February 22-28

Discussion of the Chinese Revolution

Study Guide for week of February 22

Chairman Mao

The Chinese Revolution

  1. Read an encyclopedia or text article on the Chinese revolution before reading De Fronzo.
  2. Read De Fronzo, chapter 3
  3. Read the following article on the Cultural Revolution:
    • “Ewers, Justin. “Pictures at the Revolution.” US News and World Report 135.11 (Oct 6,2003): 44-48. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 January 2008.
  4. Also view either No Rest for the Weary: The Cultural Revolution and its Origins (53 minutes), available in the Munday Library database, Films on Demand, OR WGBH’s and Ambrica Production’s two hour China in Revolution, available in ten parts on UTube. If you choose either one of these for your second or third review, write the review following the instructions on IIIB of the syllabus, and submit It under “Assignments” in Blackboard by midnight on February 28th.

Estimated time: reading -5 hrs, viewing documentary and writing review- 3 hrs., answering questions, reviewing other students’ postings, and posting comments-2.5 hrs. Total: (10.5 hrs.) Additional reading and writing time for MLA students-(3-7hrs.)

At the end of this study, you should be prepared to answer the following questions:

  1. Describe the social, economic, and political problems in pre-revolutionary China.
  2. Assess the causes and results of the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, and the Boxer rebellions.
  3. Evaluate the Republican Revolution under Sun Yixian (Yat-sen). What were the original goals of the Guomindang (GMD or Kuomintang)?
  4. Analyze the roles of the Communist Party and the GMD in the Chinese Revolution.
  5. Assess Mao Zedong’s (Tse-tung) contributions to revolutionary theory and to the revolutionary movement.
  6. How did the 1937 Japanese invasion of China affect the revolutionary movement?
  7. Analyze how De Fronzo’s “five factors” apply to the Chinese Revolution.
  8. Assess the effectiveness of the Great Leap Forward.
  9. Describe the Cultural Revolution. Be sure to incorporate information learned from the article by Justin Ewers above, as well as from the documentary above. To which of Crane Brinton’s stages of revolution does this correspond? Explain.
  10. Why do you think the 1989 pro-democracy movement failed?
  11. Examine how globalization affected China and the Chinese Revolution.
  12. Describe China’s current economic and political system.
  13. Examine DeFronzo’s statements about “democracy and human rights”. Do you agree with his implication that “restrictions on politics,” including freedom of speech, are western ideas only and are not important to the Chinese and other non-Western peoples? Explain.

MLA students:

In addition to the reading above, please answer two questions from #1, #7 and #13 on the study guide. Read Mark Selden’s article, “The Chinese Communist Revolution,” pages 191-201. Also read Martin Whyte’s article, “The Social Sources of the Student Demonstrations in China, 1989,” pages 271-284.  Choose either to briefly summarize the Selden article and compare and contrast it with De Fronzo or summarize and analyze the Whyte article. Post this on the discussion board. If you chose to read the Cheng book, you need to also write a 1-1/12 page summary and analysis of the pages you read and post this by Saturday, the 28th @ midnight.