Video Unit • Achievements and Limits of Manchu Rule [Open Learning Initiative, Harvard Extension School]
Video Unit • Opium and the Opium Wars [Open Learning Initiative, Harvard Extension School]
Video Unit • Christianity and Chinese Salvation [Open Learning Initiative, Harvard Extension School]
Lectures 21, 23, and 25 of 37 from the Harvard Open Learning Initiative course, China: Traditions and Transformations. These 50-minute lecture presentations, each with an accompanying slide presentation that can be controlled separately, are part of an introductory course on China for undergraduates at Harvard. Taught by two of the leading scholars of the China field — professors Peter Bol and William Kirby — the presentations provide background for teachers and students alike. Suitable for secondary school classrooms, especially AP-World History courses. (The link above leads to the main course page listing all 37 lectures. Scroll to Lecture 21: Achievements and Limits of Manchu Rule, Lecture 23: Opium and the Opium Wars, and Lecture 25: Christianity and Chinese Salvation and select a connection type to view or listen to these lectures.)

Overview Maps • Dynasties of China [The Genographic Project: Atlas of the Human Journey, NationalGeographic.com]
Eight small maps displayed together, showing China's eight major dynasties from the Shang to the Qing. The maps are very small, but shown together and with text summarizing the history of all eight dynasties, they effectively provide an excellent overview of China's history from ca. 1750 B.C.E. to today. Site removed at NGS temporarily; check back.

Printable Map • Maps of Chinese Dynasties: Ch'ing (Qing) Dynasty [The Art of Asia, Minneapolis Institute of Arts]
Color map showing land ruled by China's Qing dynasty relative to present-day political boundaries. Can be downloaded as a .pdf file.

Interactive Map • Qing Dynasty, 1644–1912 [Princeton University Art Museum]
An excellent brief overview of the Qing dynasty. With four related art objects, all with lengthy descriptions, and an interactive map with an excellent COMPARE feature that allows the user to select any two dynastic periods in Chinese history and compare them by moving from one map to the other.

• Splendors of China's Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong [The Field Museum]
Online presentation of a 2004 traveling exhibition developed in cooperation with the Palace Museum in Beijing. With a video introduction to the exhibition, plus a gallery of images organized under the following topics: 1) Symbols of Power; 2) Effective Leadership; 3) Family Life; 4) The Private World of the Emperor; 5) Religion. Also a Q&A section with eleven commonly asked questions about Imperial China.

Maps • Recording the Grandeur of the Qing [Columbia University and The Metropolitan Museum of Art]
This interactive teaching unit gives the viewer unprecedented access to four monumental artworks of the Qing period — four of the twenty-four southern inspection tour scrolls commissioned by the Qing emperors Kangxi (r. 1662-1722) and Qianlong (r. 1736-1795). Each of the four featured scrolls is displayed online in its entirety, with key details annotated by Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Maxwell K. Hearn. Five background essays by Dr. Hearn and Columbia history professor Madeleine Zelin serve as guides to the historical and artistic context in which the scrolls were created. Topics discussed at length include: the reigns of the two emperors who commissioned the scrolls, Kangxi and Qianlong, as well as key aspects of the Qing government, economy, and art.

• The Late Qing Empire in Global History [PDF] [Education About Asia, Association for Asian Studies]
"'The role of the Chinese empires in global history at the height of their economic power (roughly 1400–1800) has been well described in powerful books by Andre Gunder Frank, Kenneth Pomeranz, and Bin Wong. In that period, China’s advanced technology and commercial economy, as well as access to their markets over sea and land, created a market that drove technological development, efficiency in industrial organization, and an increasing volume of long-distance trade. The effects were felt first in East Asia and Southeast Asia, but eventually powered the development of travel, trade, and finance throughout the Indian Ocean, and finally drew Europeans, eager to connect with the center of wealth, out of their continent and into the oceans. After roughly 1800, however, various factors caused China to lose its global economic leadership as it experienced social turmoil, economic fracturing, and the imposition of European imperialism. Global historians sometimes lose sight of the China thread between this threshold of 1800 and the appearance of modern China as an ascendant power in the late twentieth century, but there are many reasons why we should continue to see important trends and their effects reflected in the modern Chinese experience."

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Background readings related to these primary sources can be found in the Years of Reform section, below.

Feng Guifen, 1809-1874
Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from "On the Adoption of Western Learning" [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

Yan Fu, 1854-1921
Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from "Learning from the West" [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

• Liang Qichao, China's First Democrat [Asia for Educators]

Liang Qichao, 1873-1929
Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from "Observations on a Trip to America" [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

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Han Yi (Pseudonym, possibly written by Liu Shipei, 1884-1917)
Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from "Destroying the Family" [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

He Zhen (wife of Liu Shipei, 1884-1917)
Primary Source w/DBQs • "What Women Should Know About Communism" [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

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Primary Sources • Before and After the May Fourth Movement [Asia for Educators]
The so-called "May Fourth" or "new culture" movement began in China around 1916, following the failure of the 1911 Revolution to establish a republican government, and continued through the 1920s. This unit includes a background reading and three primary-source readings [Chen Duxiu's "Our Final Awakening" (1916) [PDF]; Chiang Kai-shek's "Essentials of a New Life Movement" (1934) [PDF]; Mao Zedong's "Reform Our Study" (1941)], plus discussion questions and suggested activities for students.

More readings related to the May Fourth Movement can be found under Time Period 1900-1950.

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Video Unit • Christianity and Chinese Salvation [Open Learning Initiative, Harvard Extension School]
Lecture 24 of 37 from the Harvard Open Learning Initiative course, China: Traditions and Transformations. This 50-minute lecture presentation, with an accompanying slide presentation that can be controlled separately, is part of an introductory course on China for undergraduates at Harvard. Taught by two of the leading scholars of the China field — professors Peter Bol and William Kirby — the presentations provide background for teachers and students alike. Suitable for secondary school classrooms, especially AP-World History courses. (The link above leads to the main course page listing all 37 lectures. Scroll to Lecture 24: Christianity and Chinese Salvation and select a connection type to view or listen to this lecture.)

• Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) [Asia for Educators]
An introductory overview of the Taiping rebellion. With suggested activities for students.

Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from The Land System of the Heavenly Kingdom (Tianzhao tianumu zhidu): "The Taiping Economic Program" [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from Ode for Youth [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

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Primary Source • Qing China's Internal Crisis: Land Shortage, Famine, Rural Poverty [Asia for Educators]
This unit explores the domestic crises that China faced in the late nineteenth century. With woodblock prints that portray the extent of the 1876-1879 famine and a primary-source reading about the 1887-88 famine that afflicted North China. With discussion questions and suggested activities for students.

Primary Source • Fei Ch'i-hao on the Boxer Rebellion [Modern History Sourcebook, Fordham University]
The account of "the activities of the millennialist 'Boxers' in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900," by Fei Ch'i-hao, a Chinese Christian.

• Walter LaFeber on Revolution in China and Walter LaFeber on the American Government Response to the Boxer Rebellion [America 1900, PBS]
In these transcripts of an interview aired as part of the PBS program America 1900, Cornell University history professor Walter LaFeber discusses the circumstances leading to and surrounding the instability and anarchy in China around the year 1900, focusing on the Boxer Rebellion and the American government's response to the Boxer Rebellion.

• China (Boxer Rebellion), 1900-01 [Australian War Memorial]
The Boxer Rebellion from the perspective of Australia, at that time a British colony offering material support to the intervening Western powers (Britain, Italy, and the United States).

See the International Relations sections, below, for content about China's relations with Britain and the United States in the years before the Boxer Rebellion.

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Primary Sources • From Reform to Revolution, 1842 to 1911 [Asia for Educators]
After China's defeat in the Opium War of 1842, thinkers tried to understand what made the West so strong and how China could best respond. This unit traces the debates about reform from the mid-nineteenth into the early twentieth century, as arguments for more radical reform, including revolution, increased. Includes background readings, two primary-source readings (Feng Guifen's "On the Adoption of Western Learning" [PDF] and Yan Fu's "Learning from the West" [PDF]) and brief discussions of Liang Qichao's ideas on democracy and Sun Yatsen's "Three People's Principles." Also see the Religion, Philosophy, Thought section, above, for more readings by these and other reformist thinkers.

• China's First Experiment in Overseas Education, 1872-1881 [Chinese Educational Mission Connections]
"Beset by the military and economic domination of the Western colonial powers, China had been forced to open up the country to foreign trade and settlements in the so-called Treaty Ports. The dispatch of the 120 students on what was called the Chinese Educational Mission (CEM) was a belated effort by the government of the Qing dynasty to stem the growing tide of aggression: harness the aggressors’ know-how and technology to defeat them at their own game." This website, created by several third-generation descendants of CEM students, provides an in-depth look at the history of the Chinese Educational Mission, with archival photographs and basic biographical profiles of all 120 CEM students.

Chu Chengbo's 1895 memorial to Qing emperor Guanxu (1871-1908, r. 1875-1908)
Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from Reforming Men's Minds Comes Before Reforming Institutions [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

Kang Youwei's 1898 memorial to Qing emperor Guanxu (1871-1908, r. 1875-1908)
Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from Comprehensive Consideration of the Whole Situation [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

Reform Imperial Edict of 1901 (Issued by the Empress Dowager Cixi, 1835-1908)
Primary Source w/DBQs • Reform Edict of the Qing Imperial Government (January 29, 1901) [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

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Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Throwing Off Asia II: Woodblock Prints of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) [Visualizing Cultures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
Featuring propaganda prints illustrating Japan's victory in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). A teaching unit richly illustrated with high-resolution images and maps and featuring essays by John W. Dower, MIT professor of Japanese history. The Visual Narratives section offers a shorthand view of the unit's primary themes and images; the Curriculum section includes eight lesson plans related to the unit.

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• History of the China Trade [British Library]
A brief history of British trade with China from 1637 to the 1840s. With images from the British Library's collection.

• Rise and Fall of the Canton Trade System [Visualizing Cultures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
I. China in the World (1700-1860s) | II. Macau & Whampoa Anchorage | III. Canton & Hong Kong | IV. Image Galleries | "From early times China engaged in extensive trade relations with other countries, and until the mid 19th century Chinese officials directed by the imperial court in Beijing dictated the conditions under which such trade was conducted. From the 16th century to mid 1800s, three cities became the centers of the trading system linking the 'Middle Kingdom' to Western European powers and eventually the United States: Macau, Canton, and Hong Kong." An extensive look at the Canton Trade system, richly illustrated with high-resolution images and maps. With essays by MIT Professor Emeritus of History Peter C. Perdue. The images in the galleries section "portray the abundant variety of commercial, art, and craft goods exchanged in the Canton region during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Three cities became the center of the trading system that linked China to the Western European powers and the United States. Macau, the oldest, stayed under Portuguese control from 1557 to 1999. Canton gathered traders from Europe, Southeast Asia, the U.S., and the rest of China. Hong Kong, acquired by the British after the Opium War, grew from a small fishing village to a major international port during the 19th century."

• China and Europe, 1780-1937 [Asia for Educators]
Part of the teaching module China and Europe: 1500-2000 and Beyond, with consultants Ken Pomeranz (Professor of History, University of California at Irvine) and R. Bin Wong (Professor of History, University of California at Los Angeles). The section on 1780-1937 discusses China's decline, focusing specifically on resource differences and the "Asian trade boom." With video interviews of the faculty experts, additional maps, images, and readings throughout.

Video Unit • Opium and the Opium Wars [Open Learning Initiative, Harvard Extension School]
Lecture 23 of 37 from the Harvard Open Learning Initiative course, China: Traditions and Transformations. This 50-minute lecture presentation, with an accompanying slide presentation that can be controlled separately, is part of an introductory course on China for undergraduates at Harvard. Taught by two of the leading scholars of the China field — professors Peter Bol and William Kirby — the presentations provide background for teachers and students alike. Suitable for secondary school classrooms, especially AP-World History courses. (The link above leads to the main course page listing all 37 lectures. Scroll to Lecture 23: Opium and the Opium Wars and select a connection type to view or listen to this lecture.)

Primary Source w/DBQs • Macartney and the Emperor [Asia for Educators]
The Qing dynasty's restrictions on foreign trade increasingly frustrated Europeans, especially the British. In 1792 Great Britain sent a diplomat, Lord George Macartney (1737-1806), to present its demands to the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-1796). This unit includes an introductory note to teachers with suggestions for teaching about Macartney's mission; a student reading discussing European contact and trade with China prior to and on the eve of Macartney's mission to China; and the primary-source reading Two Edicts from the Qianlong Emperor, which were the Qianlong emperor's responses to the Macartney mission. With discussion questions and suggested activities for students.

Lesson Plan + Classroom Activity • Qianlong Meets Macartney: Collision of Two World Views (A One-Act Play) [Education About Asia, Association for Asian Studies]
A lesson plan that aims "to illustrate in dramatic form the clash of diplomatic objectives and ideological assumptions characterizing the Macartney mission and its reception in China; to lay out the issues dividing the British and the Chinese, and to assess their significance for future interaction between China and the West." With an in-depth teachers' introduction and study guide, full text of the play to be performed, and related questions and activities.

Primary Sources w/DBQs• The "Opening" of the East: Differing Perspectives [PDF] [Education About Asia, Association for Asian Studies]
Provided with eight short primary-source selections and given only the date of the selection for reference, students are asked to provide a brief summary of the speaker’s position, to identify the nationality of the speaker, and to provide a rationale for choosing that speaker. Particularly relevant for AP World History courses.

• Trading Places: East India Company: Opium and the Expansion of Trade [British Library]
A brief look at the circumstances leading to the British East India Company's smuggling of opium from India into China. Part of a larger unit on the history of the East India Company. With images from the British Library's collection.

Primary Source w/DBQs • The Opium War and Foreign Encroachment [Asia for Educators]
In the fifty years after Macartney's visit (see "Macartney and the Emperor," above), Western powers pushed their demands on China further, leading to war and the gradual shift from tribute to treaty relations. This unit examines the events surrounding the Opium War and the Treaty of Nanjing, which concluded that war, and the increasing foreign encroachments upon China during the nineteenth century. Included are two primary-source readings: Commissioner Lin Zexu's "Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria" (1839) and The Treaty of Nanjing (1842) [PDF]. With discussion questions and suggested activities for students.

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Video Unit • Christianity and Chinese Salvation [Open Learning Initiative, Harvard Extension School]
Lecture 24 of 37 from the Harvard Open Learning Initiative course, China: Traditions and Transformations. This 50-minute lecture presentation, with an accompanying slide presentation that can be controlled separately, is part of an introductory course on China for undergraduates at Harvard. Taught by two of the leading scholars of the China field — professors Peter Bol and William Kirby — the presentations provide background for teachers and students alike. Suitable for secondary school classrooms, especially AP-World History courses. (The link above leads to the main course page listing all 37 lectures. Scroll to Lecture 24: Christianity and Chinese Salvation and select a connection type to view or listen to this lecture.)

• Two Hundred Years of U.S. Trade with China (1784-1984) [Asia for Educators]
This unit explores the 200-year history of U.S. trade with China. Discussion questions and a U.S.-China Trade Timeline are included.

Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Early American Trade with China [Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]
"After gaining its independence from Great Britain, the United States needed to develop its economic base. Restricted during colonial times to supplying raw materials to the industrializing English economy, and excluded from most of the British markets after independence, Americans looked to international trade as a means to generate wealth and provide employment for many. Trade with China, from which the colonies had been barred, seemed to offer immediate opportunities for wealth. .... The activities in this unit use the early China trade to explore the place of the United States in the world order and economy of late 18th and early 19th centuries. They also provide insight into the role of trade in nation building before and after the War of 1812. In addition, they provide the background for understanding the United States' interest in events in and along the Pacific Rim later in the 19th century." Includes lesson plans and questions for discussion.

• China's First Experiment in Overseas Education, 1872-1881 [Chinese Educational Mission Connections]
"Beset by the military and economic domination of the Western colonial powers, China had been forced to open up the country to foreign trade and settlements in the so-called Treaty Ports. The dispatch of the 120 students on what was called the Chinese Educational Mission (CEM) was a belated effort by the government of the Qing dynasty to stem the growing tide of aggression: harness the aggressors’ know-how and technology to defeat them at their own game." This website, created by several third-generation descendants of CEM students, provides an in-depth look at the history of the Chinese Educational Mission, with archival photographs and basic biographical profiles of all 120 CEM students.

• Walter LaFeber on American Missionaries China [America 1900, PBS]
Transcript of an interview aired as part of the PBS program America 1900, with Cornell University history professor Walter LaFeber.

Primary Source • "The Missionary Enterprise in China," by Chester Holcombe (1906) [The Atlantic Monthly]
A defense of "the missionary enterprise in China," written by American diplomat and author Chester Holcombe (1842-1912) after the Boxer uprising. Holcombe was also an ordained minister and had worked as a missionary in China.

• Looking East: William Howard Taft and the 1905 Mission to Asia (The Photographs of Harry Fowler Woods) [Ohio Historical Society]
"On July 8, 1905, one of the first and largest U.S. foreign diplomatic delegations to Asia embarked from San Francisco for a three-month goodwill tour, stopping in Japan, the Philippines, and China. Under the leadership of Secretary of War, William Howard Taft... The 1905 voyage carried two serious diplomatic purposes: to assist with peace negotiations in order to end the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05); and to demonstrate American accomplishments in the Philippines." Includes a 25-page curriculum guide providing extensive historical background information, plus primary-source documents and map activities.

• Immigration from China [Pacific Link, KQED Asian Education Initiative]
This short history of Chinese immigrants in the United States is part of a website about the Angel Island Immigration Station (San Francisco), which was in operation from 1910 to 1940. Also see the HISTORY and TIMELINES sections for more information about China.

Primary Sources • Rise of Industrial America, 1876-1900: Chinese Immigration to the United States, 1851-1900 [The Library of Congress]
"After the Civil War, immigrants again began to stream to the United States. ... a relatively large group of Chinese immigrated to the United States between the start of the California gold rush in 1849 and 1882, when federal law stopped their immigration." A brief overview, with eight primary source documents on Chinese immigration written by various Americans of the time (including Mark Twain).

Primary Sources • The Chinese in California, 1850-1925 [The Library of Congress]
"The Chinese in California, 1850-1925 illustrates nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese immigration to California through about 8,000 images and pages of primary source materials. Included are photographs, original art, cartoons and other illustrations; letters, excerpts from diaries, business records, and legal documents; as well as pamphlets, broadsides, speeches, sheet music, and other printed matter." With essays discussing "Chinese and Westward Expansion," "San Francisco's Chinatown," "Anti-Chinese Movement and Chinese Exclusion," and more.

Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • The Chinese-American Experience in 19th Century America [Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]
"To understand the experience of Chinese immigrants to the United States in the mid-19th century, it is necessary to look at the intellectual, economic, and political climate of the times. Many of the issues that were important then are still part of the current discussion concerning political and economic effects of immigration and whether peoples who do not come from European stock are true Americans." Includes lesson plans and questions for discussion.

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• Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home [Peabody Essex Museum]
"Yin Yu Tang, a late Qing dynasty merchants' house, was originally located in southeastern China. Re-erected at the Peabody Essex Museum, Yin Yu Tang is now open to visitors." This companion website to the permanent installation at the museum allows visitors to explore "this rare example of the region's renowned architecture and to learn about the daily life of the Huang family, who lived in Yin Yu Tang for over 200 years." With in-depth text, images, and diagrams organized around the topics Orientation, Construction, Ornamentation, Belongings, and Preservation.

• Gardens [A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization, University of Washington]
A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization, prepared by University of Washington history professor Patricia Buckley Ebrey, is an excellent resource, with images, questions for discussion, timelines, maps, and suggested readings throughout. This particular unit discusses the origins, design, social uses, and aesthetics of Chinese garden design, which reached its fullest development during the late Ming.

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Primary Source + Lesson Plan + DBQ • Western Views of Chinese Women [Women in World History, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University]
An excellent teaching module about Western views of Chinese women, drawn from ten primary source documents, mostly from missionary journals dating from the 1830s to the 1890. With a lesson plan for high school students and a document based question (DBQ).

He Zhen (wife of Liu Shipei, 1884-1917)
Primary Source w/DBQs • "What Women Should Know About Communism" [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

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• The Qing Dynasty (1644–1911): Painting [Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art]
A discussion of painting during the Qing dynasty, with a focus on three principal groups of artists working during the Qing: the traditionalists, the individualists, and the courtiers and professional artists. With 14 related artworks.

• Fine Works of the Ming and Qing Women Painters [The Palace Museum]
With paintings by twenty-seven artists active during the Ming and Qing period. With one selected work for each artist, along with brief biographical information. Several works are fan paintings.

• Splendors of China's Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong [The Field Museum]
Online presentation of a 2004 traveling exhibition developed in cooperation with the Palace Museum in Beijing. With a video introduction to the exhibition, plus a gallery of images organized under the following topics: 1) Symbols of Power; 2) Effective Leadership; 3) Family Life; 4) The Private World of the Emperor; 5) Religion. Also a Q&A section with 11 commonly asked questions about Imperial China.

• Recording the Grandeur of the Qing [Columbia University and The Metropolitan Museum of Art]
This interactive teaching unit gives the viewer unprecedented access to four monumental artworks of the Qing period — four of the twenty-four southern inspection tour scrolls commissioned by the Qing emperors Kangxi (r. 1662-1722) and Qianlong (r. 1736-1795). Each of the four featured scrolls is displayed online in its entirety, with key details annotated by Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Maxwell K. Hearn. Five background essays by Dr. Hearn and Columbia history professor Madeleine Zelin serve as guides to the historical and artistic context in which the scrolls were created. Topics discussed at length include: the reigns of the two emperors who commissioned the scrolls, Kangxi and Qianlong, as well as key aspects of the Qing government, economy, and art.

Video Unit • Art and Local Society in Later Imperial China [Open Learning Initiative, Harvard Extension School]
Lecture 22 of 37 from the Harvard Open Learning Initiative course, China: Traditions and Transformations. This 50-minute lecture presentation, with an accompanying slide presentation that can be controlled separately, is part of an introductory course on China for undergraduates at Harvard. Taught by two of the leading scholars of the China field — professors Peter Bol and William Kirby — the presentations provide background for teachers and students alike. Suitable for secondary school classrooms, especially AP-World History courses. (The link above leads to the main course page listing all 37 lectures. Scroll to Lecture 22: Art and Local Society in Later Imperial China and select a connection type to view or listen to this lecture.)

Find more art-related resources for China, 1750-1919 CE
at OMuRAA (Online Museum Resources on Asian Art)

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