KSCB029 Intellectual history of China in the 19th-20th century

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2013
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
MA. Oliver Weingarten, Ph.D. (lecturer), Mgr. et Mgr. Dušan Vávra, Ph.D. (deputy)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Luboš Bělka, CSc.
Center for Chinese Studies – Department for the Study of Religions – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. et Mgr. Dušan Vávra, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Center for Chinese Studies – Department for the Study of Religions – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 9:10–10:45 M24
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 50 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/50, only registered: 0/50, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/50
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
At the end of the course the students will:
- be familiar with late 19th - early 20th century history of China
- be acquainted with the most important intellectual debates - be able to discuss and interpret the challenges of modernisation of China
- have improved their presentation skills in English
Syllabus
  • 1. Preliminaries, Historical Background (Feb. 19)
  • No readings.
  • 2. Crises of the 19th Century (Feb. 26)
  • Fairbank, John K., China: A New History, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Mass, and London: Belknap Pr., 2006), ch. 11.
  • Presentations
  • Fairbank, China, ch. 9.
  • Harrison, Henrietta, China, Inventing the Nation (London: Arnold, 2001), 55-86.
  • 3. Early Modernisation Efforts (Mar. 5)
  • Fairbank, China, ch. 11.
  • Presentations
  • Pong, David, Shen Pao-chen and China’s Modernization in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: CUP), 109-128.
  • Spence, Jonathan, To Change China: Western Advisers in China, 1620-1960 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980), 106-128.
  • 4. Newspapers (March 12)
  • Mittler, Barbara, “Domesticating an Alien Medium”, in Joining the Global Public: Word, Image, and City in Early Chinese Newspapers, 1870-1910 (Albany: SUNY Pr., 2007), 13-46.
  • Presentations
  • Nathan, Andrew J., and Leo Ou-fan Lee, “The Beginnings of Mass Culture: Journalism and Fiction in the Late Ch’ing and Beyond”, in: David Johnson, Andrew J. Nathan and Evelyn S. Rawski, ed., Popular Culture in Late Imperial China (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Pr., 1985), 360-395.
  • Wagner, Rudolf G., “The Role of the Foreign Community in the Chinese Public Sphere”. China Quarterly 142 (June 1995): 423-443.
  • 5. The Hundred Days Reform (March 19)
  • Zarrow, Peter, China in War and Revolution, 1895-1949 (London and New York: Routledge, 2005), ch. 1.
  • Presentations
  • Kwong, Luke S.K. 2000. “Chinese Politics at the Crossroads: Reflections on the Hundred Days Reform of 1898”. Modern Asian Studies 34.3 (2000): 663-695.
  • Van Ess, Hans, “The Old Text/New Text Controversy: Has the 20th Century Got It Wrong?” T’oung Pao 80.1-3 (1994): 146-170.
  • 6. Nation and Ethnicity (March 26)
  • Harrison, Henrietta, China, Inventing the Nation (London: Arnold, 2001), 88-110.
  • Presentations
  • Chow, Kai-wing, “Imagining Boundaries of Blood: Zhang Binglin and the Invention of the Han ‘Race’ in Modern China”, in The Construction of Racial Identities in China and Japan, ed. Frank Dikötter (Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP, 1997), 34-54.
  • Dikötter, Frank, “Racial Discourse in China: Continuities and Permutations”, in The Construction of Racial Identities, 12-33.
  • 7. The Xinhai Revolution (April 2)
  • Fairbank, China, 235-254.
  • Presentations
  • Harrison, China, 132-150.
  • Zarrow, China in War and Revolution, ch. 2.
  • 8. Science and Education (April 9)
  • Weston, Timothy B., The Power of Position: Beijing University, Intellectuals, and Chinese Political Culture, 1898-1929 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: Univ. California Pr., 2004), 12-39.
  • Presentations
  • Elman, Benjamin A., A Cultural History of Modern Science in China (Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard UP), ch. 5.
  • Yue, Meng, Shanghai and the Edges of Empire (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Pr., 2006), 31-61.
  • 9. Intellectuals and the Republic (April 16)
  • Zarrow, China in War and Revolution, ch. 7.
  • Presentations
  • Hu, Xinhe, “Hu Shi’s Enlightenment Philosophy”, in Contemporary Chinese Philosophy, ed. Cheng Chung-ying and Nicholas Bunnin (Malden and Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), ch 2.
  • Xiao, Yang, “Liang Qichao’s Political and Social Philosophy”, in Contemporary Chinese Philosophy, ch. 1.
  • 10. May Fourth (April 23)
  • Zarrow, China in War and Revolution, ch. 8.
  • Presentations
  • Chow, Tse-tsung, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1964), 289-313.
  • Harbsmeier, Christoph, “May Fourth Linguistic Orthodoxy and Rhetoric: Some Informa Comparative Notes”, in Michael Lackner, Iwo Amelung, and Joachim Kurtz, ed., Terms for New Ideas: Western Knowledge and Lexical Change in Late Imperial China (Leiden, Boston, and Köln: Brill, 2001), 373-410.
  • Mitter,Rana, A Bitter Revolution: China’s Struggle with the Modern World (New York: Oxford UP, 2004): 41-68.
  • 11. Radical Ideologies (April 30)
  • Zarrow, China in War and Revolution, ch. 9.
  • Presentations
  • Schram, Stuart, The Thought of Mao Tse-tung (Cambridge: CUP, 1989), 13-42.
  • Tan, Chester T., Chinese Political Thought in the Twentieth Century (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1972), ch. 5: “Sun Yat-sen”, 116-140.
  • 12. Conservative Reactions (May 7)
  • Fung, Edmund S.K., The Intellectual Foundations of Chinese Modernity: Cultural and Political Thought in the Republican Era (New York: Cambridge UP, 2010), ch. 2: “The Pull of Cultural Conservatism”.
  • Presentations
  • Dirlik, Arid, “The Ideological Foundations of the New Life Movement: A Study in Counterrevolution”, Journal of Asian Studies 34.4: 945-980.
  • 13. Concluding Discussion (May 14)
  • No readings.
Literature
    required literature
  • Fairbank, John K., China: A New History, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Mass, and London: Belknap Pr., 2006)
  • Contemporary Chinese Philosophy, ed. Cheng Chung-ying and Nicholas Bunnin (Malden and Oxford: Blackwell, 2002).
  • Elman, Benjamin A., A Cultural History of Modern Science in China (Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard UP)
  • Schram, Stuart, The Thought of Mao Tse-tung (Cambridge: CUP, 1989)
  • Tan, Chester T., Chinese Political Thought in the Twentieth Century (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1972).
  • Mittler, Barbara, “Domesticating an Alien Medium”, in Joining the Global Public: Word, Image, and City in Early Chinese Newspapers, 1870-1910 (Albany: SUNY Pr., 2007)
  • Yue, Meng, Shanghai and the Edges of Empire (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Pr., 2006).
  • Fung, Edmund S.K., The Intellectual Foundations of Chinese Modernity: Cultural and Political Thought in the Republican Era (New York: Cambridge UP, 2010)
  • Chow, Tse-tsung, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1964).
  • The Construction of Racial Identities in China and Japan, ed. Frank Dikötter (Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP, 1997).
  • Zarrow, Peter, China in War and Revolution, 1895-1949 (London and New York: Routledge, 2005)
  • Weston, Timothy B., The Power of Position: Beijing University, Intellectuals, and Chinese Political Culture, 1898-1929 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: Univ. California Pr., 2004)
  • Harrison, Henrietta, China, Inventing the Nation (London: Arnold, 2001)
    recommended literature
  • Nathan, Andrew J., and Leo Ou-fan Lee, “The Beginnings of Mass Culture: Journalism and Fiction in the Late Ch’ing and Beyond”, in: David Johnson, Andrew J. Nathan and Evelyn S. Rawski, ed., Popular Culture in Late Imperial China (Berkeley and Los Angeles
  • Van Ess, Hans, “The Old Text/New Text Controversy: Has the 20th Century Got It Wrong?” T’oung Pao 80.1-3 (1994): 146-170.
  • Michael Lackner, Iwo Amelung, and Joachim Kurtz, ed., New Terms for New Ideas: Western Knowledge and Lexical Change in Late Imperial China (Leiden, Boston, and Köln: Brill, 2001)
  • Kwong, Luke S.K. 2000. “Chinese Politics at the Crossroads: Reflections on the Hundred Days Reform of 1898”. Modern Asian Studies 34.3 (2000): 663-695.
  • Wagner, Rudolf G., “The Role of the Foreign Community in the Chinese Public Sphere”. China Quarterly 142 (June 1995)
  • Pong, David, Shen Pao-chen and China’s Modernization in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: CUP)
Teaching methods
-lecture
- class discussions
- students presentations
Assessment methods
- attendance (max. 2 unexcused absences)
- active participation in class discussion
- presentation (including submission of script/ppt)
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught once in two years.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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