This book presents a panoramic history of the Chinese nation spanning the twentieth century, with the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as its central theme. In their unwavering pursuit of national independence, universal emancipation, and a country of power and shared prosperity, the Chinese people undertook an arduous journey that saw China fundamentally transformed by such historic events and experiences as the overthrow of the imperial system in the 1911 Revolution, the founding of the People’s Republic of China, reform and opening up, and the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Massive in scope, meticulously documented, and rigorously written, this volume has few rivals among general histories of China in the twentieth century.
Throughout this lively and concise historical account of Mao Zedong’s life and thought, Rebecca E. Karl places the revolutionary leader’s personal experiences, social visions and theory, military strategies, and developmental and foreign policies in a dynamic narrative of the Chinese revolution. She situates Mao and the revolution in a global setting informed by imperialism, decolonization, and third worldism, and discusses worldwide trends in politics, the economy, military power, and territorial sovereignty. Karl begins with Mao’s early life in a small village in Hunan province, documenting his relationships with his parents, passion for education, and political awakening during the fall of the Qing dynasty in late 1911. She traces his transition from liberal to Communist over the course of the next decade, his early critiques of the subjugation of women, and the gathering force of the May 4th movement for reform and radical change. Describing Mao’s rise to power, she delves into the dynamics of Communist organizing in an overwhelmingly agrarian society, and Mao’s confrontations with Chiang Kaishek and other nationalist conservatives. She also considers his marriages and romantic liaisons and their relation to Mao as the revolutionary founder of Communism in China. After analyzing Mao’s stormy tenure as chairman of the People’s Republic of China, Karl concludes by examining his legacy in China from his death in 1976 through the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Using the field of genetics as a case study, this book follows the troubled development of modern natural science in China from the 1920s, through Mao's China, to the present post-socialist era. Through detailed portraits of key scientists and institutions, basic dilemmas are explored: how to control nature with science, how to gain independence from foreign-controlled science, how to get scientists out from under control of ideology and the state. Using the field of genetics as a case study, this book follows the troubled development of modern natural science in China from the 1920s, through Mao's China, to the present post-socialist era. Through detailed portraits of key scientists and institutions, basic dilemmas are explored: how to control nature with science, how to gain independence from foreign-controlled science, how to get scientists out from under control of ideology and the state.
The written culture of 20th-century China has only recently begun to receive sustained attention from Western readers and critics. This book presents illuminating information on writers, audiences, and the impact of various literary works on politics and culture--and provides a unique window on Chinese society.
The authors in this volume believe that long-term, profound, and sometimes tumultuous changes in the last five hundred years of the history of China have been no less geographical than social, political, or economic. From the dialectics of local-empire relations to the imperial state’s persistent array of projects for absorbing and transforming ethnic regions on the margins of empire; from the tripling of imperial territories in the Qing to the disputes over the identity of the former “outer zones” in the early Republican era; and from the universalistic imagination of “all-under-heaven” to the fraught processes of re-drawing a new set of nation-state boundaries in the twentieth century, the study of the dynamics of geography, broadly conceived, promises to provide insight into the contested development of the geographical entity which we, today, call 'China.'
The twentieth century was a time of great change in China - for its government, economy, culture, and everyday life. It was a period of revolutions, and Twentieth Century China chronicles these uprisings with the words and images of the participants. The manifesto delivered by Sun Yat-sen in1905, for example, details his plan to oust the Manchus; an editorial in a student journal encourages the activities of the May Fourth Movement in 1919; a 1933 speech by Chiang Kai-shek condemns China's enemies, the Communists and the Japanese; and the lyrics of a Chinese rock star give voice to thestudent demonstrations at the end of the 1980s. This is the story of the people - leaders and followers - whose decisions propelled modern Chinese history in erratic directions. Mao Zedong's personal physician recalls the phenomenon of the backyard steel furnaces and changes they brought to theChinese landscape during Mao's Great Leap Forward; a poem written in 1979 expresses anger toward a general who destroyed a kindergarten to build a mansion on its site; and the box from the Chinese version of Monopoly, introduced in 1987, playfully illustrates the economic reforms of Deng Xiaopingand Jiang Zemin.Using a wide variety of primary sources, such as official reports and public statements, articles, political posters, cartoons, poetry, songs, and advertisements, R. Keith Schoppa paints a picture of a society undergoing dramatic changes, both political and social. Taken together, these documentstell a dramatic and often violent tale, alternately soaring with hope and plunging with despair, of a country undergoing a thorough transformation--a transformation that affects the world at large.This new edition includes an updated introduction with a new note on sources and interpretation; updated further reading; and updated list of websites. There are thirty-seven new sidebars that extend the coverage of the economic and cultural influence of Communism--for example, lyrics from a 1989pop song that was interpreted as an allegory for the broken relationship between the Chinese state and people, excerpts from essays on China's economic policy, and a defense minister's frank letter to Chairman Mao on the difficulties of realizing the Great Leap Forward plan. The twelve newphotographs further document the upheaval of the past century. They include a scene of the deadly aftermath of a 1927 Communist uprising, a woman about to be executed for political dissent, and a view of the Three Gorges Dam--one of China's recent massive infrastructure projects. Coverage nowextends to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
This title, first published in 1923, aimed to provide a brief survey of the historical setting necessary for an understanding of China’s relations with the West. The book explained and estimated the various forces that were working in China at the beginning of the twentieth century that were producing changes in the political, social, industrial and intellectual spheres. This book will be of interest to students of history and Asian Studies.
During the eighteenth century, China's new Manchu rulers consolidated their control of the largest empire China had ever known. In this book Susan Naquin and Evelyn S. Rawski draw on the most recent research to provide a unique overview and reevaluation of the social history of China during this period--one of the most dynamic periods in China's early modern era. "A lucid, original, and scholarly summary of the social, economic, and demographic history of China's last great period of glory. This will be an important book for students of Chinese history."--Jonathan Spence, Yale University "Engaging, complex, and elegantly written. . . . Absorbing and valuable: a thorough, unique, and richly detailed account of the social forms and cultural and religious life of the people."--Choice " An] interesting and well-informed survey of China between about 1680 and 1820."--W.J.F. Jenner, Asian Affairs "I would be a very odd scholar or general reader who could not derive profit from reading this elegant and painstaking survey of the social, cultural, and economic life of the Qing empire in its apparent prime. . . . A superb survey which readers may absorb and cherish."--Alexander Woodside, Pacific Affairs "A highly readable synthesis of recent secondary literature on the subject."--William S. Atwell, Journal of Asian Studies "Their coverage is comprehensive and their writing is clear and lucid. reading this book obtains one a very broad, yet penetrative, view of Chinese society at the time."--Alan P.L. Liu, Asian Thought & Society "The ground covered by this book is vast. . . . Its very breadth conveys with great clarity the extent of current knowledge of premodern China: it also serves as an excellent introduction to the social history of the Qing dynasty."--Hugh D.R. Baker, China Quarterly "This is a most challenging work and ambitious work. . . . Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century give both the general reader and also the historian who does not study China a tool for grounding himself or herself in the basic patterns and trends that could be found in eighteenth century China as well as in the problems the specialists are now exploring. The book is also of great value to students of traditional and modern China, for it serves to synthesize much of the new literature on China in the High Qing. Thus it serves the 'China hand' as a state of the field essay that shows just where we are even as it suggests directions for future research."--Murray A. Rubinstein, American Asian Review "This excellent book provides an intelligent summary our rapidly changing understanding of Chinese society in a crucial century of political stability and economic and demographic expansion. Susan Naquin and Evelyn S. Rawski are distinguished contributors to the field, energetically engaged in its multinational communication networks."--John E. Wills, Jr., American Historical Review
