Handbook

In the twenty-first century, China is a global superpower. Yet at the beginning of the twentieth century, the subjects of the troubled Qing empire faced an uncertain future. What had brought the once-mighty Qing to the verge of collapse? What kind of government would replace it? What would these changes mean for the Chinese people? This course explores China's modern history from the Qing Dynasty to the twenty-first century. From the Republican Revolution through World War II, the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the Cultural Revolution to the era of the China Dream, it examines how contested political visions changed the region, the world, and, most importantly, the lives of the Chinese people. It positions China's modern history in the context of a changing international order and examines dramatic shifts in the ways individual subjects and citizens interacted with the state and their own communities.