History and the Cultural Revolution in Holland

In March I’ll be going to the Netherlands for five days to talk about my favorite topics: Unofficial History, but with an interesting spin: is some version of the Cultural Revolution happening in the West today?

My trip will start on March 12 at 15:15 at Leiden University, where I’ll talk about underground histories with Svetlana Kharchenkova, a cultural sociologist, Bo Wang, a researcher, filmmaker and artist, with the session chaired by  Ying Zhang, a historian at the university. Register here!

After a talk at a class on the 13th, I’ll go to The Hague on the 14th to speak at the Nowhere Bookstore, which is part of a growing diasporic civil society movement outside of China. The bookstore is one of three run by Annie Zhang Jieping, who will moderate. We’ll talk about the link between resistance now and in the past. Registration here.

After  down day on the 15th, I’ll join Annie again on the 16th along with Yuan Li on her Bumingbai podcast for a live recording in Amsterdam. Our topic: why do some Chinese compare events in the United States to China’s Cultural Revolution? That event is unfortunately already sold out but the podcast will air soon after. 

Overall, it will be great to talk to more people from the diaspora and get their feedback on the China Unofficial Archives. We’re looking for more constructive criticism and this will be a great chance. For reasons I don’t entirely get right now, the Netherlands has become a center for Chinese NGO activity–maybe I’ll know more by late March…