The Centre for Chinese Research at SPPGA presents a talk by Dr. Kimberley Ens Manning on her recently published book project “The Party Family: Revolutionary Attachments and the Gendered Origins of State Power in China”.
About the Book
How did the People’s Republic of China (PRC) achieve one of the most dramatic declines in infant and maternal mortality in the world, only to have this mid-century success overturned during a politically-induced famine just a few years later? In her latest book, Kimberley Ens Manning argues that complex networks of family and social ties contributed to both state capacity and failure in the earliest years of the PRC. Drawing on interviews with 163 participants in the provinces of Henan and Jiangsu, as well as government documents and elite memoirs, biographies, speeches, and reports, Manning offers a new theoretical lens—attachment politics—to underscore how family and ideology intertwined to create an important building block of the state
About the Speaker
Kimberley Ens Manning’s research focuses on Chinese politics; gender and politics; and the well-being of transgender children, youth, and their families. Analyzing the relationship gender and political institutions through the lens of intersectional feminist theory, Kimberley has previously published in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Gender and History, and the China Quarterly, and is most recently the author of “The Party Family: Revolutionary Attachments and the Gendered Origins of State Power in China” (Cornell University Press, 2023). Principal of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute and Professor of Political Science at Concordia University, Kimberley’s recent research, writing, and teaching explores how feminist leadership practices can deepen equity in healthcare and education.
