 | |
| Editors | Jeffrey Wasserstrom |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anne Gerritsen Rana Mitter Robert Bickers S.A. Smith Richard Curt Kraus William A. Callahan Ian Johnson |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | History, Geopolitics |
| Genre | Nonfiction |
| Published | 2016 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 361 |
| ISBN | 978-0199683758 |
| OCLC | 925499976 |
The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China is an edited volume by Jeffrey Wasserstrom, an American historian of Modern China.
The book begins by setting the stage with an exploration of China's late imperial era, examining the social, political, and cultural dynamics of the Ming and Qing dynasties. [1] It then delves into the dramatic transformation that took place in the 19th century with the encounter with Western powers, including the Opium Wars and the tumultuous Taiping and Boxer rebellions.
As the narrative progresses, it delves into the complex processes of political, economic, and social change in the 20th century, offering insights into the fall of the Qing dynasty, the rise of the Republic of China, and the subsequent establishment of the People's Republic of China under Communist rule. It provides a nuanced examination of the Chinese Communist Party's ascent to power, the transformative policies of Mao Zedong, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and their lasting impact on the nation.
The book also explores China's engagement with the outside world, including its relationship with the Soviet Union, the Sino-Soviet split, and the opening up of China under Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms. It delves into the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the challenges of economic modernization, and the emergence of China as a global power in the 21st century. [2]
Tim Chamberlain writes for the London School of Economics' blog, "Focusing predominantly on the political and economic aspects of China’s history and thereby contextualising its present place in the globalised community of nations, this book forms an excellent introduction to the history of modern China for the general reader and student alike." [3]
Writing for Asian Review of Books, Jonathan Chatwin writes, "Perhaps most useful for the non-specialist, however, is the integration within the text of a few hundred aptly chosen images, maps, paintings and diagrams, which help immeasurably in contextualizing and solidifying the historical narrative." [4]
Chinese historiography is the study of the techniques and sources used by historians to develop the recorded history of China.
Manchuria refers to a region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China or, historically, those areas combined with parts of the Russian Far East. Its definition may refer to varying geographical extents as following: the Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning but broadly also including the eastern Inner Mongolian prefectures of Hulunbuir, Hinggan, Tongliao, and Chifeng, collectively known as Northeast China. Historically included homeland of the Jurchens and later their descendants Manchus, which was controlled in whole by Qing China prior to the Amur Annexation in 1858–1860, when parts of the historical region were ceded to the Russian Empire. The two areas involved are Priamurye between the Amur River and the Stanovoy Range to the north, and Primorye which runs down the Pacific coast from the Amur mouth to the Korean border, sometimes including the island of Sakhalin- collectively known as Russian Manchuria.
Chinese nationalism is a form of nationalism in which asserts that the Chinese people are a nation and promotes the cultural and national unity of all Chinese people. It is often equated with Han nationalism, although these two concepts are different. According to Sun Yat-sen's philosophy in the Three Principles of the People, Chinese nationalism should be a form of civic nationalism constructed on top of a united value, however this has not been fully recognized or applied in practice by successors.
East Turkestan is a loosely-defined geographical and historical region in the western provinces of the People's Republic of China, which varies in meaning by context and usage. The term was coined in the 19th century by Russian Turkologists, including Nikita Bichurin, who intended the name to replace the common Western term for the region, Chinese Turkestan, which referred to the Tarim Basin in the southwestern part of Xinjiang during the Qing dynasty. The medieval Persian toponym "Turkestan" and its derivatives were used by the local population as early as the 7th century. Historical manuscripts, dating back to the 7th and 9th century, found in the Turpan and Khotan regions, show that the name Turkestan was used to describe the region. The opening of the 11th century literary work Kutadgu Bilig by Kara-Khanid statesman Yusuf Khass Hajib also describes the region as Turkestan. Beginning in the 17th century, Altishahr, which means "Six Cities" in Uyghur, became the Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin. Uyghurs also called the Tarim Basin "Yettishar," which means "Seven Cities," and even "Sekkizshahr", which means "Eight Cities" in Uyghur. Chinese dynasties from the Han dynasty to the Tang dynasty had called an overlapping area the "Western Regions". The parts of this area conquered by the Manchu Qing Dynasty were termed "Xinjiang" from the 18th century on.
Naitō Torajirō, commonly known as Naitō Konan, was a Japanese historian and Sinologist. He was the founder of the Kyoto School of historiography, and along with Shiratori Kurakichi, was one of the leading Japanese historians of East Asia in the early twentieth century. His most well-known book is called Nara.
Classic Chinese Novels are the best-known novels of pre-modern Chinese literature. These are among the world's longest and oldest novels. They represented a new complexity in structure and sophistication in language that helped to establish the novel as a respected form among later popular audiences and sophisticated critics.
Chinese expansionism over the last four millennia has been a central feature throughout the arc of East Asian history. During times when China wielded extensive geopolitical influence over the course of the Han, Tang, Yuan, and Qing eras, the extent of Chinese geopolitical power projection would even influence the development and politics further north and west in North Asia, Central Asia, and into parts of South and Southeast Asia as well.
The East Turkestan independence movement is a political movement that seeks the independence of East Turkestan, a large and sparsely-populated region in northwest China, as a nation state for the Uyghur people. The region is currently administered as a province-level subdivision of the People's Republic of China (PRC), under the official name Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Within the movement, there is widespread support for the region to be renamed, since "Xinjiang" is seen by independence activists as a colonial name. "East Turkestan" is the best-known proposed name as it is the historical geographic name of the region and the name of the two independent states that briefly existed in the region in the first half of the 20th century.
The history of Shanghai spans over a thousand years and closely parallels the development of modern China. Originally a small agricultural village, Shanghai developed during the late Qing dynasty (1644–1912) as one of China's principal trading ports. Although nominally part of China, in practice foreign diplomats controlled the city under the policy of extraterritoriality. Since the economic reforms of the early 1990s the city has burgeoned to become one of Asia's major financial centers and the world's busiest container port.
The National Museum of China flanks the eastern side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The museum's mission is to educate about the arts and history of China. It is directed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China.
During the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1636–1912), there were five major Muslim rebellions. The first and last rebellions were caused by sectarian infighting between rival Sufi Muslim orders.
Pan-Mongolism is an irredentist idea that advocates cultural and political solidarity of Mongols. The proposed territory, called "Greater Mongolia", also known as "Хамаг Монгол" usually includes the independent state of Mongolia, the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, and the Russian region of Buryatia. Sometimes the autonomous republic Tuva, the Altai Republic and parts of Xinjiang, Zabaykalsky Krai, and Irkutsk Oblast are included as well. As of 2006, all areas in Greater Mongolia except Mongolia have non-Mongol majorities.
China–Mongolia relations refer to the bilateral relations between Mongolia and China. These relations have long been determined by the relations between China and the Soviet Union, Mongolia's other neighbour and main ally until early 1990. With the rapprochement between the USSR and China in the late 1980s, Chinese-Mongolian relations also began to improve. Since the 1990s, China has become Mongolia's biggest trading partner, and a number of Chinese businesses operate in Mongolia.
The Republic of China (ROC), or simply China, was a sovereign state based in Mainland China from 1912 to 1949. It was first established in 1 January 1912, when it was proclaimed in the 1911 Revolution against the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, until 7 December 1949, after its ruling party Kuomintang (KMT) was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the de facto end of the Chinese Civil War, which resulted in a retreat of its central government to Taiwan, a territory which it took control of from the Empire of Japan in October 1945 after its surrender in World War II. The CCP-led People's Republic of China (PRC) then took over the governance of Mainland China with its capital in Beijing upon its establishment in 1 October 1949, while the ROC is now based on the island of Taiwan with its capital in Taipei, where it retains actual rule over the Taiwan Area with the political status of Taiwan remaining in dispute to this day.
Red Chinese Battle Plan is a 28-minute black-and-white propaganda short produced by the United States Department of Defense in 1967. Presented as a documentary film on Chinese history to military servicemen, the propaganda short describes the People's Republic of China as plotting to "conquer and enslave" the world.
The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century is a 1980 book edited by Milena Doleželová-Velingerová, published by the University of Toronto Press. It was the first book that had been written in a Western language that chronicled fiction published in the final 15 years of the Qing Dynasty, from 1897 to 1910.
The Wars for Asia 1911–1949 by S. C. M. Paine is a book published in 2012 by Cambridge University Press. The work presents a view of three "nested wars" in early twentieth century East Asia, seen as distinct conflicts which, while carried on simultaneously, had their own welter of cause and dynamic: the Chinese Civil War 1911-1949; the Second Sino-Japanese War 1931-1945; the Second World War 1941-1945.
Migration to Xinjiang is both an ongoing and historical movement of people, often sponsored by various states who controlled the region, including the Han dynasty, Qing dynasty, Republic of China and People's Republic of China.
Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom is an American historian of modern China. He is Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. Wasserstrom's research interests began with the role of student protest and have grown to include the social history of China and comparative social history. Wasserstrom also writes about China for a popular audience.
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