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clay dubeThanks to Catherine for posting the key readings for the 19th century. Here we'll put up a few others for the period of Chinese history that we call "Republican." It refers to the founding of the Republic of China in 1911 through to its replacement on the mainland with the People's Republic of China in 1949. The Republic of China, continues, of course, on Taiwan.
The attached selection is a long essay by Liu Shaoqi, a key figure in the Communist revolution and the first two decades of the PRC. His title is "How to be a good communist." It is a sharp statement on what is expected of good communists. What are their priorities? It makes for interesting reading today. The party marked its 90th anniversary in 2011 and is now in the midst of a giant anti-corruption campaign. Compare what Liu says party members must think and do with what current party leader Xi Jinping is saying.
For our discussion, you aren't expected to read the entire essay. Please read the first section, however, and see if you can answer the questions I've raised in the introduction.
clay dubePlease read these short quotations offering explanations on the CCP triumph over the KMT/GMD in 1949. Which of them seems most compelling?
clay dubeI've attached a one page handout for the session. In begins with questions for your consideration. Please do offer your thoughts on them both in class and here in the forum. Please also note the key terms and names for this period.
AnonymousThe Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was briefly discussed during Session 3. This topic is very vital in understanding the early American perceptions of Chinese Immigrants. I did further research on the topic and the formal apology issued for the Exclusion Act in 2011.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first of its kind. It was passed by Congress and signed by President Arthur. It placed a 10 year moratorium in Chinese labor immigration. The premise of the act was that the Chinese “endangered the good order in certain localities”.
The formal Congressional apology is only one of four ever issued by Congress. It comes at a unique time. One hundred and twenty nine years later, American perceptions of China and the Chinese have changed dramatically. No longer are Chinese seen as an immigration threat, rather the country of China is seen as the dominant economic power.
In government, I would have my students use the following websites to research the Exclusion Act and the Congressional apology. They would write a summary of the Act and a justification for the apology.
For the background of the Chinese Exclusion Act:
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=47
Government Records:
http://www.archives.gov/research/chinese-americans/
News coverage on Congressional Apology:
http://archive.wusa9.com/news/article/222217/283/Congress-Makes-Formal-Apology-For-Chinese-Exclusion-Act
AnonymousWhat indicators do we have of the strength and stability of Qing China? What accounts for this remarkable success?
As discussed in class, Qing China was big and largely successful. Although there was not a lot of economic development, there was substantial economic growth. The tea that the world was consuming came from China mostly. It is clear that Qing China was looked at with respect because influential American leaders like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson took an interest in Chinese culture. Well-off Colonial Americans bought furniture from China as well.
The Qing Dynasty was successful for a very long time period because they were able to accommodate others. This was key since they were an ethnic minority that had taken over a great multiethnic area. They accepted other cultures. They supported Confucian/Buddhist pursuits. They kept the Civil Service Exam. For many public offices they put two people in charge: one Manchu and one Non-Manchu. The Han were given positions of authority. By not insisting on having everything their way, the Manchu were able to control China for a very long time.
AnonymousI find Guifen's analysis of the problem in China to be enlightened. He does not blame the weakness of China on other countries being better prepared, he blames China's weakness on being unprepared; the fault being in essentially living in a bubble not paying attention to the advancements of other countries but rather continuing with the traditional education that has taken place for centuries in China. Guifen calls for a radical change in traditional thought in order to effect change that will make China more of an educated world power.
AnonymousQuestion: What were the internal and external factors that resulted in the collapse of the Manchu dynasty? Was there interplay among these factors? Which factors seem most important?
The collapse of the Manchu Dynasty had internal and external factors. One of the external factors was Europe and their control over China. Europe expanded control over large areas of China and The Opium Wars also played a factor in the collapse. An internal factor was how the Han Chinese felt towards the Manchus. The Han Chinese felt little loyalty to the Manchu rulers due to the result of The Opium Wars. The war proved to the Hans that they had lost the Mandate of Heaven.
The ruler lost the Mandate of Heaven due to the invasion of the Europeans. The European invasion seems to me to be the most important due to the effect that it interplayed with both the internal and external factors of the collapse of the Manchu dynasty.
AnonymousThe Opium War was a significant event in China. In teaching about it to our students, visuals/pictures can help the students understand this event. As researching the topic online, I found great pictures on Yahoo Images that display the event quite well.
AnonymousIn the first part of the article, Liu makes clear points on what The Party needs to do to remain pure in its ideology. The main idea I got out of it was self-cultivation, or the constant self-reflection of the party and it’s members on its ideology, policy, and actions. Certainly for a Revolution not to get stagnant or corrupt, after its victory, it needs to continue to grow from this self-cultivation.
I found this part of the essay interesting I look at China as a leading “Capitalist” market force in the world. I still recall all those years ago (80’s?) When I found it hypocritical when China created these “Enterprise Zones” in its southern borders. I wondered why it would do that if it proclaimed itself to be Communist and anti-capitalistic.
China is certainly in the midst of a huge anti-corruption campaign, but one must ask if it is to maintain purity of communist ideals, or petty politics and rivalries between telecommunication giants, and real estate tycoons masquerading as Communist ideologists?
As to the first of Clay’s questions regarding the use of Confucius and Mencius I would have to first pose as an answer historical context. These two figures are prominent in Chinese history and to use them would legitimize the writer’s (Liu’s) arguments. Liu reminds us that in Confucius’ own writings he spoke of himself not being a sage, but having gone through a life long process. This is equally true with Mencius who stated that no one has succeeded without going through some suffering first and then learning through that process. This is the core definition of what it is to self-cultivate in the Communist Party according to Liu.
This brings us to what it means to be a good Communist. Liu mentions that the individual must not only act in the Party’s behalf within the Revolution but must also be wiling to see himself as capable of change. As he puts it “never lose the sense of what is new.” The individual must struggle long and hard, as their mission is not small in scope, but to save the world.
What is Liu trying to accomplish with this essay? Well, at least with the first few pages, he is trying to remind everyone that there is no uniformity in the Party. Not that that’s a bad thing. Merely those individuals make up the party and they bring with them a set of experiences and beliefs, prejudice, etc. And through the Revolution, those individuals will come out of the process differently. Some excel, some remain unchanged, some fail. And the most important lesson in that is that the Party has current members who are weak, and fragile and that all must be vigilant against treats from outside and from within. He ends this first section quite politically by stating that “ the Communist Party did not drop out of Heaven (or Russia I imagine him saying between the lines), but born out of Chinese Society.
edited by dcolato on 9/20/2014
AnonymousAdmittedly, I know very little of the historical struggle between the National Government and the Communist Party, let alone the names of the players in this political landscape. But from what small body of knowledge I do possess and from the readings, I feel that Tang Tsou and Albert Wedemeyer make a stronger point.
Drawing parallels to many a charismatic leaders like Che, Castro, Hugo Chavez, or Stalin, I can see how a leader so bent on his dogma and infallibility would lead to rapid rises and successes and later to turmoil and defeat. I can see how this, added to other national and international variables, would explain the eventual CCP triumph.
As for Wedemeyer, the point that the government was content with allowing the regional leaders to work, and keeping the central government away from local issues would pose a problem that could destabilize a country. I can only look to American history with the Articles of Confederation where policies keeping the States powerful and the Central government weak, was its undoing. How could a weak national government deal with global change or internal threats without the authority to act?
edited by dcolato on 9/21/2014
edited by dcolato on 9/28/2014
AnonymousNormal.dotm 0 0 1 82 473 RSD 3 1 580 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} I understand what "dcalato" is saying. I didn't get this deeper message from reading. I understood Liu saying that the revolution itself is young and so the members must strengthen themselves through processes of struggles with nature and humans. It is with those struggles that the members will evolve to be skillful revolutionaries unbending to oppositions. I believe he uses Confucius and Mencius ideals to further illustrate his belief that the stages of struggles will differ for each revolutionary because of their station in life, but is necessary to fully understand their enemies to oppose them.
AnonymousSince I teach English, I enjoy incorporating literary pieces into history. This novel called, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a good read to go along with our theme on foot binding. If anyone is interested, here's a little excerpt of it from Amazon.
[font=Arial, sans-serif]In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.[/font]
AnonymousGrowing up, I used to watch a lot of the Chinese Drama with my mom. They had all types of drama ranging from modern detective shows about different dynasties. These shows would be dubbed in Vietnamese and you could go to a Vietnamese video store and rent the VHS tapes. This was about 10 years ago and every time we went to the video store, we would get 10-20 VHS tapes to watch. I remember watching about the Manchus and the Hans. Not only until this class did I learn why the Hans had to shave half of their heads like that! Through these videos, I learned a lot about the Chinese culture, including arranged marriages, foot binding, warriors, wars, etc.. If anyone is interested, you can definitely check out one of these drama series.
AnonymousWorld History has a few standards that focus on Communism theory. While reading Liu's theory on communism, I did notice a lot of good quotes from Marx, Lenin and Mao on the proper role of people in a communist society. Any number of these can be quite useful. Of particular significance is Mao's quote on page 24. Mao is quoted, ""At no time and in no circumstances should a Communist place his personal interests first; he should subordinate to the interests of the nation and of the masses. Hence selfishness, slacking, corruption, seeking the limelight are most contemptible, while selflessness, working with all one's energy, whole hearted devotion to public duty, and quiet hard work will command respect."
This is a great quote on the nature between the state and the average person. This quote could be used in an analysis on the views on Communism in different parts of the world. We can try to find some quotes from Marx and Lenin and compare them to Mao. We can even compare these views to American/capitalist expectations of the average person.
AnonymousIn session 3 Dr. Dube discussed the binding of certain Chinese women’s feet in order to produce smaller yet easily arguable deformed feet for the sake of what people believed to be beautiful at the time. I thought this was quite interesting and very relevant to what I had recently discussed in the classroom with my students. My students recently read “Harrison Bergeron”, a dystopian and satirical short story that comments on existing flaws in society. One of the discussed topics was society’s flawed perspective on physical beauty evident by similar forms of ‘mutilation’ such as excessive cosmetic surgery. I provided students with various supplemental resources to better help understand some of the topics discussed in the short story, and I think an article on the binding of feet in China and an examination of the custom would be an excellent resource to use to allow students to have a more multicultural understanding of the extremes people endure to achieve what different cultures perceive as beauty.
edited by dchoi on 9/23/2014