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With China’s development, the understanding of modern Chinese history has become ever more relevant because of its profound influence on contemporary China. Among the many perspectives for understanding modern China, social relief is particularly worthy of attention. Essentially, social relief is people's response to disasters, hygiene, poverty, and other issues. The history we are experiencing tells us that people's response to a major public health event can have a huge impact on the economy, social life, and even the world order. This course will be based on modern China, with the emergence, development, and transformation of modern social relief as its core content. It explores people's responses to disasters, hygiene, and other related social issues, and examines how those responses have profoundly affected modern China. This course requires students to read academic works and original materials in order to cultivate the ability to understand and analyze historical issues and then to understand the state, social structure, and culture of modern China through the perspective of social relief. Moreover, with the development of global crises such as the polarization between the rich and the poor and climate change, relief activities will affect more people in future society. For students interested in social relief activities, this course will provide historical reference points.