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| CHINA:
HISTORY-ARCHAEOLOGY |
| For all topics
in this section, please also see the Literature section
below for autobiographies,
novels, and films about life in China during and after the 1949 revolution. |
| People's
Republic of China (1949-present) |
Interactive Map • Modern
Period, 1912-present [Princeton University
Art Museum]
An overview of political and artistic developments in China from 1912 to the present.
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.
• A
Chronology of the PRC under Mao Zedong (1949-1976) [Asia
for Educators]
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|
| "Hundred
Flowers" Period |
|
| Land
Reform, Socialized Agriculture, The Great Leap Forward |
|
| Cultural
Revolution (1966-1976) |
• Introduction
to the Cultural Revolution [PDF] [SPICE
Digest, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford
University]
"The 'Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,' usually
known
simply as the Cultural Revolution (or the Great Cultural
Revolution), was a 'complex social upheaval that began as a
struggle between Mao Zedong and other top party leaders for
dominance of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and went on to
affect all of China with its call for 'continuing revolution.' This
social upheaval lasted from 1966 to 1976 and left deep scars upon
Chinese society."
Primary Source w/DBQs • The
Sixteen Points: Guidelines for the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution (1966) [PDF] [Asia
for Educators]
• Morning
Sun: A Film and Website about the Cultural Revolution [Long
Bow Group]
"A range of techniques and perspectives are used in the Morning Sun website
to reflect on the origins and history of the Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1976). We
approach the period not from a simplistic linear perspective, but from a panoptic
one, encompassing a broad overview while allowing the user to focus in on individual
histories, narratives and events that reveal the complex contradictory forces that
led to an era of unrivalled revolutionary fervor and political turmoil."
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|
| Socialism
and Democracy in China after Mao Zedong |
|
| Tiananmen
Square Demonstrations (1989) |
• A
Brief Chronology of Events at Tiananmen
Square (1989) [Asia for Educators]
Primary Source w/DBQs • The May 13 Hunger Strike Declaration (1989) [PDF] [Asia for Educators]
Primary Source • Interview
at Tiananmen Square with Chai Ling [Asia
for Educators]
• The
Political Education of a Chinese Dissident: Conversation with Wei
Jingsheng, Human Rights Activist [Conversations
with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley]
• Tiananmen
Square in the Newspapers [Asia for
Educators]
With three articles from The New York Times, all written in
1989.
• Epilogue,
from Children of the Dragon: The Story of Tiananmen Square [Asia
for Educators]
• The
Gate of Heavenly Peace [Long
Bow Group]
"Witnessed on television by millions around the world, the Tiananmen protests
were one of the most watched, yet least understood, stories of our time. This website
explores the origins and history of the protests, the intense international media
coverage, and underlying themes such as democracy, human rights, reform and revolution,
and nationalism. The site contains articles, essays, and book excerpts, a tour of
Tiananmen Square, and a Media Library with posters, photographs, music, and videos. This
site also includes extensive information about the feature-length documentary The
Gate of Heavenly Peace."
• 20
Years On: Tiananmen Remembered [CNN.com]
A list of related articles and video clips.
Lesson Plans • The
Tank Man [Frontline, PBS]
"On a fateful day in June 1989, the world became fixed on the bold
image of a lone man staring down a procession of tanks in Tiananmen
Square, Beijing. While trying to unearth the story behind this
courageous man, the producers of The Tank Man uncover additional
stories about the clash between the communist government of the
People's Republic of China and those who advocate for a more open,
democratic society. In this film FRONTLINE explores a society in
transition 17 years after the demonstrations at Tiananmen Square.
China has become open for global business, but it remains closed
to a free media and available information." This teacher's guide
to the PBS documentary includes four lesson plans.
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|
| RELIGION,
PHILOSOPHY, THOUGHT |
| Religion
in China Today |
|
|
| GOVERNMENT
AND ADMINISTRATION |
| China's
Political System since 1949 |
• Background
Notes on China: History, Government, Political Conditions [Bureau
of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, United States Department of
State]
An overview of China's recent history and the structure
of the the PRC's political system, including the organs of power
in the CCP (Chinese Communist Party).
Primary Source • The
Chinese Political System and the Communist Party [Asia
for Educators]
This unit provides an overview of the Chinese political system and
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with excerpts from the constitutions
of the Communist Party of China and of the People's Republic of China.
These primary documents can highlight for students how the Communist
Party is the real political power in China. A chart of the political
structure of China is also included, to help students better understand
the relationship between the party and the state in a communist system.
Discussion questions also included.
• Three
Chinese Leaders: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping [Asia
for Educators]
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|
| ECONOMY,
WORK, TRADE, FOREIGN RELATIONS |
| China's
Foreign Policy |
|
| U.S.-China
Relations |
• U.S.-China
Relations Since 1949 [Asia
for Educators]
This unit explores three periods in the development of U.S.-China relations
since 1949: Containment: 1949-1969; Rapprochement: 1970-1979; and Full
Diplomatic Relations: 1979 to present. An overview of the human rights
issue is also provided. Discussion questions are included.
Primary Sources • China
and the United States: From Hostility to Engagement [National
Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 18, George Washington
University]
Fifteen documents, with synopses, reflecting U.S. interaction with
and policy toward China from 1963-1996. Document 5 contains the
transcript of a 1972 conversation among Richard
Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Mao Zedong, and Zhou Enlai.
Primary Source w/DBQs • Taiwan
and U.S.-China Relations Since 1949 [Asia
for Educators]
This unit offers an historical overview of Taiwan and U.S.-China relations. An introductory
reading is followed by two important primary-source documents ["Shanghai
Communiqué" (1972) and Taiwan
Relations Act (1979)] and discussion questions.
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|
| SOCIETY |
| Population |
|
| LITERATURE
AND FILM |
| Autobiographies,
Novels, and Films about Life in China during and after the 1949 Revolution |
|
This section is designed to introduce students to
contemporary China since the establishment of the People’s
Republic of China in 1949 by exploring what it has been like to live
in China under communist rule. In recent years a number of autobiographies
have emerged that recount the excitement, exhilaration, chaos, excesses,
and human triumphs and tragedies of the socialist revolution and
China’s economic modernization efforts. Told by young Chinese,
many of whom are now émigrés, they offer a vivid picture
of what it was like to be young and involved in the remaking of a
nation.
Building Chinese Socialism, 1909-1960s
• Reading
Jung Chang's Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China [Asia
for Educators]
Wild Swans (1991) is a memoir that traces the transformations
of twentieth-century Chinese history through the lives of three
generations of Chinese women. This short teaching guide includes
a brief synopsis of the plot and discussion questions for students.
Establishing the New Regime: Land Reform,
1949-1953
• Reading Yuan-tsung
Chen's
The Dragon's Village: An Autobiographical Novel of Revolutionary
China [Asia
for Educators]
The Dragon's Village (1980) is an autobiography of a young
city girl who took part in land reform in a remote mountain village
as a teenager. This book will engage students personally while giving
them a firsthand account of how the revolution developed. This short
teaching guide includes a brief synopsis of the plot and discussion
questions for students.
Life in China,
1940s to 1970s
• Book
Review: To Live, by Yu Hua [PDF] [Education
About Asia, Association for Asian Studies]
• Interview
with Yu Hua, author of To
Live (Huo Zhe) [PDF] [Education
About Asia, Association for Asian Studies]
• Teacher's Guide
to To
Live (Film Based on Yu Hua's Novel) [PDF] [Asian Educational
Media Service]
To Live, a film directed by Zhang Yimou, provides
an overview of key events in twentieth-century
China, moving from the 1940s to the 1970s. American high school students
will enjoy contemplating
the effect of historical events on the intimate life of a single family.
The Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976
• Reading Gao
Yuan's Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution [Asia
for Educators]
"Born Red is an artistically wrought personal account,
written very much from inside the experience, of the years 1966-69,
when the author was a young teenager at middle school." This
short teaching guide includes a brief overview of the Cultural
Revolution, a short synopsis of the plot of Born Red, and
discussion questions for students.
• Reading
Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro's Son of the Revolution [Asia
for Educators]
Liang Heng’s portrait of life during the Cultural Revolution highlights the
effect of its turbulent political campaigns on China’s social fabric. This
short teaching guide includes a brief overview of the Cultural
Revolution, a short synopsis of the plot of Son of a Revolution,
and discussion questions for students.
Hao Ran, 1932-2008
Primary Source w/DBQs • "Date
Orchard" [PDF] [Asia for Educators]
• Hao
Ran: Writer of the Revolution [Asia for Educators]
An introduction to the life and work of Hao Ran, an author of great popularity in
China during the Cultural Revolution period. With discussion questions for students.
The Democracy Movement and Tiananmen
Square, 1978-1989
• Reading Shen
Tong's Almost a Revolution [Asia
for Educators]
"Almost a Revolution is a memoir of China's democracy movement and the
June 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident as seen through the eyes of student leader, Shen
Tong." This short teaching guide includes a brief introduction to the political
situation surrounding the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989 and discussion
questions for students.
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|
| ART
AND MUSIC |
| Graphic
Arts |
• Graphic
Arts (of 20th-Century China) [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 China's visual culture, which "changed dramatically
in the twentieth century with the great growth in advertising,
posters, and other mass-produced means of using images to attract
the attention of the populace."
• The
Chairman Smiles [International Institute
of Social History]
"The former Soviet Union, Cuba, and China: three countries
where posters played an important political role and received a
large amount of artistic attention. This is a selection of 145
political posters, famous masterpieces as well as equally beautiful
but unknown examples drawn from the collection of the International
Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. ... The Chinese posters
include not only a number from the period of the Cultural Revolution
(1966-1976), with the glorification of Mao Zedong, idyllic scenes
in agricultural communes and sharp attacks on political opponents,
but also extremely rare posters from circa 1949 to the early 1960s,
with the establishment of the People's Republic and the campaign
for the Great Leap Forward. There are also posters from the 1980s
and early 1990s, the period of Deng Xiaoping and the economic modernization."
• Picturing
Power: Posters of the Cultural Revolution [The
Huntington Archive, The Ohio State University]
Find more art-related resources for China,
20th Century
at OMuRAA (Online Museum Resources on Asian Art)
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| © 2009 Asia for Educators,
Columbia University |
|
