Revolution and Its Past: Identities and Change in Modern Chinese History

Appropriate as a main text for courses in modern Chinese history, politics, society, and culture; also suitable as a supplementary text for courses in East Asian civilization, world history, and world civilization.   Unlike other texts on modern Chinese history, which tend to be either encyclopedic or too pedantic, Revolution and Its Past : Identities and Change in Modern Chinese History, 3/e, is comprehensive but concise, focused on the most recent scholarship, and written in a style that engages students from beginning to end. The Third Edition uses the theme of identities--of the nation itself and of the Chinese people--to probe the vast changes that have swept over China from late imperial times to the early twenty-first century. In so doing, it explores the range of identities that China has chosen over time and those that outsiders have attributed to China and its people, showing how, as China rapidly modernizes, the issue of Chinese identity in the modern world looms large.

Table of Contents:
Preface   Notes on Pronunciation   List of Maps   Part 1: From the Heights to the Depths: Challenges to Traditional Chinese Identities, 1780—1901 Chapter 1: IDENTITIES  History and Identity   Associational Identities: Lineages and Families   Associational Identities: Social Connections   Associational Identities: Relations to the “Other”   Spatial Identities: Native Place   Spatial Identities: Village and Marketing Communities   Spatial Identities: Macroregions and Provinces   Chapter 2: CHINESE AND MANCHUS   Patterns in Early Qing Preserving a Manchu Identity   Buying Into Chinese Culture   Dealing with the Other   Identity and Change: The Qianlong Emperor in the Late Eighteenth Century   Identity Crisis   Emerging Problems   The Daoguang Emperor   Chapter 3: THE OPIUM WAR AND THE TREATY SYSTEM: CHALLENGES TO CHINESE IDENTITY  The Early Western Role   China and the West: Mutual Perceptions   Opium: The Problem and the War   The Unequal Treaty System and Its Impact on Chinese Identity   The Missionary and Cultural Imperialism   Chapter 4: AN AGE OF REBELLION: DEFIANCE OF AND COMMITMENTS TO TRADITIONAL CHINESE IDENTITIES   Traditional Rebellions   The Taiping War (1851—1864): Attempting to Revolutionize Identity   Guerrilla Warfare: The Nian Rebellion (1853—1868)   Muslims versus Chinese: Clashes in Ethnic Identity   Chapter 5: THE POWER OF TRADITIONAL CULTURAL IDENTITY: CHINESE REACTIONS TO CONTINUING THREATS   Unwilling to Change (Or Holding to that Old-Time Identity) Self-Strengthening   The Loss of Tributary States: Ryukyu Islands, Korea, and Vietnam The War with France and the Impact of Self-Strengthening   Identity and Perception: The Roles of the Empress Dowager   Chapter 6: THE DEVASTATING NINETIES: DESTROYING TRADITIONAL IDENTITIES   Ideology for Change: Kang Youwei’s Intellectual Bomb   Political and Cultural Earthquake: Defeat by the “Dwarf People”   A New Phase of Imperialism: Carving the Melon   The Reform Movement and the Hundred Days: Clashing Identities   The Boxer Catastrophe: Which Identity Now?     Part 2: “No Checking the Tides of Change”: Reconstructing Social, Cultural, and Political Identity, 1901—1928 Chapter 7: Revolutionaries: Manchu and Anti-Manchu The Stirrings of a New China in Macroregional Cores   The Manchu Reform Movement: Education   The Manchu Reform Movement: Military Change   The Manchu Reform Movement: Constitutionalism   The Anti-Manchu Revolutionary Movement   The 1911 Revolution   Chapter 8: SELECTING IDENTITIES: THE EARLY REPUBLIC   Legacies of the Revolution   The Presidency of Yuan Shikai   Capitalists to the Fore   The Power of the Gun   China Totters on the World Stage   Chapter 9: CONSTRUCTING A NEW CULTURAL IDENTITY: THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT   The New Culture Movement: “Down with Confucius and Sons”   Language and Laboratories for a New Culture   The May Fourth Incident and Its Aftermath   Political Change First; Cultural Change Will Follow   Cultural Change First; Political Change Will Follow   Neotraditionalism   The Historical Significance of the May Fourth Movement   Chapter 10: DRAWING THE SWORD OF OPPOSITION: IDENTITY INCREASINGLY POLITICIZED   The Birth of the Chinese Communist Party   Giving the Guomindang a New Identity   Things Fall Apart: Sun’s Death and the May 30th Movement   The Beginning of Mass Mobilization   The Emergence of Chiang Kai-shek and the Northern Expedition     Part 3: Revolution and Identity: Social Revolution and the Power of Tradition, 1928—1960 Chapter 11: REVOLUTION IN RETREAT: THE NANJING DECADE   Chiang Kai-shek   Military Power, Party Factionalism, and Residual Warlordism   Secrets of Chiang’s Ability to Retain Power   Chiang’s Record   Chapter 12: REVOLUTION REBORN: THE COMMUNISTS IN THE 1930s   The Party: “So Widely Scattered and So Badly Mauled” Finding Its Way: The Party’s Factions   The Jiangxi Soviet   The Other Soviets   The Long March   Building the Base at Yan’an   Chapter 13: A RISING CLASH OF NATIONAL IDENTITIES: CHINA AND JAPAN, THE 1920s AND 1930s   A Case of Mistaken Identity   Japanese Aggression Turns Manchuria into Manchukuo   Japanese Aggression on the March   The Xi’an Incident   Marco Polo Bridge   Chapter 14: THE SINO—JAPANESE WAR, 1937—1945   The War’s General Course: An Overview   The Exodus   Soldiers and the Military   Collaboration   Wartime Propaganda   The United States and China in Wartime: Rough Sledding   The Communists in Yan’an, 1942—1945   Wartime Guomindang China   Chapter 15: TOWARD DAYBREAK: STRUGGLING FOR CHINA’S IDENTITY, 1945—1949   The Situation at War’s End   Economic Suicide   Political Disaster   Military Struggle   Did Chiang Lose the War or Did Mao Win the War? Japan’s Colony, Taiwan   Guomindang Relations with the Taiwanese: February 1947 and Its Impact   Chapter 16: PATHS TO THE FUTURE   The Structure of the Communist Party-State   The East Is Red: The Hallmarks of the Communist Revolution   At War with the United Nations: The Korean War   The First Five-Year Plan (1953—1957) The Taiwan Model: Authoritarianism and Reform   The Taiwan “Miracle” Chapter 17: COMING UNGLUED   “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom!” (Then Cut Them Down) The Great Leap Forward (and Backward) The Worst Famine in History   The Sino—Soviet Split   Crack-Up     Part 4: From “Politics in Command” to the Glory of Getting Rich: Contemporary Change and Identity, 1961—2009 Chapter 18: DEATH DANCE: THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION   Why? The Violently Radical Red Guard Phase, 1966—1969   The Mystery of Lin Biao   The Year of the Dragon   Mao in Retrospect   Chapter 19: ECONOMICS IN COMMAND: THE END OF COMMUNISM AND THE FLOURISHING OF “MARKET SOCIALISM” Socialism with a Chinese Face   Opening the Window to the World   The Expansion of Economic Reforms, 1990-2009  Government Action in Dealing with Impacts of Reform   Chapter 20: “ONE WORLD, ONE DREAM”: CHINA’S NEW WORLD  Political Authoritarianism Nationalism and International Relations   2008: Achievements and Problems   Epilogue: The Issue of Human Rights     Notes   Pronunciation Guide   Index   Credits

About the Author :
R. Keith Schoppa, Loyola College in Maryland