This module investigates the formation of modern political parties in China and their respective approach to state building and mass politics. Modern Chinese politics have been dominated by the fierce political competition between the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party. The module examines China’s efforts towards state building by exploring the Nationalist and the Communist Parties’ approaches and their respective understanding of what constituted a modern nation. Central to the module will be discussion of mass mobilisation as a tool utilised by each party for securing political legitimisation and the promotion of state building. These topics are closely interconnected and central to the understanding of China’s modern political evolution. Key questions include: Why in Chinese politics has the issue of mobilising people and communities towards defined objectives been so central? To what extent did mass mobilisation allow political participation? And to what extent political struggles and mobilisation campaigns nurtured a culture of coercion and violence?

Knowledge and Understanding:

• demonstrate a critical and systematic knowledge of modern politics in China between 1911-1949 and an understanding of pertinent historical and historiographical ideas/contexts/frameworks.
• critically identify the main trends concerning the formation of political parties, their approach to state building, and mass mobilisation.
• to analyse the impact of mass politics on Chinese society.
• demonstrate a in-depth and critical understanding of a range of concepts/perspectives/debates within the appropriate secondary literature.
• analyse key themes and issues pertaining to modern politics in China between 1911-1949 in the light of those ideas/contexts/frameworks.
• demonstrate a critical understanding of key primary sources and their significance.

Intellectual Skills:

• identify and evaluate the nature and scope of the issues raised bythe module.
• an ability to discuss in a critical and informed manner the history of modern politics in China between 1911-1949.
• summarise and critically evaluate the relative merits and demerits of alternative views and interpretations about the formation and evolution of political parties in Republican China and evaluate their significance.
• identify problems, assess evidence, and reach conclusions consistent with them on the issues of the history of modern politics in China between 1911-1949.
• devise and sustain arguments about political conflict, state building and mass mobilisation in China through an appropriate application of sources and terminology.
• present, accurately, succinctly and lucidly, and in written or oral form their arguments in accordance with appropriate scholarly conventions.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

• express their ideas and assessments of modern politics in China between 1911-1949.
• discuss in a critical and informed manner the use of mass mobilisation in relation to state building and political legitimisation in China.
• identify strengths, weaknesses, problems, and or peculiarities of alternative historical/historiographical interpretations.
• apply a critical approach to the nature of primary sources in the assessment of historical interpretations and methodologies.
• use and evaluate primary sources and demonstrate an appreciation of  how historians have approached them.

Transferable Skills:

• communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in speech or in writing in an accurate, succinct and lucid manner.
• formulate and justify their own arguments and conclusions about a range of issues.
• demonstrate an ability to modify as well as to defend their own position.
• possess a range of information technology resources to assist with information retrieval.
• organise their own study methods and workload.
• work as part of a team in seminar or tutorial discussions.
• independently organise their own study methods and workload.

A range of teaching methods will be used in each of the sessions of the course, comprising a combination of lectures, seminar discussion of major issues and workshops for the study of primary source material. The syllabus is divided into a series of major course themes, then sub-divided into principal topics for the study of each theme.

Lectures:
The aim of the lectures is to provide a brief introduction to a particular topic, establishing the salient features of major course themes, identifying key issues and providing historiographical guidance. The lectures aim to provide a basic framework for understanding and should be thought of as useful starting points for further discussion and individual study. Where appropriate, handouts and other materials may be distributed to reinforce the material discussed.

Seminar and Source Workshops:
The primary aim of the sessions will be to generate debate and discussion amongst course participants, focused in particular on primary source material. Seminars and source workshops for each of the course topics will provide an opportunity for students:

(a) to discuss topics or issues introduced by the lectures,

or (b) to discuss related themes, perhaps not directly addressed by the lectures, but drawing on ideas culled from those lectures.

and (c) to analyse different types of primary sources available, discussing the principal ways in which they can be used by historians

Seminars and source workshops will provide the student with guidance on how to critically approach the various types of primary source material. Preparation for seminars and workshops will focus on specific items from the sources and related background reading, with students preparing answers to questions provided for each session. Both seminars and source workshops will provide an opportunity to discuss and debate the issues with fellow students. Classes will be divided into smaller groups for discussion purposes, with the results presented as part of an overall class debate at the end of the session.

• communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in speech or in writing in an accurate, succinct and lucid manner.
• formulate and justify their own arguments and conclusions about a range of issues.
• demonstrate an ability to modify as well as to defend their own position.
• possess a range of information technology resources to assist with information retrieval.
• organise their own study methods and workload.
• work as part of a team in seminar or tutorial discussions.
• independently organise their own study methods and workload.

Students will be assessed by means of a combination of one essay relating to primary sources [20%], an assessed essay [30%] and an examination paper [50%].

Course assignments:

1. The essay relating to primary sources will contribute 20% of the final mark for the module and must be no longer than 1,000 words.
2. The Assessed Essay will contribute 30% of the final mark for the module. It is designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. It must be no longer than 2,000 words.
3. The Examination will take place during the second assessment period [May/June] and will consist of an unseen two hour paper that will contribute the remaining 50% of the final mark for this module. Students must write 2 answers in total.

Week 1. Introductory Lecture

Part I Ideas

Week 2. Sun Yat-sen: The Father of the Country (Lecture+Documents)

Week 3. Cultural Imperialism?: Anarchism, Marxism and Darwinism (Lecture+Seminar)

Week 4. State Confucianism (Lecture+Documents)

Week 5. The Making of the Republican Citizen (Lecture+Seminar)

Part II The Party and the State

Week 7. Guomindang: A Fractured Party (Lecture+Seminar)

Week 8. The Nanjing Government: Fascism in China? (Lecture+Documents)

Week 9. The Case of Wang Jingwei (Lecture + Seminar: Fascism in China?)

Week 10. The CCP: From Friends to Comrades  (Lecture+ Documents)

Week 11. The Origins of the Communist State: The First Soviet Republic of China (1931-1934) (Lecture+Documents)

Second Semester

Part III Mass Mobilisation

Week 1. Seminar: Presentations on the Xi’an Incident (December 1936)

Week 2. Student Protests during May Fourth 1919 (Lecture+Documents)

Week 3. Peasant Mobilisation in the Rural Areas (Lecture+Documents)

Week 4. Mobilisation of Youth and Women in the Rural Areas (Lecture+Documents)

Week 5. Seminar: Mobilisation in the Rural Areas

Week 7. The New Life Movement (Lecture+Documents)

Week 8. Wartime Mobilisation (Lecture+Seminar)

Week 9. Mobilisation Campaigns in Yan’an  (Lecture+ Documents)

Week 10. Seminar: Mobilisation Campaigns in Yan’an

Week 11. Revision Class

Peter Zarrow, China in War and Revolution 1895-1949 (Routledge, 2005)

Henrietta Harrison, The Making of a Republican Citizen (Oxford, 2000)
John Fitzgerald, Awakening China (Stanford, 1996)
Rana Mitter, A Bitter Revolution (Oxford, 2004)
Gregor Benton, Mountain Fires (Berkeley, 1992)
Hans J. van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China 1925-1945 (London, 2003)
Arif Dirlik, The Origins of Chinese Communism (Oxford, 1989)
Mark Selden, The Yan’an Way in Revolutionary China (Cambridge, Mass., 1971)