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Chinese Art and the Art of Living

Module description

Art and life are integrated in China. Rather than being practised exclusively by artists, traditional Chinese art was entrenched in people’s daily living, a phenomenon that continues today. This module will provide hands-on experience of Chinese art such as calligraphy and painting. It will also introduce you to the diverse forms of the art of living, from architecture, gardening and fengshuito eating and drinking. Through this module you will deepen your understanding of Chinese art and the art of living in both theory and practice. There are no pre-requisites or co-requisites. This module is suitable for specialists and non-specialists and recommended for interdisciplinary pathways.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module, you will:

• Develop an understanding of different forms of artistic practices and the art of living in China;
• Grasp the aesthetic, social and cultural values that are associated with Chinese art and the art of living;  
• Understand how Chinese art and the art of living shaped Chinese cultural sensibility and their view of a good life.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of Chinese artistic practices (calligraphy and painting) and their associated aesthetic and cultural values.
• 2. Demonstrate familiarity with the Chinese art of living and the associated social and cultural values.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Summarize and evaluate, under guidance from the module tutor(s), key critical responses to the topic and apply standard critical approaches to the material.
• 4. Use a reading list to identify material relevant to a given aspect of the subject, and report findings either orally or in writing.
• 5. Read and analyse texts and images from in English translation, relating them to specified aspects of your socio-cultural, historical and generic context

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Assimilate, select and organise material in order to produce, to a deadline, a written or oral argument

Syllabus plan

Following an introduction in the first week, there will be nine themed lectures (accompanied with seminars) dedicated to Chinese art and the art of living, e.g., calligraphy, painting, architecture, gardening, fengshui, and eating and drinking. Two workshops on calligraphy and painting will provide hands-on experiences for students.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Marcello Ghilardi and Hans-Georg Moeller, The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art. Bloomsbury, 2023.
• Lin, Yutang. The Importance of Living. New York: W. Morrow, 1996 [1937].
• Thorp, Robert L., and Richard Ellis Vinograd. Chinese Art & Culture. New York: Abrams, 2001.
• Li, Zehou, and Maija Bell Samei. The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition. Honolulu: University of Hawai?i Press, 2010.

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Lin, Yutang. My Country and My People. Rev. illustrated ed. New York,: J. Day Co., 1939.
• Clunas, Craig. Art in China. Oxford History of Art. 2nd ed. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Keswick, Maggie; Jencks, Charles, The Chinese Garden: history, art & architecture, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Key words search

China, art, art of living, culture, history