HR645-6-FY-CO:
From Liberation to the Tiananmen Massacre: China From Mao to Deng Xiaoping, 1949-1992
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 6
Inactive
Thursday 05 October 2023
Friday 28 June 2024
30
26 September 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
The Mao era was a period of momentous changes in Chinese society. This module explores the history of the first 50 years of the People's Republic of China (the PRC) from the Communist Liberation in 1949 to the aftermath of June 4th 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.
The module begins with the date when the Communist Party of China established state power under the leadership of Mao Zedong, and ends with Deng Xiaoping's 'southern tour' in 1992, which signalled the full-scale rejection of Mao's economic strategy by embracing the global market. It places this history within the context of China's international relations, to examine the international influences and ideological premises moulding the government's changing political and economic strategies.
The aim of this module is:
- To provide students with a broad historical understanding of the history of the first 50 years of the People’s Republic of China.
By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:
- Develop a firm critical understanding of China’s recent history as well as good analytical skills in reading primary texts in English translation.
Students will work with a variety of primary and secondary sources in English language in order to develop specific skills of documentary analysis and historical interpretation. Readings will be complemented with the use of visual image, including film and political posters.
Students will examine some of the key themes and debates in modern Chinese culture and society as represented by Chinese and Western historians, as well as in contemporary accounts of China, and through these they will establish a critical understanding about the major political, economic and social changes between Mao's China and 1992.
Introductory Reading
- Brown, Jeremy & Paul G. Pickowicz, eds. Dilemmas of Victory: The Early Years of the People's Republic of China (2008).
- Frederick C. Teiwes and Warren Sun, Chinese Politics During the Twilight of the Cultural Revolution, 1972-1976.
- Timothy B. Weston & Lionel Jensen, ed. China's Transformations: The Stories beyond the Headlines (2000).
This module will be delivered via:
-
Macfarquhar, R. (1969) ‘Communist China’s Twenty Years’,
The China Quarterly, 39, pp. 55–63. Available at:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/652531.
-
Brown, J. and Pickowicz, P. (2010b)
Dilemmas of victory: the early years of the People’s Republic of China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Available at:
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=511683.
-
-
Gao, J.Z. (2004)
Communist Takeover of Hangzhou. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press. Available at:
https://www-jstor-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/stable/j.ctt6wqs8q.
-
Hershatter, G. (2011)
The gender of memory?: rural women and China’s collective past. Berkerley: University of California Press. Available at:
https://dx.doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520267701.001.0001.
-
Xun, Z. (2020) ‘Violence in Revolutionary China, 1949–1963’, in L. Edwards, N. Penn, and J. Winter (eds)
The Cambridge World History of Violence. Cambridge University Press, pp. 408–426. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316585023.021.
-
Karl, R.E. (2010b)
Mao Zedong and China in the twentieth-century world: a concise history. Durham: Duke University Press. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1172286.
-
MacFarquhar, R. (1974a) Origins of Cultural Revolution. Melbourne, VIC: Titles Distributed by Oxford University Press (Australia and New Zealand).
-
Teiwes, F.C. (2015)
Politics and purges in China: rectification and the decline of party norms, 1950-1965. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. Available at:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com//books/e/9781315484778.
-
Jianhui, L. and Hongxu, W. (2006) ‘The Origins of the General Line for the Transition Period and of the Acceleration of the Chinese Socialist Transformation in Summer 1955’,
The China Quarterly, 187, pp. 724–731. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741006000348.
-
Walker, K.R. (no date) ‘Collectivisation in Retrospect: The “Socialist High Tide” of Autumn 1955-Spring 1956’,
The China Quarterly, 26, pp. 1–43. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/651609?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
-
Ash, R. (no date) ‘The High Tide from Jiangsu: A Perspective from Local Sources at the Time’,
The China Quarterly, 187, pp. 743–753. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20192663?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
-
Bowie, R.R. and Fairbank, J.K. (1962) Communist China 1955-1959: Policy Documents with Analysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
-
-
Zhou, X. (2012)
The great famine in China, 1958-1962: a documentary history. New Haven: Yale University Press. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt1nq1qr.
-
Thaxton, R.A. (2008)
Catastrophe and Contention in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511756085.
-
Smith, S.A. (2006) ‘Talking Toads and Chinless Ghosts: The Politics of “Superstitious” Rumors in the People’s Republic of China, 1961-1965’,
The American Historical Review, 111(2), pp. 405–427. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.111.2.405.
-
Luthi, L.M. (2008)
The Sino-Soviet split: Cold War in the communist world. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=664571.
-
Chen, J. (2001)
Mao’s China and the cold war. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Available at:
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=312413.
-
Friedman, E., Pickowicz, P.G. and Selden, M. (2005b)
Revolution, Resistance, and Reform in Village China. Annotated edition. New Haven: Yale University Press. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt1njmq9.
-
Zhong, X., Wang, Z. and Di, B. (2001)
Some of us: Chinese women growing up in the Mao era. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Available at:
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=91066.
-
Yang, R. (1997)
Spider eaters: a memoir. Berkeley: University of California Press. Available at:
https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780520955363.
-
David Hinton (1995) ‘Children of the Revolution (1995).’
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Xun Zhou, email: xzhoug@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Xun Zhou
Belinda Waterman, Department of History, 01206 872313
Yes
Yes
No
Dr Ingeborg Dornan
Brunel University London
Reader in History
Available via Moodle
Of 40 hours, 40 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
Disclaimer: The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its Module Directory is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can
be necessary to make changes, for example to programmes, modules, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include a change of law or regulatory requirements,
industrial action, lack of demand, departure of key personnel, change in government policy, or withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to modules may for example consist
of variations to the content and method of delivery or assessment of modules and other services, to discontinue modules and other services and to merge or combine modules.
The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications and module directory.
The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.