HIST 191 -- China Past & Present

On the Great Wall [link]

Expanded course description

China today has multiple pasts -- imperial, republican and revolutionary. China Past and Present introduces the epic sweep of China's historical transformations since the nineteenth century. This survey provides a basis for understanding the uneasy relationship between past and present in modern China. Since the late Qing dynasty, Chinese intellectuals, reformers and revolutionaries have attempted to modify, reject, even to eradicate aspects of the Chinese past in order to construct a new, modern present. At the same time, they have sought to maintain the geographical borders established by the Qing empire, create a new Chinese identity, and redefine modernity in Chinese terms. By the end of the course, students should be attuned to the ways China's pasts haunt its present, and to the way in which the changing politics of the present transform understandings of the past.

History 191 is a continuation of History 190, though 190 is not a prerequisite. 191 focuses on acquainting students with contemporary China in historical perspective. Most of the class is devoted to a chronological and thematic overview of China's modern transformations. This overview serves as a foundation for a historical understanding of contemporary issues in Chinese politics and society that we will explore at the end of the class.

Group: SSC

Offered 200604.

Syllabus

Although syllabi can change from term to term, a syllabus may provide further information about typical instances of this course.