4th Edition

Revolution and Its Past Identities and Change in Modern Chinese History

By R. Keith Schoppa Copyright 2019
    504 Pages
    by Routledge

    504 Pages
    by Routledge

    Revolution and Its Past is a comprehensive study of China from the last quarter of the eighteenth century through to 2018.

    A fascinating and dramatic narrative, the book compels interest both as a history of an ancient civilization developing into a modern nation-state and as an account of how the Chinese as a people have struggled and continue to work to find their identity in the modern world. Beginning in the last two decades of the reign of the Qianlong emperor (1736–1795), the book provides a baseline that allows readers to understand China’s rapid decline in the nineteenth and part of the twentieth century, and extends into the present day, a time when China has the second largest economy in the world and aims to become a leading global power by 2050. The vast changes that have swept over China between these times are probed through the lens of the broad and important theme of "identities." This fourth edition has been updated throughout, providing a more thorough examination of recent history since 1960, and increasing coverage of such topics as "new Qing history," frontier and ethnicity, women and their roles, environmental concerns and issues, and globalization.

    Supported by maps, images, tables, online eResources and suggestions for further reading, and written in an engaging, concise, and authoritative style, Revolution and Its Past is the ideal textbook for all students of the history of modern China.

    List of Figures

    List of Maps

    Preface

    Notes on Pronunciation

    Part 1 From the Heights to the Depths: Challenges to Traditional Chinese Identities, 1780–1901

    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

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    2 Chinese, Manchus, and Others 

    Patterns in the 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

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    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

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    4 An Age of Rebellion: Defiance of and Commitments to Traditional Chinese Identities

    Traditional Rebellions

    The Taiping War (1851–1864): Attempting to Revolutionize Identity

    The Rebellion Takes Shape

    The Taiping Revolution

    Guerrilla Warfare: The Nian Rebellion (1853–1868)

    Muslims versus Chinese: Clashes in Ethnic Identity

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    5 Crises and Choices

    Unwilling to Change (or Holding on to That Old-Time Identity)

    Self-Strengthening

    Famine Relief, Factionalism, and Self-Strengthening

    Women and Famine

    The Loss of Tributary States: The Liuqius, Korea, and Vietnam

    The War with France and the Impact of Self-Strengthening

    Identity and Perception: The Roles of the Empress Dowager Suggestions for Further Reading

    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?

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    Part 2 "No Checking the Tides of Change": Reconstructing Social, Cultural, and Political Identity, 1901–1928

    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

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    8 Selecting Identities: The Early Republic

    Legacies of the Revolution: The Power of Yuan Shikai

    Women’s Suffrage amid Confucian Parameters

    Capitalists to the Fore

    The Power of the Gun

    China Totters on the World Stage

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    9 Constructing a New Cultural Identity: The May Fourth Movement

    Destroying the Confucian Straitjacket: Targeting Women and the Family

    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

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    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

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    Part 3 Revolution and Identity: Social Revolution and the Power of Tradition, 1928–1960

    11 Revolution in Retreat: The Nanjing Decade

    Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi): The Man and His Power

    Military Power, Party Factionalism, and Residual Warlordism

    Secrets of Chiang’s Ability to Retain Power

    Chiang’s Record

    Agriculture: The World of the Chinese Farmer and His Wife

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    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

    Land Reform (Actually, Land "Revolution")

    The Other Soviets

    The Long March

    Women on the Long March

    Which Political Roads to Take?

    Building the Base at Yan’an

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    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

    Suggestions for Further Reading  

    14 The Sino–Japanese War, 1937–1945

    The War’s General Course: An Overview

    In the North: The Transportation War

    Putting the Heat on Chiang: The Situation in Central China, 1939-1942

    The Ichigo Offensive (April-December 1944)

    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

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    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

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    16 Paths to the Future

    The Structure of the Communist Party-State

    The East Is Red: 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"

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    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

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    Part 4 From "Politics in Command" to the Glory of Getting Rich: Contemporary Change and Identity, 1961–2018

    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

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    19 Reforms and Reactions, 1978-1995

    Opening the Window to the World

    Economic Reforms on the Home Front

    Political Authoritarianism

    The Democracy Movement ("Beijing Spring," 1989)

    Government Action in Dealing with the Impacts of Reforms

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    20 The Economic Miracle and Its Shadows, 1992–2018

    The Jiang and Hu Years: Economic Reforms and Political Change

    Broad Ramifications of the Reforms

    Corruption

    Anti-Corruption Policies as Tools against Opposing Factions

    Environmental Crises

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    21 Whither China? 2008–2018

    Human Rights

    Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08

    The Rule of General Secretary Xi Jinping (2012–?)

    The Internet

    The Roles and Status of Women in the Era of Reform

    The Specter of Mao

    Suggestions for Further Reading

    22 Nationalism and Globalization

    The Evolution of Chinese Domestic and Foreign Policies, 1985–2018

    Globalization, The Unfolding Drama

    The Belt and Road Initiative

    Building Bases in Africa and Latin America

    Globalization and Soft Power

    The South China Sea Controversy

    Trouble in the East China Sea

    Dealing with World Regions

    Internal Others: Tibet Autonomous Region

    Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region

    23 A Question of Identity: The Republic of China on Taiwan since the 1970s

    Birth of a Democracy

    The Elephant in the Room: Taiwan’s Relationship with China

    The Remarkable Election and Barren Presidency of Chen Shui-bian

    The Kuomintang Returns: The One-Note Presidency of MA Hing-jeou

    The First Female President, the DPP’s Tsai Ingwen

    The Changing Face of the Economy and Related Issues

    Diplomacy: Seeking Respect

    Society in Flux

    Women and Gender Roles

    Whither Taiwan?: A Choice of Identity?

    Pronunciation Guide

    Index

    Biography

    R. Keith Schoppa is Professor Emeritus at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. From 1998 to 2014, he served as the Doehler Chair in Asian History. His research focused on the political, social, and cultural history of the first half of the twentieth century. His major research works include Chinese Elites and Political Change (1982); Xiang Lake—Nine Centuries of Chinese Life (1989); Blood Road (1995), for which he won the Association for Asian Studies Levenson Award; and In a Sea of Bitterness (2011).