Revolution, Rebellion & Empire on Early Maoist China's Tibetan Borderland
| Dates: | 5 December 2023 |
|---|
| Times: | 17:00 - 18:30 |
|---|
| What is it: | Seminar |
|---|
| Organiser: | Manchester China Institute |
|---|
| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Adults, Current University students, General public |
|---|
| Speaker: | Benno Weiner |
|---|
|
Join Benno Weiner's in-person talk on "Revolution, Rebellion, and the Afterlives of Empire on a Tibetan Borderland of Early Maoist China".
When in 1949 the Chinese Communist Party “liberated” the area of eastern Tibet known as Amdo, it declared that Amdo Tibetans at last had become “masters of their own homes.” Party leaders vowed that the exploitation and discrimination Tibetans had suffered under previous regimes would quickly be replaced by ethnic equality, political autonomy, and material prosperity. Rather than introducing socialist reforms, the CCP initially pursued relatively moderate “United Front” policies meant to “gradually,” persuade Tibetans of their membership in the new Chinese nation. This all changed at the outset of 1958’s Great Leap Forward, when United Front gradualism was jettisoned in favor of rapid collectivization, and pluralistic pledges gave way to ethnoreligious persecution. This led to large-scale rebellion, which was met by a brutal counterinsurgency, followed by devastating famine. Despite promises of a “voluntary” and “organic” transformation, Amdo was incorporated into the People’s Republic of China through the overwhelming and often indiscriminate deployment of state violence. In this talk, Benno Weiner discusses 1958’s Amdo Rebellion and explores ways in which the violence of 1958 and its aftermath continues to cloud the state’s efforts to integrate Tibetans into the modern Chinese nation-state.
Speaker
Benno Weiner
Role: Associate Professor
Organisation: Carnegie Mellon University
Biography: Benno Weiner is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University. He is author of the Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier and co-editor of Contested Memories: Tibetan History under Mao Retold. His most recent article, “‘This Absolutely is not a Hui Rebellion!’ The Ethnopolitics of Great Han Chauvinism in Early Maoist China,” was published in the October issue of the journal Twentieth Century China.
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
The Portico Library
57 Mosley Street
Manchester
