R. Keith Schoppa - Revolution and Its Past: Identities and Change in Modern Chinese History

Revolution and Its Past is a comprehensive study of China from the last quarter of the eighteenth century through to 2018.

A fascinating and dramatic narrative, the book compels interest both as a history of an ancient civilization developing into a modern nation-state and as an account of how the Chinese as a people have struggled and continue to work to find their identity in the modern world. Beginning in the last two decades of the reign of the Qianlong emperor (17361795), the book provides a baseline that allows readers to understand Chinas rapid decline in the nineteenth and part of the twentieth century, and extends into the present day, a time when China has the second largest economy in the world and aims to become a leading global power by 2050. The vast changes that have swept over China between these times are probed through the lens of the broad and important theme of identities. This fourth edition has been updated throughout, providing a more thorough examination of recent history since 1960, and increasing coverage of such topics as new Qing history, frontier and ethnicity, women and their roles, environmental concerns and issues, and globalization.

Supported by maps, images, tables, online eResources and suggestions for further reading, and written in an engaging, concise, and authoritative style, Revolution and Its Past is the ideal textbook for all students of the history of modern China.

R. Keith Schoppa is Professor Emeritus at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. From 1998 to 2014, he served as the Doehler Chair in Asian History. His research focused on the political, social, and cultural history of the first half of the twentieth century. His major research works include Chinese Elites and Political Change (1982); Xiang LakeNine Centuries of Chinese Life (1989); Blood Road (1995), for which he won the Association for Asian Studies Levenson Award; and In a Sea of Bitterness (2011).

Identities and Change in Modern Chinese History

Fourth Edition

R. Keith Schoppa

This edition published 2020

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Taylor & Francis

The right of R. Keith Schoppa to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders. Please advise the publisher of any errors or omissions, and these will be corrected in subsequent editions.

First edition published by Pearson Education Inc. 2002

Third edition published by Pearson Education Inc. 2011

Third edition reprinted by Routledge 2016

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Schoppa, R. Keith, 1943 author.

Title: Revolution and its past : identities and change in modern Chinese history /
R. Keith Schoppa.

Description: 4th edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2019007097 (print) | LCCN 2019014706 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781315182025 (Ebook) | ISBN 9781138742161 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781138742185 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315182025 (ebk.)

Subjects: LCSH: ChinaHistory19th century. | ChinaHistory20th century. |
ChinaHistory21st century. | RevolutionsChinaHistory. | National
characteristics, Chinese.

Classification: LCC DS755 (ebook) | LCC DS755 .S294 2019 (print) | DDC 951dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019007097

ISBN: 978-1-138-74216-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-74218-5 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-18202-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Garamond

by codeMantra

Visit the eResources: www.routledge.com/9781138742185

To Beth

with love and gratitude

Context: The 1920s in one of the most modernized and developed zones of Zhejiang province along the coast of Hangzhou Bay.

The inside of all thatched roof farm houses were the same: black rafters, gray walls, a dirt floor, a kitchen table, a bench, farm implements, and amulets from the local temple. The walls were bare. The floors were covered with chicken shit, and people walked through it with their bare feet. The constant lament in the village: Nothing to eat, nothing to weareverything goes to the landlord.

Context: 2018, almost a century after the scene above and 40 years into the post-Mao Reform era.

During the period 1989 to 2017, the annual growth GDP rate (the total value of everything produced by all the people and companies in a country) averaged a remarkable 9.69 percent. It was the fastest sustained expansion by any major power in all of history. Statistics from the World Bank showed this stunning economic progress through GDP per capita from 1978 (185.4 USD), to 2016 (8,123.2 USD) and projected to 2022 (12,834.7 USD). World Bank statistics revealed that up to 2017, 800 million Chinese were pulled out of poverty level as the poverty rate dropped from 88 percent in 1981 to 3.1 percent in 2017. Not many, if any, thatched roof houses exist. Instead, in many modernized areas, there are attractive modern two-story homes with double garages, satellite dishes, and all modern conveniences. The wealthy often own three or more cars, among which would probably be a Lexus or BMW or both.

In the international sphere the economic success was equally spectacular as China became the worlds second largest economy in 2010 and the largest trading nation in the world in 2013. Its Gross Domestic Product in 2016 made up 14.9 percent ($11.2 trillion) of the global output, which was second only to that of the United States (25 percent, 18.6 trillion). China became the worlds largest exporter of goods in the world in 2009. Data from 20112013 show that in the world economy China produced 90.6 percent of all personal computers; 80 percent of all air conditioners; 70.6 percent of all mobile phones; 63 percent of all shoes; 50 percent of all DVDs; and 43.1 percent of all clothing.

Not surprisingly, Chinas rise to a position of global power in the forty years since the disaster known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (19661976) has been described by different writers as amazing, astonishing, awesome, phenomenal, spectacular, and staggering. While these adjectives contain some truth especially when posed against the depths of degradation, ridicule, weakness, shame, and humiliation that China experienced in the 140 years from 1850 to 1990, they overlook the fact that these years were, in fact, for China an aberration in the last two millennia, when China was consistently one of the worlds largest economies.