Redefining China

1. Redefining China • March 6, 2014

2. Review • Was there much nationalism in Korea in 1910? What about in 1919? • Were there many Koreans who collaborated with the Japanese colonial government? • Who was Kim Il Sung and what role did he play in the anti-Japanese nationalist movement? • What was the impact of Japanese colonial rule on the Korean economy?

3. Japan’s Taiwan • 1895-1915 overcoming resistance • 1915-1930 integration into the Japanese political, economic, and cultural sphere (civilian rather than military rulers) • 1931-1945 “Imperialization” Even stopped publication of Chinese-language newspapers. • The people of Taiwan were not completely Chinese in 1895, nor were they completely Japanese in 1945. The landed and urban elite tended to be more “Japanized” than were the peasantry.

4. Taiwanese reactions • Not a very strong movement for restoration of Qing control • Not a very strong Communist movement (People in Taiwan were cut off from developments on the mainland, especially when mainlanders started writing in the vernacular, which was not the same as the vernacular language of Taiwan.) • At first, Taiwanese demanded an independent Taiwan Republic. Later they asked for home rule within the Japanese empire.

5. Creating Imperial Subjects • In the 1930s Japan tried to turn both Koreans and Taiwanese into “imperial subjects,” people who were loyal to the Japanese emperor. They used four tools to do so: • promoting Shinto at the expense of local religions (and, in Korea, Christianity) • promoting Japanese over the local language • encouraging Taiwanese, and requiring Koreans, to change their names to Japanese names • Encouraging Taiwanese and Koreans to enlist in the Japanese military.

6. Japanese-controlled Taiwan • For a short summary of Japanese rule over Taiwan, from a Taiwanese point of view, see • http://www.taiwan.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=37235&CtNode=2232&mp=13 • http://www.nmth.gov.tw/enpage3/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=44

7. What is modernity? • Economic modernization: • from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy • peasants become farmers (growing for the market) • faster means of transportation and communication • move from animate to inanimate power • Social modernization: • from hereditary occupations to occupational mobility • women gain more autonomy, at home and in public • mass education and mass media arrives. • individual horizons expand

8. Colonial modernity • The Japanese created public education and public health systems in their colonies, along with modern transportation and communication systems. This led to greater literacy as well as rapidly growing populations. In addition, Japan began industrializing the economies of its colonies. • colonial rule gave birth to modern national identities, and modern nationalism, in both colonies, though the nationalist movement was weakest in Taiwan. Koreans especially being treated as inferior by people they had regarded as inferior for millennia. • For colonial modernity in Korea, see 405-08

9. Industrialization • Both Korea and Taiwan were originally intended to provide rice and other agricultural products to Japan so Japanese farmers could become factory workers. • Industrialization began in both colonies in the 2nd decade of the 20th century, stimulated by demand created by World War I. In both places, hydroelectric plants were built for the first time. • However, full-scale industrialization did not begin until the 1930s. Korea, in particular, began to be used to provide war materials for the Japanese campaign in China. (p. 407)

10. Identifying Colonial modernity • Do we see movement toward industrialization in Korea and Taiwan during the decades of Japanese rule? • Do we see a growing use of inanimate power? • Do we see the growing spread of new means of transportation and communication? • Do we see greater educational and occupational opportunities for women? • Do we see greater occupational opportunities for men as well? What about hereditary status? Does it persist in Korea?

11. The legacy for Korea and Taiwanof colonial development • Provided infrastructure for industrialization • created an experienced modern work force, including experienced factory workers. • Provided public education and a modern public health system • Provided a more efficient bureaucracy • Provided a more productive agriculture • Inadvertently created nationalism, especially in Korea

12. Other long-term effects of Japanese colonial rule • Enshrined a pivotal role for the state in economic development. • Provided a model of concentrated economic power: in zaibatsu, seen in the chaebŏl in Korea • Promoted an export-oriented economy • And a dependent economy • Provided a model of what a modern government could look like: it could be authoritarian and militaristic, as long as it promoted economic development and governed in an intrusive but impersonal manner. (All the governors-general of Korea were military men. Only the first governors-general in Taiwan were from the military)

13. From Manchu empire to Chinese nation • The shock of the defeat at the hands of the Japanese in 1895 and at the hands of the Western powers (plus Japan) in the Boxer Rebellion convinced both the Manchu and the Chinese that dramatic changes were needed. • There was a push to change the education system so skills needed in the modern world would be learned. The Confucian civil service exam system was ended in 1905. (p. 418) • A belief that Western strength came from participatory government led to moves toward a constitutional monarchy.

14. The birth of Chinese Nationalism • The Manchu government could not afford to promote a nationalism of the Chinese (Han) • What role did Social Darwinism play? (p. 417) • Nationalism first appeared among urban Chinese, especially those who studied overseas, in Japan or the West. Sun Yatsen is a prime example (p.417-18) • Overseas Chinese also contributed to the emergence of nationalism. • What preceded nationalism? Culturalism, a cultural rather than political definition of China.

15. 1911- an accidental revolution • What were Sun Yatsen’s Three Principles of the People? • Nationalism, Democracy (eventually), and People’s Livelihood (more concerned with land ownership than with industry) (p.418) • Why did the uprising break out on October 10, 1911? (Where was Sun Yatsen at that time?) (p. 418) • What role did Yuan Shikai play in the revolution? (p. 419) • Had constitutional reform undermined the foundations of Qing rule?

16. Sun and Yuan • Sun Yat-Sen • http://larouchejapan.com/japanese/drupal-6.14/node/297 • Yuan Shikai • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_Shikai

17. The 1911 revolution • http://diogenesii.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/february-12-1912/

18. Tibet and Mongolia • Both had been part of the Manchu empire but not part of China (not governed by a Chinese civil service). • From 1911 to 1950 China was not able to assert any authority over Tibet. However, Tibet was not recognized as an independent country by any other countries. • Mongolia became formally an independent country though, from 1924, it was controlled by the Soviet Union. (p. 419)

19. Changes after 1911 • militarization of political leadership • localization of political power • growing economic and cultural divide between urban and rural areas • growing use of a national vernacular, thanks to the rise of vernacular writing and the spread of radio • decline in rural living standards because • a) factory-produced fabrics, such as rayon, replaced silk and other fabrics peasants produced as a side-line job • b) Great Depression of 1929 meant few markets for exports.

20. China slides into chaos • The rise and fall of Yuan Shikai (he died in 1916) • What happened to Sun’s Guomindang (also known as the KMT), the Nationalist Party? (p. 419, 428-29) (Sun died in 1925) • What role did Russian Communists play in the formation of the Guomindang? (What is democratic centralism? What is a Leninist Party?) (pp. 428, 440) • What is a warlord and what does their rise tell you about Chinese nationalism after 1911? (p. 420) • Despite disunity, there was some industrialization. (pp. 422-425) • Was Chiang Kai-shek a warlord?

21. Changes Across East Asia • http://japanfocus.org/-nishi-masayuki/2560

22. New Visions of China • China is now defined as a political entity that should be dominated by the dominant ethnic group, rather than as simply a Confucian civilization. (Where does that leave Tibetans, Mongols, Muslims, and Manchu?) • The May 4th movement represents the repudiation of the “feudalistic” anti-individualistic values of Confucian China. (What is the significance of the movement toward writing in the vernacular? What sort of new literature emerged?) (pp. 425-28) • There were also demands for a re-evaluation of the roles of women in society. • Some reformers wanted to reform Chinese culture first to prepare China for modernity. (Many of them promoted individualism.) • Others wanted a political revolution so that a modern state could promote modernity. (What was the appeal of Communism? What is Communism?)

23. Communism • What is Communism: • "Common--ism:" refers to a politico-economic system in which tools of economic production (land, factories, etc) are to be held in common, as is control over the distribution of goods. (In theory, at least. In reality, the state replaces the landlords and the capitalists) Communism also assumes that beliefs and values should be held in common, and that a diversity of opinions is not only unhealthy but is also dangerous to the common good. • Characterized by one-party rule, a “dictatorship of the proletariat” • claims to be “scientific”and anti-imperialist. (p. 440)

24. Communism Defined • Communism recognizes that there are real conflicts of interest. However, rather than trying to peaceful resolve such conflicts, Communism tries to eliminate them through force. Communism tries to eliminate conflicts between landlords and peasants by eliminating landlords, and eliminate conflicts between capitalists and workers by eliminating capitalists. • The tool Communism uses to end conflicts of interests is the end of private ownership and its replacement by “communal ownership.” It appealed to those who were moved by the suffering of peasants and workers in the early modern era (peasants and workers had to accept less pay than the value of what they produced so that a surplus could be accumulated to pay for industrialization). It also appealed to some nationalists because, first of all, it condemned colonialism and imperialism and it also claimed to offer a scientific methodology which would allow less-developed nations to skip the capitalist stage of development and move immediately into the modern advanced stage of socialism.

25. Three Ideologies • Fascism: denies that there are any real conflicts of interest in a society • Democracy: says that conflicts of interest are real, but they can be resolved peacefully • Communism: says that conflicts of interest are real, but they need to be resolved through a violent revolution.

26. The CCP and the KMT (GMD) • At first, the Chinese Communist Party worked with the KMT(GMD) but that changed when Chiang Kaishek attacked his erstwhile allies in Shanghai in 1927. (p. 440) • Chiang then established a government in Nanjing that moved to the right. • Did Chiang address the problem of rural poverty? Was he a progressive force in modern Chinese history? (p. 444) • Was Chiang a fascist? (p. 444)

27. Northern Expedition • http://web.mit.edu/course/21/21h.580/www/timesatlas/p122_2.jpg

28. Chiang Kai-shek • http://historyplanet.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/britains-reconquest-of-hong-kong-and-chiang-kai-sheks-humiliation/ • http://sites.asiasociety.org/chinawealthpower/chapters/chiang-kai-shek/