People's History of Ideas Podcast

This is the first of several episodes which will give broad historical background for our upcoming discussion of the Chinese Revolution and the international spread of ideas related to the Chinese Revolution. This episode focuses on the background to and events of the First Opium War (1839-1842). China's defeat in the First Opium War began the Century of Humiliation at the hands of imperialist powers (Britain, France, Russia, Germany, USA, Japan) that ended with the revolution's victory in 1949.
Good resources for more information on these events:
Zheng Yangwen, The Social Life of Opium in China (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/social-life-of-opium-in-china/F5A70808CF5B7621B0E949686E90406C)
Stephen Platt, Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/221056/imperial-twilight-by-stephen-r-platt/9780345803023/)

This episode focuses on the 1862-1895 period, when the Empress Dowager Cixi ruled and reformers tried to make China strong enough to stand up to foreign powers by modernizing the military and promoting 'new learning.' Also, a few words on the surge in overseas Chinese migration during this time, and its relationship to revolutionary nationalist movements to overthrow the Qing Empire.
The books that I quote from in the episode are:
Zheng Yangwen, Ten Lessons in Modern Chinese History (https://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719097737/)
Stephen Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/131825/autumn-in-the-heavenly-kingdom-by-stephen-r-platt/9780307472212/)

How the Communist Party took the formula of "Haifeng + armed self-defense" and set out to organize the peasants of Guangdong, and beyond.
Further Reading:
Pang Yong-pil, “Peng Pai: From Landlord to Revolutionary”
Yuan Gao, “Revolutionary Rural Politics: The Peasant Movement in Guangdong and Its Social-Historical Background, 1922–1926”
Robert Marks, Rural Revolution in South China: Peasants and the Making of History in Haifeng County, 1570-1930Roy Hofheinz, The Broken Wave: The Chinese Communist Peasant Movement, 1922-1928Fernando Galbiati, P’eng P'ai and the Hai-Lu-Feng SovietGerald Berkley, “The Canton Peasant Movement Training Institute”
C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920-1927
Elizabeth Perry, Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845-1945Some names from this episode:
Peng Pai, Communist peasant organizer
Chen Jiongming, Warlord dominant in Haifeng region until 1925
Li Zhongkai, Leader of Guomindang left, assassinated in 1925
Li Dazhao, Co-founder of the Communist Party

Peng Pai and the beginning of the peasant movement in Guangdong Province.
Further Reading:
Pang Yong-pil, “Peng Pai: From Landlord to Revolutionary”
Yuan Gao, “Revolutionary Rural Politics: The Peasant Movement in Guangdong and Its Social-Historical Background, 1922–1926”
Robert Marks, Rural Revolution in South China: Peasants and the Making of History in Haifeng County, 1570-1930Roy Hofheinz, The Broken Wave: The Chinese Communist Peasant Movement, 1922-1928Fernando Galbiati, P’eng P'ai and the Hai-Lu-Feng SovietSome names from this episode:
Peng Pai, Communist peasant organizer
Li Dazhao, Co-founder of the Communist Party
Chen Jiongming, Warlord dominant in Haifeng region until 1925
Zhu Mo, Bad landlord in Haifeng County
Zhang Zepu, Judge in Haifeng County

In this episode we do some Q&A and then cover the Sino-French War of 1884-1885 and the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.
A couple names from this episode:
Emperor Qianlong: ruled China from 1735 to 1799
Li Hongzhang: high level Chinese statesman and advocate of self-strengthening