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Research Guide ● Overview The Chinese Civil War refers to the civil war between two parties of China – Chinese Communist Part and Guomindang (namely, the Nationalists) – between 1945 and 1949. Chinese Communist Party and Guomindang have been fought for the dominance of China since 1927. The conflicts paused during the Second World War to defend Japanese’s invasion. As a result, as soon as the Second World War ended, the civil war started. In the context of People’s Republic of China today, the Chinese Civil War is fought for the most Chinese people. Corrupt Guomindang’s government only cared about the elite class’s benefits and people’s lives suffered from their selfish policies and terrible economic situations. In order to liberate the lowest class people, Chinese Communist Party fought against Guomindang. Supported by the western countries led by the United States, Guomindang apparently had dominant advantages. On the one hand, Guomingdang’s millitary forces held advanced modern military technologies. On the other hand, it had rich resources including the funding and other necessary resources for warfare. Moreover, many of Guomindang’s leaders and officials have been trained in the standard military institute. Therefore, my question is that why Chinese Communist Party can defeat Guomindang under such terrible circumstances. Traditional opinions argue that Chinese Communist Party has the popular support by polities benefiting farmers and working class, and also had the modern weapons by seizing from Guomindang, when Guomindang lost the trust of normal civilians through their cruel dominance. However, what other reasons that contributing to the victory of the Chinese Communist Party? In other words, except traditional ideas, is that any other new insights on Guomindang’s failure in the Chinese Civil War. I want to jump out of the context of current PRC and rethink about the Chinese Civil War. ● Multidisciplinary Databases ○ JSTOR ○ Academic Search Premier ○ Scopus ● Specialized database ○ ProQuest Historical Periodicals ○ ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chinese Newspapers Collection ● Annotated Bibliography 1. Cheng, Victor Shiu Chiang. “Modern War on an Ancient Battlefield: The Diffusion of American Military Technology and Ideas in the Chinese Civil War, 1946—1949.” Modern China, vol. 35, no. 1, 2009, pp. 38–64. primo-pmtna01.com, doi:10.1177/0097700408318909. This article talks about the modern military technology offered by the United States in the Chinese Civil war. It argues that both Guomindang and Chinese Communist Party had trouble using the advanced military technology from the United States due to the lack of relative knowledge and experience about those military technologies. As a result, neither Guomindang nor Chinese Communist Party got a lot of benefits from those modern Western weapeons during the Chinese Civil war. My research topic is why Chinese Communist Party could defeat Guomindang, when Guomindang was supported by the United States with modern arms. Thus, this article is closely related with my topic. It specifically discovers the military technology and its use in the battlefield of the Chinese Civil war. And it refutes the traditional two traditional ideas

that Guomindang had the technical advantages because the support of the United States, and Chinese Communist Party got and used the modern arms from the defeated Guomindang armies. Based on this article, Guomindang also had trouble using those military technologies. Thus, higher military technologies did not give Guomindang the advantages, and was not a critical factor in this war. Overall, this article offers important new insights to me and guides my research. This is a peer-reviewed journal article published a journal with a specialized focus on China. The author of this article specializes in the history around the Chinese Civil War. This article involves three cases studies to support the author’s argument and the three cases are selected from three different years. As a result, the argument is not concluded from a single case but a synthesized analysis across the Chinese Civil War. This article also uses a lot of primary material to support his argument, not just about Chinese Communist Party but also about Guomindang and the United States. Thus, I think it is credible and useful. 2. E. R. Hooton. The Greatest Tumult: The Chinese Civil War, 1936-49. 1st ed.., Brassey’s ; Distributed in North America to booksellers and wholesalers by the Macmillan PubCo, 1991. This is an English monograph about the Chinese Civil War. The author discovers the whole process of the Chinese Civil War with a focus on military situation and combat history instead of politics. The whole book tries to discover the reason of Chinese Communist Party’s victory in the Chinese Civil War. The author argues that Chinese Communist Party’s victory was based on its efforts of gaining popular support and constant learning and improvement of military tactics. This book is directly relevant with my research question that what brought Chinese Communist Party the victory. Moreover, the author has similar arguments with me that one reason behind Chinese Communist Party’s victory is the support of people. This is a resource that has a direct relationship with my research topic. Though its focus is upon military aspect, on e can have a general awareness of the Chinese Civil War after reading this book. This book is not a typical scholarly work because the author is not an academic researcher but a defense writer. He is also not a specialist in the Chinese history when his writing involves a wide scope. His non-academic background might reduce the book’s credibility though, as a monograph, it provides a great amount of information and details. Also, similar to Cheng’s article, this author also has a different perspective on the Chinese Civil War which offers new insights. Since the nature of the Chinese Civil War is a war, though politics played an important role, a focus on military situation is necessary. Furthermore, the author himself shows no political stances in this book, thus his opinion and discussion are relatively fair. It is hard to treat this book as a serious material for research, but it can be a helpful reference and guide for beginners to know and think about the Chinese Civil War. 3. Wilkinson, Mark. “American Military Misconduct in Shanghai and the Chinese Civil War: The Case of Zang Dayaozi.” Journal of American-East Asian Relations, vol. 17, no. 2, 2010, pp. 146–173. primo-pmtna01.com, doi:10.1163/187656110X528983. This article is a case study of military misconduct of an American soldier on a Chinese normal citizen named Zang Dayaozi in 1946. The author argues that this minor event actually illustrates why Guomindang lost the trust of the public. It states that American interventionism had a destructive impact on domestic China and also influences result of the Chinese Civil War. Those minor and individual events reveal the problem of United States’ foreign poly to China at that time. This research is not a direct research of the Chinese Civil War, but it offers valuable

insights to my research question – why Guomindang failed in the war. What particularly is that how Guomindang lost the support of the general public. Even though it is a case study of one misconduct of American military, it discusses the problem in a different perspective. As the author claims, though the article only contains two episodes, it reveals the United States’ foreign policy to China and helps my research. Also, this article discusses how Chinese Communist Party used those minor events to gain popular support. It is another aspect of my research problem that how Chinese Communist Party won the war. This is a peer-reviewed article. The author is from a Military Institute, so his perspective is pretty novel. The foot note said he even received the language training in China which increase the credibility. Military soldier is military, and the foreign policy is political, but this research is neither from the perspective of politics or battlefield, but the people lived at that time. The author uses a lot of primary materials in both English and Chinese. This project is not big but use minor event to explain a larger problem. The structure of the research is also clear and reader-friendly. Overall, this article is convincing and insightful.

The whole process contains five stages: deciding the topic, find database, find resources, read resources, and evaluate resources. Because it is my first time to do such research project, I put up the research question based on my personal interest on Chinese modern history and warfare. After locating the topic on the Chinese Civil War, I asked myself what attracts me and decided the research problem. Then, I entered the second stage. I did not have too much experience on using database and library searching. As a result, all the things were new to me. The first target was to find two types of database. I found the specific page for database in the website of library and it has the subject options. Thus, it was easy to find three general databases. The problem was specialized database. I knew it is a topic of history, thus I tried to find something in the subject of history and picked two that has relations with Chinese history covering my research period. I chose “ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chinese Newspapers Collection” because newspaper is an important primary material for historical research. Especially during the wartime, newspaper was a major media for communication and propaganda. Another database I chose is the “ProQuest Historical Periodicals” which contains the British and American historical journals. The next stage is searching the scholarly research. Since the requirement is scholarly books or articles, I used the “ProQuest Historical Periodicals” database. By the keyword “Chinese Civil War”, I found many resources. I looked through the list and located several sources, and finally got three of them by filtering through the date and summary. I know this is not a new topic, so I want something new, new insights to my questions or better illustration for current explanations. For the book The Greatest Tumult: The Chinese Civil War, 1936-49, I think it is a good English resource about the Chinese Civil War. I used to read about this topic in Chinese, but not English. This monography contains both reference and author’s personal research. It not only helps reader know about the Chinese Civil War, but also contains author’s insights on the military perspective. For the article “Modern War on an Ancient Battlefield: The Diffusion of American Military Technology and Ideas in the Chinese Civil War, 1946—1949”, its title attracts me. It is a popular opinion that the weapons offered by the United States to Guomindang was obtained and used by Chinese Communist Party to win the war. This article, however, offers a totally different idea about thinking those modern technologies. As for the last article, it is also its unique perspective that attracted me. Chinese Communist Party’s popular support is one of my point, but I did not know the specific case that people suffered from Guomindang’s government. This article offers a specific case to let me or others know where the complaints came from. Therefore, the three resources I chose offer new contents to the research of this old topic and could help me find new answers to my questions.