HISTORY OF MODERN CHINA
(HIST 98/198)
Winter 2012, M/W 1:15-3:05
Building 50 Room 52H
GER:DB-SocSci
Professor Thomas S. Mullaney
Email: tsmullaney@stanford.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:30-3:00 (Building 200 Office 220)
[Note: Due to large enrollment, please try to schedule office hours meetings in advance]
Teaching Assistants:
David Fedman (dfedman@stanford.edu) Office Hours Thursdays 1-3 (Building 200 Office 245)
Kevin James Miller (millerkj@stanford.edu) Office Hours Tuesdays 10-12 (Building 200 Office 233)
Rapidly becoming one of the most significant countries in the world, China has undergone epic changes
over the course of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the span of less than two hundred years,
it has witnessed colonial incursions by multiple Western powers, the demise of an imperial system over
two thousand years old, a period of widespread political and social fragmentation, a debilitating war
against Japan, a Communist revolution which dwarfed in size that of twentieth-century Russia, and a
tumultuous period of Communist rule which has itself fluctuated between periods of chaos and
unprecedented economic growth. This course charts these major historical transformations, and will be
of interest to anyone trying to understand contemporary Chinese politics, society, ethnicity, economy,
gender, and international relations.
Required Texts
Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China
Pei-Kai Cheng and Jonathan D. Spence, eds., The Search for Modern China. A Documentary Collection
Course Components
For students in HIST 98
Discussion Section: 25%
Midterm: 25%
Final Essay: 20%
Final Exam: 30%
[See Appendix B for Descriptions.]
For students in HIST 198
Discussion Section: 20%
First Essay: 20%
Midterm: 15%
Final Essay: 20%
Final Exam: 25%
[See Appendix B for Descriptions.]
Major Dates
2/8 First Essay Due (Hist 198 Students Only); 2/13 Midterm Exam; 3/14 Final Essay Due; Final Exam
TBA
University Policy on Plagiarism
Students are required to review, understand, and abide by the university policy on plagiarism. Please visit
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/vpsa/judicialaffairs/students/plagiarism.sources.htm
History 98/198/398 (Mullaney, Winter 2012)
Schedule of Topics and Readings
[Note: Readings marked with the computer symbol  are available online via JSTOR, Coursework, or
the website indicated. All other readings are found in the texts for purchase and on reserve in Green.]
Week One
1/9 Crisis and Reform in the Mid-19th Century
Spence, 145-191
Primary Sources
Executions of Taiping Rebels at Canton (Cheng & Spence 136-8, hereafter “C&S”)
Precepts of Hong Xiuquan (C&S 139-145)
Yung Wing: Interview with Zeng Guofan (C&S 151-3)
1/11 The Rise of Anti-Dynastic Radicalism
Spence, 215-264
Kai-wing Chow, “Narrating Nation, Race and National Culture: Imagining the Hanzu Identity in
Modern China.” In Constructing Nationhood in Modern East Asia, edited by Kai-wing Chow,
Kevin Doak, and Poshek Fu, pp. 47-84. 
Primary Sources
Boxer Memoirs (C&S 184-9)
Zou Rong on Revolution (C&S 197-201)
Tongmeng Hui Revolutionary Proclamation (C&S 202-5)
Week Two
1/16 NO CLASS
1/18 Grand Visions and False Starts: From the Revolution of 1911 to the Warlord Period
Spence, 265-289
Primary Sources
The Manchu Abdication Edict (C&S 209-213)
Japan’s Twenty-One Demands (C&S 216-9)
The Restoration of 1917 (C&S 220-6)
Cai Tingkai: Reading the Newspaper (C&S 227)
Reactions to the May Thirtieth Incident (C&S 257-62)
Week Three (continued on next page)
1/23 Transforming Culture to Transform China
Spence, 290-312
Primary Sources
Chen Duxiu, “On Literary Revolution.” [From Modern Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on
Literature, 1893-1945, edited by Kirk A. Denton, pp. 140-145]  Google Books
Lu Xun, Diary of a Madman  Coursework
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1/25 The Radical Critique of Society
Christina Gilmartin. Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, Communist Politics, and Mass
Movements in the 1920s, pp. 1-43. 
Primary Sources
Wang Huiwu, “The Woman Question in China: Emancipation from a Trap” (October 1919)
[From Women in Republican China: A Sourcebook, edited by Hua R. Lan and Vanessa L. Fong,
pp. 158-164] 
Zhang Shenfu, “The Great Inappropriateness of Women’s Emancipation” (October 1919)
[From Women in Republican China: A Sourcebook, pp. 168-171] 
Mao Zedong, “Concerning the Incident of Miss Zhao’s Suicide” (November 21, 1919) [From
Women in Republican China, pp. 80-83] 
Mao Zedong, “‘The Evils of Society’ and Miss Zhao” (November 21, 1919) [From Women in
Republican China, pp. 83-89] 
Week Four
1/30 The Nanjing Decade
Spence, 313-374
Primary Sources
Purging the CCP (C&S 263-6)
Guomindang “Emergency Laws” (C&S 275-7)
Japan on the Mukden Incident (C&S 279-81)
Three Accounts of the New Life Movement (C&S 294-303)
2/1 The Rise of Mao Zedong and the Yan’an Way
Spence, 375-409
Mark Selden. China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited. [pp. 169-219] 
* Mid-Term Review Sheet to be Distributed in Class
Primary sources
Mao Zedong, “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement In Hunan.”
[www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_2.htm ]
Mao Zedong, “Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art.” (Parts I and II)
[www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-3/mswv3_08.htm ]
Week Five
2/6 Resistance and National Salvation: The War with Japan
Spence, 411-458
Primary Sources
Prince Konoe’s Address, September 1937 (C&S 315-6)
Chiang Kai-shek Replies (C&S 319-324)
The Rape of Nanjing (C&S 324-9)
Radio Address by Mr. Wang Jingwei (C&S 331-3)
2/8 In-Class Review (for everyone) and First Essay Due (only for students enrolled in HIST 198)
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Week Six
2/13 Mid-Term Examination
2/15 Civil War and the Revolution of 1949
Spence, 459-488
Suzanne Pepper, “The Student Movement and the Chinese Civil War, 1945-49,” China Quarterly,
No. 48 (Oct. - Dec., 1971), pp. 698-735.  JSTOR
Primary Sources
General Marshall: The Mediator’s View (C&S 338-42)
President Chiang’s Statement on Retirement (C&S 343-4)
Mao Takes Charge (C&S 344-50)
“On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship” (C&S 351-7)
Week Seven
2/20 NO CLASS
2/22 To Mobilize and Transform: The Consolidation of Communist Power on the Mainland
Spence, 489-543
Thomas S. Mullaney, “The Role of Social Scientists in China’s Ethnic Classification Project.”
Asian Ethnicity  Coursework
Primary Sources
New Laws, Marriage and Divorce (C&S 360-5)
Propaganda Posters from the Cultural Revolution [www.iisg.nl/~landsberger ]
Week Eight
2/27 The Great Leap Forward
Spence, 544-564
Primary Sources
Lu Dingyi, The Hundred Flowers Campaign (C&S 385-91)
Deng Xiaoping on the Anti-Rightist Campaign (C&S 396-9)
Peng Dehuai’s Critique of the Great Leap Forward [From Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, 2nd
Ed, edited by Patricia Ebrey, pp. 435-440.] 
“Decision Approaching Comrade Mao Zedong’s Proposal to Step Down” (C&S 411-2)
2/29 The Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution
Spence, 565-586
Primary Sources
Mao Zedong, “Bombard the Headquarters!” (C&S 426)
Mao Zedong, “The Sixteen-Point Decision” (C&S 426)
“Interrogation Record: Wang Guangmei.” [From China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not a
Dinner Party, edited by Michael Schoenhals, pp. 101-115]  Google Books
Kang Sheng, “On Case Examination Work.” [From China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969, pp.
116-136]  Google Books
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Week Nine
3/5 China and the Changing Face of Geopolitics
Spence, 587-617
Primary Sources
“Memorandum of Conversation between Kissinger and Zhou, 9 July 1971”
[www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB145/09.pdf ]
The Shanghai Communiqué (C&S 436-439)
Deng Xiaoping, Speech at the United Nations, 1974 (C&S 440-2)
3/7 Burying Mao: Chinese Reforms under Deng Xiaoping
Spence, 618-676
Primary Sources (in C&S)
Central Committee “Obituary” on the Death of Mao Zedong, 1976 (C&S 443)
Deng Xiaoping, “Seek Truth from Facts,” 1978 (447-51)
Deng Liqun on Clearing Cultural Contamination, 1983 (468)
Deng Liqun on the Scope of Spiritual Pollution, 1983 (469)
Week Ten
3/12 Cultural Experimentation in Reform-Era China and the Road to Tiananmen
Spence, 677-704
Joseph W. Esherick and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, “Acting Out Democracy: Political Theater in
Modern China,” Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Nov., 1990), pp. 835-865.  JSTOR
Primary Sources
“We Must Unequivocally Oppose Unrest” (C&S 488-9)
“Open Declaration of a Hunger Strike” (C&S 494-5)
Li Peng’s Announcement of Martial Law (C&S 495-500)
Deng Xiaoping’s Explanation of Crackdown (C&S 500)
3/14 Dawn of the Chinese Century?
* Final Essay Due
Spence, 705-728
Geremie Barmé, “To Screw Foreigners is Patriotic: China's Avant-Garde Nationalist,” The China
Journal, No. 34 (Jul., 1995), pp. 209-234.  JSTOR
Guobin Yang, “China's Zhiqing Generation: Nostalgia, Identity, and Cultural Resistance in the
1990s,” Modern China, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Jul., 2003), pp. 267-296.  JSTOR
Jean C. Oi, “Two Decades of Rural Reform in China: An Overview and Assessment,” The China
Quarterly, No. 159, Special Issue: The People's Republic of China after 50 Years (Sep., 1999),
pp. 616-628.  JSTOR
Primary Sources
To be selected by students in consultation with T.A. Please refer to Appendix A in this syllabus.
Final Exam, Time and Location TBA
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APPENDIX A
PRIMARY SOURCES
For Week 10, students should select their own primary sources. Students may choose materials from the
Cheng and Spence reader, provided that they have not been assigned in the course syllabus. Alternatively,
the following list includes a sample of some of the many readers available for modern China. All of these
contain primary sources in English translation.
Michael Schoenal, ed. China’s Culture Revolution 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party.
James T. Myers, ed. Chinese Politics: Documents and Analysis.
Stuart Schram, ed. Chairman Mao Talks to the People.
Patricia Ebrey, ed. Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook.
Hua R. Lan and Vanessa L. Fong, eds. Women in Republican China: A Sourcebook.
William Theodore de Bary, ed. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume II.
Kenneth Lieberthal, ed. Central Documents and Politburo Politics in China.
Carma Hinton, ed. People’s Republic of China, 1949-1979: A Documentary Survey.
Alan Lawren, ed. China Since 1919.
Orville Schell, ed. The China Reader.
K.H. Fan, ed. The Chinese Cultural Revolution: Selected Documents.
Lincoln Cushing and Ann Tompkin, eds. Chinese Posters: Art from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
Joseph S. M. Lau and Howard Goldblatt, eds. Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature.
George Lowry, ed. Documents on Contemporary China.
Howard Goldbatt, ed. Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused: Fiction from Today’s China.
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APPENDIX B
COURSE COMPONENTS
Discussion Section
Class discussion is a vital part of this course, and therefore of your final grade as well. Twenty-four hours
before section, you should email your TA a brief (250-300 word) response to the assigned readings in the
form of an argument. Responses should NOT be a summary of the readings: rather, students should try
to develop arguments that engage with the problems and ideas raised by the texts. The goal is to
demonstrate your command of the assigned readings and to provide practice for the longer essays. Please
be sure to bring all relevant texts to class, as well as a printout of your response paper.
Note: Section attendance is mandatory, and unexcused absences will affect your grade. More than three
unexcused absences from section will result in a grade of No Pass. Holidays or special events observed
by organized religions will be honored for those students who show affiliation with that particular
religion, but please inform me in advance. Except in the case of genuine emergencies, all absences must
be confirmed with myself via e-mail at least 48 hours prior to class time.
First Essay (Hist 198 Students Only)
In response to an essay question that will be distributed later, each student will write a 4-6 page, doublespaced, analytical paper based on three or more primary documents. While no outside research is
necessary, students are not limited to course readings. The goal is to develop and demonstrate your skills
in producing an argument based on close and critical analyses of historical documents. The essay is due
in class on February 8. Please bring a hard-copy version to class, and also email an electronic version
(Word or PDF) to your TA and me.
Midterm Exam
The midterm exams will include identifications of key people, institutions, places, terms, concepts, and
events. The goal is to demonstrate command of basic historical facts. Study materials will be provided
ahead of time. The midterm exam will be administered in class on February 13. The midterm will not
contain any essay questions.
Final Essay (All Students)
Each student will write a 6-8 page, double-spaced, analytical paper in which you draw upon primary
sources and secondary articles from the class to develop an argument about a major theme in modern
Chinese history. The final version is due in class on March 14. Please bring a hard-copy version to class,
and also email an electronic version (Word or PDF) to your TA and me.
Final Exam
The structure of the final exam will be the same as that of the midterm, only expanded to include the
entire span of the course. Time and location TBA.
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STUDENT INFORMATION
Student Information
Name:
Email:
Year:
Major (if you are undeclared, what are you leaning towards?):
What background do you have with China? (Coursework, Language, Travel)
What are you hoping to learn from this course? Please be specific (use the reverse side, if necessary)
SEE REVERSE SIDE
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SECTION SIGN-UP
Possible Sections (based on your schedule, please rank at least three of these options from 1 to 5, with 1
being your most preferred timeslot and 5 your least – do not rank those that you absolutely cannot make,
but please be sure to rank all those which you can).
___ Wednesdays, 4:00-5:00pm
___ Thursdays, 10:00-11:00am
___ Thursdays, 4:00-5:00pm
___ Fridays, 10:00-11:00am
___ I cannot make any of these times
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