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Chinese Celebrity Culture: Histories, Theories, and Debates
About this Book
Chinese Celebrity Culture is an open wikibook currently being developed by students in ASIA 321.
ASIA 321 Course Info
Instructor: Dr. Renren Yang 杨任任 (He, Him, His); Assistant Professor of Modern Chinese Popular Culture More info
Table Of Contents
	Introduction: The State of the Field of Chinese Celebrity Studies Part 1: Multiple Histories of Chinese Celebrities Section 1: Chinese Film and TV Stardom Section 2: Chinese Literary Celebrities Section 3: Celebrities in Premodern China Section 4: Histories of Chinese Wanghong Part 2: Key Concepts and Terminologies in Celebrity Studies Part 3: Central Topics in Chinese Celebrity Studies Part 4: Major Debates in Chinese Celebrity Studies Part 5: Critiques of Celebrity Journalism Part 6: Annotated Bibliography Conclusion: New Approaches in Chinese Celebrity Studies
Except where otherwise noted, these wiki pages are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

This project asks each group to construct a critical biography of a celebrity of 3,500 -4,500 words in length (exclusive of references, diagrams, photographs), focusing on annotating existing scholarly studies on the chosen celebrity and the how your critical biography will differ from the corresponding entry in Wikipedia.

Objectives

Your objective in this assignment is, first, to briefly trace, review, and describe, with citations from the primary and secondary materials (be it printed or digital), the connection between the subject’s life episodes and their important works, between their significant contribution to their field and the social, historical, and political contexts of their contribution; second, to identify the various and especially the contradictory dimensions of their social life and professional profile and relate those to key issues in celebrity studies; third, to incorporate and annotate important scholarly studies and controversial reviews on the chosen celebrity and their works; fourth, to rationalize the production, circulation and consumption of the subject’s work in light of the subject’s celebrity profile, as well as the making, remaking, and unmaking of the subject’s celebrity profile in light of the subject’s works; and finally, to articulate the importance of your critical biography to our understanding of the celebrity in particularly, and to the field of celebrity studies in general.

You should demonstrate (a) your ability to seek, aggregate, extract and summarize relevant primary facts, comments, discussions, and secondary argumentative studies, (b) your capacity to analyze, interpret, and correlate the primary and secondary materials in light of celebrity studies paradigms or theories, and (c) your ability to propose logical suggestions for further studies on this celebrity. As such, its entries are not simply “opinion pieces” nor factual summaries, but a logical, thoughtful, and reflective documentation and interpretation on how the celebrity is made, recognized, misrecognized, and consumed, accompanied by ongoing questions raised by their celebrity profile. You are also encouraged to challenge existing understanding of the celebrity and propose an original argument with substantial elaboration.

Procedures

1. Students group themselves by each signing up for the celebrity entry they want to work on through “People” on Canvas.
2. Student be introduced to UBC Wiki book project and how to construct entries. A workshop will be organized on what it means to contribute to Open space, and how to edit Wiki project by Educational Resources Developers at UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology.
3. Student work in groups to contribute to the Wiki book project. You can document each group meeting you have in the discussion board exclusive to your group collaboration site on Canvas. In the first meeting, each group should create and sign off a team contract: specify the division of labor in each team; specify the roles of group members in your meeting: facilitator, questioner, recorder, spokesperson, reflector. In your second meeting, you should decide on the modules you want to incorporate into your critical biography and develop a list of potential questions you plan to address, and a good number of reliable primary and secondary sources for the group to investigate. Make sure you divide your labor evenly and smartly. Please follow more detailed instruction below in composing the celebrity’s critical biography.
4. Add your critical biography entry to the Wiki site. Create a New Page for your entry and post the entry text on the New Page. Link the celebrity’s name in the Index of the main page to the New Page you created.
5. Students submit the URL of their Wiki page on Canvas. You can submit the URL as a group. However, together with the URL, you will also submit an individual memo on your group work experience to reflect on what you experienced and learned at the beginning, development, and completion stages of the project.
6. Students fill out anonymous peer evaluation within each group (I-Peer).

Suggested Structure

This is only a suggested structure. It is very likely that you will need to modify this structure to fit your topic.

1. An attractive title for the page, in the format of “Celebrity Name: a key phrase, a pair of concepts, or a short sentence that captures the gist of your entry” (you can add an extra line/section to title your own page)
2. An introduction: what you aim to cover in this Wiki page; who is your target audience; why this page matters to them.
3. A brief biography: there is no need to repeat what has already been said on Wikipedia. Read the corresponding Wikipedia entry rigorously, and supplement it with any crucial biographical information missing from the Wikipedia entry, or any recent development in the celebrity’s biography. Organize this part through the major turning points in his or her personal life and professional career.
4. The celebrity’s life roles: How many different life identities and practical roles the celebrity plays throughout his or her lifetime? Are there any conflicts among different types of roles? And how does each of these life roles serve to have an impact on their contributions to the professional field (such as the field of acting, filmmaking, etc.)?
5. The celebrity’s screen roles: How many different types of role the celebrity plays on the screen? Are there any conflicts among different screen roles? And how does each of these screen roles serve to have an impact on his or her professional career or everyday life?
6. A critical analysis of one or two films starring the celebrity under analysis: select one or two films and engage in close reading of particular scenes to tease out 1) how the role the actor plays in the film correlates to or contradicts the actor’s persona in real life; 2) how the social, historical, and geographical settings in the film relate to those where the actor grew up or experienced in their personal life; 3) how the film’s plot or sub-plot relates to the life stories of the actors. You can insert film still images and clips to accompany your demonstration.
7. The celebrity’s contribution to their professional field (cinema, film culture, and beyond): in addition to mentioning the professional awards, media coverage and audience’s frenzy that recognize the celebrity’s acting skills or filmmaking talents, think about their contribution to film culture on a higher and larger plane. For instance, how does their acting differ from their predecessors’ style and lead to a renewal of the traditional school? Do they have professional followers who are learning from or imitating their acting skills? How do their works push the limits of our understanding of what cinema can do and deliver? What does their global recognition mean for Chinese national cinema? What does their cinematic iconicity mean for Chinese culture and Chinese people? Does their iconicity exceed the boundary of cinema and exercise an enduring influence in the Chinese-speaking or even global community?
8. Key societal, economic, political, moral, and historical forces that influenced the celebrity’s career: based on your research, identify the various larger contexts over the longer period of history in the production, circulation, and consumption of the celebrity and their works; describe how the celebrity’s career is historically impacted by the socialist legacy (Soviet Union’s method of training), the change of national policy, the changing geopolitical tension between China and US, the changing status of women, the Orientalist gaze, the Confucian morality, the neoliberal economy, the rise of the Internet, the hegemony of globalization, etc. Use the celebrity's career as an index or a symptom to open up and zoom in on the larger societal, economic, and political forces in the local or global histories.
9. Reception of the celebrity: describe the changing reception of the celebrity in assorted contexts over the course of history. How was the celebrity received in the past (pin down particular historical eras) vs. in the present-day? How is the celebrity received in Chinese societies vs. non-Chinese societies (not just Europe and America, but also in other Asian, African, and Latin American countries)? What were/are some of the scandals (misinformation and disinformation) reported and circulated about the celebrity? Please also speculate on, for instance, why different bodies of audience will receive and entertain the same celebrity similarly or differently? Why did the celebrity’s scandals bring about certain kinds of reactions from the public and resolve themselves in a particular way?
10. A critical literature review: review at least five to six English-language scholarly studies on the celebrity and his/her celebrification/celebrity status (1 monograph plus four peer-reviewed articles; if there is no monograph, review six peer-reviewed articles; you may consult and review Chinese-language research papers if there is not enough English-language research papers to review). In each literature review, focus on recapturing the author’s major argument or contention; the method, evidence, and analysis the author used to arrive at that argument/contention; as well as why this article matters for your writing of the celebrity’s critical biography. The articles or chapters you reviewed should inform the substance and arrangement of your entire page. In many cases, you are expected to extend your review from articles about the celebrity's stardom to their involvement in cultural productions and representations in text or on screen (for instance, research papers that discuss the films where they are involved or the characters they act).
11. Critical scholarly debates: Based on your scholarly literature review above, what social, cultural, and ideological problems are suggested through the literature review? Focus on the moments when scholars, journalists, or reviewers make complaints over or judgements of the celebrity, especially when they exhibit divergent or contradictory attitudes toward the celebrity in terms of his/her achievement, professional life, personal life, cinematic works, etc.. Those moments are often very telling occasions for you to diagnose the explicit and implicit debate going on among them. You want to articulate how they disagree with one another; why there will be such a strong or mild disagreement; and if you can find a middle-ground or an alternative perspective to diffuse the tension therein. Feel free to incorporate ideas from our in-class lectures, discussions, and other scholarly secondary sources. You are expected to look at the debate from a psychological, sociological, anthropological, economic, political, philosophical, historical, and aesthetical point of view if the disciplinary knowledge can offer an interesting insight into this issue. In case the scholarly debates you curated offer no resolution, you should find your own interpretation or solution on this problematic after curating or displaying the debates.
12. Conclusion: You should conclude your Wiki paper by summarizing the topic, specifying how your critical biography of the celebrity can be a valuable tool for understanding (Chinese) celebrity histories in general, and for understanding the celebrity’s contributions in particular. You also want to summarize the theoretical debates and controversies over the celebrity your critical biography discussed above and briefly suggest a position or a direction for future investigation or research.

Tips

1. for each module, feel free to cite reliable sources from other biographers, scholars, critics, journalists, and reviewers in the form of direct quotes or indirect paraphrase or summary;
2. substantiate your summary and analysis with telling multimedia examples, be it an image, a text, or a video clip (make sure they are viewer-friendly);
3. find your own appropriate examples; engage in close reading of particular examples while paying attention to the social, moral, and political contexts;
4. focus and elaborate on the controversies and conflicts your research on the primary and secondary materials about the celebrity;
5. identify the possible solutions or interpretations that are currently underway to tackle those controversies and conflicts identified above – if there is none, try to come up with one yourself.
6. the most important thing to keep in mind is: try differing your page from the Wikipedia page on the same celebrity. In order to achieve this purpose you may want to 1) re-synthesize factual information, re-arrange details, and re-tell the stories of the celebrity with a different framework than what Wikipedia usually does; 2) shorten the sections that will make your page resemble Wikipedia page and elaborate on the more interesting sections that will give some new information or new insights to your readers; 3) feel free to venture our your analysis and arguments whenever necessary/possible (feel free to use "we argue," "we think," "we claim" etc.); 4) engage with more scholarly resources (the more, the better--the literature you reviewed should serve as the most important sources for the other sections of this wiki page); 5) seek contradictions in media representations and startling absences in Wikipedia information
7. in order to find scholarly resources, try to search the celebrity's name in both "Google Scholar" and "Google Books". For many book chapters or journal articles, even though they may just mention the celebrity's name in passing, the article/chapter may offer interesting ideas and frames that you can use or recycle for your own page. Then use it!

References

1. Ensure that you use reliable sources (e.g. peer reviewed literature, esteemed journalistic reports, your own field-notes). Citing a reliable newspaper or media for particular section of the Wiki page is acceptable, only when you cannot find another more reliable source;
2. Use the Wikipedia reference style (see Wikipedia:Inline citation);
3. Provide a citation for every sentence, statement, thought, or bit of data not your own, giving the author, year, AND page number in the reference list (if quoting textually);
4. You can reference foreign-language sources but make sure you translate the reference to English.

A Note on included Graphics, Multimedia, and Hyperlinks:

• EXCELLENT - Images, multimedia sources and hyperlinks enhance quality of information; all acknowledged with captions or annotations
• GOOD - Images, multimedia sources and hyperlinks support quality of information; all acknowledged with captions or annotations
• BASIC - Insufficient number of images, multimedia sources and hyperlinks were used to support information
• UNACCEPTABLE - Images and graphics have little to do with the topic

Grading Rubric

The project is worth 20% of your final course grade. The provisional grading rubric for this project is as follows (subject to change). An alternative grading rubric is to grade each section of the Wiki page separately, in addition to considering its overall language, style, and coherence.

Criteria\Level	Exemplary
Introduction, Conclusion and Bio	(1 pts) an attractive title; state your aim and target audience of this wiki entry, and the importance of your work in the Introduction; a proper conclusion; a brief biography that has little overlap with Wikipedia.
Celebrity Life Roles and Screen Roles	(2 pts) categorize the celebrities' different life roles and screen roles; discuss the relationship between their different life roles, the relationship between their different screen roles, and the tension between their life roles and screen roles such as how their life role impacts their screen role, or how their screen role impacts their life role?
Critical Film Analysis	(2 pts) select one or two films for analysis; zoom in on particular scenes in order to illustrate 1) how the actor's screen role contradicts or reinforces their life role; 2) how the social, political, and geographical settings in the film correspond to or differ from where the actor has experienced in rea life; 3) how the film's scene can be read as an allegory of the actor's person or professional life; 4) how the particular scene tackles some larger issues such as nationalism, orientalism, gender politics, racism, moral, legal, and emotional dilemma that frames how the audience look at the actor or actress either on the national or international stage. Please add at least one still image from the film for your illustration.
Professional Contribution	(2 pts) summerize a few points of the celebrity's unique contributions to the professional field/industry with compelling evidence.
Contextual Influence and Reception	(2 pts) identify the HISTORICALLY SPECIFIC societal, economic, political, and moral forces that influenced the celebrity’s career from the earlier to later stages; describe the changing reception of the celebrity in assorted contexts over the course of history and across different geographical regions. Speculate on the reasons for different receptions of the celebrity in different times or across different regions.
A Critical Literature Review	(3 pts) review five to six English-language peer-reviewed academic papers or book chapters that focus on the celebrity under study. Identify and describe the most interesting frameworks, concepts, and arguments suggested in those scholarships. Spell out why you want to review this article/chapter and how it contributes to the celebrity's critical biography
Critical Debates	(3 pts) identify at least three underlying problems and debates that scholars and journalists are trying to tackle about the celebrity under study. Describe how scholars and journalists may agree or disagree with each other and discuss why. Find your own unique intervention into each of these debates by citing ideas from our in-class readings, discussions, and lectures, or theoretical concepts from outside the class.
Style and Citation	(2 pts) Explains the key ideas correctly, clearly, concisely, and adequately with few errors in translation, grammar, and spelling. Accurately cites all sources of information to support the credibility and authority of the information presented; consistently use standard bibliographic format to cite reliable sources; for key ideas/controversies, cite multiple scholarly studies or opposing perspectives in a compelling way to curate a critical and substantive take on the issue.
Multimedia	(1 pts) Include high-quality graphics and multimedia whenever appropriate to empower visual rhetoric and clarify the content. The relevance of the multimedia material is justified and discussed. No irrelevant illustrations.
Group Collaboration	(2 pts) Contribute equally and responsibly with other group members in researching, writing, and editing; submit an individual memo of group project experience; submit anonymous I-Peer evaluation in time; participate in a group tutorial. For individual contributors, a lack of group engagement and collaboration will lead to the subtraction of up to an extra 5 points from the final grade of the project.