Asian Business Essay! (Looking for a professional business major writer ONLY)

NOTES ON “ROOTS OF MADNESS”

These notes are meant to raise some things to think about while watching “The Roots of Madness” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R6kntniDPI ). Remember the historical context of the film--the Cold War, memories of the Korean War, the questions why China, “our best friend in Asia” in the 1940s became “our worst enemy”, (there was a searing debate in the US in the 1950s about “who lost China”), the Vietnam War, the worst years of the Cultural Revolution, etc. There are scratches on our minds about “mysterious China”, “Red China”, etc. Despite all this, the history is fairly straight forward (some things were omitted from what is, after all, a TV program) and the pictures really bring home the degree of catastrophe that befell China. One final note--some people think this film is CIA propaganda...it isn’t. It was produced for American TV and broadcast on NBC (I think).

These notes follow the film almost scene by scene. If you think they could be improved (and they can be!), let me know.

· The shots at about 00:40 are of Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution (around 1967) destroying cultural artifacts from “the old society”.

05:05 - Actually, China was hardly “invulnerable”--Chinese history is full of invasions of non-Chinese: Uighers, Tibetans, Khitans, the Mongols (Yuan dynasty/Kublia Khan) and the last dynasty, the Qing (Manchus from Manchuria).

What were the results of the Opium War?

Who was “China’s evil spirit”?

Who were the Boxers?

Pearl Buck wrote many novels about China, including “The Good Earth”, a book that influenced many American attitudes about China. Still worth reading.

According to the film, what are the geographical divisions of China and what importance do they have?

What happened to the Qing (Manchu) dynasty?

According to White, what kind of leaders emerged in China after October 10, 1911?

Who was Yuan Shikai?

Who was Sun Yatsen?

The 1919 student movement kicked off the May 4th Movement, the first national expression of Chinese nationalism.

Who were the “War Lords”?

Why did peasants flee to the foreign concessions in Shanghai? And how did foreigners live? (Do you think that might have engendered resentment?)

What were the 3 Principles of the People (San Min Zhu Yi)?

Did the West support Sun Yatsen?

Which country did?

What was the Whangpoa Military Academy? Who led it?

What was the Bei Fa (Northern Expedition)?

What happened in Shanghai in April 1927? The outcome?

What happened in Canton at the end of 1927?

How did Chiang’s troops identify the Communist fighters in Canton?

Who is Song Meiling?

According to Pearl Buck, what was the complex situation facing Chiang Kaishek as he consolidated his rule?

What was the Japanese reaction of rising Chinese nationalism?

What was Manchukuo?

What was the Chinese national reaction to Manchukuo? What was Chiang’s dilemma?

What were Mao’s ideas about seizing power?

What was Chiang’s first priority in the 1930s?

What was The Long March?

What happened to Chiang in Xian in Dec. 1936? The outcome?

What happened to “The Young Marshal”?

What is Yenan? The Chinese 8th Route Army and its strategy?

Where does Chiang retreat to?

What how does Chiang regard the two threats of Japan and the Chinese Communists? Does this sound a little like the way the “Self Strenghteners” regarded their enemies 100 years before?

What was “Flying the Hump”?

Who was Joseph Stillwell. What problems did he face?

Did Chiang and Stillwell get along?

What was the Cairo Conference?

Did Chiang and Mao have views about what would happened after the defeat of the Japanese?

What views did Mao have about military and political training? Why?

Why did both Mao and Chiang concentrate on Manchuria? Which country has occupied Manchuria?

What was George Marshall’s solution to the Chinese post-war political dilemma? Why did it fail?

What did the Russians do with captured Japanese factories?

What was Chiang’s military strategy? Policies in Shanghai?

What happened to the Nationalist economy and the Chinese middle class?

What did Chiang offer the peasants? What did the Communists offer the peasants?

What happened to Chiang’s armies in Manchuria? In Nanking?

What does Taiwan symbolize in the 1960s?

What does White think about US intelligence about China?

The famine (1:13) refers to the Great Leap Forward, during which 30-40 million people are said to have died.

During the Cultural Revolution, shown at the end of the film, Mao was deified.

What do you think of White’s conclusion?

FINALLY, if you had grown up in China during the time depicted in the film, what do you think your attitudes and beliefs about life, economics, politics and the outside world would be?

/ / /