UNDERSTAND CHINA · MODERN HISTORY
Nanjing
Nanjing’s modern history includes the founding of a republic, capital planning, social development, wartime atrocity and post-1949 transformation. The Presidential Palace, Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Republican-era buildings, battlefield walls and memorials to victims belong to distinct layers that cannot be reduced to a single nostalgic aesthetic.
City timeline
- 1912 · The provisional Republic is established — Sun Yat-sen became provisional president in Nanjing, giving republican politics a concrete institutional and ceremonial setting.
- 1927 · Capital, purges and party-state rule — As the Nationalist government made Nanjing its capital, the United Front collapsed into severe political violence; exclusion accompanied capital building from the outset.
- 1927—1937 · A decade of capital building — After the Nationalist government made Nanjing its capital, roads, government buildings, education and public facilities expanded over the walled city and existing neighbourhoods.
- 1937 · Battle of Nanjing and the Nanjing Massacre — After invading Japanese forces captured Nanjing, they committed mass killing and atrocities. This history must be approached through victims, survivors, archives and sites with seriousness.
- 1937.12—1945 · Occupation and collaborationist government — After the massacre, occupation authorities established by invading Japanese forces and the Wang Jingwei collaborationist regime governed through police, propaganda, requisition and economic controls as residents lived amid fear and scarcity.
- 1945—1949 · Postwar recovery, inflation and civil war — Before return and recovery were complete, severe inflation, student movements and military defeat plunged the capital into a new social and political crisis.
- 1949— · Urban roles are reorganised — After the change of government, Nanjing shifted from former capital to Jiangsu’s provincial capital and a major educational and industrial city, reusing and reinterpreting earlier capital spaces.
- 1950s—present · Provincial-capital growth and war memory — Industry, universities and new districts changed the former capital, while archives, survivor testimony, preserved sites and memorials gradually shaped public memory.
Begin with these places
- Presidential Palace / Museum of Modern Chinese History — Distinguish the Taiping, provisional-republic and Nationalist-government layers.
- Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and Republican-era architecture — Observe the combination of national symbolism, planning and modern architecture.
- Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre — Use testimony, archives and site evidence to understand atrocity and the ethics of memory.