Week 10: Building a new China

March 29, March 31

If you thought that with the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), we finally could leave all the war and struggle behind us, and march happily into socialist paradise, you’re in for some disappointment. One of Mao’s key theoretical points is the idea of continuous revolution and struggle. So… that’s what we’ll see this week and the next: ever increasing attempts towards creating permanent revolution.

Table of Contents

Slides

Readings and class details

Background for the entire week:

Textbook alternatives:

  • Moïse Edwin E. Modern China: A History Third ed. Harlow, England: Pearson/Longman, 2008. (ebook Trexler):Chapter 6
  • Dillon, Michael. China: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris, 2010. (ebook Trexler): Chapters 11-12

Wednesday

Ettinger 204, 9.30AM

Exploration Pack 1: Good Old Textbook

For the fans of the “easy all in one” approach who like the full overview, but a bit heavier on the page count, here’s old faithful: the textbook!

  • Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. Third ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.
    • Chapters 19 and 20 (“The Birth of the People’s Republic” and “Planning the New Society”)
  • “A-Bombs and Paper Tigers.” In The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. Third ed. Edited by Janet Chen et. al. W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.
    • PDF
    • Mao’s blustering rhetoric should make us pause: was he serious? But after the Korean War, with it’s “human wave” tactics, it was clear that he was prepared to sacrifice huge swathes of his population to achieve his political aims.
  • Check out the various campaigns mentioned in the textbook at the Chinese Posters website (use the search option)

Exploration Pack 2: Relations with the USSR

If you’re curious to understand how Chinese communism was different from the USSR’s version, look no further than the 1956 “secret speech” of Khrushchev. But read first the Friendship treaty that was concluded with the USSR mere months after the founding of the PRC.

  • “Treaty with the Soviet Union.” In The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. Third ed. Edited by Janet Chen et. al. W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.
    • PDF
    • Best friends forever, right? Right… Read on in the next bullet point:
  • Shen, Zhihua, and Yafeng Xia. Mao and the Sino-Soviet Partnership, 1945-1959: A New History. The Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2015.
    • PDF
    • [Note there is a section in the middle to skip.] This chapter lays out the details of the reasons Mao and Khrushchev began to diverge. The facile explanation is that Khrushchev denounced Stalin, but it’s a lot more nuanced than that. What he said had subtle but real consequences for Mao’s position on the international scene, as Mao had begun to develop a reputation as a thinker, as well as a revolutionary. Ideological positions mattered (and still matter!) a great deal to communist regimes, and this text explains in some detail how this all works. It’s fascinating if you’re into politics, ideology and want to understand a bit more about how Mao ended up going into the ideological direction he went.
  • Optional extras: Check out the Chinese Posters website, and run a search on Stalin, Lenin, or Russia, in addition to the theme “Soviet Union“

Friday:

Ettinger 204, 9.30AM

Exploration Pack 1: The Korean War

The Korean war was brief action, followed by about 2 years of stalemate. A peace treaty was never signed. Just last Fall, the PRC celebrated the 70th anniversary of China entering the Korean war — although officially of course its troops never participated, and it was a volunteer army. There are a wealth of video clips on Academic Video Online ( AVO, or “Alexander Street”), including newsreels from the period, and documentaries. I include only a few here, as well as a chapter on how the Chinese used psychological warfare on US prisoners of war. Please browse freely on the AVO website!

  • Newsclip Dec. 11, 1950: US and S Koreans have been pushed back at this point after having almost occupied the entire Korean peninsula, but Chinese troops had joined Korean ones at this point (as volunteers)
  • Newsclip April 13, 1953: An exchange of prisoners at the end of the war
  • “Chapter 4: Winning Captive Hearts”. In McKnight, Brian Dallas. We Fight for Peace: Twenty-Three American Soldiers, Prisoners of War, and “Turncoats” in the Korean War. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2014.
    • Ebook Trexler
    • Psychological warfare of the kind the Chinese used was something these soldiers were not prepared for. Some succumbed, and then began to spread the Chinese communist ideas among their fellow POWs. The chapter explains how that was possible, but content warning: note that it also contains descriptions of physical torture, and various deprivations.
  • More posters on the Korean war than you can shake a stick at. (Search for “Korea” as well)

Exploration Pack 3: Dissidents

As I pointed out before, the issue with communist states is not so much the communism as a form of economic system (with the means of production owned by the masses/laborers), but the state using authoritarian or even fascist methods of government to force everyone to follow along. If you disagreed with the ideas direction the state gave, there were a whole plethora of labels to put on you: “capitalist roader” and “rightist” are among the most common, but “enemy of the people” was of course always useful as well.

  • “Mao: On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People.” In The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. Third ed. Edited by Janet Chen et. al. W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.
    • PDF
    • In this excerpt of his writings, Mao explains how (in theory at least) one should go about accepting some criticism but not other, because one should differentiate between what is a genuine critique to improve the system, and what will only undermine one’s efforts. People used this speech to provide “constructive feedback” (as we would call it), following Mao’s suggestion to let ideas compete so that the best would float to the top. However, before long, this was interpreted not as constructive feedback but as negative critique. I guess they never heard of the Architect’s Model we practice…
  • Chang, Jung. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
    • PDF
    • This is an excerpt of an autobiography, and I have selected the chapters that document the same time period as the Hundred Flowers and the subsequence campaign against the rightists. Jung’s father was an important official in the communist party, an honest an incorruptible man (as his wife put it: a good communist but a terrible husband). Her family got swept up in all the plots and machinations of the highest level power politics, not because they were important or high-level, but because party policy required quotas to be met of a certain percentage of rightists in ever official’s jurisdiction, or because one small mistake could land you on the list of wrongdoers.
    • Jung Chang’s perspective is not neutral: her family clearly suffered from Mao’s policies and she settled accounts with him in the biography Mao: The Untold Story. But she is not alone in remembering the Mao years in this way. We’ll see more next week, when we look at the great famine and the Cultural Revolution.
  • There are quite a few campaigns under the Themes tab on the Chinese Posters website where you can find illustrations; look at the dates to be in the right ball park and begin to explore.

Assignments

1. Show and Tell 3

20 points, due Mon March 27, 11:59PM

Find all the details on the dedicated webpage! Content for your Show and Tell needs to connect to something we covered/timespan covered in weeks 7, 8, or 9, that is from 1911 to 1949.

If you used your Free Pass already this semester, you MUST complete the remaining Show and Tell projects!

2. Reminder: Weekly Blog post (content week 9)

5 points, due Mon. March 27, 11:59PM

Write a blog post exploring themes or ideas based on your reading. You do not need to have all the answers. In fact, learning to ask good analytical or research questions is a skill you can develop during the semester. Remember the description of the assignment from the syllabus.

  • Length: approx. 400 words. excl. list of materials consulted.
  • Add the list of materials consulted at the end of the post, in Chicago notes and bibliography style.
    • TOP TIP: Just copy the bibliography information from the Reading list on this webpage, do not add the descriptive notes I provide for your information.
  • Add the words “Week 9” in the title.
    • Please use this exact phrase, so your post will show up in the blog stream.
  • Indicate which Exploration Pack you chose (if applicable)
  • Include a relevant image, and add a caption with the source/credit, and an Alt text description
  • Post on your website, and add to the category hst271.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I wrote a post of approximately 400 words in response to the readings.
– I included the bibliographic references for the materials I used for my post.
– I indicated which Exploration Pack(s) I chose.
– I included an image, and I provided a caption and credit (source), and an Alt text description for the image.
– I use the words Week 9 in the title, and added the post to category hst271

3. Hypothes.is: comments on Week 9 posts

3 points, due Wed. March 29 by 11.59pm.

Below you find links to three blog posts from your fellow students. If one of the websites is your own, or it is twice the same person’s, refresh the page, and you should get new sites. [posts coming on Tuesday]

  • Post 1:
  • Post 2:
  • Post 3:

Leave feedback, questions, thoughts, insights about the contents of the posts of your fellow students using Hypothes.is group HST271. You can ask for clarifications, point out similarities and differences with the material you covered, or with your interpretation. This should encourage you to nose around in the other materials you did not read in the first round.

Use tags in Hypothes.is: question: If you have a question (obvious); answered: if you gave an answer to a question; info: if you provide more information, looking up additional facts, drawing on knowledge from other classes; and other tags you can think of. This will help us to navigate more quickly to the questions that still need answering.

Use the “Architect’s Model” of giving feedback, and engage with concrete issues. Go beyond “Yeah, I agree,” “I like” or “I think the same”, and instead explain why you have that reaction, or if you disagree, you can try to persuade the original poster of your idea or interpretation.

Remember that Hypothes.is allows for hyperlinks, e.g. to materials that support your argument, or you can include pictures (memes! [yes, there she is again]), videos etc. that help the original poster to learn more.

When you’ve commented on three posts, read this declaration carefully, and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I commented on three fellow students’ posts on the readings from Week 9 using the group HST271.
– I made sure to leave substantial comments that move the discussion forward and help to create better insights, and go beyond a “nice” or “great”.
– I left comments that I would like to receive myself: thoughtful, helpful, kind, but also pointing out errors so they can be fixed.

4. Weekly Blog post (content week 10)

5 points, due Mon. Apr. 3, 11:59PM

Write a blog post exploring themes or ideas based on your reading. You do not need to have all the answers. In fact, learning to ask good analytical or research questions is a skill you can develop during the semester. Remember the description of the assignment from the syllabus.

  • Length: approx. 400 words. excl. list of materials consulted.
  • Add the list of materials consulted at the end of the post, in Chicago notes and bibliography style.
    • TOP TIP: Just copy the bibliography information from the Reading list on this webpage, do not add the descriptive notes I provide for your information.
  • Add the words “Week 10” in the title.
    • Please use this exact phrase, so your post will show up in the blog stream.
  • Indicate which Exploration Pack you chose (if applicable)
  • Include a relevant image, and add a caption with the source/credit, and an Alt text description
  • Post on your website, and add to the category hst271.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I wrote a post of approximately 400 words in response to the readings.
– I included the bibliographic references for the materials I used for my post.
– I indicated which Exploration Pack(s) I chose.
– I included an image, and I provided a caption and credit (source), and an Alt text description for the image.
– I use the words Week 10 in the title, and added the post to category hst271

Extra Credit tasks

EC 10-1: Extra commenting:

2 points, due by Apr. 2, 11.59pm.

Do you like reading your colleagues’ work? Do you like helping them out by identifying ways to make their posts better? Here’s some good news! You can earn extra credit by doing extra commenting! This assignment will be available regularly throughout the semester.

  • Go to the Blog Stream of the Class under Participants’ Posts on the website
  • Pick a post that piques your curiosity and that you have not yet commented on
  • Use Hypothes.is group HST271, and leave feedback as we practiced with the Architects’s model
  • Pick 2 additional posts (a total of 3 for this task): they can come from other students in the blog stream, or if you like the writer, you can stay with them and comment more.
  • The only conditions are:
    • that you do not comment on blog posts you already commented on before, as part of your regular weekly “Exploration” tasks.
    • that the post is actually written for HST271, and not some other class. Check the category, and the content 🙃
  • Add the tag extra to the comment (this helps me to keep track of how many people use this option.)

When you’re done, please read this declaration carefully and collect your points with the Canvas Declaration Quiz.

Declaration
I selected three blogs I have not yet commented on before, from our class’ blog stream, and I used the Hypothes.is group HST271 to comment.
I made sure to leave substantial comments that help the writer to improve the post, or to identify their strengths.
I added the tag extra to my Hypothes.is comments.
I left comments that I would like to receive myself: thoughtful, helpful, kind, but also pointing out errors so they can be fixed.

EC 10-2: “Down the Rabbit Hole”

3 points, due by Sunday, April 2, 11.59pm.

Are you curious? Can you spend hours on internet following one link after another trying to get to the bottom of something? Did you know you can now also get some extra credit for this?

Pick a topic, place name, object, book or person connected to our readings from this week, and follow your curiosity “down the rabbit hole”, like Alice in Wonderland. Then share in a blog post with us where you went, and what you found. Your post does not have to be very long: 250 words should work; more is fine if you went on a deep dive, of course. Here’s what to include:

  • What in the course materials this week got you inspired to go down the rabbit hole?
  • Include as hyperlinked text the websites you visited, and what you learned there.
  • Include an image, with caption giving credit for the image.
  • You may also critique the sources you find, in particular if you have your doubts about their reliability, or you come across conflicting interpretations. Which one did you side with, and why?
  • Add the post to category hst271, use the title template “Down the rabbit hole: [insert subject]”, and add the tag extra.

Read the following Declaration carefully, and then head on over to Canvas to collect your points in the Declaration Quiz:

Declaration
I wrote a post about additional materials on the internet I found, starting from a topic connected to course materials from this week.
I included the sites I visited as hyperlinked text, and explained what I learned on these pages.
I included an image, with a caption and credit for the image.
I added the post to the category hst271, used the tag extra, and used the title template “Down the rabbit hole: [insert topic]” for my post.

Where to get assistance?

  • Tea Room on Discord:
    • open anytime for you
    • I will be hosting Tue 2PM-3PM; Wed. 1-2PM, or at other times by appointment via Google Calendar (usually a 15-20min appointment is enough). You can also find me in my office during Tea Room times.
    • Private room for confidential chat available on request.
  • Discord Text Channel #hst271
  • DLAs: Digital Learning Assistants: check the schedule!
  • Writing Center: Sunday – Wednesday 3:30 – 5:30 & 7 – 11 PM; Thursday 3:30 – 5:30 PM &  7 – 9 PM
  • Trexler Library Course Subject Guide: our own dedicated subject guide for the course 
  • Safety on/around campus: report an incident