Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
ATTENTION: This course will be taught in ENGLISH
2025-2026 academic year
Schedule : Wednesdays from 9.00h to 11.00 am.
First class : 4 February 2026
Classroom : See CELCAT , Sart Tilman.
Infos : Eric.Florence@ulg.ac.be
Course description :
After a brief overview of the major moments of the political and socioeconomic history of modern China (19th and first half of the 20th century), the course will focus on the politcal and social transformations of the Mao era (1949-1978). The course will be divided in four parts:
early reforms;
- the One hundred flowers campaign;
- the Great leap forward;
- the Cultural revolution.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
At the end of this course, the student will be able to:
- To locate the major events which marked the history of contemporary China between the founding of the People's Republic of China (1949) and the end of the Maoist period (1978);
- Understand the mechanisms for establishing and shaping the legitimacy of the new regime under the aegis of the Chinese Communist Party;
- Understand the complex modalities of the functioning of Maoist totalitarianism and the modes of resistance at work within Chinese society;
- Acquire knowledge allowing students to better understand the socio-political processes at work in China today, in China and elsewhere.
- Draw from the scientific literature in order to produce a focused review of the scientific literature on a chose topic.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Passive knowledge of English (a number of readings are English).
.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
In order to achieve these objectives, the following teaching activities will be implemented:
- Presentations by the teacher of chronological landmarks and major facts concerning each period under study;
- Preparation of readings for each session by the students (questions relating to these readings will be available on ECampus; in some cases the students will prepare questions themselves related to these readings);
- Face-to-face discussions around the themes and readings covered during the course;
- Screening of independent Chinese documentaries and discussion around these films;
- Interventions by guest professors (to be confirmed);
- Consultation of various documents by the students via the Ecampus platform (photographic documents, press articles, etc.).
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face teaching and usage of the ECampus platform.
Course materials and recommended or required readings
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus
Further information:
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus
Further information:
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus
Further information:
In addition to the assigned readings, other documents will be made available to the students via the ecampus page of the course.
Indicative bibliography:
Andreas, Joel, Yao Li, Peiyao Li, and Tiam Goudarzi. "Les Assemblées du personnel et des travailleurs de 1949 à nos jours. Trois configurations du corporatisme chinois." Le mouvement social 285 (2024): 67-89. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/932907
Chang Shu. 2012. "Mandatory organization and incapacity to act together: governance techniques of Dazhai under Mao", in Thireau, I. (ed.), De Proche en Proche. Ethnographie des formes d'association en Chine contemporaine, Berne: Peter Lang, pp. 23-50.
Cheek, T., Mühlhahn, K., & Van de Ven, H. J. (Eds.). (2021). The Chinese Communist Party : a century in ten lives. Cambridge University Press.
Delmas-Marty, M., & Will, P.-É. (2007). La Chine et la démocratie. Fayard.
Domenach, J.-L. (2012). Mao, sa cour et ses complots : derrière les Murs rouges. Fayard.
Goossaert, V., Palmer, D. A., Parent, F., & Salerno, E. (2012). La question religieuse en Chine. CNRS.
Harrell, S. (2023). An ecological history of modern China. University of Washington Press.
Heilmann, S., & Perry, E. J. (Eds.). (2011). Mao's invisible hand : the political foundations of adaptive governance in China. Harvard University Asia Center.
Lu, Q. (2018). Personal letters between Lu Qingsheng and Jiang Zhenyuan, 1961-1986 (L. Zhang & Y. Yan, Eds.). Brill.
Roux et X. Xiao-Planes. 2018. « La Chine de la Nouvelle Démocratie (1949-1953) (xin minzhuzhuyi), Histoire de la République populaire de Chine. De Mao Zedong à Xi Jinping, Paris : Armand Colin, pp. 15-30.
Saich, T. (2004). Governance and politics of China. Palgrave Publishers.
Saich, T. (2021). From rebel to ruler : one hundred years of the Chinese Communist Party. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Sun, Jiawen. (2022). « Déconstruire la « jeunesse sans regret » : pouvoir d'État, mémoire collective et formation d'une narration populaire sur la génération des jeunes instruits », Perspectives chinoises, 1, 2022, pp. 9-20.
Thireau Isabelle et Shu Chang. (2007). « La parole comme arme de mobilisation politique », Etudes rurales, 2007/1 n° 179, p. 35-58.Thornton, P. M. (2007). Disciplining the state : virtue, violence, and state-making in modern China. Harvard University Asia Center.
Veg, S. (2019). « Introduction: Trauma, Nostalgia, Public Debate », Memories of the Mao Era. From Critical Debate to Reassessing History, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2019: 1-20.
Wemheuer, F. (2019). A social history of Maoist China : conflict and change, 1949-1976. University Printing House.
Yang, Chen. (2024) "La construction de l'identité sociale des ouvriers à l'époque maoïste: Le cas de la cité ouvrière de Caoyang à Shanghai." Le mouvement social 285 : 45-65. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/932906
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
written exam ( open-ended questions )
Further information:
The assessment is divided into three parts:
1. Student participation in face-to-face sessions and occasional online activities: 10% of the mark. The course is built around learning activities based on student group participation, which explains why this part of the assessment is based on participation. Furthermore, participation in teaching activities ideally prepares students for writing the literature review.
2. An initial summary (2 pages) of a scientific article, which accounts for 20% of the overall assessment. This initial assignment will take place during the 6th class session and will allow students to receive feedback from the teacher and prepare them for writing a second written assignment, which accounts for 70% of the grade.
3. Writing a targeted literature review in groups of 2 to 4 people (the oral presentation will last between 20 and 30 minutes and will be followed by questions and a discussion). This assignment can be written in French or English and accounts for 70% of the overall mark. The length of the assignment will be between 3,500 and 5,000 words. This assigment aims at strenghtening students' capacity of synthesis, of rearticulation of knowledge, and of critical analysis.
Content of the assignment - critical commentary on generative AI
With regard to the article summary and your literature review assignment, these must also include a critical commentary on a summary of the same article and a literature review on the same subject, both produced by generative artificial intelligence (ChatGPT or other). This commentary will indicate the prompt used and present a comparison of your own work (produced with your human intelligence and without any recourse to artificial intelligence) with the result provided by artificial intelligence. This commentary will therefore identify certain strengths and/or weaknesses in your own work and certain strengths and/or weaknesses in the result provided by AI.
Number of articles
The number of articles required varies depending on the size of the group:
If you are working alone, a minimum of 4 scientific articles is required.
If you are working in pairs, a minimum of 8 scientific articles is required.
If you are working in groups of three, a minimum of 12 scientific articles is required.
Choice of articles
The articles used must be scientific articles, comprising approximately 8,000 to 10,000 words.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)