Introduction:

This course will examine the nature of popular protest in Chinese history. Topics examined during the semester will include the role religion played as a source of social volatility in traditional Chinese culture and society, peasant revolutions, the May Fourth Movement, popular protest in the rise of nationalism and communism, and domestic political protest since the 1949 founding of the People’s Republic of China. Most importantly, students in this course will be responsible for individual research projects, for which they will locate and use historical source materials, written and oral, published and unpublished. Comparing and analyzing a variety of primary source materials, students will write their own histories of Chinese popular protest and in the end develop their skills in observing societies with different origins than their own.  

Students taking this course should reach the following goals by the end of the semester:

q Construct persuasive written arguments with the use of primary source materials as supporting evidence.

q Utilize the latest methods of Web-based technology to communicate with fellow students.

q Understand better the effect the ancient past has had on the modern world.

q Exhibit self-motivation and self-expression by exploring and asking questions regarding historical topics beyond personal life experiences.