Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LH Advanced Option: China in Revolution: China under Mao (1949-1976)
School	History and Cultures
Department	History
Module Code	09 38742
Module Lead	Dr Shirley Ye
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	Today China closely follows the United States as the world's leading economic power. Yet a hundred years earlier, China was known as 'the poor man of Asia' and teetering at the edge of political collapse. We start our module with the Qing dynasty's collapse in 1911 which saw the end of two millennia of imperial rule and a repudiation of core Chinese traditions. The young Chinese republic experimented with different modes of politics and culture, and the Nanjing decade saw the Nationalists attempt to assert monolithic party rule over the country, while the Communists were pushed to the margins. Japan's aggression in China destabilized domestic politics and arguably helped propel the Communists to power in 1949. Under Mao Zedong's helm, the Communist party aimed to create a new collective society but instead brought the entire country through massive and devastating upheaval: the Great Leap Forward (Famine) which saw the unnecessary deaths of sixty million Chinese and the Cultural Revolution irreversibly the structures and artifacts of old Chinese culture. After Mao's death in 1976, the country started to repair itself from decades of tumult, embracing the global economy and 'capitalism with Chinese characteristics'. While temporally, our module is structured by the political events of modern China, we will explore persistent intellectual, cultural, and social themes in Chinese history. In what ways does China's search for modernity draw on its historical past? During the Cultural Revolution 'destruction before construction' captured the widespread casting aside the old culture before the new society could be constructed. The emphasis in our module will be on analysis of primary sources in translation and to understand the Chinese experience through the writings of those who lived it, as well as exploration of the debates and controversies surrounding the historical writing and memory of China's modern past.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: analyse and explain key events and historical processes relevant to the subject under scrutiny, analyse and explain reasons for and implications of these events and processes (including analysis of primary evidence where appropriate) compare and evaluate the main scholarly views on the subject under investigation, critically evaluate the historiographical context and trends of the subject under exploration work with an appropriate degree of learner independence to explain and analyse the material under scrutiny summarise, analyse and evaluate the subject material clearly and effectively in writing, synthesise and evaluate themes across a wide range of diverse material
Assessment	38742-01 : 3,000 word essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: S1 = 1 x 3,000 word essay (100%)
Other
Reading List