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Modern China, a Brief History: 18th to 20th Century

Module description

This course is designed to provide a general introduction to Chinese modern history and its connection with the world. This one-semester lecture-based course will cover the time range between late 18th century (high Qing period) and contemporary (People’s Republic of China), with a special focus on modern China since 20th century. By using films and other forms of visual arts, this course provides an easy approach for students to develop an interest to carry on further academic research. The basic layout of the course will follow a chronological line which aims to familiarise students with the key issues in Chinese history and put them in a comparative global context. In addition to the visual materials, students will be also provided with copies of historical documents (primary resource) and scholarly writings regarding the issues mentioned above (secondary materials).

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module, you will:

• Develop a basic understanding of modern Chinese history and major events
• Develop skills in textual analysis, historicising problems, and contextualising terminologies in research practice
• Be familiar with the key historical/cultural works and figures in modern Chinese history
• Understand modern China and its relations with the global development of modernisation
• Acquire a basic interdisciplinary perspective in understanding modern Chinese history

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a sound general understanding of the chosen texts/images/music, including reference to their place in the political, historical, and generic context of their time
• 2. Acquire a basic understanding of the use of primary and secondary resources in research

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Being able to summarise and evaluate, under guidance from the module tutor(s), key critical responses to the topic and apply standard critical approaches to the material
• 4. Read and analyse passages from texts/images/films in English translation, relating them to specified aspects of their socio-cultural, historical and generic context
• 5. Show a cross-cultural awareness of contextualising events and ideas

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Assimilate, select and organise material in order to produce, to a deadline, a written or oral argument
• 7. Demonstrate basic word-processing skills

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introduction: What is modern China?
• Cherishing Men from Afar: China and the eighteenth century world
• Opium War: Social economics of the opium trade
• Taiping Rebellion: Missionaries, traders, and rebels
• Reform: From Treaty of Nanking to the Self-Strengthening Movement
• Social Changes: The First Sino-Japanese War, the Boxer Rebellion, and the shattering of the Chinese cultural confidence
• Revolutionaries from Abroad: Sun Yat-sen, overseas students, and the end of Imperial China
• 1911 Revolution: Rise of the Republic and the democratic attempt
• Communism in China
• The Anti-Japanese War 1931-1945
• A New China: From Civil War to Cultural Revolution

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Spence, Jonathan D. 1999. The Search for Modern China, 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=5965
• Asia for Educators - http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main_pop/ps/ps_china.htm
• Visualizing Cultures – Image-driven scholarship http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/home/index.html

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Kuhn, Philip A. Origins of the Modern Chinese State. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002
• Fairbank, John K., and Denis Twitchett, eds. The Cambridge History of China: Volume 9-13. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983
• Dikotter, Frank. Exotic Commodities, Modern Objects and Everyday Life in China. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003
• Schwartz, Benjamin I. Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao. Harvard University Press, 1996

Key words search

Modern Chinese History, international relations, intellectual history