Unit information: The Origins, Consequences and History of the Boxer Rising in China, 1899-1900 (Level C Special Topic) in 2009/10

Unit name	The Origins, Consequences and History of the Boxer Rising in China, 1899-1900 (Level C Special Topic)
Unit code	HIST14011
Credit points	20
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Eberspaecher
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit offers an introduction to the history of modern China, and to the historiographical themes which dominate it. Its focus is the 'Boxer' rising and war of 1899-1900, a peasant uprising and Sino-foreign military conflict that became a key turning point in modern Chinese history, and in Sino-foreign relations. We will examine the nature of foreign imperialism in China from the 'Scramble for concessions'after 1895, to the Boxer War and its consequences, and the nature and course of the Boxer movement. The unit will also engage with contemporary and subsequent debates about and interpretations of the crisis. Examining how and why the Boxers have been portrayed as part of the 'Yellow Peril', as superstitious xenophobes and as stout-hearted peasant nationalists, underpins this introduction to modern China, and to the making and remaking of history.

Aims:

• To place students in direct contact with the current research interests of the academic tutor/s

• To enable students to explore the issues surrounding the state of research into the Boxer rising and war of 1899-1900.

• To introduce students to working with primary sources

• To introduce students to issues relating to setting primary sources in their wider context

• To introduce students to the practice of learning independently within a small-group context.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit students should have:

• deepened their understanding of a particular aspect of current historical research

• learned how to work with primary sources

• developed their skills in contributing to and learning from a small-group environment.

Teaching Information

10 x 2 hour seminars

Assessment Information

1 x 2 hour summative exam (100%).

Reading and References

• Robert Bickers and R.J. Tiedemann (eds.), The Boxers, China and the World (Lanham 2007).

• Paul Cohen, History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience and Myth (New York, 1997).

• Joseph Esherick, The Origins of the Boxer Uprising (Berkeley, 1987).

• Peter Fleming, The siege at Peking (1959)

• Chester C. Tan, The Boxer Catastrophe (New York, 1971).

• The Yi Ho Tuan Movement of 1900 (1976)