CAPS 321 Modern China: A Documentary Film Approach

3 Credit(s)

China’s modern history from late 18th century to the present is full of dramatic changes. The Chinese experienced a series of huge historical events: a golden age under the rule of Manchus, unprecedented challenges from the West, collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the establishment of the Republic of China through Sun Yet-sen’s revolution, a nation-wide chaos from competition from different warlords, Japan’s invasion, the civil war between Mao and Chiang Kai-shek and the victory of Chinese Communism, the Cold War, Mao’s Cultural Revolution and Deng Xiaoping’s economic reform. China has become an economic giant from a “Sick man in East Asia” even though it experienced so many ups and downs in more than 150 years. This course will make use of documentary movies to discover historical and cultural “secrets” behind the successful development of China. This is an open-ended course, which will offer you a historical review of China’s transition from an agrarian society to a modern state, and suggest a future vision of its possible direction in the future.