Modern China 1900-1978 |
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This Course Guide has been taken from the most recent presentation of the course. It would be useful for reference purposes but please note that there may be updates for the following presentation.
HIST A202
Modern China 1900-1978
Introduction |
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In 1900, China was a monarchy. The reigning Qing dynasty had only just emerged from a period of intense turmoil precipitated by the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. From 1900, the Qing government sought to reform, but the reforms were too weak and had come too late. In 1911, the dynasty was overthrown by a revolution.
In 1978, China was emerging from the Cultural Revolution. By now, the People's Republic of China had been established for 29 years, communism had been accepted as the guiding ideology and China had been recognized as a world power. Great strides had been taken to restore China's economy, but it was acknowledged by the Chinese leadership that much of China still had to be modernized. Under Deng Xiaoping's leadership, it was decided that gradually China should be opened to the world. The decisions taken in 1978 paved the way for China's prosperity in the 1980s.
Political stability, economic reform, the search for a workable ideology, viable control of the military and the ability to demonstrate to the world that China was capable of defending itself in the pursuit of an independent foreign policy, were all aspects of nation building that China, like many modern nations, went through in the 20th century. It had not been easy for the Chinese people to survive as a nation in this process. HIST A202 Modern China 1900-1978 shows you how they succeeded in doing this.
HIST A202 Modern China 1900-1978 is a second level, 10-credit course developed especially for The Open University of Hong Kong. There are no prerequisites for this course.
The course developer, Dr David Faure, is University Lecturer in Modern Chinese History at the University of Oxford.
Purpose of this Course Guide |
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I would like you to read this Course Guide carefully before you start on the rest of the course. In this Course Guide, I shall tell you what the aims of this course are, what material you will be using, how my study units will help you master the basic facts and arguments that will allow you to understand how China had changed from 1900 to 1978, how much time you may have to spend on all the course materials, what and how much work is expected of you, what tutorial support you may expect from The Open University of Hong Kong and, finally, how you will be assessed.
Use this Course Guide as a planning instrument. Explore the content of this course and match the amount of work required to the amount of time you will have.
Course aims |
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HIST A202 Modern China 1900-1978 aims to provide you with an understanding of the emergence of modern China as a nation state and a world power.
Course learning outcomes |
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Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
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Describe and explain major changes in the history of modern China.
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Relate major changes in modern China to common problems encountered by 20th-century nation states.
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Evaluate China's potential as a world power.
- Examine current arguments on modern Chinese history and present your evaluations in a reasoned manner.
Course description |
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This course is built around an interactive approach that makes use of a textbook, a video series, a selection of historical documents and ten course units. These various course materials provide you with:
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first-hand information on historical events
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summaries of major personalities and historical changes
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explanations of major changes in modern Chinese history
- an analysis of China's position in 20th-century world affairs.
Through these course materials, you are asked to consider how from 1900 to 1978 China rose from two revolutions to become a nation state and a world power.
Course overview
There are ten study units in HIST A202 Modern China 1900-1978. Each study unit deals with a short period of approximately ten years in China's history from 1900 to 1978.
The study units are:
Unit 1 |
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Prelude |
Unit 2 |
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The Revolution of 1911 |
Unit 3 |
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The rise of the warlords, 1912-1919 |
Unit 4 |
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May 4th, 1919 |
Unit 5 |
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Communism in China to 1927 |
Unit 6 |
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The Nanjing regime, 1927-1937 |
Unit 7 |
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Sino-Japanese relations and war |
Unit 8 |
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Civil war and the founding of the People's Republic, 1945-1949 |
Unit 9 |
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Towards socialism, 1949-1966 |
Unit 10 |
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The Cultural Revolution and after, 1966-1978 |
Units 1 to 4 require on average 18 hours, Units 5 to 8 require 24 hours, and Units 9 and 10 require 28 hours of study time. Assuming that you can spend six to eight hours per week on this course, I think you will find that the following schedule will provide enough time for the work required in this course:
Unit |
Title |
Weeks of work |
Complete by end of week |
1 |
Prelude |
2 |
2 |
2 |
The Revolution of 1911 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
The rise of the warlords, 1912-1919 |
3 |
7 |
4 |
May 4th, 1919 |
3 |
10 |
5 |
Communism in China to 1927 |
4 |
14 |
6 |
The Nanjing regime, 1927-1937 |
3 |
17 |
7 |
Sino-Japanese relations and war |
4 |
21 |
8 |
Civil war and the founding of the People's Republic, 1945-1949 |
4 |
25 |
9 |
Towards socialism, 1949-1966 |
4 |
29 |
10 |
The Cultural Revolution and after, 1966-1978 |
4 |
33 |
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Revision |
3 |
36 |
In preparing this schedule, I have allowed for eight hours for each of the four assignment exercises and two hours for each of the tutorials and supplementary lectures. I expect you to spend no more than 300 hours of study time to complete this course.
Course materials |
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The course materials for HIST A202 Modern China 1900-1978 include a textbook, ten study units, three video programmes, an Assignment File and this Course Guide. All these items, with the exception of the textbook, will be supplied by The Open University of Hong Kong. If you have not received them, contact The Open University of Hong Kong as soon as possible, and in any case before you begin. The textbook you will have to purchase for yourself.
Study units
Each of the ten units includes an overview, an introduction, a systematic discussion of the reading material set for the unit, supplementary reading material, writing exercises, map exercises, biographic sketches, self-test questions, a summary of the unit and answers to self-test questions and to the map and writing exercises.
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The central theme of nation building runs through the overview included in each unit.
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The major portion of the study unit introduces theoretical concepts and provides guidance for mastering the textbook.
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Supplementary reading material incorporated into the study unit illustrates theoretical concepts. Such material will include contemporary documents, extracts from novels or theoretical discussions.
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Notes capsules are fill-in-the blank questions that require you to take note of essential items of facts drawn from the textbook. These notes capsules are integrated into reading exercises.
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Map exercises included in the study units are designed to familiarize you with place names and essential geographical features.
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Biographic sketches provide background material on major characters that appear in the textbook.
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Writing exercises require you to formulate an independent answer to probing questions.
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Self-test questions provide a review of the factual content of the unit.
- Answers are given for writing exercises, map exercises and self-test questions.
You should follow the study units closely. Each study unit will introduce you to new concepts that you will find useful in understanding China's history from 1900 to 1978 and guide you to the appropriate sections of the textbook that are relevant to these concepts. It will help you remember the essential facts and give you the writing practices that enable you to make use of these facts in your arguments.
Set textbook and supplementary readings
The set textbook for this course is Jonathan D Spence (2013) The Search for Modern China, 3rd edn, New York and London: W W Norton & Co. This textbook is very readable and widely used in Modern Chinese History courses.
The supplementary readings for each unit are provided in a separate Readings booklet.
Videos
There are three excellent video programmes for this course. They will give you excerpts from contemporary newsreels as well as interviews with people who had had first-hand experience of historical events. I think you will find them stimulating. In the study units, I shall provide some notes to help you take advantage of them.
Assignment File
The five assignments in the Assignment File require you to write an essay on certain important topics to do with the history of China from 1900 to 1978.
Each essay should not be shorter than 1,500 words or longer than 2,500 words. You must formulate an opinion and test it against data given in the course. I shall give you guidance on how you may write these essays.
These assignments will be marked by your tutor. Follow the Presentation Schedule and send each essay to your tutor together with a tutor-marked assignment form. For more information on these assignments, read the section under the heading Tutor-marked assignments' in this Course Guide.
How to work through the course material |
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You probably know better than I do that to study on your own, you require great discipline and energy. In the study units, I try to help you along by giving you a structure in which you can think about the reading material and a set of activities that will allow you to familiarize yourself with some basic information and to formulate you own opinion.
Ultimately, however, it is your curiosity and interest that will propel you. This is why I want to keep you interested. To do that, I do not want you bogged down by your reading. I cannot say this more strongly: history is a subject for a lively mind. Nobody has the right to tell you what to think of past events. A course in history is there not to dictate to your thinking, but to show you how you can think for yourself and look up the necessary information to see if you are right.
Study units
Each study unit is organized as a guidebook. It takes you step by step through a short period of history. It does that by breaking down the period into a number of smaller topics.
For each topic, I suggest to you what to read in the textbook and what you should look out for in your reading. However, I do not want you to use the textbook as a substitute for your own thinking. You should use a textbook like a reference tool. Search it for the information you need, but organize that information yourself into a form that is meaningful to you.
In the study units, therefore, I want to avoid asking you to read mechanically or passively. I pose questions for which I think the textbook might give you some answers and ask you to search for them. I want you to organize these facts for yourself. I also want you to go beyond the textbook and so I give you supplementary reading.
I would like to say that the approach used in this course is interactive. You will have to read part of the study unit, do what it suggests and then read on. You may have to look up the textbook for some information, answer some questions, read a supplementary text, or write a short essay of 100 to 200 words. These are activities that will help you remember the basic facts, organize them and form an opinion about how and why events took place in modern China from 1900 to 1978.
You will probably find that as you go along, the units become gradually more demanding. Partly this is because the textbook is more detailed in the subjects that are dealt with in the later units than in the earlier units. However, partly it is because I would like you to become more independent as you proceed. If you do the work set for you in the earlier half of the course, however, you should not find the later half of the course too difficult.
Notes capsules
A feature in the study units that is designed to help you with reading the textbook is the notes capsule.
You will find a notes capsule after most occasions when I ask you to turn to the textbook. The capsule consists of one or several fill-in-the-blank questions. These are essential facts that can be extracted from passages of the textbook you are asked to read. Individually, each capsule serves as a reminder of what you should remember of a passage of reading.
Complete the notes capsules as you go through the unit. Use them in your revision.
Videos
In the second half of the course, you will make use of three video programmes. It will take you some time to watch each of these from beginning to end, but I think you will find them very rewarding.
The content of the videos will consist of newsreels and interviews. You will be able to see for yourself how the events you are studying appeared to contemporaries. I hope they will stimulate you to think about these events.
Although you will be coming to the videos with some preparation, you may still find it difficult at times to follow. Do not worry about that, because you will see the content discussed as you proceed to the rest of the work for the units in which the videos are included. I shall give you some guidance on what to look out for and you know you can always watch the videos a second time if you think you have not grasped everything you want to grasp. In fact, I hope you will find them so interesting that you will watch them more than once any way.
Exercises and self-tests
Each unit gives you two to three writing exercises and sometimes also a map exercise. In addition, at the end of the unit, you will find a self-test.
Writing exercises are very important as you work on this course. I shall set you a topic or ask you a question and I shall want you to formulate your own opinion.
However, just as important as forming an opinion is arguing a case for your opinion. You will, therefore, often be asked to justify the opinion you hold. You will have to produce the facts in support of your opinion and state your reasons for holding it.
The writing exercises will be useful to you when you work on the assignments. Some of the arguments you work out in the writing exercises you will be able to use in the assignments. For a discussion of assignments, read Tutor-marked assignments' on the following page.
The map exercises included in the units help you with place names and basic geographic information needed for understanding the textbook and the supplementary reading. Make sure you do them.
The self-tests will be straightforward if you have completed all the notes capsules. You will notice that they consist of all the notes capsules of the units put together. I have done this on purpose because together the notes capsules will give you the backbone of the unit. If you complete the notes capsules as you come across them, by the time you come to the self-test, you will find that it works like a revision exercise.
Romanization
Almost all Chinese words are romanized (that is, spelt in the alphabet) in pinyin'. That is the system of romanization currently used in the People's Republic of China.
But there will be two types of exceptions.
The first type of exception consists of names that are well-known in other forms of romanization. For example, you will recognize Hong Kong' but probably not Xianggang'. In most cases, the first time the word appears that is not romanized in pinyin', I shall provide for you in brackets the pinyin' romanization.
The other type of exception you will find in the supplementary reading. You see, pinyin' has been used only since 1949. If you are reading a passage written before 1949, another form of romanization would be used. You may also find that some authors do not romanize in pinyin' and if their works appear in the supplementary readings, I shall keep the original romanization.
You will often find it fairly easy to convert from one sort of romanization into another. In any case, a glossary of Chinese terms will be sent to you in due course. Do not expect to find all Chinese words cited there, but you will certainly find all the important ones.
Course assessment |
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If you complete the notes capsules, the writing and map exercises, and the self-tests, you will be performing a continuous assessment of your own progress. In addition, The Open University assesses your work through tutor-marked assignments and an examination.
Tutor-marked assignments
The four assignment essays in the Assignment File should not be shorter than 1,500 words or longer than 2,500 words. You must formulate an opinion and test it against data given in the course.
The scores of the best three essays will count towards 50% of the total course grade.
The notes capsules and writing exercises in each unit will give you much of the material you will need for your essays. I shall give you further help by including notes with the assignments. When you have completed an assignment, send it to your tutor. Keep to the assignment schedule.
Marking scheme
Your grade will depend on whether you can demonstrate to your tutor that you are able to formulate a clear opinion which you can test with the information given in the unit. You must be accurate when you refer to historical facts, for you will lose marks for inaccuracy.
Presentation Schedule
The Presentation Schedule is available on the Online Learning Environment (OLE). It gives the dates for completing the Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) and attending supplementary lectures, tutorials and surgery.
Examination
There will be a three-hour final examination for Modern China, 1900-1978. The examination will consist of two parts. Part 1 will consist of questions that require short answers. Part 2 will consist of questions that require well-argued essay-type answers. Eight questions will be set in Part 1 of which you must answer four, and three questions will be set in Part 2 of which you must answer one.
The three-hour final examination will count towards 50% of the total course grade. Part 1 questions will be basically factual. They will require a good knowledge of the content of this course. As in the assignments, a good grade for the essay in Part 2 will depend on your ability to demonstrate that you can formulate a clear opinion which you can test with the information given in the course.
Tutorials and supplementary lectures |
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The Open University will assign you a tutor for this course. He or she will take a close interest in your progress.
Throughout this course, you will be in contact with your tutor routinely in two ways. When you send your tutor your assignment essays, he or she reads and grades them and returns them to you with comments. Contact your tutor by telephone if you feel that his or her comments are not clear to you.
You will also have the opportunity to attend ten two-hour tutorials. I urge you to come to all of them. I think face-to-face discussion with other people on your ideas is an important part of the learning process. You want to see what other learners think about the problems raised in this course and also what they think of your opinions. Not least, a well-attended tutorial can give you a sense of community. You will see that you are not alone in finding some parts of the course difficult. Tutorials give you the chance to learn from your friends. In addition, there are two two-hour supplementary lectures. Guest lecturers or tutors will be invited to speak on topics relating to the course. You will be given the opportunity to ask questions relating to lecture topics during these sessions.
Summary |
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In this course, you will work through ten study units, a textbook, some supplementary reading material and three videos. You will be asked to remember some basic facts, to think about the progress of modern Chinese history from 1900 to 1978 and to write clearly and with factual support about your opinions. At the end of this course, I think you will appreciate some of the difficulties that China faced in these 80 years. I hope you will then understand better the aspirations of Chinese people.