The Taiping Rebellion

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Taiping Rebellion.In 1850 a Chinese Christian convert, Hong Xiuquan, proclaimed himself leader of a new dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He and his followers marched against the ruling Qing dynasty, gathering huge support as they went. The ensuing civil war lasted fourteen years; around twenty million people lost their lives in a conflict which eventually involved European as well as Chinese soldiers. The Taiping Rebellion was arguably the most important event to befall China in the 19th century. Chinese nationalists and communists alike have been profoundly influenced by it, and historians believe it shaped modern China in the same way as the First World War shaped modern Europe.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Rana Mitter 7 episodes
  Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford
• Frances Wood 10 episodes
  Head of the Chinese Section at the British Library
• Julia Lovell 6 episodes
  Lecturer in Chinese History at Birkbeck, University of London

Related episodes

• The An Lushan Rebellion
  
  16 Feb, 2012 950 History of Asia
• The Long March
  
  29 Nov, 2018 950 History of Asia
• The May Fourth Movement
  
  9 Dec, 2021 950 History of Asia
• The Battle of Talas
  
  9 Oct, 2014 950 History of Asia
• The Shimabara Rebellion
  
  11 May, 2023 950 History of Asia
• The Boxer Rebellion
  
  19 Mar, 2009 950 History of Asia
• The Cultural Revolution
  
  17 Dec, 2020 950 History of Asia
• 1848: Year of Revolution
  
  19 Jan, 2012 900 History
• The Sino-Japanese War
  
  8 May, 2014 950 History of Asia
• The Peasants’ Revolt
  
  16 Nov, 2006 940 History of Europe
• Journey to the West
  
  20 May, 2021 890 Other literatures
• The Opium Wars
  
  12 Apr, 2007 950 History of Asia
• The Thirty Years War
  
  6 Dec, 2018 940 History of Europe
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms
  
  27 Jun, 2013 950 History of Asia
• Matteo Ricci and the Ming Dynasty
  
  16 Apr, 2015 950 History of Asia
• The Russo-Japanese War
  
  1 Apr, 2021 950 History of Asia
• The Indian Mutiny
  
  18 Feb, 2010 950 History of Asia
• The Jacobite Rebellion
  
  8 May, 2003 940 History of Europe
• The Irish Rebellion of 1798
  
  8 Dec, 2022 940 History of Europe
• The Putney Debates
  
  18 Apr, 2013 320 Political science

---

Programme ID: b00yqvqt

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yqvqt

Auto-category: 951 (China & adjacent areas)