Modern China | Prof. Rana Mitter | Talks at Google

For this talk about Modern China Talks at Google welcomes Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China in Oxford, fellow of St. Cross College, and author of Oxford University Press' Very Short Introduction to Modern China.

In his talk, Mitter discusses a country that seems to be full of contradictions: a peasant society with some of the world's most futuristic cities, heir to an ancient civilization that is still trying to find a modern identity. He offers an entry to understanding the world's most populous nation, giving an integrated picture of modern Chinese society, culture, economy, politics, and art.

[m.]

Eye opener. Didn't know the trenches were dug by the Chinese! I learnt that the most dangerous railway constructions in the 18th century in the U.S. & other times in Africa were also made by Chinese labours. The Chinese sure did contributed a lot to the world!

[michelbeniard]

Excellent presentation by Professor Rana Mitter on Modern China. When Professor Mitter writes or speaks about China it is always concise and very interesting. I did myself research on China between the two world wars. I defended in 2011 a PhD at Helsinki University on specific subject concerning China in the 1920

[kcwin]

What Deng Xiaoping did was to set aside ideology and institute a national consensus and a stable power succession system. He realized that any political system that devolves into ideological warfare or a zero sum game will stall or fail completely, so he put in fixes to the system to help China avoid falling into turmoil again. In this way, like the speaker kind of hinted at with his Confucian thesis, Deng has turned a staunchly ideological Communist state back into a Confucian imperial state with the Communist party sitting on the throne. But this is also not a complete step backward since the Party has its modern political institutions to connect with the people in ways that old Imperial ruling class did not. People used to laugh at Deng's idea of "Socialism with Chinese characteristics", but today's China is a success story because of this mix of modern theory and ancient history.

[dougspray]

The Speaker to me did not emphasize enough the enormous scale and horrors of the Opium Trade. It was grown by British owned Plantations in India and shipped ( more ships, some specially built for the trade, than in the Royal Navy at the time ) and sold on a scale which no modern Drug Baron could equal. Then the more humiliating Opium Wars with settlements when China lost to reimburse the British for the cost of the wars , (2) and to concede land, Hong Kong to the victors. The British have never apologized for this evil Trade. China cannot be understood unless one understands its humiliation by European and Japanese Empires in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century.

[daning]

A nice talk about China, although his depth of understanding of China is a bit shallow at places, and the economy of the truth in others. Its like writing a book about the history of the world in 200 pages. For more in-depth understanding and hard talk, I would recommend the ex Singapore ambassador to the UN Kishore Mahbubani, who is an Indian by race.

[weichatshow]

This is one of the best talks on China.

[stephencyang]

Very concise and insightful presentation. It is rather curious, that same CCP these days have setup Confucious Institutes across the globe, at the same time helping third world countries build up their infrastructures.

[cooper]

While studying modern China, there is also need to take into account the Asian Tigers. Their different models for rise, fall (or stagnation) over the decades, impact during political changes and journey through the various economic crisis (oil crisis, Black Monday, Asian Financial crisis, US & EU Financial crisis and etc). They have helped model the modern China.

[scottmead]

Being an expert on China, Rana Mitter's Chinese intonations are definitely.... interesting. Like way-off interesting.

[cjoe]

Very interesting study of recent history of China. Nothing really new to me but I am glad at least that some scholar at Oxford held more or less the same view towards looking at this part of Chinese history.

[benwong]

Some misinterpretation of Confucian principles. Confucianism is not authoritarianism. It is humanistic realism in attempt to harmonize interactions between individuals so as to reduce conflicts. It is the opposite of western liberal narcissism (liberalism). It does not condone mistreatment of others. Reality is harsh in that people are not born or travel thru life as social equals. Confucianism teaches individuals how or what manners should be used in the encounter between classes so as not to create a conflict. Individuals rise or fall in social class as a result of their own actions. The scholar class is highly respected so it is possible for a peasant to rise to a scholar if he chose to study hard. Likewise a rich man can fall in class if he engages in bad behavior.

[stephenyang]

Excellent abstraction of recent Chinese developments.

[joe-zl]

Can’t stop laughing when I heard that Putin was the recipient of the Confucius Peace Prize 😆

[alloomis]

'the great leap forward' was unsuccessful, and famine did result, but i forgive mao for this policy. it was inspired by the realization that china's enemies could not be deterred by the massive red army. the usa was publicly threatening nuclear bombing of chinese cities., a war of extermination, not occupation. the only effective counter-measure was getting a chinese bomb, and effective delivery system. so he threw what he had, peasant labor, into a modernization program.
the situation was like modern times, with iran and north korea seeing their only defense from american aggression in getting nuclear capability.

[zsl]

If you know very little about China, you should listen to this talk and learn a few things about China. As a native Chinese, I have to say that the speaker's understanding of China is quite superficial. For example, his explanation of why the cultural revolution got started is laughable. The cultural revolution resulted from Mao's fear of losing control and power after the failure of the Great Leap Forward. Confucianism was just a tool or excuse used by interest groups. The speaker mentioned the May 4th Movement but did not talk much about the immense suffering and humiliation of Chinese brought by Western powers (including Japan) since 1840s started by the British (the Opium War) and for the next 100 years. The speaker did not talk about the failures of democratic ideas attempted by Sun Yat-Sun, etc.. These are all critical in understanding why current Chinese ruling party implements the current political system and why it does not embrace the western liberal democracy. Otherwise the country would fall apart and become chaotic as in the 1910s-1920s; Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang, etc. would all break away and Taiwan would declare independence.

[wty]

Good observation, unbiased but segmentary understanding of modern China. China is so complex that few foreign can really predict and understand it, and nobody really care what Chinese themselves say about modern China. This is kinda contradictory.

[joylove]

This is a pretty objective talk, many thanks.

[timbuckley]

This is a great historical outline but omits the death of Zhou Enlai in '76, his funeral and the ensuing Tiananmen Incident which forced open the split in the CCP rulers between Maoists and Reformists and set a course.

[きくちよ-pv]

its truly a brief intro without many deep thoughts.

[roberth]

he read through a junior high school Chinese history textbook, and became a professor in Chinese history?