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Date(s)： 2024/09/19
Time： 14:30~17:00
Venue： Archives 3rd Conference Hall
Host： Prof. Wu Jen-shu ( Research fellow and Deputy Director, IMH, AS)
Speaker：Prof. Felix Wemheuer （Chair Professor of Modern Chinese Studies, University of Cologne (Germany)）
Talker： Prof. Yu Miin-ling ( Adjunct research fellow, IMH, AS)
Organizer： Urban History Research Group
Social Conflicts in China‘s Cultural Revolution Felix Wemheuer just published a Chinese version of his book “A Social History of Maoist China” in Taiwan. In his talk, he will focus on the early period of the Cultural Revolution. It is well known that in Beijing middle school students rebelled against their teachers and destroyed “the Four Old” in August of 1966. However, in many provinces conflicts between cadres contributed to factional fighting. “Rebel cadres” tried to get support from mass organisations of students and workers to “seize power” and to establish revolutionary committees. The “representatives of the masses” became part of the new power structures and could less rely on their organisations at the grassroots. Furthermore, divisions inside the PLA could lead to civil war. Wemheuer will also show how the Central Government tried to mediate conflicts between various groups at lower levels. In many cases, conflicts on the ground had escalated in ways, that even Mao’s authority could not curb them. Felix Wemheuer is Chair Professor for Modern China Studies at the University of Cologne. His publications include Famine Politics in Maoist China and the Soviet Union (Yale UP 2014) and A Social History of Maoist China: Conflict and Change, 1949-1976 (Cambridge UP 2019). Introduction to the book《毛澤東時代的真實社會》 ➙https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz_4blkVwHE Felix Wemheuer’s youtube channel „Studying Maoist China“ ➙https://www.youtube.com/@felixwemheuerstudyingmaois1051/videos