ABSTRACT
The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 marked the end of an era that began with the first Opium War in 1840 when China was compelled to open her doors to the outside world. The weak and hidebound Qing dynasty gave way in 1911 in face of a revolution inspired by a social-democratic nationalism borrowed from Europe and led by Dr Sun Yat-sen, a Christian overseas Chinese. 1911–49 was a period of intellectual and political ferment. The May 4th Movement in 1919 represented the first modern opposition to the West in reaction to the First World War and China’s intellectuals became increasingly committed to the pursuit of ‘modernisation’ through revolution. The Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party now led by Chiang Kai-shek, through its corruption and failure to resist the Japanese invaders, lost support as people turned to the Communist Party. The Communist revolution was also a nationalist revolution and when in 1949 Mao Zedong declared, ‘The Chinese people have stood up’, he voiced the feelings of a nation.
