HIS21220

This survey course is designed to give students an introduction to the history of modern China from the Qing Dynasty to the end of the twentieth century. It is organised both chronologically and thematically, giving students an understanding of the key forces that have shaped modern China as it has emerged today. The module seeks to help students understand the dramatic changes in modern Chinese history through a critical engagement with a wide variety of visual, documentary, literary, audio and film primary source material. In particular the module highlights key themes in modern Chinese history including: Gender, War and Revolution. We will consider the violence that has characterised modern Chinese history ranging from the Manchu Conquest of 1644 to the Taping Rebellion, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. We will also study reforms and revolutions from the 1911 Revolution which ended the Qing Dynasty to the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, the Cultural Revolution and Reform and Opening from 1978. We will examine the changing position of women from practices of footbinding in Late Imperial China, to the emergence of the ‘New Woman’ in the early twentieth century, women’s status in Mao’s China and feminism in modern China today. Throughout the module students will engage with recent debates in the literature and will be asked to think critically about the relationship between Chinese modernity, the ‘west’ and gender in China’s turbulent twentieth century of wars and revolutions.