(Offered as HIST 172 [AS/TC/TE] and ASLC 172) This survey of Chinese History examines the matrix of the internal and external forces and movements that have shaped modern China from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. During this period, the Chinese people dispensed with a form of government that had been used for three thousand years to form, despite various complications, a modern nation-state. We will explore major events in Modern China beginning with the Opium War, the Taiping Rebellion, the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of a new Republic, the Republican revolution, the “New Culture” Movement, Communist revolution, War against Japan, the Chinese Civil War, the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China’s role in the Korean War, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, post-Mao economic reform and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, all with comparative references to current events. Readings, which include a wide variety of documents such as religious and revolutionary tracts, eye-witness accounts, memoirs, and letters, are supplemented by interpretive essays and videos. Two class meetings per week.
Fall semester. Professor Qiao.
Keywords
Attention to Issues of Class, Attention to Writing, Transnational or World Cultures Taught in English