Unit name | Internationalising Modern China 1850s - 1950 (Level H Special Subject) |
---|---|
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 documentswledge of the history of elements of 19th and 20th century imperialism and globalisation.
By the end of the unit students should have:
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)
Donna Brunero, Britain’s imperial cornerstone in China (London, 2006)
Documents illustrative of the origin, development and activities of the Chinese Customs Service (Shanghai, 1937-40)
John King Fairbank et al, The I.G. in Peking: Letters of Robert Hart (Cambridge MA, 1975)
Richard Smith et al, Robert Hart and China’s early modernization (Cambridge MA, 1991)
O. Arne Westad, Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750 (2012)