Course Description

Since the end of the 19th-century, China has been in a revolution that struggles for two things: to free itself from foreign control and to build a strong and modern nation with a government representing the people. This dramatic history is the crucible of modern China. Through a century of wars, reforms and revolutions, we will examine the country’s transformations from monarchy to republic, from imperial subject to socialist new man, from planned to market economy. It was a history of spectacular conflicts and disasters, but also one of enduring dynamism and accomplishments.

Temporally, our class will cover the main turning points in twentieth-century Chinese history, ranging from the 1911 Revolution to the Communist Revolution, from the Cultural Revolution to the 1989 Tiananmen movement, from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in Xinjiang to the Hong Kong protests. But Chinese nationalism is not just a national history. The concept of nation and nationalism traveled to China as part of a transnational ideology and movement. Meanwhile, from Chinese laborers to overseas students, from Comintern agents to American advisors, Chinese women and women exchanged revolutionary ideas with a diverse cast of characters around the world. You will explore their varied ideas to strengthen the nation and their complex legacies on China’s political and social order today.

This course will give you foundational knowledge of Chinese history and politics, but an equally important goal is to interrogate how we know what we know about China. To help you develop skills in historical analysis and argumentation, classroom lectures and discussions will be enriched by movie screenings, museum field trips, and digital activities. This course is open to all students and assumes no prior knowledge of Chinese culture, history, or language; it is essential for anyone interested in examining how the history of nationalism and revolution continues to shape this increasingly powerful and globally influential country.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• demonstrate historical knowledge and understanding of Chinese nationalism and its revolutionary past, including basic historical narrative, key actors and developments, chronology and time, and cause and effect
• identify and describe key debates over related topics among historians of modern Chinese history
• deepen your knowledge of historical methods using both primary and secondary sources
• organize and articulate your ideas through speaking and writing