James Carter is Professor of History and part of the Nealis Program in Asian Studies at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He is the author of three books on China’s modern history, most recently Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai.
With hardline conservatives breathing down his neck in Beijing, Deng Xiaoping made an unannounced trip south in January 1992 to visit his reform-minded friends, a calculated move without any guarantee of success. But his gambit paid off in a big way.
Echoes of Maoism in the storming of Capitol Hill.
The New Fourth Army Incident, in which Communist troops were routed at the hands of the Nationalist Army, has been a source of contention ever since it happened. But what is clear is that it set the stage for further internecine conflict, even as China stared down a common enemy.
Any event as monumental as the fall of the Ming dynasty has many causes. Yet in the winter of 1643, it may have been bubonic plague that knocked the last supports out from under the dynasty, leaving it open to attack from within and without.
Xuanye (1654–1722), better known as the Kangxi Emperor, is widely considered one of imperial China’s most successful rulers. But in a valedictory speech given five years before his death, he revealed his fears and vulnerabilities with a candor that seems almost impossible for the politicians who lead the world today.
Our understanding of Chinese history — specifically, what constituted “China” throughout history — is fundamentally flawed. The result isn’t merely academic: It has profound implications in our present.
Yuan Shikai was one of the most significant men in the last decades of the Qing dynasty and the early years of the Republic. He served as China’s first president, but his career ended ignominiously. His legacy has not aged well, either.
Su Lin, the first panda to enter America, was an instant celebrity, a black-and-white meteorite. Brought over by Ruth Harkness, his arrival presaged the start of Sino-American panda diplomacy.
A British gunner’s execution for the “accidental” murder of two Chinese sailors led to Western powers seeking extraterritoriality from the Qing. That’s the popular reading of the Lady Hughes affair, anyway — a narrative that is misleading and wrong.
This Week in China's History looks at an outhouse murder of 1721, a case that would have been lost to history — along with all the interesting lessons it offers about 18th-century Qing society — if not for China’s deep and broad archival record. That record, unfortunately, is currently under threat.