Making A New China: Ideas, Networks and the Intelligentsia: Context
| Module title | Making A New China: Ideas, Networks and the Intelligentsia: Context |
|---|---|
| Module code | HIH3321 |
| Academic year | 2020/1 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 16 |
|---|
Module description
How did China transform from the Great Qing Empire to the Chinese Republic? What prompted China’s entry into modernity and what hindered it? Has China lost its cultural distinctiveness in pursuit of becoming a modern nation-state? This module attempts to offer answers to these questions by inviting you to study a group of men and women whose lives and deaths were tightly connected with the fate of the ‘new China’ – the Chinese intelligentsia active between the 1860s and the 1960s. These men and women forged diverse ideas and networks which demonstrate the complex social, political, cultural and ideological components of Chinese nation-building. No knowledge of a foreign language is required for this module.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The first part of the module will introduce you to the diverse and shifting ideas about the Chinese nation developed by different generations and groups of intellectuals from Li Hongshang- ‘China’s Bismarck’ in the nineteenth century, to Mao Zedong, who has been referred to as ‘China’s helmsman’ in the twentieth. You will explore the ideas of the imperial reformers concerned with maintaining the ‘essence’ of Chinese culture, as well as thinkers who looked to Western ideas of ‘science and democracy’, Marxists inspired by the Soviet revolution, and anarcho-federalists who envisaged a ‘United Provinces of China’ based on the American model. You are encouraged to consider how ideas about a new China were promoted and questioned, and the ways in which intellectuals defended, altered, or abandoned their ideas over time.
The second part the module focuses on exploring the networks formed by Chinese intellectuals. By examining kinships and friendships, the growth of academic networks, native-place connections, and the promotion of political ideas, you will analyse how processes of ‘making ties’ and ‘severing ties’ shaped Chinese intellectual life. In doing so, we will engage with cutting-edge research on the Chinese revolution and the development of the Chinese state.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Ability to evaluate the different themes in the history of Chinese intellectuals from the 1860s to the 1960s.
- 2. Ability to make close specialist evaluation of the key developments within the period, developed through independent study and seminar work.
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Ability to analyse the complex ideas and networks promoted by Chinese intellectuals in the century of change and struggle from the 1860s to the 1960s.
- 4. Ability to focus on and comprehend complex issues.
- 5. Ability to understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible manner.
- 6. Ability to follow the origin, development, and legacy of the Chinese intelligentsia in the making of modern China.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 7. Independent and autonomous study and group work, including presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
- 8. Ability to digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
- 9. Ability to present complex arguments orally
Syllabus plan
While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
The first part of the module focuses on the evolution of various ideologies of Chinese nation-building; the following main themes and topics will be covered:
1) Remoulding China:
- Confucianism and the ideal of imperial reform
- Constitutionalism and the ideal of a Chinese constitutional monarchy
- The 1911 Revolution and the ideal of a Chinese Republic
2) Enlightening China:
- May Fourth and the ideal of ‘Chinese enlightenment’
- Anarchism, Marxism, and the ideal of a new world
- Federalism and the ideal of a Chinese federation
- Feminism and the ideal of women’s emancipation
3) Revolutionising China:
- Sun Yat-sen and the ideal of Nationalist Revolution
- Mao Zedong and the ideal of Communist Revolution
The second part of the module focuses on how Chinese intellectuals forged networks to promote their ideas; the following main themes and topics will be covered:
1) Urban spaces and personal networks
- Native-place bonds and local connections
- Study abroad and overseas networks
- Intellectual genealogy and global ties
2) Political linkages and cross-party networking:
- Leaning to the left?
- The ‘middle of the road’?
- Gender matters? Elite women and their organisations
3) Denying ‘self’ and ‘the intellectual’:
- Yan’an intellectuals
- The new intellectual or the disappearance of the intellectual?
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | 256 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 44 | 22 x 2 hour seminars. |
| Guided independent study | 256 | Reading and preparation for seminars, coursework and presentations. |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seminar discussion | Ongoing through course. | 1-7, 9 | Oral from tutor and fellow students. |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 70 | 30 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | 70 | 2 assignments totalling 4000 words | 1-8 | Oral and written. |
| Seen examination | 30 | 2500 words | 1-8 | Oral and written. |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio assignment | Portfolio assignment | 1-8 | Referral/deferral period. |
| Seen examination | Seen examination | 1-8 | Referral/deferral period. |
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
Basic Reading:
- Cheek, Timothy. The Intellectual in Modern Chinese History (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
- Dirlik, Arif. Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991)
- Duara, Prasenjit. Rescuing History from the Nation (The University of Chicago Press, 1995)
- Esherick, Joseph W. Ancestral Leaves: A Family Journey through Chinese History (University of California Press, 2011)
- Fung, Edmund S.K. In Search of Chinese Democracy: Civil Opposition in Nationalist China, 1929-1949 (Cambridge University Press, 2000)
- Fung, Edmund S. K. The intellectual foundations of Chinese modernity: cultural and political thought in the Republican era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)
- Furth Charlotte (ed.) The Limits of Change: Essays on Conservative Alternatives in Republican China (Harvard University Press, 1976)
- Gilmartin, Christina K. Engendering the Chinese Revolution, Radical Women, and Mass Movements in the 1920s (University of California Press, 1995)
- Goodman, Bryna. Native Place, City, and Nation: Regional Networks and Identities in Shanghai, 1853–1937 (University of California Press, 1995)
- Goldman, Merle. China's Intellectuals: Advise and Dissent (Harvard University Press, 1981)
- Goldman, Merle and Gu, Edward eds. Chinese Intellectuals Between State and Market (Routledge, 3 Aug 2005)
- Goldman, Merle, and Lee, Leo Ou-fan eds. An Intellectual History of Modern China (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
- Goldman, Merle, Cheek, Timothy and Hamrin, Carol Lee, eds. China’s Intellectuals and the State: In Search of a New Relationship (Harvard University Asia Center, 1987)
- Hockx, Michel and Denton, Kirk A. Literary Societies of Republican China (Lexington Books, 2008)
- Ip, Hung-yok. Intellectuals in Revolutionary China, 1921-1949 (Routledge, 2005)
- Kim, Youngmin. A History of Chinese Political Thought (John Wiley & Sons, 2018)
- Knight, Nick. Rethinking Mao: Explorations in Mao Zedong's Thought (Lexington Books, 2007)
- Mitter, Rana. A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2005)
- Saich, Tony and Apter, David. Revolutionary Discourse in Mao’s Republic (Harvard University Press, 1994)
- Schwarcz, Vera. The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919 (University of California Press, 1986)
- Schwarcz, Vera. Time for Telling Truth is Running Out: Conversations with Zhang Shenfu (Yale University Press, 1992)
- Teiwes. Frederick C. Politics and Purges in China: Rectification and the Decline of Party Norms, 1950-65 (Routledge, 2016)
- Wang, Zheng. Women in the Chinese Enlightenment (University of California Press, 1999)
- Whatmore, Richard and Young, Brian, eds. A Companion to Intellectual History (John Wiley & Sons, 2015)
- Zarrow, Peter and Karl, Rebecca E. Rethinking the 1898 Reform Period: Political and Cultural Change in Late Qing China (Harvard Univ Asia Center, 2002)
- Zarrow, Peter. After Empire: The Conceptual Transformation of the Chinese State, 1885-1924 (Stanford University Press, 2012)
- Zheng, Xiaowei. The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China (Stanford University Press, 2018)
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
- ELE:
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | At least 90 credits of History at Level 1 and/or Level 2. |
| Module co-requisites | HIH3320 |
| NQF level (module) | 6 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 15/02/2017 |
| Last revision date | 20/08/2020 |
