Repeating the instructions given in the "Guidelines for Term Papers":  Your paper should be focused in a manner you have designed yourself, and you have a good deal of latitude in deciding the scope which its content will encompass.  The subjects suggested below are by no means exclusive; they are meant only to provoke your imagination.  Each of them is stated in "topic" form and must be focused much more narrowly onto a specific problem.  Also, most of these suggestions pose "what"-type questions; having answered that question through your initial reading, you should go on to analyze the underlying "why."  Of course, you are also free to ignore these suggestions and instead develop a focus completely of your own choosing.

1. How do you assess the various factors leading to the collapse of the Ming dynasty?
2. How do you assess the transformations effected by the early Manchu leadership?
3. What were the major accomplishments of the sixty-year rule of the Kangxi Emperor?  Of the Qianlong Emperor?
4. How well did the relationship forged by Jesuits during the late Ming dynasty fare under the Qing?
5. What distinguishes the Qing relationship with Romanov Russia from China's relationships with its other neighbors?
   
6. What factors underlay the Opium Wars and how do they reveal the values of each side?
7. What factors governed China's initial "response to the West?" What variations did that "response" take?
8. How "unequal" were the 19th century treaties?
9. Did "secret societies" play an integrative or disruptive role?
10. What was the nature of the Taiping movement? Its results at the national or local level? Its significance?
11. What were the limits on interaction between Protestant missionaries and various strata of Chinese society?
12. How much was "restored" during the Tongzhi reign? Was this period comparable to the "restoration" of Japan's Meiji period?
13. How far did the Self-Strengthening Movement go in strengthening China?
14. How far did China's "entrance into the family of nations" go?
15. How would you go about assessing the impact of foreign control on the development of China's economy?
16. To what extent could political reform be justified by China's traditional philosophy?
17. How accurate was China's understanding of the West at the end of the 19th century? Or the West's of China?
18. Did the Boxer movement promote or deflect the rise of "nationalism"?
19. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Sun Yat-sen, as philosopher, politician, revolutionary, etc.?
20. What changes had occurred in Chinese society by the beginning of the 20th century? How well had those changes been accommodated by élite society? By the bulk of the population?
21. How has the Chinese government's attitude toward emigration shifted over time? What has the impact of emigration been on China? what about Chinese immigration to other areas of the world?
22. How significant are the reforms undertaken by the Manchu government in the early 20th century?
23. How much of a "revolution" occurred in 1911?
24. At the end of the 19th century, what attitudes did "opinion-makers" express toward China's traditional culture? How had these attitudes changed by the 1920's?
25. What has been the role of the military in China's "modernization?"
26. What factors worked for or against the rise of warlordism? What was the contribution of the "warlord" phenomenon to contemporary Chinese history?
27. What was the role of political parties in Republican China?
28. What was the role of specific foreign powers in late Qing or Republican China?
29. How transferable or translatable was the West's "democratic" heritage? The West's industrial system?
30. What has been the role of "literary reform" in 20th century China?
31. What accounts for the spread of Marxism in China? How "orthodox" was the Chinese understanding of Marx and Lenin?
32. Were the "united fronts" of the 1920's and 1930's an effective tactic?
33. What role did the "returned students" (liuxuesheng) play in China's "modernization?"
34. How and why had the role of the peasantry changed by the 1920's?
35. What problems did China's labor force face in the first decades of the 20th century? China's entrepreneurs?
36. How effective / appropriate was the KMT's program? What factors account for the evolution of the KMT's image and role in Republican China before 1949?
37. How (and how well) did the CCP meet the challenges faced after the "defeat" of 1927?
38. How well did the various sectors of the Chinese economy respond to the challenges posed by the West?
39. In the 20th century, was the disparity between city and countryside lesser or greater than it had been in the 19th?
40. How did the various parts / strata of Chinese society differ in their adaptation to the challenges faced in the 20th century?
41. What role did Japanese influence play in China's on-going revolution?
42. How do you assess the role of the US or the USSR in China's civil war?  in the 1950s?
43. How did the manner/nature of the CCP victory in 1949 influence their first years in power?
44. What was the significance of the "Sino-Soviet split" of the 1960s/1970s?
45. Is there a connection between the "Hundred Flowers" campaign and the "Anti-Rightist" campaign in the 1950s?
46. What role has the PLA played in "nation-building" after 1949?
47. What was the significance of the "Great Leap Forward"? of the "Cultural Revolution"? (or, of any of the post-1949 political/social/economic campaigns?)
48. What accounts for the "second chance" which the KMT got on Taiwan after 1949?
49. How effective was the Marriage Law of 1950 in altering the status of women?
50. How have issues of ethnic identity been treated in 20th century China?