Dr Debin Ma SAR 612

This course is available on the MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research), MSc in Global Economic History (Erasmus Mundus), MSc in International and Asian History and MSc in Political Economy of Late Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Course content: This course provides a broad but selective survey of over 100 years of economic change in China leading towards the rise of the new Communist regime in 1950. With emphasis on the importance of ideological and institutional changes, the course gives in-depth coverage of some major debates and case studies on historical turning points such as the opening of China in mid-19th century, the collapse of Qing in 1911, economic transformation during China’s Republican period. The course showcases the critical relevance of a long-term perspective on understanding both the constraints and capacity of Chinese economy to respond to past and future challenges and offers unique historical perspectives on the origin of Chinese modernization as well as the grand economic transformation during the past three decades.

20 hours of seminars in the MT.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Students will be expected to produce 2 essays in the MT.

• Naughton. B., The Chinese economy, transitions and growth (MIT Press);
• Rawski. T., Economic growth in prewar China (Univ. of Berkeley Press); 
• Richardson, P. Economic change in China, c. 1800-1950 (Cambridge University Press);
• Spence, J.D The search for modern China (New York : W.W. Norton);
• Brandt, Ma and Rawski “From Divergence to Convergence, Revaluating the History Behind China’s Boom” Journal of Economic Literature March 2014.
• Perkins, D. (ed.) (1975) China’s Modern Economy in Historical Perspective. Stanford University Press.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the summer exam period.