Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom

Paper Topics for Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: SELECT ONE

(Consider all the questions in the topic you choose)

Topic A. Discuss the following statement and provide examples to support this view:

Neutrality is a word used frequently by the British government and its representatives in China. Yet, throughout the book foreign powers acted upon neutrality in different ways. Sometimes neutrality reflected the limitations of the various Allied powers, at other times neutrality reflected the ambivalence of the Allies in its possible support of the Taiping. Then, despite the British government’s stated position of neutrality, the British public and the China merchant lobby actively encouraged its representatives on the ground deliberately to go against the government’s position and carry out aggression and violence.

Topic B. Take a single foreign “actor” (such as the newspaper media, the Christian missionaries, the Allied or British officials on the ground in China, or their governments at home), in the story of the Taiping Civil War and discuss what their views were at the beginning of the Taiping uprising and how these views then changed as the war between the Qing government and the Taiping developed.  Give specific incidences of the changing positions from the reading.

Topic C. When we look at the Chinese side of the Taiping civil war, the most important actor supporting the Qing emperor was the Chinese Confucian official, Zeng Guofan.  Can you explain what the author understands as Zeng’s motivations? Was it a mix of his Confucian beliefs and understanding of his family duty, his loyalty towards the Qing regime and a real grasp of the political significance of his actions? Or, did other elements also influence his decisions and actions? How was he able to succeed in organizing a successful military force where other parts of the Qing military had only moderate, if any, success?

Topic D: All things being equal, what do you think the result would be if the British had decided to go along with the initial positive Christian missionary response (Hamberg, Legge, Issacher Roberts)? Was foreign missionary disillusionment inevitable? How could the British authorities and merchants be persuaded to support the Taiping? Or given later developments, was the possibility of British and the allied powers’ support impossible? Clearly Platt recognizes the initial missionary optimism regarding a leader such as Hong Rengan (Hong as part of the same family as Hong Xiucheng).

INSTRUCTIONS:

Write a THREE-FIVE PAGE PAPER on one of the listed topics.

Format: Double-space, 12 point font, max one-inch margins.

Provide page number references in parentheses.

THIS IS NOT A RESEARCH PAPER, OUTSIDE OR EXTRA SOURCES WILL NOT BE GIVEN CREDIT.

Do not summarize the material – you need to DISCUSS it.

All student-selected quotations are available for reference – see Section Discussion Board

You cannot disagree with what an historical individual or group has done or say they were wrong (you cannot change the past), but you can explain why certain actions or decisions were a mistake. Remember you have 20-20 hindsight, they did not.

We expect you to meet the following criteria:

1. You have read the whole book so include examples (evidence) from different parts of the book.
2. You can show through your judicious use of examples of what people said or did (as evidence to support your positions) that you have understood the complex interactions of the various individuals and political interests.
3. Your spelling, syntax, and understanding of Chinese naming practices should all be correct. Family name (surname) first, use that as your reference to that person, unless you reference several family members, then use full name.
4. You need A PAPER TITLE (that reflects your essay content), number your pages. You need both an introduction and a conclusion.