MAO ZEDONG, REVOLUTION AND CHINA

This course uses the life and legacy of Mao Zedong (1893-1976) as a way to navigate China’s tumultuous history. Mao is generally acknowledged as a towering figure in Chinese history whose personal legacy and political ideology continue to influence national and world politics today; yet a careful study of China’s 20th-century history reveals the limits and extent of the influence of a “revolutionary” such as Mao Zedong. What was life like for ordinary people? How did transnational flows of migration and culture alter Chinese society? How did women’s lives change as feudal patriarchal family systems began to share authority with the modern nation-state? How did people seek common cause and define life’s meaning? The course gives the context for China’s rise as a new global superpower.