China Under Mao

Catalog description

More than four decades after the death of Mao Zedong, the assessment of his twenty-seven years in power in the founding period of the People's Republic of China remains a subject of intense debate inside and outside of China. Much of this involves contestations over China's historical past and Maoist legacies for the future that both are primarily concerned with politics in the present. Historians, meantime, are more deeply engaged than ever before in seeking to advance our understanding of how this era and its events emerged and developed as they did, and what its consequences have been for China today. The quest to illuminate the historical processes contributing to this era of turbulent elite politics, chaotic and often horrifically violent revolutionary political campaigns, and unprecedentedly vast state-directed restructuring of the economy, culture, and nearly all aspects of society has been joined by an interest in the related human and natural costs, the lived experiences, and the diverse forms in which local societies at the grassroots distant from the central government adapted their own variations of life under Chinese socialism. This upper-level course invites students to join the exploration of a history of great consequence that is still in the early stages of being brought to light. Also enroll in CUHK course# CHES3003. Enrollment limited.