The module examines China’s efforts towards state building by exploring the Nationalist and the Communist Parties’ approaches and their respective understanding of what constituted a modern nation. Central to the module will be discussion of mass mobilisation as a tool utilised by each party for securing political legitimisation and the promotion of state building. These topics are closely interconnected and central to the understanding of China’s modern political evolution. Key questions include: Why has the issue of mobilising people and communities towards defined objectives been so central in Chinese politics? To what extent did mass mobilisation allow political participation?

On completion of the module a student will be able to:

• demonstrate a critical and systematic knowledge of modern politics in China between 1911-1945 and an understanding of pertinent historical and historiographical ideas/contexts/frameworks.
• critically identify the main trends concerning the formation of political parties, their approach to state building, and mass mobilisation.
• analyse the impact of mass politics on Chinese society.
• demonstrate an in-depth and critical understanding of a range of concepts/perspectives/debates within the appropriate secondary literature.
• analyse key themes and issues pertaining to modern politics in China between 1911-1945 in the light of those ideas/contexts/frameworks.
• demonstrate a critical understanding of key primary sources and their significance.
• express their ideas and assessments of modern politics in China between 1911-1945.
• discuss in a critical and informed manner the use of mass mobilisation in relation to state building and political legitimisation in China.
• identify strengths, weaknesses, problems, and or peculiarities of alternative historical/historiographical interpretations.
• apply a critical approach to the nature of primary sources in the assessment of historical interpretations and methodologies.

The module will be taught and students will learn through a combination of:

• formal lectures to introduce students to the main factual and conceptual issues to be discussed and analysed during the course;
• seminars in which key texts are analysed to enable students to further develop analytic skills;
• document workshops in which primary sources are analysed to enable students to develop discipline specific methods of approaching and analysing primary historical sources.

Academic:

·         demonstrate a critical and systematic knowledge of modern politics in China between 1911-1945 and an understanding of pertinent historical and historiographical ideas/contexts/frameworks.

·         critically identify the main trends concerning the formation of political parties, their approach to state building, and mass mobilisation.

·         analyse the impact of mass politics on Chinese society.

·         demonstrate an in-depth and critical understanding of a range of concepts/perspectives/debates within the appropriate secondary literature.

·         analyse key themes and issues pertaining to modern politics in China between 1911-1945 in the light of those ideas/contexts/frameworks.

·         demonstrate a critical understanding of key primary sources and their significance.

·         use and evaluate primary sources and demonstrate an appreciation of  how historians have approached them

Subject-specific:

·         identify and evaluate the nature and scope of the issues raised by the module.

·         discuss in a critical and informed manner the history of modern politics in China between 1911-1945.

·         summarise and critically evaluate the relative merits and demerits of alternative views and interpretations about the formation and evolution of political parties in Republican China and evaluate their significance.

·         identify problems, assess evidence, and reach conclusions consistent with them the history of modern politics in China between 1911-1945.

·         devise and sustain arguments about political conflict, state building and mass mobilisation in China through an appropriate application of sources and terminology.

·         present, accurately, succinctly and lucidly, in written or oral form, their arguments in accordance with appropriate scholarly conventions.

Generic:

·         communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in speech or in writing in an accurate, succinct and lucid manner.

·         formulate and justify their own arguments and conclusions about a range of issues.

·         demonstrate an ability to modify as well as to defend their own position.

·         possess a range of information technology resources to assist with information retrieval.

·         organise their own study methods and workload.

·         work as part of a team in seminar or tutorial discussions.

·         independently organise their own study methods and workload.

Summative assessment takes the form of one 3,000 - 4,000 word essay (excluding empirical appendices and references).

The module will include topics on:

1. Student Protests during May Fourth 1919

2. Mobilisation of Workers, Peasants and Youth

3. Women in China: Political and Social Mobilisation

4. Primary Sources Exercise

5. The New Life Movement

6. Wartime Mobilisation

7. Mobilisation Campaigns in Yan’an 

Indicative Reading and Resource List:

Your key text will be Peter Zarrow, China in War and Revolution 1895-1949, (London, 2005)

Preliminary Reading:

Stephen C. Averill, “The Transition from Urban to Rural in the Chinese Revolution”, The China Journal, No. 48 (Jul., 2002), pp. 87-121.

John Fitzgerald, Awakening China, (Stanford, 1996)

Rana Mitter, Modern China: A Bitter Revolution, (Oxford, 2004)

 Ono Kazuko, Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution, 1850-1950, (Stanford, 1999)

Mark Selden, “Yan’an Communism Reconsidered”, Modern China, Vol. 21, No. 1, Symposium: Rethinking the Chinese Revolution. Paradigmatic Issues in Chinese Studies, IV (Jan., 1995), pp. 8-44.

Hans J. van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China 1925-1945, (London, 2003)