CATS Virtual Lecture Series 20 
Final lecture: Living the Socialist Modern - The Chinese Communist Party at 100: Global and Interdisciplinary Perspectives
15th December, 2021; 18:00-19:30 (CET)
Online
Organizer:
Universität Heidelberg - Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS)

Subject: A century ago, activists with ties to various parts of Asia embraced and then discarded different ideologies and found varying ways to connect with one another, sometimes in exile. What linked them were some shared grievances, such as a dislike with the way their community was being bullied or controlled by people in a distant capital and with limits on their freedom to speak out on issues that concerned them and organize to bring about change. The founders of the Chinese Communist Party, many of whom were attracted by forms of liberal and anarchist thought before embracing Marxism-Leninism, were part of this milieu.

Now, in 2021, that organization is in control in Beijing and that city has become a capital that is a source of concern for a very different generation of activists with ties to various parts of Asia, who now often connect via social media messaging rather than exchanging tracts in port cities. This talk, drawing on work on everything from scholarship on the founders of the CCP and the Milk Tea Alliance actions of this year as well as on Tim Harper's magisterial book "Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire", will toggle between 1921 and 2021 with an eye toward reoccurrences, ruptures, and reversals.

Speaker:

Jeffrey Wasserstrom is Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California (Irvine), where he also holds courtesy appointments in the Law School and in the Literary Journalism Program. He has written, co-written, edited, or co-edited a dozen books.

Registration: here
More about the series: here