Chinas Transition From Empire to Communist Country: The Rights and Responsibilities of the Citizens and Government

Jyothi Mony Tara u !elley "ang Group ebsite #enior $ivision

hen %e dis&overed that the theme of the '()*+'(), year %ould be about rights and responsibilities- %e immediately thought of infringements and over+ usage of both in different governments be&ause %e feel that rights and responsibilities are &ommonly and %idely tested bet%een a government and the &itizens of a &ountry. Thin/ing about a bit of prior /no%ledge and dipping into the heritage of some of our group members- %e felt that the history of China %ould be a very interesting topi& to resear&h- as there are- in fa&t- as %e have found- four sides to the issue: rights and responsibilities of both the government and the people. 0t the start of our resear&h- %e began %ith online databases for the &overing the basi&s of our topi&- to understand %hat it %as and %hy it %as &reated. 0 variety of pi&tures helped give us a better understanding of the &onditions in China during &ommunist regime and %e sought referen&e boo/s and te1tboo/s to find sour&es that %ould go more in depth about the &ommunism of China and e1plain- in detail- important events that shaped the rule and the ultimate result of a &ommunist rule in China. vie% that %as more in perspe&tive and dire&t. $uring the pro&ess of sele&ting our presentation &ategory- &reating a do&umentary %as %hat first &ame to mind as it %ould allo% for a variety of primary sour&es that %ould visually attra&t the 2udges and allo% for better &han&es at su&&ess in the regional &ompetition. e ended up opting out of &reating a do&umentary- though- be&ause it %ould be diffi&ult to find enough primary sour&es in English to fill it up. 3y &hoosing the %ebsite- %e dis&overed that %e &ould simultaneously %or/ on it on our &omputers from home and %e %ouldnt have to &ondu&t fa&e+to+fa&e meetings as often sin&e %e &ould dis&uss our pro2e&t over group te1ts and shared do&uments. $iffi&ulties %ere not unfound- though4 %e had issues %ith our s&hedules and time management. 5o%ever- %e devised a solution: by sharing do&uments bet%een us %ith all our notes and &itations- our produ&tivity rates in&reased and it has sin&e greatly e didnt stop at sour&es %ritten in English- though- %e also delved into boo/s and databases %ritten in Chinese for a

helped %ith effi&ien&y and information a&&ess bet%een group members and at different %or/ sites. 6ur pro2e&t &orresponds to the theme be&ause it fo&uses on the rights and responsibilities of both the government and the &itizens and ho% they %ere both negle&ted and overused at different points in Chinas transition from imperialism to &ommunism. e %ill be sho%ing ho% &itizens during the &ommunist &ountry and during the time China %as an empire had the rights they had during those times in Chinas history- and the responsibilities ea&h &itizen had %ith the po%er they %ere given for ea&h of the rights they had. 7n addition %e %ill also be sho%ing ho% the government had to &ontrol their po%ers %ith the responsibilities ea&h leader %as given during their time in reign.