21H.152
Modern China
Discusses China's emergence as a global power, which has arisen out of two centuries of significant change. Explores those transformations from 1800 to the present by examining the advent of foreign imperialism in the nineteenth century, the collapse of the last imperial dynasty in 1911, China's debilitating war against Japan, the communist revolution, and the tumultuous history of the People's Republic of China from 1949. Addresses the historical transformations that have shaped contemporary Chinese politics, ethnicity, gender, environment, economics, and international relations.
Spring 2022
Topics
- China Today
- Traditional China
- The Qing in the Early Modern World
- The Tribute System and Imperial Diplomacy
- The Taiping Rebellion
- Reform and Self-Strengthening
- The Boxer Rebellion
- The 1911 Revolution and the End of Imperial China
- The May Fourth Movement
- Nationalists and Communists
- World War Two, Part 1
- World War Two, Part 2
- The Communist Revolution
- Building New China in the 1950s
- The Great Leap Forward
- The Cultural Revolution, Part 1
- The Cultural Revolution, Part 2
- The Beginnings of Reform and Opening Up
- Taiwan and Overseas Sinophone Communities
- Midterm
- From Family Planning to Protests to Deng’s Southern Tour
- Economic Growth and Development in Mainland China, 1992–Present
- Hong Kong, Singapore, and Chinese Identity
- China in the Xi Jinping Era
- Timeline Presentations
Readings
- [C] = Chen, Janet, Pei-kai Cheng, et al. The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. 3rd ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. ISBN: 9780393920857.
- [S] = Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. 3rd ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. ISBN: 9780393934519.
- Primary Source Readings
- Required Secondary Source Readings
- Required Secondary Source Reading
- Primary Source Readings and Visual Sources
- Mosca, Matthew W. “A Wealth of Indias: India in Qing Geographic Practice, 1644–1755.” Chapter 1 in From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy : The Question of India and the Transformation of Geopolitics in Qing China . Stanford University Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780804797290.
- Jones, William C., translator, with the assistance of Tianquan Cheng and Yongling Jiang. The Great Qing Code . Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780198257943.
- Optional Primary Source Readings and Visual Sources
- Optional Secondary Source Reading
- Optional Primary Source Readings
- Primary Source Reading
- Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung Set to Music . Foreign Languages Press, 1968.
- Malcolm X on China and Mao Zedong:
- Honig, Emily, and Xiaojian Zhao. “Things Fall Apart.” Chapter 6 in Across the Great Divide: The Sent-Down Youth Movement in Mao’s China, 1968–1980 . Cambridge University Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781108712491.
- Brown, Kerry, and Kalley Wu Tzu-hui. “Contested Histories: From the Ming to Today.” Chapter 1 in The Trouble with Taiwan: History, the United States and a Rising China . Zed Books, 2021. ISBN: 9781786995216.
- Ang, Yuen Yuen. “Balancing Variety and Uniformity.” Chapter 3 in How China Escaped the Poverty Trap. Cornell University Press, 2022. ISBN: 9781501764561.
- Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. 3rd ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. ISBN: 9780393934519.
- Chen, Janet, Pei-kai Cheng, et al. The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. 3rd ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. ISBN: 9780393920857.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2022
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.