The Chinese Revolution

As an administrator of one of the many Confucius Institutes established in America and elsewhere to\ud project Chinese cultural influence recently observed: “Let’s not forget that China held the title of the\ud world's largest economy for 18 of the last 20 centuries. It stands to re-capture that title within a decade.”\ud Both assertions are indisputably true. But between its two millenia of economic supremacy and its current\ud meteoric economic ascent China underwent a “century of humiliation” (bainian guochi 百年國恥)\ud characterized by wars and invasion at the hands of Western and Japanese imperialists, and a series of\ud wrenching civil wars and social and political revolutions. This course traces the intersection of global and\ud domestic forces that produced three stunning revolutionary moments: the toppling of the imperial order in\ud 1911, the establishment of a sovereign and unified Communist state in 1949, and the dramatic\ud reorientation of China towards a buoyant combination of post-socialist reform and authoritarian\ud capitalism from 1979 on. Our primary focus will be on the individuals who made revolution at the top,\ud and the men and women who experienced the benefits and challenges of revolution at the bottom.\ud Because China’s revolution is still ongoing, we will also pay explicit attention to current events in China\ud as depicted in available news sources