necessary to have a thorough understanding of two (or more) sides to take a strong position on something (e. g. Do I need to try heroin to know that I shouldn’t use it? )? • Is it in fact ever possible to know much more than one side of something? • Is it admirable to have such strong beliefs in something that you can’t be shaken?

Themes: “The Vice Consul” • What are some common situations in which we might project an exterior that we do not feel? • What motivates such behavior?

Institutional Impact on Subjectivity • “The Vice Consul” seems, at least on the surface, to deal with the ways that institutional roles cover the internal, subjective life of individuals who serve within them. • Develop this idea, and its complexity.

Expansion • To consider: is this a particularly western way of looking at the situation? • Could the same thoughts be going through the head of the magistrate? • Of the soldiers?

Motivation • Why does the vice-consul respond to the men in the bar as he does? • What is concealed in this exchange and why? • passage: 147

Generalizing • Those of you who have read “The Last Chance”—most of you—can bring that story into play as well; it’s from the same collection.

Picturing China • Do the stories generally contain an implied criticism? • Do we ever have access to Chinese people? • Why does Maugham structure his works the way he does, even though the collection is ostensibly about China?

For Next Time • Read: Hilton, Lost Horizon, Prologue-Chapter 6