75721 - History of Modern and Contemporary China (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has acquired advanced knowledge on the history of China, in particular as regards the modern and contemporary era. The student has knowledge of historical research methodology, and can cope with the historiographical themes in an original and autonomous way. The student critically explores the sources and knows how to navigate the specialized bibliography; possesses the ability to explain and communicate what has learned and to formulate valid judgments in the field of history.

Course contents

Premises to two Opium Wars. Lin Zixu goes to Canton as imperial commissioner and strongly fights against Opium import.
The Taiping Rebellion
The movement of the reformers of 1898
The Movement Yi He Tuan- Boxers, 1900
The Revolution of 1911
The intellectual configuration New Clture1915 -May 1919
Other intellectual configuration of the 20th century.
People's war and two United fronts.
Liberation, and the construction of Socialism
The 60s and 70s and egalitarian experiments
The era after the death of Mao Zedong and the reforms of Deng Xiaoping
The development of the '80-'90 and the New century.

Readings/Bibliography

Guido Samarani, La Cina del Novecento, Dalla fine dell'impero a oggi, Einaudi, 2004; Storia del pensiero politico della Cina moderna, Einaudi 2015

Jacques Gernet, Il mondo cinese, Einaudi, 1978, Libro IX, Dal declino all'alienazione, pp. 497- 628.
Charlotte Furth, "Intellectual Change: From the Reform Movement to the May Fourth Movement, 1895-1920, in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 12, prima parte, pp. 322-405.
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, India, Russia, Cina. Le premesse per tre rivoluzioni, Il Saggiatore. Ibis, 2008. (spec. la Parte sulla Cina)
Gaia Perini. "La casa di ferro: la Cina del XIX secolo si confronta con il capitalismo e l'imperialismo stranieri" in Oscar Marchisio (a cura di), Cina & Capitalismo, ovvero un matrimonio quasi riuscito, Sapere 2000 edizioni, 2006, p. 97- 110.
Claudia Pozzana, " La Cina del XX secolo come insieme di configurazioni intellettuali", in La poesia pensante. Inchieste sulla poesia cinese contemporanea, Quodlibet, 2010, pp. 51-72
Claudia Pozzana e Alessandro Russo, " Il nuovo ordine cinese e i passati disordini", ibid., pp. 209-249.
Claudia Pozzana e Alessandro Russo, "Continuità e discontinuità. La dialettica di autonomia e apertura", in <<Inchiesta>> ed. Dedalo, Giugno 2010.
Wang Hui, Impero o stato nazione? La modernità intellettuale in Cina, Academia Universa Press, 2009, spec. Introduzione e postfazione.
Wang Hui, Il nuovo ordine cinese, Il Manifesto libri, 2007. Original text in English, see internet.

Positions, East Asia Culture Critique, vol. 13, n.3, 2005 Special Issue: Alain Badiou and Cultural Revolution. All the volume contains many essays very useful to understand this historical decade.

Letture consigliate:

Mao Zedong, in Opere scelte, Casa editrice in lingue estere, vols 1-4; spec. "Analisi delle classi della società cinese; Il movimento contadino dell'Hunan; Come correggere le idee errate nel Partito; Da dove provengono le idee giuste?; Come Yukong rimosse le montagne"; "Sulla Contraddizione"; "Sulla Pratica".

Mao Zedong, Rivoluzione e Costruzione. Scritti e Discorsi 1949-1957, Einaudi, 1979. Spec. "Introduzione", "Sui dieci grandi rapporti", e "Il dibattito sulla cooperazione agricola e l'odierna lotta di classe". Si consiglia di studiare attentamente la Cronologia 1893-1976.

All these texts by Marx-Engels, by Wang Hui and Mao Zedong are easily printable from the web in the principal languages. In case one wants to deepen a few themes see Cambridge History of China, 6 vols. or La Cina, Einaudi, 2009, 3 vols.

Teaching methods

Method: seminars, discussion of some issues and questions to be answered in written form, from week to week, with a note of a page. The texts to be read will be presented during the lessons so everibody can answer to questions weekly and show ones own concern.

Assessment methods

An oral examination will assess the ability of students to move in the scanning of the events covered in the course, and to seize and continuity and discontinuity in major historical junctures.The test asks the student to be able to summarize the main sequences of the period studied, deepening the themes of the papers presented in class, and using the vocabulary pertaining the themes.

Teaching tools

Photo, videos, films

Office hours

See the website of Claudia Pozzana