APL3004 : Chinese Cultural History and Urban Development
- Offered for Year: 2024/25
- Module Leader(s): Dr Andrew Law
- Demonstrator: Mrs Qianqian Qin
- Lecturer: Professor Rose Gilroy
- Owning School: Architecture, Planning & Landscape
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
To give students an introduction to the history, culture and politics of China’s built cultural environment – including the planning and architecture of cities.
To give students an introduction to the contemporary issues that impinge upon China’s architecture, planning, cities and urban development process.
To enable students to understand the cultural ideas and politics that underpin the urban development process in China.
To introduce students to political opposition, resistance and alternative practice that exists in China to the urban development process.
To give students a broader understanding of Chinese visual culture and the relationship between Chinese visual culture and the built environment.
To give students the opportunity to deepen their understanding (and advance their criticality) of the UK's planning and architecture proclivities by contrasting them with a significantly different international context.
Outline Of Syllabus
This course starts out with a series of historical lectures that introduce students to Chinese cultural history and urban development. Particularly, the course examines philosophical and metaphysical ideas in ancient and imperial China before turning to the Republican and PRC eras. By lecture 5, the course, examines the PRC era from 1949 and looks at the various changes that have taken place in terms of the political system and the rise of the Socialist city. By lecture 7, the course turns to the post-Maoist era and therefore examines pressing Chinese urban issues including rural to urban migration, Hukou, urban erasure, the destruction of urban heritage and the rise of mono-cities, ghost cities and new forms of excessive development. Having examined the urban development process in China, this module then turns to the ‘export’ of urban infrastructure to the Global South and specifically, Africa (where China has already built roads, buildings, bridges, railways and cities). In looking at the problems with Chinese urban development, the course seeks to examine alternative policies and ideas that seem to be emerging within the party-state.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 11 | 2:00 | 22:00 | PIP lectures |
| Structured Guided Learning | Lecture materials | 1 | 1:00 | 1:00 | Introductory online ReCAP/video (15-30 mins) Activity: familiarise yourself with the module handboo |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 50:00 | 50:00 | Essay (100% weighting) |
| Guided Independent Study | Directed research and reading | 10 | 3:00 | 30:00 | Guided independent study (themed reading and/or visual resources to support lecture topics each week |
| Structured Guided Learning | Structured research and reading activities | 10 | 2:00 | 20:00 | Key reading tasks to accompany the short recordings (above) and the guided independent study |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Workshops | 5 | 2:00 | 10:00 | Consolidating learning through in-depth discussion and problem solving activities. PIP |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 1 | 2:00 | 2:00 | Live PIP surgery. |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 1 | 2:00 | 2:00 | Personal surgeries. PIP |
| Guided Independent Study | Student-led group activity | 10 | 1:00 | 10:00 | Student peer group reading and assessment discussion (mutual support group) – students will meet |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 1 | 49:00 | 49:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Module talk | 1 | 4:00 | 4:00 | Q & A session run over a day in a seminar room (PIP) |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
The Structured Guided Learning Activities provide a detailed explanation of the key issues and an examination of important literature. The Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities provide support for discussions about the application of the techniques to planning/architecture/urban issues. The Guided Independent Study will enable students to both achieve the intended knowledge and skills outcomes identified for the module, as well as enabling to help them prepare for the creation of their assessment submission. This modules includes a mixture of online and present in person (PiP) provision.
Lecture materials provide the structure for student guided learning through reading and essay preparation to develop a detailed knowledge and understanding of the cultural history of planning, urbanism and architectural interventions in China (as well as urban development issues). The workshops will involve a series of short you tube films, which deal with urban development in China; the visual component of this module will allow students not simply to engage with written texts but with actual short online documentaries regarding the rural and urban development process in China.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 2 | M | 100 | 3,500 word assessment – the assessment will ask students to apply a theory they have learnt through the lectures and reading tasks |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The Structured Guided Learning Activities provide a detailed explanation of the key issues and an examination of important literature. The Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities provide support for discussions about the application of the techniques to planning issues. The Guided Independent Study will enable students to both achieve the intended knowledge and skills outcomes identified for the module, as well as enabling to help them prepare for the creation of their assessment submission.
There is one assessment for this module. The assessment tests the students’ ability to assemble and synthesize appropriate information to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of Chinese cultural history and urban development
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- APL3004's Timetable