Book Launch: Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China

Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China.

Hosted in conversation with Emeritus Professor Yiyan Wang, Linda will speak about the Cultural Revolution and provide timely insights into the parallels between that period in China and developments in the USA today.

Date: Thursday 19 June
Time: 4:00–5:00 PM

In 1966, with the words "Bombard the Headquarters!" Mao Zedong unleashed the full, violent force of a movement that he called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. By the time he died ten years later, millions had perished, China's cultural heritage was in ruins, its economic state was perilous, its institutions of government were damaged, and its society was bitterly divided.

Shortest History of China author Linda Jaivin’s latest book, Bombard the Headquarters, looks at how such a catastrophe unfolded, the stories of individuals caught up in its violent swirl, and the lessons that have - and have not - been learned from it. The Cultural Revolution’s shadow still lays over China today, even if the Party has endeavoured to erase or at least minimise its memory, and it also provides surprising insights into what is happening in the United States today in the first months of Donald Trump’s second presidency, as Jaivin will reveal.

About the Author

Linda Jaivin has been studying Chinese history, politics, language and culture for more than forty years. She has been a foreign correspondent in China. She was an editor of the (now defunct) China Story Yearbook produced by the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University, is a literary translator from Chinese specialising in film subtitling and the author of thirteen books including The Shortest History of China as well as her latest, Bombards the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China.