Students & Protest in Modern China

(4 Credits)

This course traces the history of “students” (in the 1920s and after, often overlapping with the category of “youth”) and protest in modern China, from the established culture of memorials/ petitioning in the waning years of China’s dynastic system through to the umbrella and “be water” uprisings in Hong Kong (2014, 2019). We will consider the many ways in which students/youth and protest have been enmeshed in social, political, and cultural movements and how forms and practices of protest have developed in tandem with and in opposition to state power, in alliance with or apart from other social constituencies.