Modern China

Last Dynasty• Qing (Ching) dynasty has many problems• Peasants revolt and form armies• Limited Western/foreign trade—they wanted silk,

porcelain other goods• British start taking control of ports and selling opium

to Chinese• Opium War— British defeat the Chinese and gain

land and trading rights

China’s Revolutions• China controlled by European

traders for a brief time—makes Chinese resentful of outsiders

• Nationalist Party takes over– wanted to blend Chinese and western ideas–led by Chiang Kai-Shek

• Civil war in China between Nationalist and Communists –led by Mao Zedong

• Two groups work together in WWII to defeat Japanese invaders

• After the war, Communists take over and Nationalists flee to Taiwan

Mao’s China and Deng’s Sucess

• After WWII Mao wanted to industrialize China and use communism to control the nation

• Many of his programs failed and a famine hit China in the early 1960’s

• Cultural Revolution –Mao orders all old traditions, customs, arts destroyed and new ones based on communism

• Mao dies in 1967, Deng takes over—many changes but still communism

• Farms leased back to peasants and some private business allowed

• Sends students out of country to learn about modernization –economy is skyrocketing

• Social and political freedoms are much slower –Tiananemen Square protest and massacre, many human rights violations

Education, Art, and Food• Primary schools very crowded, 50 to a class,

difficult to learn—so many characters• Third of students finish high school and half of

that finish college• Dragons, nature (flowers, fire and water)

represented in arts• Thousands of types of meals, stir fry cooking –less

wood for fires, mix meat with noodles and veggies often