Introduction to H1/H2 China Studies in English syllabus at A Level Cambridge Examination standards.

1. CHINA STUDIES
H1
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE
2014

2. Setting Expectations
 Lecture-tutorial system
 Lecture: Talk Less, Learn More
Understanding key perspectives
Picking up of key content
 Tutorial: Active INTELLIGENT participation
Questions & Answers
Discussion of perspectives
Assessment skills acquisition
Application of content

3. Setting Expectations
 No textbook
Lecture notes
Tutorial pack
 No repeat of lectures/tutorials

4. Setting Expectations
 Always be prepared when attending
lectures/tutorials
 Ensure that readings are done
 Good efforts in your daily work

5. Setting Expectations
 Follow daily news on China
 Straits Times
 People’s Daily
(http://english.peopledaily.com.cn)
 China Daily
 Beijing Review
 CNN
 BBC
 South China Morning Post
(www.scmp.com)

6. Syllabus Content

4 broad themes
Culture and Society
(Sociology/Philosophy)
Authority and Governance
(Political Science)
Development and Challenges
(Economics)
China and the World
(Foreign Policy)

7. Objectives
 The Concepts of “China”
1. China: civilisation vs. nation-state
2. China: unity vs. diversity
3. China: order vs. disorder (instability)
4. China: traditional vs. modern

8. Civilisation
 network of cities that emerge from pre-urban cultures,
and are defined by the economic, political, military,
diplomatic, social, and cultural interactions among them
 There is a tendency to use the term in a less strict way, to
mean approximately the same thing as “culture”
 A culture that is complex in terms of technology, science,
and division of labor. Such culture is generally
hierarchical and urbanized
 distinguished by their means of subsistence, types
of livelihood, settlement patterns, forms
of government, social stratification, economic
systems, literacy, and other cultural traits

9. Nation-State
 A concept developed since 1648 in Europe
 Constitution that justifies/legalises the existence
and rights of a particular group/s of people within a
geographical area
 “sovereign territorial unit”
 A nation-state can be homogenous or multinational
 The state is a political and geopolitical entity
 The nation is a cultural and/or ethnic one

“Nation-state" implies that the two coincide
geographically.

10. J1 H2 CSE Assessment
Assessment Modes
CA: 20%
Mid Year: 20% (essays)
Promo: 60% (essays + case studies)

11. Do You Know
 In April 2011, China was on the verge of having 1 million
millionaires
 China now has the sixth largest population of millionaires in the
world, far more than in India and Russia combined, and the number
is growing at a rate of 15 percent a year.

12. Do You Know
Millionaire Yang, made his first fortune by
encouraging customers in southern China
to replace their boring white mosquito
nets with brightly colored and patterned
ones. Three years after hatching this idea
he was a rich man.
Zeng Weili, an entrepreneur who rode
around southern China on a bicycle in the
mid 1980s selling shares for his
company, created the Baoan Group, a
conglomerate that controlled $675 million
in assets in 1995.

13. Buying Car With Cash
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFW4GeNda40

21. Qin Dynasty 221 BC - 207 BC

22. Achievements
 Qin united whole China for the first time.
 Building roads and post offices to make interchange of
labour, information, and resources.
 He also gave people freedom of choosing the place
they live...which wasn't permitted for last thousand
years.
 First standard currency that can be used through
whole China. He made a powerful administration to
govern and control currency(which was quite similar to
national banks today). This fastened the rise of
domestic commerce in China and united China as one
economic community
 Written law is the one and only power that governs.
He executed even his own son(who broke a law) to
show everybody that even the emperor and loyal
family are not above law.

23. Achievements
 Formulated language, written letters, numeric system,
units for weights and measures...before Qin empire, there
were more than 11 languages used
 Made the first encyclopaedia in the world. It was not just
an academic achievement, but also a trial to make a
standard of Chinese philosophy and value.
 Built the Great Wall and 400,000 professional army. It was
Qin that made the standard of military system and
strategy of ancient China.
 Qin also divided China into 13 states and each states into
a 10 jurisdictions for governing purpose. Because this
division was done with great foresight and understanding
the status of each divisions...Qin's decision had not
changed at all for next 700 years...and quite lot of it still
last up to today
 He became the first emperor and made the first powerful
central government that European kings in 16~18th
century tried to build.

24. Han Dynasty 206 BC - 220 AD

25. Achievements
 The Han Dynasty begins in 206 B.C.
 The arts and sciences thrived to new heights.
 The Chinese people still refer to themselves as the Han
people in recognition of China's achievements of this period.
 The Han emperors used the civil service examination to
select officials.
 This examination stressed the teachings of Confucius.
Promotion was based on merit.
 Under the Han China produced important works of history,
medicine, philosophy, and politics.
Trade routes were formed between China and Europe.
 The Silk Route dates from this time. During the Han
dynasty, China invented paper, water clocks, sundials, and
developed a seismograph.

26. Silk Road

27. Tang Dynasty 618 AD - 907 AD

28. Achievements
 Became the center of trade in the eastBecame the center of
trade in the east
 The study of medicine, study of complex chemicals to create
gunpowder, the use of wood block printing which led to the
concept of printing
 The empire contributed greatly to art, social cultures, and
foreign relations

29. Ming Dynasty 1368 AD - 1644 AD

30. Achievements
 Great reconstruction works of the new Capital Beijing
and the refurbishing and extension of the Great Wall.
 China under the banner of the Mandate of Heaven and a
Chinese Emperor embraced the Neo-Confucian
philosophies of the past and gave tremendous support
of the peasantry that in turn created an agrariancentered based society.
 During the Ming Dynasty incredible advances in the
sciences and arts were achieved giving the Chinese
great pride and self confidence with the knowledge that
that they had created the most advanced civilization on
earth.
 Long wars with the Mongols, repeated attacks on
Chinese controlled Korea by the Japanese, and
Japanese attacks on Chinese coastal cities greatly hurt
the economy of the Ming.

31. Qing Dynasty 1644 AD - 1911 AD

32. Achievements
 The Qing Dynasty (also known as the Manchu Dynasty). The Manchus and
Chinese dually worked in the same position, by appointment through the
examination system, which became known as the Manchu-Chinese diarchy.
However, the Manchus were exempt from the examination system because of
the Manchu's dominance.
 The Qing preference for agriculture over trade.
 During the reign of Qianglong, the borders of China were expanded to their
greatest extent ever. Strong economic prosperity, coupled with Qianlong's
success in preserving the Inner-Asian empire (encompassing Xingjiang and
Mongolia)
 The isolationist policy towards Europeans set by Emperor Qianlong proved to
be a fatal mistake. During the 19th century and early 20th century, the Qing
court was not prepared for conflicts with Europeans and Japanese.
 Compounding the problem was the lack of modern education as the empire's
literati concentrated on the Imperial Examinations.
 Coupled with many natural disasters, faced with foreign economic competition
and modernization with little knowledge of the outside world or scientific
knowledge many died and faced starvation leading to social crisis.

33. Europe
China
 1500s – Religious and
political tensions across
Europe (Dark Age)
• 1500s – Ming China
(Superpower of the World)
 1600s – Birth of nationstates and decline of
Church’s power in Europe
• 1600s – Collapse of Ming and
Rise of Qing
 1700s – Age of
Enlightenment/Reason;
Overseas exploration and
expansion began
• 1700s – Qing China
(Superpower of the World)
 1800s – Industrialisaion;
overseas exploration and
expansion gathered
speed; competition among
western powers
• 1800s – Internal disorder, bad
governance and weakening of
Qing
 By 1900 – heighten period
of imperialism
• By 1900 – rapid and advance
decay of Qing China

34. Decline of Qing China
(100 Years of Humiliation)
 1839 – First Opium War
 1860 – Second Opium War
 1894 – 1st Sino-Japanese War
 1898 – Boxers’ Rebellion
 1911 – Collapse of Qing Dynasty
 1919 – May 4th Movement
 1927 – KMT Govt in Nanjing
 1930 – Manchuria Incident
 1937 – 2nd Sino-Japanese War
 1949 – Proclamation of the People’s Republic of China

35. Important Dates In China
 1911 – Collapse of Qing Dynasty
 1912 – Establisment of Kuomingtang (KMT)
 1919 – May 4th Movement
 1949 – Proclamation of the People’s Republic of China
 1956-1957 - “Hundred Flowers” campaign
 1957-1958 - “Anti-Rightist” campaign
 1958-1961 - “Great Leap Forward” campaign
 1966-1976 - Cultural Revolution
 1978-1979 - “The Four Modernizations”

36. Video
(15 min)
1. To Know What Is China