The ancient historian, the Communist Party and an American YouTuber - how propaganda works in the PRC

Date: Tuesday 14 April
Time: 5:00–6:00 pm
Location: RH105, Rutherford House, Pipitea Campus, VUW [map link]
Register: ChinaCentre@vuw.ac.nz

Abstract

The ancient historian Sima Qian wasn’t just China’s first great historian, but its first propagandist. His Records of the Grand Historian told history in a way that made its lessons clear. This general was to be emulated, that king was overthrown for a reason. Some two and a half thousand years later, the Communist Party of China set out to remake China in its own, idealised image, and adapted ancient didactic traditions for revolutionary purposes. We’ll look at how they also drew on Soviet aesthetics and new technologies as they arose to come up with ways of dealing with such issues as women’s equality and Uyghur and Tibetan rights. And we’ll show how even ‘influencers’ have a role to play in the ecology of PRC propaganda.

Speaker

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, Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China. RSVP: ChinaCentre@vuw.ac.nz