How do historians delineate the temporal b oundaries of major historical events\, and trace their origins\, precedents \, and preludes? How are periodization schemes constructed and defined? In this talk\, Prof. Wu will reconsider the opening phase of China’s Great Pro letarian Cultural Revolution and the critical events leading up to it\, wit h the aim of developing an understanding of how the great turmoil began in ways less dependent on familiar Mao-centric\, linear\, and teleological pre mises and more sensitive to historical contingencies and contextual ambigui ties.
About the Speaker:
Yiching Wu is Associat
e Professor of East Asian Studies and Director of the David Chu Program of
Contemporary Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. With a PhD in cult
ural anthropology at the University of Chicago\, his research focuses on th
e history\, society\, and politics of Mao’s China\, in particular history o
f the Cultural Revolution. His book\, The Cultural Revolution at the Mar
gins: Chinese Socialism in Crisis (Harvard University Press\, 2014)\, w
as the recipient of the President’s Book Award from the Social Science Hist
ory Association\, and the finalist of the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize (for no
n-Canadian history) from the Canadian Historical Association. He is current
ly working on a new book project that reexamines the preludes and beginning
of the Cultural Revolution.
