HIST5610 China and The West

The study of history is at once a science, an art and a craft. Why? In what sense? This course answers this question with concrete case study. Different types of historical archives will be selected, and ways with which these archives are interpreted will be demonstrated. Major themes of historical study will also be introduced. To be more specific, this course focuses on the complex process of interaction between China and the West in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Learning Outcomes

 By the end of the course, students will:
*   Have enhanced awareness and curiosity of professional historical knowledge and its relevance to today’s major issues or personal concerns;
*   Have enhanced judgment to distinguish narratives from facts;
*   Have enhanced ability to practice the craft, science and art of historical research;
*   Have enhanced reading, writing, and oral expression skills.

 [Revised on 2024.09.15]

Lecture 01 (2024.09.07) Introduction: Modern China and the Metaphors of Ship

(1)   J. L. Cranmer-Byng ed., An Embassy to China: Lord Macartney’s Journal, 1793-1794 (1962), in Patrick Tuck ed., Britain and the China Trade 1635-1842 (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), Vol. VIII, 212-213.

(2)   J.L. Cranmer-Byng and A. Shepherd, “A reconnaissance of Ma Wan and Lantao Islands in 1794”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JHKBRAS) 4 (1964), 105-119.

(3)   Emperor Qianlong’s decree on the matter of “Kow-tow,” issued on 1793.08.14, in Zhongguo diyi lishi danganguan中國第一歷史檔案館編ed, Yingshi ma ga er ni fanghua dang’an shiliao huibian英使馬戛爾尼訪華檔案史料彙編 (Beijing: Guoji wenhua chuban gongsi, 1996), 42-43.

(4)   Emperor Qianlong’s reply to King George III, in Franz Schurmann and Orville Schell ed., China Readings 1: Imperial China (London: Penguin Books, 1967), 99-107.

(5)   Liu E劉鶚 (1857-1909), trans. Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, The travels of Lao Can 老殘遊記 (Beijing: Chinese Literature, 1983), 16-22.

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 1 (1924.09.06).

Lecture 02 (2024.09.14) Western International Law and China

(1)   Lin Xuezhong林學忠, Cong wanguo gongfa dao gongfa waijiao: wanqing guojifa de chuanru, quanshi yu yingyong 從萬國公法到公法外交：晚清國際法的傳入、詮釋與應用 [From international law to international law diplomacy: the introduction, interpretation and application of international law in late Qing] (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2009).

(2)   Lam Hok-chung (Lin Xuezhong)林學忠, “Learning the new law, envisioning the new world: Meiji Japan’s reading of Henry Wheaton”, Japanese Yearbook of International Law 56 (2013), 4-36.

(3)   Civilized Warfare? Four British military officers’ accounts of the First Opium War:

(3.1) Lord Robert Jocelyn (Military Secretary to the China Mission), Six Months with the Chinese Expedition; or, Leaves from a Soldier‘s Note-book (London: J. Murray, 1841), 71-73.

(3.2) Sir Edward Belcher卑路乍(Commander of HSS Sulphur, a surveying ship), Narrative of a Voyage Round the World: Performed in Her Majesty‘s Ship Sulphur During the Years 1836-1842: Including Details of the Naval Operations in China, From Dec. 1840 to Nov. 1841 (London: Colburn, 1843), 152-153.

(3.3) William Dallas Bernard, Narrative of the Voyages and Services of the Nemesis, from 1840 to 1843; and of the Combined Naval and Military Operations in China: Comprising a Complete Account of the Colony of Hong-Kong, and Remarks on the Character and Habits of the Chinese (London: Henry Colburn, 1844), 263.

(3.4) John Ouchterlony (the Madras Engineer Corps), The Chinese War: an Account of All the Operations of the British Forces from the Commencement to the Treaty of Nanking (London: Saunders and Otley, 1844), 96, 194.

(4)   Friedrich Engels, “Persia-China”, New York Daily Tribune 5032 (1857.06.05),  6. Also see https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/06/05.htm.

(5)   Douglas Howland, “Japan’s Civilized War: International Law as Diplomacy in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895),” Journal of the History of International Law 9 (2007): 179-201.

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 2 (1924.09.13).

Lecture 03 (2024.09.21)

British Imperialism and Modern China (I)

(1)   Nathan A. Pelcovits, The Old China Hands and the Foreign Office (New York: Octagon Books, 1969).

(2)   Algernon Cecil, “Chapter VIII: The Foreign Office”, in A. W. Ward and G. P. Gooch eds.,The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, 1783-1919 3 (rpt. New York: Octagon Books, 1970), 539-542, 580-615.

(3)   Chris Cook and Brenda Keith, British Historical Facts 1830-1900 (London: MacMillan, 1984).

(4)   Tang Xianglong湯象龍, Zhongguo jindai haiguan shuishou he fenpei tongji 中國近代海關稅收和分配統計[Statistics of the IMC tax revenue and its distribution] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1992).

(5)   P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins, “‘Maintaining the Credit-Worthiness of the Chinese Government’: China, 1839-1911,” British Imperialism 1688-2000 (London: Longman, 2001), 360-380.

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 3 (1924.09.20).

Lecture 04 (2024.09.28):

British Imperialism and Modern China (II)

(1)   Byron Brenan, “Report on the State of Trade at the Treaty Ports of China”, October 15, 1896, presented to both Houses of Parliament, May 1897, in Foreign Office 1897 Annual Series, No. 1909, Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade and Finance, in Robert L. Jarman ed., Shanghai Political & Economic Reports: British Government Records from the International City 10 (Slough: Archive Editions, 2008), 293-364.

(2)   Nicholas J. Hannen (British Consul at Shanghai), “Report for the Year 1896 on the Trade of Shanghai”, May 27, 1897, presented to both Houses of Parliament, June 1897, in Foreign Office 1897 Annual Series, No. 1951, Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade and Finance, in Robert L. Jarman ed., Shanghai Political & Economic Reports: British Government Records from the International City 10 (Slough: Archive Editions, 2008), 261-289.

(3)   Gong Zizhen, ed. Xia Tianlan夏田藍, Gong zizhen quanji leibian龔自珍全集類編 [Collected works of Gong Zizhen by categories] (1937 edition, rpt. Beijing: Zhongguo shudian, 1991), 37.

(4)   “F. S. A. Bourne’s Section”, Report of the Mission to China of the Blackburn Chamber of Commerce 1896-97 (Blackburn: The North-East Lancashire Press Co., 1898), 1-152.

(5)   Percy Ashley, Modern Tariff History: Germany-United States-France (London: John Murray, 1920).

(6)   Timothy J. McKeown, “Hegemonic Stability Theory and 19th Century Tariff Levels in Europe,” International Organization 37, No. 1 (Winter 1983), 73-91.

(7)   Hans van de Ven, Breaking with the Past: the Maritime Customs Service and the Global Origins of Modernity in China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014).

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 4 (1924.09.27).

Lecture 05 (2024.10.05) Soviet Imperialism and Modern China

奧托·布勞恩(李德)，《中國紀事》(內部參考，現代史料編刊社，1980)，

中共中央黨史研究室第一研究部編，《共產國際，聯共(布)與中國革命檔案資料叢書》(北京：北京圖書館出版社，1997-2002)。

中共中央黨史研究室第一研究部譯，《聯共(布)、共產國際與中國蘇維埃運動(1927-1937)》(北京：中共黨史出版社，2020)。

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 5 (1924.10.04).

Lecture 06 (2024.10.12) Mass Media and Modern China (I) A Taste of Two Weeklies

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 6 (1924.10.11).

Reading: The North-China Herald CLIII, No. 2983 (1924.10.11)

Lecture 07 (2024.10.19) Mass Media and Modern China (II) The “Missouri Gang”?

*2024.10.19 is CUHK Information Day. Lecture venue changed to Swire Hall 1

(1)   Ming-heng Thomas Chao, The Foreign Press in China (Shanghai: China Institute of Pacific Relations, 1931).

(2)   Mordechai Rozanski, “The role of American Journalists in Chinese-American Relations, 1900-1925” (PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1974).

(3)   John Maxwell Hamilton, “The Missouri News Monopoly and American Altruism in China: Thomas F. F. Millard, J. B. Powell, and Edgar Snow,” Pacific Historical Review 55, No. 1 (Feb 1986): 27-48.

(4)   Bryna Goodman, “Semi-Colonialism, Transnational Networks and News Flows in Early Republican Shanghai,” China Review 4, No. 1 (Spring 2004): 55-88.

(5)   Timothy B. Weston, “China, Professional Journalism, and Liberal Internationalism in the Era of the First World War,” Pacific Affairs 83, No. 2 (June 2010): 327-347.

(6)   鄭保國，《《密勒氏評論報》：美國在華專業報人與報格(1917-1953)》(北京：北京大學出版社，2018)。

(7)  He Qiliang, Newspapers and the Journalistic Public in Republican China: 1917 as a Significant Year of Journalism (London: Routledge, 2019).

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 7 (1924.10.18).

Lecture 08 (2024.10.26) Mass Media and Modern China (III): The 21 Demands

(1)   Mordechai Rozanski, “The role of American Journalists in Chinese-American Relations, 1900-1925” (PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1974), 204-246.

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 8 (1924.10.25).

Lecture 09 (2024.11.02): Mass Media and Modern China (IV): The May Fourth Incident

(1)   Li Zigui, “The ‘impartial not neutral’ Old Lady on the Bund: a history of the North-China Herald (1850-1900)” (PhD Thesis, Department of History, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2020).

(2)   Puk Wing Kin, “North China Herald’s View of the May Fourth Incident”, Journalism History 47, No. 3 (2021): 251-262.

(3)   熊玉文，《在華英美報刊與五四運動》(北京：社會科學文獻出版社，2021)。

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 9 (1924.11.01).

Lecture 10 (2024.11.09) Semester Paper Workshop (I)

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 10 (1924.11.08).

Lecture 11 (2024.11.16) Semester Paper Workshop (II)

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 11 (1924.11.15).

Lecture 12 (2024.11.23) Semester Paper Workshop (III)

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 12 (1924.11.22).

Lecture 13 (2024.11.30) Semester Paper Workshop (IV) and Conclusion

Reading: The China Weekly Review XXX, No. 13 (1924.11.29)

Semester Paper:          90%

Class Performance:     10%

Semester Paper

*     Minimum 5,000 English words including footnotes.

*     No bibliography is needed.

*     To be submitted to Veriguide on or before 23:59:59, Tuesday 03 December 2024 (three days after the last lecture). 

*     Delay of submission by one day leads to deduction of 10 marks, for instance, from 90 to 80, and so forth.

*     Topic of the semester paper: Sound and Fury a Century Ago: Reading The China Weekly Review (1924.09-1924.11)

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