Course Description:

This course offers a narrative of the history of China from the first Sino-Japanese War (1894) to the present.  Presentations will be organized around seven units:  the fall of the Qing, the May Fourth Movement, the Nationalists, wars, Mao Zedong, Mao’s China, Shanghai modernizations and the new Chinese world order.  Each unit will include lectures, reading materials, and classroom discussions. Students are expected to complete the required readings (about two hundred pages each week) on schedule.  Course assignments consist of an hour-long mid-term, three response papers based on the assigned readings and a final examination.  With the consent of the instructor students may elect, by the end of the 5^th week of instruction, to do a term project in lieu of taking the final examination.  Final course grade will be assigned on the basis of 20% for the mid-term, 15% for each paper (3- 4 pages) and 35% for the final examination or term project.

The following texts are required and recommended for purchase:

John K. Fairbank and Merle Goldman, China: A New History (Enlarged edition, paperback), Harvard University Press, 1998. 0-674-11673-9 

Marie-Claire Bergere, Sun Yat-sen.  (Paperback), Stanford University Press, 2000. 0-8047-3170-5

Wen-hsin Yeh, Provincial Passages:  Culture, Space, and the Origins of Chinese Communism.  University of California Press, 1996.  0-520-20068-3

Frederic Wakeman, Jr., Policing Shanghai, 1927-1937.  University of California Press, 1995.  (Paperback), 0-520-20761-0

Qian Zhongshu, Fortress Besieged.  New York:  New Directions, 2004.

Jonathan Spence, Mao Zedong.  New York:  Penguin, 1999. 0-670-88669-6

Judith Shapiro, Mao’s War Against Nature:  Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China. (Paperback), Cambridge University Press, 2001.  0-521-78680-0

Timothy Cheek, Mao Zedong and China’s Revolutions:  A Brief History with Documents. (Paperback), Boston:  Bedford/St. Martins, 2002.  0-312-25626-4

Maurice Meisner, Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic. (Paperback),  New York: the Free Press, 1986.  0-02-920880-7

Dru Gladney, Muslim Chinese:  Ethnic Nationalism in the People’s Republic.  (Paperback).  Harvard University Press, 1996.  2^nd edition.

Additional reading materials will be made available on the class website.

COURSE SYLLABUS

I.  THE LAST DECADES OF THE QING

Required Reading:   

Bergere, Sun Yat-sen

                Fairbank

Week 1

August 30:   Introduction:  Expanding Worlds, Contesting Narratives:  China in the 20^th  Century

September 1:   Problems and Agenda:  Wealth, Power, and the Chinese World Order

Week 2

September 6:  Emerging Forms: the Republic and the City

September 8:  Discussion:  Bergere 

II.  THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT

Required Reading:

                Yeh, Provincial Passages

                Fairbank

Week 3

September 13:  The May Fourth Movement & the Birth of the Author

September 15:  Intellectuals and Professionals: Redefinitions, Reorientations

Week 4

September 20:  From Enlightenment to Revolution: the Rise of the Party

September 22:  Discussion: Yeh

First Response Paper due, electronically, at midnight, Saturday, September 24^th.

III. The Nanjing Decade and the Politics of Patriotism

Required Reading:

                Wakeman, Policing Shanghai

                Fairbank

Week 5

September 27:  Chiang Kai-shek and the Road to Power

September 29:  New Life, National Goods, and the Politics of Patriotism

Week 6

October 4: Weak Regime, Strong State: the Nationalist Party-State, its Friends and Enemies

October 6:  Policing Shanghai:  a discussion

IV. The War

Required Reading:

                Qian Zhongshu, Fortress Besieged

                Fairbank

                Additional materials on the class website

Week 7

October 11:  Film 

October 13:   Mid-term exam

Week 8

October 18:  Just and Unjust Wars:  China, Japan, Nationalists, and Communists, 1937-1945

October 20:  Discussion:  Qian & additional materials

V.  Mao Zedong

Required Readings:

                Spence, Mao Zedong

                Cheek, Mao Zedong, selections

                Meisner, Mao’s China and After, pt. 1

                Fairbank

Week 9

October 25:  Film

October 27:  Discussion:  Spence & Cheek selections

Second Response Paper due, electronically, at midnight on Saturday, October 29^th.

Week 10

November 1:  Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao

November 3:  Base Areas, the Eighth Route and the New Fourth Armies

VI.   Mao’s China

Required Reading:

                Shapiro, Mao’s War Against Nature

                Meisner, Parts 2 & 3, 4 & 5

                Fairbank

Week 11

November 8:   Mao’s China: the Early PRC

November 10:  Film:  “The Mao Years”

Week 12

November 15:  Discussion:  Shapiro, Meisner, 2& 3

November 17:  Discussion:  Meisner 4 & 5

Third Response Paper due, electronically, at midnight, Saturday, November 19^th.

Week 13

November 22:  Film:  “Morning Sun,”

November 24:  Thanksgiving Day.  No Class.

VII. The New Chinese World Order

Required Reading:

                Gladney, Muslim Chinese

                Meisner, part 6

                Fairbank

Week 14

November 29:  From Socialist to Shanghai Modernity, discussion of Meisner

December 1:  Discussion:  Gladney

Week 15

December 6:   The New Chinese World Order

December 8:   Final Review

Final Examination or