History 334 Modern China
Wang Guangyi
Great Castigation Series: Coca-Cola
1993
In the 19th and 20th centuries China faced a series of interconnected
crises. The most obvious crisis was foreign imperialism, which threatened
to divide China into colonies of foreign powers. As the Chinese struggled
to find a response to this problem they discovered a host of others: a
weak dynasty, a corrupt government, overpopulation, a backward economy.
A host of solutions to these problems were debated, and a series of revolutionary
changes were carried out.
This course is about these revolutions and their effects on ordinary
Chinese people. In some respects it is a success story. Today China controls
its own borders and is recognized as a world power, and many believe that
China will dominate the world in the 21st century. Many of China's problems
remain, however, and the price that the Chinese people have paid for
such success they have had has been staggering. We will attempt to understand
the nature of China's problems, the solutions that have been proposed
and how they have worked or not worked. Hopefully by the end of the course
we will in a better position to understand the position of contemporary
China and to make predictions about the future.
Professor Alan Baumler 222 Keith phone 7-2573 E-mail baumler@iup.edu
Office Hours MWF 10:30-11:30. 1:00-2:00
Books
Schoppa, R. Keith.Revolution and its Past: Identitiesand Change
in Modern Chinese History. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River NJ,
2002.
Baumler, Alan Opium and Modern China: A Reader. Ann Arbor,
University of Michigan Press, 2001.
Wang Zheng Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and Textual
Histories Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000.
Wang Shuo Please Don't Call Me Human, Hyperion, 2000.
Attendance, reading and writing
I will not be taking roll, and there is no penalty as such for
not attending class. On the other hand, since the class meets only once
a week by missing one night you are missing 1/13 of the class and will
not be able to turn in any of the assignments and will almost certainly
fail the exams. Attendancedoes not just mean showing up. You have to have
done your reading and completed whatever written assignment is due that
day so that you can actively contribute to the class.
8/26 The world of the Qianlong emperor
Ways of looking at modern China, periodization and such. Emperor
and elites. Merchants and economy. Peasants, rice and geography.
-How do Chinese and western historians periodize modern China? What do
these periods mean?
-Does it matter that the Qing emperors were Manchus?
-What is the difference between a shi, an official and a merchant?
How were these categories changing in the Late Imperial period?
-What is a peasant? Were there any peasants in China?
Shoppa, 1,2
Exam System
For next time please read one of these three articles and write a
brief (3-4 page)
review of it. For guidelines on how to do the review, look here
All of these articles can be found on Project Muse
, which you can find on the library website
-Yingcong Dai , "The Qing State, Merchants, and the Military Labor Force
in the Jinchuan Campaigns" Late Imperial China 22.2 (2001) 35-90.
-Blaine Gaustad, Prophets and Pretenders: Inter-Sect Competition
in Qianlong China Late Imperial China 21.1 (2000) 1-40.
-Cynthia J. Brokaw, "Commercial Publishing in Late Imperial China:
The Zou and Ma Family Businesses of Sibao, Fujian" Late Imperial China
17.1 (1996) 49-92
9/9 China in Crisis and responses
Forces of disorder, Uprisings and secret societies. The shi
: statecraft and local society.Auto-organization and state attempts to
maintain stability.
-When did the Qing dynasty start to decline? What does that mean?
-How did ordinary Chinese express their unhappiness with life? How
did the state respond to this?
-How did members of the Chinese elite understand the changes that
were going on? What methods did they use to maintain stability?
Opium, 1
9/16 Opium, foreigners and the treaty ports
The foreigners and their empires. The world of the treaty ports.
Missionaries, compradors and coolies.
-Who were the foreigners and what did they want from China?
-Was the First Opium War the beginning of Modern China?
-Was opium a good thing for China or a bad thing?
Shoppa, 3
Opium 3,4,5
9/23 Taipings and self strengthening
The great rebellion and the foreigners. Li Hongzhang and the
provincial reformers. Ships and guns and ti and yong. Sino-Japanese
War, 100 Days Reforms and the Boxers.
-Were the Taipings a result of the opium war? Why were they defeated?
-Who helped the court to get rid of the Taipings? How was the dynasty
different when they were gone?
-What was Self Strengthening supposed to accomplish? How did it change
China?
-How did coastal China fit into the rest of China in 1830? In 1903?
Taiping reforms
Schoppa 4 and 5; Opium 2,6
9/30 New Policies and the Wuhan revolution
Abolition of the exams, schools and foreign study. The New Army,
provincial assemblies and Constitutionalism. Sun Yat-sen and the revolution.
-What were the New Policies intended to accomplish? How successful
were they?
-Why did the Qing dynasty fall? What did Sun Yat-sen have to do with
this?
-Why did Liang Qichao turn against the dynasty?
Shoppa 6 and 7; Opium 7,8,9
Revolutionary Army
10/7 Warlordism and disintegration.
Yuan Shikai and the 21 Demands. Bandits, Shanghai and peasant immiseration.
-What is a warlord? How would Feng Yuxiang or Huang Xiaoxiong react
if you called them that?
-Why was the warlord era a Golden Age?
-How bad was the warlord era? What specific problems did it create
and why?
Schoppa, 8; Opium 10,11,16
Mid-term exam handed out in class
10/14 May Fourth, new youth and New Youth
New culture and the Treaty of Versailles. Bai hua, science
and democracy and attacks on religion. The family and liberation of women.
-What was wrong with China and how were vernacular poems supposed to save
it?
-How were the personal and the political connected in the May Fourth
period?
-Why was Communism so important intellectually for the May Fourth generation?
Schoppa, 9; Opium, 12,13,14
Wang Zheng, all
10/21 Canton, Northern Expedition and the Nanjing decade
The Comintern and China's first revolutionary government. Sun
and harnessing May 4th. Chiang, the warlords, and National Reconstruction.
-Why was Sun Yat-sen able to bring together so many disparate elements
in Canton? How important were Sun's legacy and
Russian material and organizational aid to the success of the Northern
Expedition?
-Who supported the Nanjing government? Why?
-What were Chiang's strategies for re-building China after 1927?
How successful were they?
Schoppa, 10,11; Opium 15,17
Wang Zheng papers due
10/28 Peasants, Nation and Revolution
Peasant immiseration and the meaning of China. Mao's peasant strategy
and creating classes. People's War and making power out of nothing. The
rural Soviets, class struggle and the Mass Line.
-How did the situation in rural China change between 1900 and 1945? How
did Chinese governments try to deal with this?
-What is Maoism? How is it different from Marxism-Lenninism?
-How did the Soviets work? What were the main disputes between Mao and
the other leaders?
-What did class mean, in theory and in practice, in the Soviet areas?
Report on an investigation of the peasant movement
in Hunan
"Mud" by Mao Dun (on e-reserve)
Schoppa, 12.
11/4 War, occupation and collaboration
Japan, colonialism and the war. China as a Great Power.
-How did Chiang deal with the Japanese and the Communists? How successful
was he?
-What did the Japanese want in China? Why did this lead to war?
-Why did Chinese collaborate with the Japanese?
-What kind of a war was this? What problems and opportunities did
it present for Chinese?
Schoppa, 13,14; Opium 18
Mao Zedong "On Protracted
War" you only have to do the section on Political Mobilization for
the War of Resistance
11/11 War, Civil war and Communist consolidation
-Why did the Communists win? Why did the Guomindang loose?
-Who won the Korean War? Who lost?
-How did Mao and the Communists consolidate their power? How did
they deal with the problem of regionalism and the Russians?
Schoppa 15-16; Opium 19
Kang Zhou "The First Step" on e-reserve
11/18 100 Flowers, the Great Leap, and the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution
Maoist reforms and self-criticism. Making the revolution permanent.
Campaigns, red vs. expert and the series of disasters.
-What is a campaign? Why were they so popular with the Communists?
-How did Mao want to re-make China? Why was he disappointed with
his government?
-Which was a bigger disaster for China, the Great Leap or the Cultural
Revolution?
Schoppa 17, 18
Propaganda
posters
11/25 China under reform
Deng Xiaoping and cats. Export-led growth and the iron rice bowl.
Tiananmen and the Fifth Modernization.
-Why were the Reforms successful? What problems did they create?
-Why did the Tiananmen movement demand Democracy? What did they mean
by this?
-How did the Reforms effect different groups of people in China?
Schoppa 19, 20
Readings from Dutton "Streetlife China" on e-reserve
Second book review due
12/2 China and the world
Taiwan and democracy. The Pacific century. China as manufacturer
to the world. Re-legitimizing the party. A China that can say no.
-How has the party tried to re-legitimate itself? How successful
has it been?
-How has China tried to deal with the rest of Asia? How well received
has this been?
-How have Taiwan and Hong Kong changed since 1945? What do people
in there think of re-unification?
-Why are Americans so annoying?
Schoppa, 21, 22, and 23.
To screw foreigners is patriotic
Grades
Mid-term 250 pts
Final 250 pts
First Book Review (Wang) 150 pts
Second Book Review 150 pts
Article Review 50 pts
Source analysis papers 25 each
Map Quiz 26 points
Total of 1000 points, 900+ is an A, etc.
Exams
There will be two exams, a mid-term and a non cumulative final.
Note that to write a good exam answer you need to be able to answer question
thoroughly and give examples to support your points.
Book reviews
Each of you will write brief (6+ page) reviews of two academic
monographs; one on the Wang book and one other of your choosing. The
book you select must be approved by me. All papers that are turned in
on time are eligible to be revised for a higher grade. See the Book Review Guidelines
for more help. If you need help finding a book there is a bibliography
here . Note that not all the things on the bibliography would
necessarily be good for a review.
Source Analysis papers
We will be working a lot with primary sources in this class, and
so we will be doing a fair number of source analysis papers. Guidelines
for doing these are here . Each of you will have to write at least 5
of these, and you can write as many as you like, tossing out the lowest grades.
Most of these should be on the readings we do in class, but you can also
do up to 2 movie reviews if you like.