World History AP  Mr. Duez                                              Video Questions: China: Triumph & Turmoil

Episode I -  “Emperors”                                                                                       AP Review - China        

Niall Ferguson shows how the vast apparatus of the Chinese state has always been called on to subjugate individual freedom to the higher goal of unity. Ferguson also examines how, on the other hand, centralized control produces tensions that threaten to destroy the country.

Episode I - Emperors - Part I - China’s History and Great Fear

1. China is experiencing the biggest and fastest industrial revolution in just ___ years.

2. Chongqing is the ____ growing city on the planet.

3. China’s great fear is called dongwang or _____.

4. By 221 B.C. one king, Qin Shi Huangdi, forged the warring kingdoms into a single empire. It is from his name is where the word ___ comes from.

5. ⅕ of humanity now ___ in China. (It is as if the combined population of Europe, North America, and the former Soviet Union are residing in one government and even that entity would have a smaller population than China!)

6. It is the same today in China with the politburo as it was with their first emperor Qin. Autocratic control, in exchange for _____.

7. Qin introduced the coin with a circular hole with a square hole in the middle. The circle represented heaven, the square to represent ____.

8. Qin was a ____ of books as well as a builder. A tyrant who waged war against both scholars and landowners.

9. Ferguson goes to a Chinese bookstore (like an American Barnes & Noble). Does he find any books about the next great leader of China - Xi Jinping?

10. It was Confucius who created the system that has long been used to justify autocratic rule. Ferguson asks the Chinese person at the school, “What is the most important value that kids are learning at your school?” She basically answers “Social Harmony.” In China the first principle is to know your ____.

11. Why does Professor Ferguson believe that ‘when it comes to exam time, my students get off lightly.’

12. What building in Beijing was not brightly illuminated with neon lights and Ferguson says it is the building that, “they really don’t want you to film.” What happens in this building?

13. Who decides the taxes that Chinese citizens pay and the number of children that they can have?

14. What problem do some experts in the west believe will ultimately force China to reform or collapse?

15. How do the ingenious Chinese ‘exchange’ money in a quiet way?

16. The White Lotus Cult caused the death of 6 million people. Another religious cult, Hong Xiuquan, remodeled himself as the brother of _____. The Taiping Rebellion he led cost the lives of another 20 million people.

17. Looking ahead to the next video: Why do you believe Mao is so popular today, even though he was such a brutal leader? (he had more of his own people killed than Hitler and Stalin combined!)