China at the beginning of the 20th Century

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Project Overview: 
Over the next few days, you will have the opportunity to work in groups of no more than THREE to research and explain some of the important issues China faced at the onset of imperialism.  
 As a general rule, the who, what, where, when, how, and results of each of the topics should be clearly and thoroughly explained.  In short: Why are these topics important to China's history? 

Timeline of the Project:
You will have Wednesday, Thursday & Friday to use the Media Center and MacBook Pro laptops for your work.  If you use your time effectively and need more time to create a high-quality project, it might be possible to extend the work time to Monday of next week.  I'll let you know on Friday!

Format

The information you find about these topics should be presented as a narrative in a clear and concise way - as if you were writing a newspaper or magazine article about each of the topics.  DO NOT simply provide a list of facts.

The Finished Product
You will receive information about what your finished project should look like on Thursday or Friday.  For now, you should be focused on doing research and organizing the information you find.  

The topics are as follows:
  1. The Opium War
  2. The Taiping Rebellion
  3. The Boxer Rebellion
  4. Sun Yat-sen
  5. Empress Cixi
  6. The Self-Strengthening Movement

It is suggested that you divide the topics up among the members of your group - each person being responsible for 2 of the topics.  

You have a great deal of freedom on this project, but there are a few things that are "must-haves"!
  1. Make sure you include a list of the websites you used for information.  Wikipedia is ok, but MUST be accompanied by other resources!
  2. Any information you provide must be in YOUR words and you should be able to explain what you mean if asked.  In other words, simply rephrasing information by using synonyms won't cut it.  Use your brain to process the information and explain what it is you are trying to convey.
  3. You will have a significant amount of time to work on this project (3 class days).  This should be reflected in the quality of your work. 
  4. Clearly define which topics each person in your group will be responsible for.  Your grade will based on both your work as an individual and the overall quality of your project. 
Some suggested resources
There are MANY good places to find information about your project topics.  The list below should be helpful for getting started.  Feel free to use other resources though!

If you come across resources that seem to be particularly valuable please send them to me!  I'll add them to this list right away!