China
A (VERY) brief introduction

History

History
• China is one of the oldest continuing civilizations in the world.
• Neolithic settlements, some of which date back almost 10,000 years ago, have been excavated in areas around the Yellow ( 黄河 ) and Yangtze ( 长江 ) rivers.

Geographic locations of
Neolithic cultures from approximately
8500-1500 BC
History
 Yellow River
 Yangtze River

History
• Excavations of China’s Neolithic sites reveal societies with developed agriculture, animal husbandry, ceramic, jade and textile production, and elaborate burial rituals.
• In the north millet was the main grain crop, whereas rice was cultivated in the south.
• Evidence of dogs and pigs appear in sites dating as early as 5000 BC, while the domestication of sheep, cattle and water buffalo was practiced by
3000 BC.

History
To place this in perspective:
• the great pyramids in Egypt were built between 2575-2150 BC
• Stonehenge was constructed between 3000-
1500 BC
• Cuneiform was used by the Sumerians as early as 5000 BC.

History
• “State-level” or complex societies in China began about 3,500 years ago
• This is also referred to as the start of the
“dynastic” phase of China’s history, when the vast geographic region was ruled by a series of powerful kings and emperors.

History
Dynastic China—Pre-Unification:
• Xia c.2100-1600 BC
• Shang c.1600-1100 BC
• Zhou c. 1100-256 BC
Western Zhou c. 1100-771 BC
Eastern Zhou c. 770-256 BC
Spring and Autumn 770-476 BC
Warring States 475-221 BC
Confucius lived during the turbulent times of the Zhou
(pronounced “Joe”) Dynasty, during the Spring and Autumn period.

History
Dynastic China—
After unification under Qin Shi Huangdi :
• Qin 221-207 BC
• Han 206 BC-220 AD
• Three Kingdoms 220-265 AD
• Western Jin 265-316 AD Qin Shi Huangdi’s
• Eastern Jin 317-420 AD
Terracotta Army
• Southern and Northern Dynasties 420-589 AD
• Sui Dynasty 581-618 AD

History
Dynastic China—Continued
• Tang 618-907
• Five Dynasties 907-960
• Liao 916-1125
• Song 960-1279
• Western Xia 1038-1227
• Jin 1115-1234
• Yuan 1271-1368
• Ming 1368-1644
• Qing 1644-1911
Tang Dynasty
“Sancai” horse
Kublai Khan founded the great Yuan
Dynasty in
1271. This
Mongolianruled empire was one of the largest the world has ever known.

History
• In 1911 the Qing Dynasty collapsed following years of corruption and foreign exploitation.
• After the fall of the Qing, China struggled to become a “modern” nation-state.
• The Republic of China was established in 1912, but the “new” country dissolved into warring factions, with various geographic areas controlled by ruthless warlords from roughly
1915-1928.

History
• In 1928 China was “reunified” under Chiang Kaishek, but was soon invaded by the Japanese in 1931; it struggled through the war until 1945 when the Japanese surrendered.
• During this time, the Communists grew in power and influence. They believed China was capable of achieving greater equality for its citizens through a people’s government free of corruption.
• After the surrender of the Japanese in 1945, China dissolved into civil war, with the Guomindang—the
Nationalist government led by Chiang Kaishek—fighting the
Communists led by charismatic leaders such as Mao
Zedong.

History
• In 1949 the Communists triumphed, and the People’s Republic of China was established under the leadership of
Chairman Mao.
• The Nationalist (Republican) government and its supporters fled to Taiwan, which is still called the Republic of China today.
• The next thirty years of Communist rule would prove turbulent, with famines, political purges and factional fighting afflicting “new” China. Yet, the
Communists ultimately managed to pull millions of people out of poverty in a relatively short period of time.

History
• After Mao’s death in 1976,
China entered a period of
“Reform and Opening Up” under Deng Xiaoping.
• Finally, under policies such as “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, China began truly to prosper.
• Now its economy is second only to the US in size.

中文

Language
• 1.3 billion people live in China, making up just under a fourth of the world’s population.
• Mandarin, which is based on the Beijing dialect, is the official language of the People’s
Republic of China. However, many other dialects—such as Cantonese, Hakka, Dungan, and Hunanese—are also spoken by a substantial percentage of the population.

Language
• Mandarin Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan group of languages.
• It is tonal in nature, with four main tones and one neutral tone.
• The written language consists of thousands of characters. Characters often have both semantic and phonetic elements.
• Well-educated Chinese people have a working knowledge of 6,000-7,000 characters.

Language
• The earliest developed form of writing in China can be traced back to the Shang
Dynasty (c.1600-1100 BC).
• These writings were engraved on bone or shells and are now referred to as
“oracle bones” because they were originally used in divination rituals.

Language
Development of Chinese characters: horse
Oracle Bone Seal Script Clerical Script Semi-Cursive Cursive Traditional Simplified

Language
Traditional vs. Simplified Characters
• In 1949 after the Communist Party founded the
People’s Republic, they began simplifying the number of strokes needed to write each character in order to improve literacy levels among the populace.
• However, the governments of Taiwan, Singapore and
Hong Kong continued to use traditional characters as their official writing systems.
• As Chinese language learners, we will focus on learning to read and write simplified characters, but we will also learn to recognize traditional characters.

Geography

Geography
China’s landmass is roughly equivalent to that of the US, but has at least four times the population living within its borders.

Geography
The Yellow River is a slow moving river that starts in
China’s northwest and flows east to the Yellow Sea.
Its yellow color comes from a sediment called loess, a common soil found along its banks.

The Yangtze River is a fast flowing river, running east from
China’s Tibetan Plateau and emptying into the
East China Sea. It is the third longest river in the world. Recently, this river was controversially dammed at the scenic
Three Gorges.
Geography

China has extremely arid areas, such as the Gobi Desert . .
.
Geography

. . . and lush, fertile plains, which have fostered thousands of years of rice cultivation.
Geography

Mt. Everest, the tallest peak in the world, borders China and Nepal.
Geography

Huang Shan, or
Yellow
Mountain, has inspired poets, painters and philosophers for centuries.
Geography

Geography
China has “megacities”, such as
Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, with populations all exceeding that of
New York City’s.

It also has very rural areas. Just under
50% of the population lives in the “countryside”.
Geography

Geography
• The bulk of China’s population lives along the Eastern coast.
• The West is sparsely populated, with vast largely inhospitable areas.
• While 92% of the population are
“Han” Chinese, 8% belong to one of China’s 55 officially recognized ethnic minority groups such as the
Hui, Li, Naxi, Uighurs, Tibetans,
Mongolians, etc.
Li women

Geography
• Over the next month, we’ll be exploring the geography of China through a group research project.
• Within your group, you will be expected to write a research paper, produce a large thematic map on poster board, and give a brief oral presentation using some sort of multimedia application (e.g.
Powerpoint, Prezi, video, Mp3 sound files, etc.)
• In October, once Ms. Burakowski returns from her maternity leave, we will immerse ourselves fully in
Chinese language learning!