79-218 Tiananmen Square and Popular Protest in Modern China

6 units, Carnegie Mellon University

On June 4, 1989, the world watched as tanks rolled into Beijings Tiananmen Square ending what had been six weeks of studentled protest calling for reform of the Chinese Communist Party and its policies. This was not the first time students had gathered at Tiananmen to demand political change. Exactly seventy earlier, studentled protests launched the May 4th Movement, a social and intellectual revolution that fundamentally changed China and helped birth both the Nationalist Party of Chiang Kaishek and Communist Party of Mao Zedong. This class examines the causes and consequences of popular protest in modern China. While the focus is on the protests of 1919 and 1989, we will also look at other popular protests, including the Cultural Revolution 19661969, Democracy Wall Movement 1979, postTiananmen protests among workers, farmers, and ethnic minorities especially Tibetans and Uyghurs, and the current protests in Hong Kong.

Prerequisites: none listed

Courseweave needs JavaScript to show sections, workloads and planning tools.