James Flath

Associate Professor

PhD, University of British Columbia, 2000

Research Interests

I've been doing Chinese history for quite a while now and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. In terms of research I concentrate on modern cultural history.  My first book The Cult of Happiness looked at the world of the North China village through the medium of folk print (nianhua).  My current project Kong Temple: a Monumental History, indulges my ongoing interest in Chinese historical commemoration and heritage conservation.  I find Kong Temple to be a compelling topic because as China’s principal monument to Confucius the building complex has been continually maintained and patronized for over 2,000 years.  That takes me a bit outside the 'modern' comfort zone, but I have concluded that this long (long) term perspective is essential to understanding the temple's deep material culture and the ongoing effect of its materiality on wider political and cultural contexts.

Teaching

Normally I can be found teaching the 'Introduction to East Asia', 'Modern China' and a third year course that looks at the many forms of the Chinese Nation.  Occasionally I teach a grad course in Chinese visual and material culture.  I've tried many ways to engage student interest in these topics, but I think that what works best for me is the direct approach.  I'm a lecturer - that's what I do.  When presenting a lecture I try to identify a problem that is particular to a certain time and place, but which has broader implications for the 'human condition' or whatever, and then attempt to solve the problem.  But if I'm going to do all that work then I expect the students to do more than just hang on for the ride - they are supposed to be using that time to develop the analytical tools they will need to produce the arguments and written work on which their grades are based.  I suppose they might also develop character, but that's really up to them.

Publications

 (with Norman Smith, eds) Beyond Suffering: War and Remembrance in Modern China UBC Press (2010).

The Cult of Happiness: Nianhua, Art and History in Rural North China (UBC Press, 2004).

History and art come together in this definitive discussion of the Chinese woodblock print form of nianhua, literally "New Year pictures."  By analyzing the role of nianhua first in the home and later in commercial and political theatres, James Flath relates these artworks to the social, cultural, and political milieu of North China as it was between the late Qing dynasty and the early 1950s.  Among the first studies in any field to treat folk art and folk print as historical text, The Cult of Happiness offers original insight into popular conceptions of domesticity, morality, gender, society, modernity, and the transformation of the genre as a propaganda tool under communism.

The Cult of Happiness received the 2005/06 Raymond Klibansky Prize for the best Canadian English language scholarly work in the humanities

"China Resists:  Human and the Origins of 'Modern China'" (in Marc Matten (ed.) Sites of Memory in China Leiden University Press, 2011)

Social Narratives in Yangliuqing Nianhua Arts Asiatiques (forthcoming).

"Reading the Text of the House: domestic ritual configuration through print." In Ronald Knapp, ed., House, Home, Family (University of Hawaii Press, 2005).

"Temple Fairs and the Republican State in North China." In Twentieth Century China 30:1 (2004).

"It’s a Wonderful Life”: Nianhua and Yuefenpai at the Dawn of the People’s Republic." In Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 16: 2 (2004).

"The Chinese Railroad View: Transportation Themes in Popular Print, 1873-1915." In Cultural Critique 58:3 (2004).

"Setting Moon and Rising Nationalism: Lugou Bridge as Monument and Memory." In International Journal of Heritage Studies 10: 2 (2004).

"Managing Historical Capital in Shandong: Museum, Monument and Memory in Provincial China." In The Public Historian 24:2 (2002).

Doctoral Level supervisory privileges

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