Modern China

Undergraduate credit

The transformation of China in our era marks a milestone in global history. During the past century, the onetime "sick man of Asia" has become the "factory of the world," rising as a great power, with its own geopolitical ambitions. Spanning the White Lotus Rebellion in the late eighteenth century through the first decades of the twenty-first, this course traces how war, insurrection, and revolution transformed China. The subject matter of the course is arranged chronologically, but with reference to different time periods, as they exemplify different themes in Chinese history. The course draws on selected readings from secondary sources, as well as fiction and primary sources in translation. Students who complete the course will be able to adduce supporting evidence from course readings as they identify and explain the significance and relevance of major figures, terms, events and institutions in Chinese history from 1790 to 2010. These students will have acquired a nuanced and critical understanding of continuity and rupture in the transformation in China, focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. No prior knowledge of China or any Chinese language is required.