Published: Jan. 6, 2020

with Jeffrey Wasserstrom
CAS Event
Wednesday, October 23 at 5:00PM

This talk will focus on patterns of protest and the tightening of political controls in Hong Kong. It will pay close attention to the 2014 Umbrella Movement but focus even more on the dramatic events of this year, including the candlelight vigil held on the 30th anniversary of the June 4th Massacre, Jeff Wasserstrom has been visiting Hong Kong regularly since 1987, and will draw on his work as a specialist in the history of anti-authoritarian movements in various parts of the world and his work on global cities of Asia. His talk will provide a preview of ideas he is exploring in his book Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink, forthcoming in the Columbia Global Reports series in February. The talk will be followed by a commentary and discussion moderated by CAS Director and Professor of Geography, Tim Oakes.

Jeffrey WasserstromÌýis the Chancellor’s Professor of History, University of California Irvine. HeÌýÌýholds a B.A. from UC Santa Cruz, an M.A. fromÌýHarvard and a PhD from Berkeley, and while a student also spent a yearÌýapiece at the University of London and Shanghai's Fudan University. AÌýformer editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, his most recent booksÌýare Eight Juxtapositions: China through Imperfect Analogies from MarkÌýTwain to Manchukuo (Penguin 2016) and the co-authored third edition ofÌýChina in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know ( Oxford 2018).ÌýIn addition to writing for scholarly periodicals, he is a regularÌýcontributor to newspapers (including the New York Times and the WallÌýStreet Journal) and magazines (such as the Atlantic and TIME). He hasÌýspoken at literary festivals in Europe and Asia, consulted onÌýdocumentary films about the Tiananmen protests and the UmbrellaÌýMovement, testified before the Congressional-Executive Commission onÌýChina, and also served as a keynote speaker at StateÌýDepartment-organized orientation sessions for China-bound FulbrightÌýstudents and scholars.

This event isÌýco-sponsored by the History Department and the International Affairs Program.

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