1.) examples of "the Canadian", and 
2) counterparts of Taiwanese postmodern cities.

• How do we characterize "the Canadian"?

All of these words are possible but partial descriptions, since Canada, like all the other postcolonial nations, has a mixture of cultures, races and contradictory self-images. To us Taiwanese Canada offers syrup, maple leaf, picturesque tourist spots and ice-melt clean water. But to itself, it has a combination of non-militaristic national flag and the very violent hockey game, the Quebecois French which is "not-quite" French and the Canadian English which is hardly distinguishable from British and American English. Moreover, it is still struggling with the heart-wrenching question of "One nation, two nations, or many regions" -- the possibility of turning multicultural mosaic into a mixture of two solitudes or many solitudes.

• Why the Canadian?

1. nation--How is the Canadian different from the British and the U.S.? How does Canada retain one-ness while confirming multiculturalism?  How do the film and literature of Toronto and Montreal construct national identity differently?
2. race--Is it a "mosaic" or "vertical mosaic"? In other words, in what forms does racism appear in Canadian society, on both individual and institutional levels?
3. gender--How is sexism related to racism and nationalism? Where are the gender, racial and national boundaries?

• Why post/modern cities in film and literature?

2. post/modern urbanism -- The urban contexts, as a matter of fact, do not just serve as passive "settings." The post/modern urban spaces--i.e. the areas such as the ghetto, the subway, the street, the elevator--interact with the city-dwellers and produce conflictual social relations, just as the rapid information and economic exchanges via telecommunication media intensify these conflictual relations. 

In other words, post/modern urbanism adds a new dimension to the issues we discussed above, as well as   intensifying them. How do we characterize post/modern city? For one thing, technologies develop and population increase rapidly through both the modern and postmodern eras. On the other hand, modern city pushes industrialism and rationalization to an extreme, while postmodern city is a lot more diversified in its population, functions, spatial arrangement and its cultures. In face of the keleidescope-like urban images and fast flows of traffic and people, capital and information, do we feel alientated or connected? 

How do the Canadian characters survive in their cities, and we, in ours? 

• And the texts?  [The following shortened list is still too long for a two-hour course.  Selections have to be made.  Please go to 1. the tentative schedule for the authors and texts which are chosen; 2. the textbook for literary texts chosen.)

Major film directors: Toronto -- Atom Egoyan, Patricia Rozema, Shniva Krishna, Jeremy Podeswa, Clement Virgo
Montreal -- Robert Lepage (his films and play), Denys Arcand, Claude Lauzon, Lea Pool,  Montreal vu par (a film by six directors) and Cosmos.

• Most importantly, the requirements?
• Besides the usual stuffs -- journals, class participation, group report and final exam, the course requires a commitment to watching the films outside of class and before the discussion in class. Film showing time will be announced ahead of time, and I will try to make copies available for circulation. 
• Finally, the inevitable--grading policy
• 5 journals, each no fewer than 3 pages -- 20 %
• Group report, Online Discussion & Class Participation -- 30%
• Final Exam -- 50%
• Failure to read or watch the assigned texts before class  can constitute reasons for failing the course.   Missing one text is equal to 1/2 absence; three absences means failing the course.