Key leaders in modern Chinese history
NCTA 2022
Maan Broadstock
The following slides contain cards with information about nine key leaders in modern Chinese history from the Qing Dynasty to the present day. Each leader has two cards. One card shows the name and picture of each leader, and the card below gives a description of that leader. Teachers can reproduce and cut out these leader cards for students to play various games (such as a matching game, guess who, or Karuta card game) or ask students to sort the pictures in chronological order on a timeline table.
康熙 Emperor Kangxi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_Emperor
乾隆 Emperor Qianlong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianlong_Emperor
光绪 Emperor Guangxu
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guangxu_Emperor.jpg
慈禧 Empress Dowager Cixi
https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E6%85%88%E7%A6%A7%E5%A4%AA%E5%90%8E
This Manchu Emperor was the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1660-1722. He was considered one of China’s greatest rulers, who exemplified skills and dexterity in dealing with Russians, Jesuits, and Chinese.
This Manchu Emperor was the fourth Qing Emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735-1796. He was the grandson of Emperor Kangxi. Like his grandfather, he continued the tradition of fostering Chinese culture while maintaining control over a multiethnic empire.
This Manchu Emperor was the ninth Qing Emperor, reigning from 1875-1908. He ascended to the throne at the age of four but was closely controlled by the Empress Cixi, his aunt. After losing the first war with Japan in 1898, he initiated the Hundred Days' Reform but was abruptly stopped by Cixi. He was then held under house arrest until his death in 1908.
This Manchu Empress was Emperor Xianfeng’s concubine, and later regent. She controlled over the dynasty for 47 years, from 1861- 1908. She opened Chinese empire to the Western world and brought China into the modern age. By maintaining authority over the Qing dynasty, she became one of the most important women in the history of China.
孙中山 Sun Yat-sen
http://cyc7.cycnet.com:8091/leaders/szs/content.jsp?id=6936&s_code=1103
蒋介石 Chiang Kai-Shek
毛泽东 Mao Zedong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong#/media/File:Mao_Zedong_in_1959_(cropped).jpg
邓小平 Deng Xiaoping
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deng_Xiaoping
Leader of the 1911 revolution that brought an end to the Qing dynasty. He served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China (ROC) and the first leader of the Nationalist Party of China. He hoped to create a democratic republic, but at the time of his death in 1925, China was broken into warring states.
President of the Republic of China and Leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party from 1928 until his death in 1975. In 1937, he mobilized China to defeat Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945. However, after losing the subsequent Civil War to the communists, he led the Government of ROC retreated to Taiwan in 1949.
Leader of the People’s Republic of China from its founding in 1949 until his death in 1976. He was a Chinese communist revolutionary. Credited with the successful Communist Revolution but blamed for the disastrous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. His legacy remains hotly debated to the present day.
After Mao’s death in 1976, he gradually rose to supreme power. He served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to 1992. He advocated a pragmatic rather than an ideological approach to economic development and contributed to China becoming the world's second largest economy in 2010.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek
习近平 Xu Jinping
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping#/media/File:Xi_Jinping_2019.jpg
The paramount leader of the Chinese state after ascending to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party in 2012. He was also named the Chairman of the Central Military Commission and President of the PRC. He is a charismatic and driven leader who has wielded greater influence than any Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping in 1990s.
The information on these leader cards (except for Guangxu, Cixi and Chiang Kai-shek) is taken from Modern Chinese History by David Kenley, copyright 2020 by the Association for Asian Studies. The sources of the pictures are listed under each picture.