This guy's voice is awesome. I hope he doe audiobooks

This is very excellent presentation of modern Chinese history about Hong Kong and Taiwan. Thanks for the great job. I think students or viewers learn so much about the background behind the news.

He starts out with an anachronism, talking about how the British took over Hong Kong, as though it were a thriving port city way back then. It was a fishing village with twelve families living there.

This is good stuff. Thank you whoever posted this very informative video. I learned a lot. 😊

Fantastic factual analysis of Hong Kong and Taiwan, especially with the latter. Professor Baum has put together otherwise complex political dynamics in easy to follow language to reveal the historical evolvement of Hong Kong and Taiwan. I hope the good professor will elaborate more on Hong Kong, in light of the uprising and chaos since last year.

Can’t wait until the next episode ! Thank you Professor !

Dr. Baum...you are really amazing. I hated lectures in college and graduate school...because you were not my prof. You move things along at the right pace and provide lots of interesting ideas and facts. Thank you! I am now one of your groupies. :)

This needs to be updated!

You are brilliant! Your gentle, balanced and totally unbiased approach allows your knowledge to reach even those who would never question China's government. An amazing achievement (happening while I'm writing...) Thank you!

I just discovered this channel. What a nice breeze to hear unbiased and factual lecture about HK/Taiwan history from an English speaking expert! As Chinese living in Canada, I am originally from Zhuhai by the way, a city you mentioned in your video :-) Your video definitely helps to fill in some gaps, eg. Dates and details of the events. I will for sure forward your video to many people here. People needs to understand the complicated past of these territories before they form an opinion or have a discussion with anyone. Education education education of history is the way to go in order to better understand our current world! Thank you so much for educating those who are willing to learn.

Great lecture, thanks!

Best lecture I have ever heard about this topic!

Great lecture! But things have been changing in Hong Kong since this was recorded. I wonder if there are/will be any updates to this course.

Awesome video! Great run down 👍

A very valuable lecture, conveying the truth of a history.

It’s also America’s national strategy to keep Taiwan independent from mainland China to help America maintain its controlling power of the area, which was originally for fighting against Soviet Union’s power expansion there. It’s America’s interest to have Taiwan separated from China.

Thank you for enlightening us to know what is going on in China and Tiwan God bless you Man.

Excellent lecture

Very very Good narration, clear smooth and nice vocal, comfortable to the ears.

DR. Baum my respects to you , could listen to your lectures or lessons regardless of the topics ,you are a great educator. Bless you Dr. Baum

Thank you. The content is very informative and you have put it in a very interesting way.

As a Chinese, the professor is very neutral I'v ever seen in KZfaq!!! Here is a description in China Mainland: Since the Mainland-Taiwan's relationship is a continuing one from 1949 of the Civil War, however there is no any armistice agreement between the CPP and KMT, and that is the root reason why Taiwan is different with HongKong. This video suspend in 2008, hope more analysis for these years!

Thanks so much for this. You are a great educator and thoughtful speaker.

Thank you for the lecture!

Watching this in light of current events is chilling. We're going to need a followup course on modern China/international relations.

Splendid lecture and explanation. Very detailed, chronologic, and enlightening.

Excellent and in-depth

Excellent. I feel more informed because of these type of lessons and how they are explained without the threat of bias ever being contemplated. History as it actually occurred, not told from one particular point of view. Priceless. Thank you.

What a splendid lecture!

His facts are more clearer than i could imagine. No BS or propaganda. Just at what it is. Great job.

Nice. I can understand clearly.

Rest in peace Prof. Baum! Had the honor of attending his Chinese politics classes at UCLA. Best professor ever.

Thanks for the lecture. The story is correct but there were few factual and chronological mistakes.

To get an even better understanding of modern China, suggest reading/watching the views and opinions of the late Prime Minister of Singapore Mr Lee Kuan Yew. He's the only world leader to hv met with all generations of the Chinese leadership n visited China every year for 40 over years. It's unsurprising that leaders around the world sought his counsel on Asia on China including from the US where every president since Nixon has sought his advice about Asia and the world. You can also look up Kishore Mahbubani Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, a highly trusted aide of Lee Kuan Yew who was also ambassador to the UN

The professor said every Chinese name correctly, excellent mandarin pronunciation

Straightforward facts without bias or nuances. Thank you, Professor!

There is a point I disagree with. The professor talks about 'ethnic' Taiwanese, but the Republic of China (Taiwan) is not independent. The ROC encompasses the whole of mainland China so the ethnic Taiwanese are the same as ethnic Californians - they are still part of the same country so not like ethnic Germans and Dutch.

Sharing below written by a Malaysian KZfaqr: I’m from Malaysia. China has traded with Malaysia for 2000 years. In those years, they had been the world’s biggest powers many times. Never once they sent troops to take our land. Admiral Zhenghe came to Malacca five times, in gigantic fleets, and a flagship eight times the size of Christopher Columbus’ flagship, Santa Maria. He could have seized Malacca easily, but he did not. In 1511, the Portuguese came. In 1642, the Dutch came. In the 18th century the British came. We were colonised by each, one after another. When China wanted spices from India, they traded with the Indians. When they wanted gems, they traded with the Persian. They didn’t take lands. The only time China expanded beyond their current borders was in Yuan Dynasty, when Genghis and his descendants Ogedei Khan, Guyuk Khan & Kublai Khan concurred China, Mid Asia and Eastern Europe. But Yuan Dynasty, although being based in China, was a part of the Mongolian Empire. Then came the Century of Humiliation. Britain smuggled opium into China to dope the population, a strategy to turn the trade deficit around, after the British could not find enough silver to pay the Qing Dynasty in their tea and porcelain trades. After the opium warehouses were burned down and ports were closed by the Chinese in ordered to curb opium, the British started the Opium War I, which China lost. Hong Kong was forced to be surrendered to the British in a peace talk (Nanjing Treaty). The British owned 90% of the opium market in China, during that time, Queen Victoria was the world’s biggest drug baron. The remaining 10% was owned by American merchants from Boston. Many of Boston’s institutions were built with profit from opium. After 12 years of Nanjing Treaty, the West started getting really really greedy. The British wanted the Qing government: 1. To open the borders of China to allow goods coming in and out freely, and tax free. 2. Make opium legal in China. Insane requests, Qing government said no. The British and French (with supports from the US), started Opium War II with China, which again, China lost. The Anglo-French military raided the Summer Palace, and threatened to burn down the Imperial Palace, the Qing government was forced to pay with ports, free business zones, 300,000 kilograms of silver and Kowloon was taken. Since then, China’s resources flew out freely through these business zones and ports. In the subsequent amendment to the treaties, Chinese people were sold overseas to serve as labor. In 1900, China suffered attacks by the 8-National Alliance. These ,8-Robbers were: Empire of Japan, Russian Empire, British Empire (including India), France, USA, Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary. Innocent Chinese civilians in Peking (Beijing now) were murdered, buildings were destroyed & women were raped. The Imperial Palace was raided, and treasures ended up in museums like the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris. In late 1930s China was occupied by the Japanese in WWII. Millions of Chinese died during the occupancy. 300,000 Chinese died in Nanjing Massacre alone. Mao brought China together again from the shambles. There were peace and unity for some time. But Mao’s later reign saw sufferings and deaths from famine and power struggles. Then came Deng Xiao Ping and his infamous “black-cat and white-cat” story. His preference in pragmatism than ideologies has transformed China. This thinking allowed China to evolve all the time to adapt to the actual needs in the country, instead of rigidly bounded to ideologies. It also signified the death of Communism in actually practice in China. The current Socialism+Meritocracy+Market Economy model fits the Chinese like gloves, and it propels the uprise of China. Singapore has a similar model, and has been arguably more successful than Hong Kong, because Hong Kong being gateway to China, was riding on the economic boom in China, while Singapore had no one to gain from. In just 30 years, the CPC have moved 800 millions of people out from poverty. The rate of growth is unprecedented in human history. They have built the biggest mobile network, by far the biggest high speed rail network in the world, and they have become a behemoth in infrastructure. They made a fishing village called Shenzhen into the world’s second largest technological centre after the Silicon Valley. They are growing into a technological power house. It has the most elaborate e-commerce and cashless payment system in the world. They have launched exploration to Mars. The Chinese are living a good life and China has become one of the safest countries in the world. The level of patriotism in the country has reached an unprecedented height. For all of the achievements, the West has nothing good to say about it. China suffers from intense anti-China propagandas from the West. Western Media used the keyword “Communist” to instil fear and hatred towards China. Everything China does is negatively reported. They claimed China used slave labor in making iPhones. The truth was, Apple was the most profitable company in the world, it took most of the profit, leave some to Foxconn (a Taiwanese company) and little to the labor. They claimed China was inhuman with one-child policy. At the same time, they accused China of polluting the earth with its huge population. The fact is the Chinese consume just 30% of energy per capita compared to the US. They claimed China underwent ethnic cleansing in Xinjiang. The fact is China has a policy which priorities ethnic minorities. For a long time, the ethnic minorities were allowed to have two children and the majority Han only allowed one. The minorities are allowed a lower score for university intakes. There are 39,000 mosque in China, and 2100 in the US. China has about 3 times more mosque per muslim than the US. When terrorist attacks happened in Xinjiang, China had two choices: 1. Re-educate the Uighur extremists before they turned terrorists. 2. Let them be, after they launch attacks and killed innocent people, bomb their homes. China chose 1 to solve problem from the root and not to do killing. How the US solve terrorism? Fire missiles from battleships, drop bombs from the sky. During the pandemic, When China took extreme measures to lockdown the people, they were accused of being inhuman. When China recovered swiftly because of the extreme measures, they were accused of lying about the actual numbers. When China’s cases became so low that they could provide medical support to other countries, they were accused of politically motivated. Western Media always have reasons to bash China. Just like any country, there are irresponsible individuals from China which do bad and dirty things, but the China government overall has done very well. But I hear this comment over and over by people from the West: I like Chinese people, but the CPC is evil. What they really want is the Chinese to change the government, because the current one is too good. Fortunately China is not a multi-party democratic country, otherwise the opposition party in China will be supported by notorious NGOs (Non-Government Organization) of the USA, like the NED (National Endowment for Democracy), to topple the ruling party. The US and the British couldn’t crack Mainland China, so they work on Hong Kong. Of all the ex-British colonial countries, only the Hong Kongers were offered BNOs by the British. Because the UK would like the Hong Kongers to think they are British citizens, not Chinese. A divide-and-conquer strategy, which they often used in Color Revolutions around the world. They resort to low dirty tricks like detaining Huawei’s CFO & banning Huawei. They raised a silly trade war which benefits no one. Trade deficit always exist between a developing and a developed country. USA is like a luxury car seller who ask a farmer: why am I always buying your vegetables and you haven’t bought any of my cars? When the Chinese were making socks for the world 30 years ago, the world let it be. But when Chinese started to make high technology products, like Huawei and DJI, it caused red-alert. Because when Western and Japanese products are equal to Chinese in technologies, they could never match the Chinese in prices. First world countries want China to continue in making socks. Instead of stepping up themselves, they want to pull China down. The recent movement by the US against China has a very important background. When Libya, Iran, and China decided to ditch the US dollar in oil trades, Gaddafi’s was killed by the US, Iran was being sanctioned by the US, and now it’s China’s turn. The US has been printing money out of nothing. The only reason why the US Dollar is still widely accepted, is because it’s the only currency which oil is allowed to be traded with. The US has an agreement with Saudi that oil must be traded in US dollar ONLY. Without the petrol-dollar status, the US dollars will sink, and America will fall. Therefore anyone trying to disobey this order will be eliminated. China will soon use a gold-backed crypto-currency, the alarms in the White House go off like mad. China’s achievement has been by hard work. Not by looting the world. I have deep sympathy for China for all the suffering, but now I feel happy for them. China is not rising, they are going back to where they belong. Good luck China.

GREAT !

Beautiful History narrated by the Very Highly experienced, intellectual, Professor.Commandable English vocabulary knowledge.

Never knew this was a lecture😅 Wow

Great information so fluently sir. Thank you very much.

I would consider myself a 'native Han Chinese Taiwanese' as my ancestors came from the mainland at least five generations ago (18xx) and like to share a few historical vital events that mark Taiwan as it is today. (1) Indigenous people have been living in Taiwan since about 6ooo years ago. They originated from indigenous people from Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Madagascar. (2) Discovery of Ilha Formosa: In 1542, some Portuguese sailors spotted the island and called it Ilha Formosa. (3) Dutch Formosa 1624-1662: Dutch were in Taiwan for 38 years, and they started the documentation of Taiwan's history for the first time. (4) Zhen Cheng Gong era: In 1662, the Ming dynasty general defeated the Dutch and established an exile regime in Taiwan to instaurate Ming dynasty back in China. Unfortunately, he died in Taiwan end of 1662 and never fulfilled his dream to go back to China. (5) Ruling of Qing Dynasty in Taiwan: By 168x China's Qing dynasty established its administration in Taiwan. By then, there were many Han Chinese settlers in Taiwan. Most of them came from China's Fujian province (mainly from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou areas) (6) Japanese rule: In 1895, the Qing dynasty lost the sino-Japan war to Japan and signed Taiwan off to Japan as a colony. During the Japanese colonization, Taiwanese underwent Japanese education, although most Han Taiwanese spoke Taiwanese dialect at home. In 1945 Japan gave Taiwan back to China under the Republic of China's rule. (R.O.C.) (7) Taiwan, R.O.C. era: In 1949, R.O.C.'s Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan. With a few mismanagement incidents (e.g. hyperinflation in 1945, which lead to a revaluation of the 'old' Taiwan dollar to today's New Taiwan Dollar- N.T. dollar; as well as the 2.2.8 unrest in 1947) I believe this mixed history makes Taiwan's political environment less centralized and more diversified than Mainland China.

Great video, very balanced and informative.

The Prof. failed to mention that, as a colony of the U.K., Chinese in Hong Kong had no ability to vote at all. Instead, he left the impression that there was an Assembly. So which was it? Could Hong Kong Chinese vote for the members of an Assembly while Hong Kong belonged to the U.K.? The Prof. also doesn't adequately describe the significance of economic relations between the P.R.C. (People's Republic of China) and Taiwan. He does point out with his mention of voting numbers of the people of Taiwan, that independence or belonging to the P.R.C. seems not to be the main concern of Taiwanese. Their concern seems to be whether there'll be prosperity or not.

Excellent!... thank you!!

So informative .thank you Professor Dr. Baum.

Wow, I really enjoy that piece, Very Educational and informative, Also very unbiased, I had to subscribe, 👍🏾👍🏾❤️

This lecture is historically correct and unabiased to either party. Great history lecture rarely found in current media.

Very good lecture, given in 2010 but still relevant today. Professor Baum reveals his deep knowledge of Chinese geopolitics. Thanks for posting.

Good but OUTDATED short history. This is probably recorded in 2010; therefore, Important political events since 2010 are not covered. Many important events happened since 2010.

The information about Taiwan-China relationship offered here is way outdated. The situation has changed a lot for the last 6 years.

This was posted in May, but it would be a REAL GOOD IDEA to say when it was recorded.

The speech does not trace back to any earlier history of either HK or TW before the Opium War, unfortunately. On the other words, he still interprets and explains the history from an common western view to China.

Thank you so much

Good Explaination, thanks.

Very excellent teacher! Great lessons and information! Thank you! I wish I could study more in your classes!

As an eyewitness to the 1997 Handover, I stood with a few million other HK people in the rain watching the fireworks and celebrating. At midnight, it was a huge street party. Of course, things have changed.

VERY explanatory

Objective and truthful presentation. Young people in Hong Kong should watch this.

Professor Baum is an excellent orator and I appreciate this video being shared. However, considering what has been and currently is happening in Hong Kong, I think it is extremely important that it be stated clearly that this lecture is from 2010. The title of the video could be changed to reflect that, e.g. "Professor Explains History of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (2010)" or a title card and/or voice-over could be edited into the beginning of the video. I ask this because it was uploaded last year and may be viewed as a more current explanation of the situation. If this is possible, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Great lecture and looking forward to more. Thank you, professor.

I agree with many of the commentators. Nice lecture and would love to see a 2020 update.

Very informative. The professors narrative have a ring of truth.

The history should be told like it was , no personal bias , salute to the Proffessor 👍🏻 , Good teacher definately has good students and follower Our future depends on it .

The Joint Declaration and the Basic Law are completely tossed up with the replacement of the official start of One Country One System National Security Law.

Thanks, one of the best educational videos about China and its islands...balance , no bias...

Kindly requested further more, Intrested to listen, Wisdom Address, Speech of said Respected Professor please. The best studied address.

For the relation btw HK's descending position and its handover, many ppl cannot differentiate causality and correlation. HK arose bcuz it acted as a bridge btw China and other parts of the world, if China never closed, the position would have been Shanghai or Guangzhou. Once China openes up, there're different cities that can substitute HK, it' just a matter of time. HK' is downward track is not bcuz of the handover itself, it's mostly bcuz a stronger China offers other substitutes and HK didn't do well in embracing changes with repositioning.

You forget to mention about Macau.

My Oh My... what changes have occured since this was originally broadcast!

Where is the update?

It sounds absurd that the British negotiated for a package deal with Beijing when it no longer had any rights on Hong Kong and the surrounding territories. China is the landlord.

My two cents: assuming the Great Courses would like to foster further research into their various topics, I would suggest that you put the (1) traditional form of Chinese characters, (2) simplified form, and (3) pinyin onscreen whenever a lecture mentions a Chinese name/word. Without any of these three, the viewers who do not already know Chinese are left without any concrete way to google that which they wish to research further. This is necessary because transliterating Chinese words is notoriously difficult, yet without it non-Chinese speakers have no way at all to input a Chinese word into any search engine.

Wow, this video needs an update!

A China study professor talking “zhuhai” in “Fujian” is like an American study professor talking about the rocket city of Houston in California. It reflects the quality and depth of his scholarship.

Fair reporting. I have friends on both sides. Hope they could come to terms and avoid war.

Excellent lecture, balance view and historical perspective!

Great and clear.

So, in the three eventful years since this lecture, would you still conclude the same ?

Excellent class! 👏👏

Factual, unbiased 👍 most important for young minds to not get brainwashed, before able to research independently n draw conclusion thereafter.

Well said!

My cousins in HK migrated to the US and Canada just before 1997. They were all back in HK within a few years and are still living in HK. Today

I just found out this site today. Overall, the lecture content is very informative and helpful. I was born in Taiwan, not affiliated with any political party and moved to Canada at age of 23 in 1974. I have no trouble with if Taiwn wants to be an independant country. Only one thing that I cannot agree with the DPP is that under her brain-washing policies, majorty of Taiwanese do not admit that their grand-parents even before them were originally caming from China. If you talk to Singaporian, at least a lots of them will admit yes, their ancestors were Chinese. Since DPP coming to power, the party has been applying a "soft" approach to seperate themselves from the Chinese root. I think this is a real cause of the problem that the DPP is trying to play with; as a result, to creat a tension beween the two sides.

Just want to say, I think the title of this video is a bit misleading. If you listen to his entire great course series: the fall and rise of China, you will realise that he covered the Qing Dynasty as well as the opium war. In fact, he provided accounts from both the Chinese and the British sides on their approaches at the conflict. This video belongs to the later portion of his lectures. Although there are parts that I do not entirely agree with, such as his evaluation of Deng xiaoping, I find the overall course to be fairly objective.

In forming an assessment of current affairs, just watching this video alone, while it is helpful in establishing a foundation, would be less than all due diligence! Keeping current on all things China-Taiwan-Hong Kong is no easy task so I don't think less of Great Courses if they have not produced anything more updated. But given the volatility, Great Courses would do better if they note in a title frame of the video and in the title of this upload *exactly* when this was taped. (True of all topics that are still developing.) Doing so would let the audience put all this into better perspective. Not doing so leaves the audience the impression that all this is accurate as of date of upload: May 28, 2020.

Thanks for the history,and the information.a

Normally, when a lease ends, the landlord can say: ciao baby, see you around.

How things have now changed. I remarked the differenceses from when I was in HK in the years after reunification and when I last visited around New Year 2019. Things have accelerated since even that time.

very good .

Awesome lecture ...

He didn't mention that of the 2 million Chinese deposited in Taiwan, more than 1.5 million of them were Chinese soldiers... who still saw the Taiwanese as *Japanese*.

This is how history should be written and interpreted. A neutral and impartial analysis without bias. No hypocritical double standards.... No doubt this informative analysis doesn't sit well with western mainstream views.....

Nice! Thanks!

15:46 Zhuhai is not in Fujian province but in Guangdong province on the western bank of the Pearl River Delta.

Would be nice to have this lecture updated. Nonetheless, a very fair and balanced view of history.

I had my doubt before watching the video, now i think its one of the best explain the situation. Real professor in deed ! 👍

Richard, found you clear and concise in your delivery. However... would have preferred the lack of a podium or had you sat down as your constant slow movements were a distraction. In the end, thank you for the information!