Deng Xiaoping
Leader in a Changing China

When Deng Xiaoping was born on August 22, 1904, China was still ruled by the Qing Dynasty, but many people longed for a new China. Although Deng was in and out of favor during his eventful life, he became one of the most powerful and influential Chinese leaders. Deng's life spans the Japanese invasion, the rise of Communism, the Long March, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the Tiananmen Square confrontation. Perhaps more than any other person Deng Xiaoping is responsible for shaping modern China.

Related Topics

The China Experience: http://www.chinavista.com/experience/home.html

A clearinghouse of Chinese cultural information. Find recipes from numerous Chinese provinces, arts and crafts, the history of chopsticks, folklore of various ethnic minority groups, and even ancient Chinese jokes.

Asia Education Foundation’s China Page: http://www.curriculum.edu.au/accessasia/china/index.htm

This site is absolutely necessary to any teacher creating a China curriculum for their students. The Asia Education Foundation (AEF) was to promote the studies of Asia in Australian schools. It is a member of Asialink at the University of Melbourne. This organization has created a series of excellent textbooks and curriculum guides for all levels of school children, much of which is presented online. The China site provides a virtual tour of China, giving a curriculum guide and list of references for every stop along the virtual tour. There are maps, pictures, activities and lesson plans!

Discovering China "the Middle Kingdom": http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/

A wonderful website geared toward students clearly delineating China’s history in a easy to understand, organized way. One section of the site discusses Chinese contributions in art, food and medicine, and religion. Another section called "Movers and Shakers" lists such Chinese figures as the Empress Dowager Cixi, Sun Yat-Sen, Bruce Lee and Yo-Yo Ma, and gives concise biographies of each.

Chinese Myths and Folktales: http://www.chinavista.com/experience/story/story.html

Lists numerous Chinese folktales and retells them.

Finding News About China: http://chinanews.bfn.org/

This is an excellent website listing every possible link imaginable and is a great place to start looking for information about China. These pages provide links to sources of political, social and economic news about mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Tibet and Xinjiang. They also provide links to educational, environmental and cultural sites about China.

Xinhua News Agency:  http://202.84.17.11/en/main.htm  

China ’s official newspaper, updated daily. Readers should keep in mind while reading that this news is the official voice of the government. There are a few links that do not work at this site, but if you are persistent there are some interesting sites giving statistics on unemployment and economics, as well as some tourist information.

Classic Chinese Philosophy: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/springs/6339/philosophy.html

An overview of the three major Chinese philosophies, Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism, complete with bibliography and web links for each.

Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the US: http://www.china-embassy.org/eng

Again, this site is state run and officially represents the government of China. The list daily news headlines, give summaries of the Chinese position on a variety of political issues, and they give a short "official" history of each of the numerous minority groups living in China.

History of China: http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/welcome.html

An ambitious website including a clickable timeline of Chinese history, as well as an outline of the same.