Unit name | Internationalising Modern China 1850s - 1950 (Level H Special Subject) |
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Unit code | HIST37016 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Professor. Bickers |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit explores the institution that lay at the heart of China's interaction with foreign power after 1854, examining the role of the foreign-led Chinese Maritime Customs Service down to 1949. Over 10,000 foreign nationals and 10,000 Chinese served in this state agency, which was used by successive Chinese governments to help it strengthen itself, and to renegotiate its relationship with the world beyond its domains. The overall aim in studying the Customs Service is to help us understand key issues in China's modern history, and its place in a relentlessly globalising world. The unit allows for a study of such issues as international diplomacy, technology transfer, the circulation of knowledge, imperialism and nationalism, as well as the experiences and views of individuals. The resources relating to this unit are rich and easily accessible, including memoirs, private and officials archives, Customs and other publications, newspapers, travel accounts, trade, medical, and educational reports, and visual documents.
By the end of the unit students should have:
Seminars - 3 hours per week
1 x 3500 word essay (50%) and 1 x 2 hour exam (50%)
Robert Bickers, The Scramble for China: Foreign devils in the Qing empire, 1832-1914 (2011)
John King Fairbank et al, The I.G. in Peking: Letters of Robert Hart (Cambridge MA, 1975)
Henrietta Harrison, The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village 1857-1942 (Stanford, 2005)
Elizabeth Sinn, Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 2015)
O. Arne Westad, Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750 (2012)
Xiaoqing Ye, The Dianshizhai Pictorial Shanghai Urban Life, 1884-1898 (Ann Arbor, 2003)