Twentieth Century China

The twentieth century was a time of great change in China's government, economy, culture, and everyday life. Twentieth Century China, Second Edition, chronicles this period of revolutions and uprisings with the words and images of the participants. This is the story of the people--leaders and followers--whose decisions propelled modern Chinese history in erratic directions. Using a wide variety of primary sources, including official reports and public statements, articles, political posters, cartoons, poetry, songs, and advertisements, R. Keith Schoppa paints a picture of a society undergoing drastic changes, both social and political. Mao Zedong's personal physician recalls the phenomenon of backyard steel furnaces and the changes they brought to the Chinese landscape during Mao's Great Leap Forward; a poem written in 1979 expresses anger toward a general who destroyed a kindergarten to build a mansion on its site; and the box from the Chinese version of Monopoly, introduced in 1987, playfully illustrates the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin.

Expanded to cover the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this second edition of Twentieth Century China also includes an updated introduction with a note on sources and interpretation, thirty-seven new sidebars, twelve new photographs, and updated further reading and websites.