DOCSLIB.ORG

Vancouver Model United Nations the 12Th Annual Conference • February 1–3, 2013

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Vancouver Model United Nations the 12Th Annual Conference • February 1–3, 2013 Vancouver Model United Nations The 12th Annual Conference • February 1–3, 2013 Background Guide Historical Chinese Crisis Vancouver Model United Nations The 12th Annual Conference • February 1–3, 2013 Zach Hauser & Stuart Warren Secretaries-General Dear Delegates, • My name is Lucas Tai-MacArthur and it is my pleasure to serve as the Direc- Eric Liu tor of the Historical Chinese Crisis committee at VMUN 2013. Having been Chief of Staff involved in VMUN since 2009, I have always been keen on crisis commit- tees, and am looking forward to bringing some new and innovative ideas to Catherine Chou Director-General the table for this year's conference. I'm especially excited this year because our topic is both complex and multi- • faceted. It's going to allow you to take, within reason, really whatever path Aliya-Nur Babul you like, as there are no real correct choices. The topic is broadly defined, USG Committees overseeing the dying days of the Qing Dynasty, and delegates on this com- mittee will take the place of senior government officials on an expanded Adam Chandani emergency session of the Imperial Court. As senior officials, you are given USG Conference great responsibility for your respective departments, regions, and port- Parker Nann folios, allowing for flexibility in policy making as well as independent and USG Delegate Affairs 1 cooperative action. The starting point for this committee is early 1900, when the Qing Court receives an ultimatum from the Western powers demanding Eden Lee a handover of financial and military powers to the Europeans in order to USG Delegate Affairs 2 restore order during the Boxer Rebellion. Brian Kwok Given the open nature of the topic and variety of decisions that this initi- USG Finance ating scenario alone can result in, I am anxiously looking forward to the intelligent discourse that this topic is sure to bring forth. As the conference Andy Lee approaches, if you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to email me. USG Marketing All the best, Catherine Wang USG Marketing Lucas Tai-MacArthur Kevin Chien Director, Historical Crisis Committee USG Simulations Jennifer Yoon USG Sponsorship Position Paper Policy What is a Position Paper? A position paper is a brief overview of a delegate’s stance on the topics being discussed by a particu- lar committee. Though there is no specific format the position paper must follow, it should include a description of the positions the delegate’s cabinet role holds on the issues covered by the general backgrounder. In the event that a delegate cannot find a firm position his/her role had on a histor- ical issue, the delegate may take small liberties in developing his/her own policies. For the Historical Chinese Crisis, position papers are mandatory, and may not exceed one page in length. Formatting Position papers should: — Include the name of the delegate, his/her cabinet post, and the committee — Be in a standard font (e.g. Times New Roman) with a 12-point font size and 1-inch docu- ment margins — Not include illustrations, diagrams, decorations, national symbols, watermarks, or page borders — Include citations and a bibliography, in any format, giving due credit to the sources used in research (not included in the 1-page limit) Due Dates and Submission Procedure All position papers must be submitted by midnight on Friday, January 18, 2013, two weeks prior to the conference. Once your position paper is complete, please save the document as your last name, your first name and send it as an attachment in an email, to your committee’s email address, with the subject head- ing as your last name, your first name — Position Paper. Please do not add any other attachments to the email or write anything else in the body. Your position paper should be sent as a single PDF or Word document; position papers submitted in another format will not be accepted. Each position paper will be manually reviewed and considered for the Best Position Paper award. The email address for this committee is [email protected]. Crisis Topic Overview A Brief History China, the self-proclaimed Middle Kingdom, is undoubtedly an ancient land. Its people and system of government can be traced as far back as 2100 BCE, with the founding of the semi-mythical Xia Dynasty in modern day Henan province; this event marks the beginning of a period of time known as the Ancient Era. Lasting from the founding of Xia in 2100 BCE to the end of the Warring States period in 221 BCE, this stretch of history was integral to the development of the modern Chinese theory of rule and civilization: during these long years, the concept of a divine mandate, or the Mandate of Heaven, was first invoked, and many central cultural institutions, such as the philoso- phies of Confucianism and Legalism, were developed. This period also saw the movement of the ethnic Han Chinese from areas inhabited since prehistory to the many disparate regions that we now consider China proper. The Ancient era was violently ended as China disintegrated into the Warring States period, a 200- year long fragmentation of a previously more unified china. Historiographers consider the Ancient Era to have ended and the current era of Chinese history, the Imperial Era, to have begun when a wily new king of the State of Qin was victorious in his military campaigns against other small states, eventually unifying the six other major Chinese powers. In addition to the amalgamation of the states in the area of eastern China, this transition saw the beginning of the storied institutions of the imperial Chinese state, such as rule of law and the primacy of the emperor. From then on, China has seen the unceremonious transitions between various dynasties; the great strides in conquest and technological development of the Han; the period of foreign takeover by the Yuan; and, since the year 1664 AD, the governance by the Qing. The Qing, much like the Yuan years before them, are not Han Chinese, the ethnic majority in the nation, but are ethnically Jurchen, a people whose historic home has been in the region of Man- churia. The Aisin Gioro, originally the chieftains of a small, unimportant tribe, rose to prominence in the 16th century after unifying neighboring tribes, and declared themselves Khans of the Great Jin; they eventually became the tribe that took charge of the Qing dynasty. Previously a Ming tribu- tary state, the Jurchen renounced their subservience to the Ming after achieving newfound power through unification. After a successful military campaign, the capital of Great Jin was moved south, and systems of military and civil administration developed; chief among these inventions was the system of Eight Banners, which would come to unify the still disparate peoples of Manchuria into a nation. The continued modernization of the state led to the creation of a rudimentary system of administration developed on the model of the Ming state; not surprisingly, it was staffed with cap- tured Ming bureaucrats and was integral in keeping the varied lands of the empire together. Future Jurchen Khans continued the legacy of their forebear, eventually incorporating the territories of Mongolia into their growing state. After defeating the last Khan of the Mongols, the reigning Jin Khan was presented with the imperial seal of the Yuan Dynasty. After this conquest, the name of the state was changed to Great Qing, and the supreme position was elevated from Khan to Emperor. — 4 — Vancouver Model United Nations 2013 Historical Chinese Crisis The Qing took up the title of the Mandate of Heaven in the year of 1644. Aided by a great peasant rebellion in the ruling Ming Dynasty to the south, they swept in from Manchuria and sacked the rebel usurper’s capital in Beijing. On October 30th, the Qing finally took up the title ofSon of Heav- en and installed themselves as the rulers of all China. International Troubles Prior to the 1800s, the Qing were the dominant power in East Asia, with the regional hegemony needed to dictate the politics of all the realms in the east. However, as European powers began to build their economies around oceanic trade, they became stronger in relation to the insular Chi- nese state. For a time, the Qing were able to find a balance of power with the Europeans through what was known as the Canton System: this limited the ports at which European merchants could trade — most notably to its eponym, the port of Canto — and the seasons during which the move- ment of goods were permitted to take place. This decades old system was challenged in 1793 by the British East India Company, which desired the opening of China to a wider variety of trade. The British, under the ambassador Lord Macartney, argued that a country of Britain’s status deserved a more amicable trade relationship with China; this was promptly rebuked in Beijing, with the em- peror telling the British that China had no need for their manufactured goods, and only desired to trade for precious metals. Pushed by both heightened demand in Europe for Chinese goods such as tea and silk as well as dwindling stockpiles of precious metals, the British searched for a solution. The British began to funnel opium into China through the port of Canton to perpetuate a Chinese addiction to the drug; in 1839, Britain was able to declare war on China after Beijing attempted to stem the Chinese addiction by banning the import of opium. The First Opium War was a disaster for China. It not only damaged the nation’s prestige, but also showed how outdated and ill-equipped the Chinese military had become.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hwang, Yin (2014) Victory Pictures in a Time of Defeat: Depicting War in the Print and Visual Culture of Late Qing China 1884 ‐ 1901
    Hwang, Yin (2014) Victory pictures in a time of defeat: depicting war in the print and visual culture of late Qing China 1884 ‐ 1901. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18449 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. VICTORY PICTURES IN A TIME OF DEFEAT Depicting War in the Print and Visual Culture of Late Qing China 1884-1901 Yin Hwang Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Art 2014 Department of the History of Art and Archaeology School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 2 Declaration for PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hundred Days' Reforms, 1898
    Chapter 25 The Hundred Days’ Reforms, 1898 On June 11, 1898, the Guangxu Emperor began what became known as the Hundred Days’ Reforms with an edict inviting officials to recommend capable advisors to assist the dynasty with foreign relations. The edict signaled the Emperor’s rejection of “the narrow circle of bigoted conservatism” in favor of a new approach to governance. Over the next 103 days, until the beginning of his “illness” on September 21, the Guangxu Emperor would aggressively pursue an agenda to remake the Qing state. Although scholars have long debated the motive for the Guangxu Emperor’s new-found enthusiasm for reform, there remains much confusion about its precise origins. Without a doubt, the Hundred Days Reforms represent the cul- mination of efforts begun in the aftermath of the Sino-French War (1884–85) when Manchu and Han officials began considering fundamental political re- forms to place the dynasty on the path to wealth and power. The traditional interpretation holds that the reforms signified the rising status of low-ranking officials like Kang Youwei, who had peppered the Throne with memorials de- manding reform since his 1895 civil service examination class had petitioned the Emperor in the so-called “Memorial of the Candidates.” Another argument is that widespread alarm about the probable partition of the empire during the scramble for concessions forced the Guangxu Emperor to consider a radi- cal new departure. Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Tan Sitong, and other young scholar-officials, in response, brought on the paroxysm of reform. The pages of the Peking Gazette also suggest another interpretation.
    [Show full text]
  • Redalyc.A HUNDRED YEAR's CELEBRATION of THE
    Historia Constitucional E-ISSN: 1576-4729 [email protected] Universidad de Oviedo España Guohua, Jiang A HUNDRED YEAR’S CELEBRATION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRACTICE IN THE LATE QING DYNASTY (a discussion on the political compromise of the Constitutional Practice in the Late Qing Dynasty) Historia Constitucional, núm. 9, septiembre-, 2008, pp. 341-371 Universidad de Oviedo Oviedo, España Disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=259027580016 Cómo citar el artículo Número completo Sistema de Información Científica Más información del artículo Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal Página de la revista en redalyc.org Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto A HUNDRED YEAR’S CELEBRATION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRACTICE IN THE LATE QING DYNASTY (a discussion on the political compromise of the Constitutional Practice in the Late Qing Dynasty) Jiang-Guohua INDEX: I. INTRODUCTION.- II. THE COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE INSTITUTIONAL REFORMERS AND THE CONSTITUTIONALISTS.- 1. The Original Opinion of the Institutional Reformers.- 2. The advocacy of constitutionalists.- 3. The decision to investigate constitutional politics abroad.- III. THE COMPROMISE BETWEEN PRO-CONSTITUTIONALIST AND ANTI-CONSTITUTIONALIST.- 1. The Pro-constitutionalist promoted the Constitutional Practice positively.- 2. The Engagement between Pro-constitutionalists and Anti-constitutionalist.- 3. The Issue of the Imperial Edict to Imitative Constitutionalism.- IV. THE COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE AUTHORITY AND THE CONSTITUTIONALISTS.- 1. The Constitutional Preparation made by the Qing Court.- 2. The Instigations of the Constitutionalists among the People.- 3. The Birth of the Outline of Imperial Constitution.- V. THE COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATISM AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL RADICALISM.- 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Part 7: Invasions, Rebellions, and the End of Imperial China Part 7 Introduction Pre-Modern Vs
    Part 7: Invasions, Rebellions, and the End of Imperial China Part 7 Introduction Pre-modern vs. Modern When does modern Chinese history begin? Some say during the Opium War, the late 1830s and 1840s. Others date modern history from 1919 and the May Fourth Movement. In this course we take the 18th century, when the Qing was at its height, to begin modern Chinese history. Considering that modern history bears some relation to the present, what events signified the beginning of that period? In Europe, historians often chose 1789, the French Revolution. The signifying events, the transitional events, for China begin with its transition from empire to nation-state, with population growth, with the inclusion of Xinjiang and Tibet during the Qianlong reign, and with the challenges of maintaining unity in a multi-ethnic population. Encounter with the West In the 19th century this evolving state ran head-on into the mobile, militarized nation of Great Britain, the likes of which it has never seen before. This encounter was nothing like the visits from Jesuit missionaries (footnote 129 on page 208) or Lord Macartney (page 253). It challenged all the principles of imperial rule. Foreign Enterprise Today’s Chinese economy has its roots in the Sino-foreign enterprises born during these early encounters. Opium was one of its main enterprises. Christianity was a kind of enterprise. These enterprises combined to weaken and humiliate the Qing. As would be said of a later time, these foreign insults were a “disease of the skin.”165 It was the Taiping Rebellion that struck at the heart.
    [Show full text]
  • Shanghai, China Overview Introduction
    Shanghai, China Overview Introduction The name Shanghai still conjures images of romance, mystery and adventure, but for decades it was an austere backwater. After the success of Mao Zedong's communist revolution in 1949, the authorities clamped down hard on Shanghai, castigating China's second city for its prewar status as a playground of gangsters and colonial adventurers. And so it was. In its heyday, the 1920s and '30s, cosmopolitan Shanghai was a dynamic melting pot for people, ideas and money from all over the planet. Business boomed, fortunes were made, and everything seemed possible. It was a time of breakneck industrial progress, swaggering confidence and smoky jazz venues. Thanks to economic reforms implemented in the 1980s by Deng Xiaoping, Shanghai's commercial potential has reemerged and is flourishing again. Stand today on the historic Bund and look across the Huangpu River. The soaring 1,614-ft/492-m Shanghai World Financial Center tower looms over the ambitious skyline of the Pudong financial district. Alongside it are other key landmarks: the glittering, 88- story Jinmao Building; the rocket-shaped Oriental Pearl TV Tower; and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The 128-story Shanghai Tower is the tallest building in China (and, after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the second-tallest in the world). Glass-and-steel skyscrapers reach for the clouds, Mercedes sedans cruise the neon-lit streets, luxury- brand boutiques stock all the stylish trappings available in New York, and the restaurant, bar and clubbing scene pulsates with an energy all its own. Perhaps more than any other city in Asia, Shanghai has the confidence and sheer determination to forge a glittering future as one of the world's most important commercial centers.
    [Show full text]
  • The Interaction Between Ethnic Relations and State Power: a Structural Impediment to the Industrialization of China, 1850-1911
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Georgia State University Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Sociology Dissertations Department of Sociology 5-27-2008 The nI teraction between Ethnic Relations and State Power: A Structural Impediment to the Industrialization of China, 1850-1911 Wei Li Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/sociology_diss Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Li, Wei, "The nI teraction between Ethnic Relations and State Power: A Structural Impediment to the Industrialization of China, 1850-1911." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2008. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/sociology_diss/33 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Sociology at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE INTERACTION BETWEEN ETHNIC RELATIONS AND STATE POWER: A STRUCTURAL IMPEDIMENT TO THE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF CHINA, 1850-1911 by WEI LI Under the Direction of Toshi Kii ABSTRACT The case of late Qing China is of great importance to theories of economic development. This study examines the question of why China’s industrialization was slow between 1865 and 1895 as compared to contemporary Japan’s. Industrialization is measured on four dimensions: sea transport, railway, communications, and the cotton textile industry. I trace the difference between China’s and Japan’s industrialization to government leadership, which includes three aspects: direct governmental investment, government policies at the macro-level, and specific measures and actions to assist selected companies and industries.
    [Show full text]
  • History, Background, Context
    42 History, Background, Context The history of the Qing dynasty is of course the history of hundreds upon hundreds of millions of people. The volume, density, and complexity of the information contained in this history--"history" in the sense of the totality of what really happened and why--even if it were available would be beyond the capacity of any single individual to comprehend. Thus what follows is "history" in another sense--a selective recreation of the past in written form--in this case a sketch of basic facts about major episodes and events drawn from secondary sources which hopefully will provide a little historical background and allow the reader to place Pi Xirui and Jingxue lishi within a historical context. While the history of the Qing dynasty proper begins in 1644, history is continuous. The Jurchen (who would later call themselves Manchus), a northeastern tribal people, had fought together with the Chinese against the Japanese in the 1590s when the Japanese invaded Korea. However in 1609, after a decade of increasing military strength, their position towards the Chinese changed, becoming one of antagonism. Nurhaci1 努爾哈赤 (1559-1626), a leader who had united the Jurchen tribes, proclaimed himself to be their chieftain or Khan in 1616 and also proclaimed the 1See: ECCP, p.594-9, for his biography. 43 founding of a new dynasty, the Jin 金 (also Hou Jin 後金 or Later Jin), signifying that it was a continuation of the earlier Jurchen dynasty which ruled from 1115-1234. In 1618, Nurhaci led an army of 10,000 with the intent of invading China.
    [Show full text]
  • New Qing History: Dispute, Dialog, and Influence
    Faculty Scholarship Collection The faculty at Allegheny College has made this scholarly article openly available through the Faculty Scholarship Collection (FSC). Article Title The Social Construction and Deconstruction of Evil Landlords in Contemporary Chinese Fiction, Art, and Collective Memory Author(s) Guo Wu (Allegheny College) Journal Title Modern Chinese Literature and Culture Citation Wu, Guo. 2013. "The Social Construction and Deconstruction of Evil Landlords in Contemporary Chinese Fiction, Art, and Collective Memory." Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 25, no. 1: 131-164. Link to additional information on http://u.osu.edu/mclc/journal/abstracts/wu-guo/ publisher’s website Version of article in FSC Published version Link to this article through FSC https://dspace.allegheny.edu/handle/10456/37714 Date article added to FSC March 18, 2015 Information about Allegheny’s Open Access Policy is available at http://sites.allegheny.edu/scholarlycommunication/ For additional articles from this collection, visit https://dspace.allegheny.edu/handle/10456/34250 The Chinese Historical Review ISSN: 1547-402X (Print) 2048-7827 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ytcr20 New Qing History: Dispute, Dialog, and Influence Guo Wu To cite this article: Guo Wu (2016) New Qing History: Dispute, Dialog, and Influence, The Chinese Historical Review, 23:1, 47-69, DOI: 10.1080/1547402X.2016.1168180 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1547402X.2016.1168180 Published online: 09 Jun 2016. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 325 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ytcr20 Download by: [Allegheny College] Date: 19 December 2016, At: 07:28 The Chinese Historical Review, 23.
    [Show full text]
  • The 1911 Revolution and the Korean Independence Movement: the Road to Democratic Republicanism
    The 1911 Revolution and the Korean Independence Movement: The Road to Democratic Republicanism KIM Bong-jin 1. Foreword The Xing Zhonghui 興中会 （Revive China Society） started by Sun Yat-sen（ 1866-1925） and Wang Zhaoming 汪兆銘（ Wang Jingwei, 1883-1944） merged with the Hua Xinghui 華興会 established by Song Jiaoren 宋教仁 （1882-1913） and Huang Xing 黄興（ 1874-1916） on August 20, 1905 in Tokyo to become the Zhongguo Tongmenghui 同盟会 （Chinese Revolutionary Alliance）. Sun Yat-sen was selected to head the organization, and Huang Xing to run general affairs. Various documents were adopted, including the “mili- tary government proclamation,” “general articles of the Tongmenghui,” and “revolutionary strategy.” The Tongmenghui issued as their organizational publication the Minbao 民報, which adopted the general principles advocated by Sun of “expel the Manchus and restore China, establish a republic, and equalize land rights.” Subsequently, they fomented uprisings all over China, but all ended in failure. The Wuchang New Army successfully revolted against the Qing govern- ment on October 10, 1911. Other provinces followed suit by declaring inde- pendence from the central government. On January 1, 1912 the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was established in Nanjing, with Sun Yat-sen as provisional president. On February 12, however, Yuan Shikai （1859-1916） compelled the child emperor Puyi（ 1906-1967） to abdicate. The next day Sun Yat-sen turned in his resignation as president and recommended to the provisional National Assembly that Yuan take the position. On February 15 the provisional National Assembly agreed on Yuan’s appointment and to designate Nanjing as the capital.
    [Show full text]
  • 9789814779074
    SHORTLISTED FOR THE SINGAPORE LITERATURE PRIZE From rebel on the run to first president of republican China, the life of Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925) epitomizes his country’s turbulent struggle for modernity. For Review only hina is a land of superlatives: home to the fastest trains, the biggest The Unfinished Revolution is a superb new biography of Sun Yat-sen, whose standing army, and the most number life, like the confusion of his time, is not easy to interpret. His political C of millionaires. The world’s largest trading career was marked mostly by setbacks, yet he became a cult figure in China after his death. Today he is the only 20th-century Chinese leader to be power with vast holdings of U.S. sovereign widely revered on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In contrast, many Western debt, China today is a global powerhouse The historians see little in his ideas or deeds to warrant such high esteem. with significant influence in shaping the world order. This book presents the most balanced account of Sun to date, one that UNFINISHED situates him within the historical events and intellectual climate of his time. This image is in sharp contrast to her state Born in the shadow of the Opium War, the young Sun saw China repeatedly REVOLUTION on the cusp of the 20th century, when she humiliated in clashes with foreign powers, resulting in the loss of territory — and sovereignty. When his efforts to petition the decrepit Manchu court to was rent asunder by predatory foreign institute reforms failed, Sun took to revolution.
    [Show full text]
  • Warlord Era” in Early Republican Chinese History
    Mutiny in Hunan: Writing and Rewriting the “Warlord Era” in Early Republican Chinese History By Jonathan Tang A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Wen-hsin Yeh, Chair Professor Peter Zinoman Professor You-tien Hsing Summer 2019 Mutiny in Hunan: Writing and Rewriting the “Warlord Era” in Early Republican Chinese History Copyright 2019 By Jonathan Tang Abstract Mutiny in Hunan: Writing and Rewriting the “Warlord Era” in Early Republican Chinese History By Jonathan Tang Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Wen-hsin Yeh, Chair This dissertation examines a 1920 mutiny in Pingjiang County, Hunan Province, as a way of challenging the dominant narrative of the early republican period of Chinese history, often called the “Warlord Era.” The mutiny precipitated a change of power from Tan Yankai, a classically trained elite of the pre-imperial era, to Zhao Hengti, who had undergone military training in Japan. Conventional histories interpret this transition as Zhao having betrayed his erstwhile superior Tan, epitomizing the rise of warlordism and the disintegration of traditional civilian administration; this dissertation challenges these claims by showing that Tan and Zhao were not enemies in 1920, and that no such betrayal occurred. These same histories also claim that local governance during this period was fundamentally broken, necessitating the revolutionary party-state of the KMT and CCP to centralize power and restore order. Though this was undeniably a period of political turmoil, with endemic low-level armed conflict, this dissertation juxtaposes unpublished material with two of the more influential histories of the era to show how this narrative has been exaggerated to serve political aims.
    [Show full text]
  • Interracial Experience Across Colonial Hong Kong and Foreign Enclaves in China from the Late 1800S to the 1980S
    Volume 14, Number 2 • Spring 2017 Erasure, Solidarity, Duplicity: Interracial Experience across Colonial Hong Kong and Foreign Enclaves in China from the late 1800s to the 1980s By Vicky Lee, Ph.D., Hong Kong Baptist University Abstract: How were Eurasians perceived and classified in Hong Kong and China during this hundred-year period? Blood admixture was only one of many ways: others included patrilineal descent, choice of family name, and socio-economic background. Family-imposed silence on one’s Eurasian background remained strong, and individual attempts to erase one’s Eurasian identity were common for survival reasons. It is no wonder that government authorities often had difficulty quantifying their Eurasian population. What experiences of erasure of Eurasianness were shared both collectively and individually? A strong sense of Eurasian solidarity was manifested in different forms, such as intermarriage and community cemeteries. Duplicity was another common element in their experience: Name-changing practices and submission to the new Japanese government during the Occupation sometimes rendered Eurasians suspect during and after wartime. Memoirs reflect the constant psychological harassment of Eurasians in patriotic Chinese schools during 1940s Peking and in Tsingdao, and Eurasians became frequent targets for criticism during the Maoist Era. Many Eurasians experienced psychological and physical torment as their very faces were evidence enough to subject them to criticism and punishments. Permalink: Citation: Lee, Vicky. “Erasure, Solidarity, Duplicity: usfca.edu/center-asia-pacific/perspectives/v14n2/Lee Interracial Experience across Colonial Hong Kong and Keywords: Foreign Enclaves in China from the late 1800s to the Chinese Eurasian, Mixed Identities, Colonial 1980s,” Asia Pacific Perspectives, Vol.
    [Show full text]