History, Images, and Politics in the PRC: An International Workshop

Program:

Thursday, January 24

8:30 – 9:00 Breakfast

9:00 – 9:10 Opening remarks, Ban Wang (EALC, Stanford)

9:10 – 10:45 Political Authority and Grassroots Activism

Chair: Guobin Yang (Sociology & Communication, U Penn)

Presenters:

Elizabeth J. Perry (Harvard) and Xiaojun Yan (Politics and Public Administration, Univ. of Hong Kong). Suppressing Students in the PRC: Proletarian State-Mobilized Movements in 1968 and 1989.

Andrew Walder (Sociology, Stanford). Pathways to Violent Insurgency: China’s Factional Warfare of 1967-1968.

Emily Honig (History, UC Santa Cruz). Crime and Punishment: Peasants, Sent-down Youth, and a Campaign to Expose Sexual Assault.

10:45 – 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:45 Writing and Propaganda

Chair: Gail Hershatter (History, UC Santa Cruz)

Presenters:

Paul Pickowicz (History, UC San Diego). Mid-Cultural Revolution Propaganda Posters: Unintended Glimpses of the High Socialist Formation.

Haiyan Lee (EALC, Stanford). The Importance of Not Being Earnest: On Hypocrisy in Chinese Politics and Literature.

Guangyao Jin (History, Fudan). The Rise and Fall of the Writing Group of Shanghai Party Committee.

12:45 – 2:00 Lunch

2:00 – 3:45 Arts, Images, and Censorship

Chair: Thomas Gold (Sociology, UC Berkeley)

Presenters:

Peidong Sun (History, Fudan and UC Berkeley). “Fragrant Flowers” and

“Poisonous Weeds”: Censoring Personal Readings in the Cultural Revolution.

Julia Andrews (Art History, Ohio State). From the Dark to the Light: Iconographic Changes in Cultural Revolution Images.

Shaoqian Zhang (Art History, Oklahoma State). From Stove Gods to Political Gods: Leader Portraits from Shanghai to Yan’an, and Back Again.

3:45 – 4:00 Coffee Break

4:00 – 5:30 Archive and Resources

Chair: Jidong Yang (East Asia Library, Stanford)

Presenters:

Letian Zhang (School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan). Introduction to the Collection of Social History Archives of Contemporary China at Fudan University (in Chinese).

Peiming Yang (Shanghai Propaganda Art Center). Irresistible Visual Beauty: New-Year Posters in New China.

6:30 Dinner (panelists only): Peking Duck Restaurant, 151 California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94306

Friday, January 25

8:30 – 9:00 Breakfast

9:00 – 10:45 Views from Outside

Chair: Jean Oi (Political Science, Stanford)

Presenters:

Denise Ho (History, Yale). Imagining Revolution from the Outside In: Visualizing PRC Politics from Hong Kong.

Xueshan Wu (China Central Academy of Fine Arts). Chinese Anti-Imperialist Propaganda in the 1960s: Defying Soviet Revisionism and American Empire.

Ban Wang (EALC, Stanford). Charismatic Politics and the People in the Cultural Revolution: The Mao Cult According to Alain Badiou.

10:45 – 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:45 Arts and Everyday Life in Socialist China

Chair: Peidong Sun (History, Fudan and UC Berkeley)

Presenters:

Kuiyi Shen (Visual Arts, UC San Diego). Hot Propaganda in the Cold War.

John Israel (History, Univ. of Virginia). Signs of the Time: Streetside Posters in Kunming.

Hanchao Lu (History, GA Inst. of Tech.). Rhetoric Versus Reality: Shanghai’s Alleyway Production Teams, 1958-1978.

12:45 – 1:30 Lunch and Roundtable

Chairs: Gail Hershatter, Guobin Yang, and Peidong Sun.