An Interdisciplinary Workshop Organized by Haiyan Lee and Yu Liu
John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research
S050 CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street
Harvard University
Saturday, 7 April 2007

For both contemporary observers looking on and historians looking back, Maoist politics has never ceased both to fascinate and horrify, prompting generations of scholars to reckon with this paradox: Why did millions of Chinese enthusiastically support Mao’s revolutionary regime while so many of its policies and campaigns proved disastrous? This workshop investigates this paradox by bringing together a group of scholars working with new materials and interdisciplinary methodologies from social history, historical anthropology, political philosophy, social psychology, and cultural studies. In doing so, we hope to overcome the conventional disciplinary divide between the social sciences and the humanities and encourage new and innovative efforts to rethink Maoism. In particular, we aim to explore the following questions: What were the major sources and dynamics of political legitimacy under Mao? How did Maoist politics contribute to and/or undermine the socialist political economy? What role did the Maoist symbols, narratives, and rituals play in the production of legitimacy? How did the Maoist mass dictatorship facilitate political mobilization and political violence? How did it extend to the level of everyday feelings and values? What was the relationship between Maoist politics and aesthetics? In addressing these and related questions, we hope to contribute to the ongoing reflections on the nature of the Chinese revolution and its far-reaching ramifications for contemporary China.

Opening Remarks 8:45

Bill Kirby (Director, Fairbank Center)
Ron Suleski (Assistant Director, Fairbank Center)

Panel I: Mobilization 9:00-10:30

“The Mass Line as a Maoist Discourse: The Mobilization of Emotions in Revolutionary China," by Yu Liu (Political Science, Harvard University)

“Perspectives on Mao and CCP Legitimacy in the Early 1950s: ‘The Reactions of the Chinese People to Stalin's Death’," by Hua-yu Li (Political Science, Oregon State University)

Discussants: Elizabeth Perry (Government, Harvard University)
Ralph Thaxton (Political Science, Brandeis University)

Panel II: Passion 10:40-12:10

“The Passion of Politics," by Michael Dutton (Politics, University of London)

“The Enemy Within: The Fabling of the Water Dungeon, Rent Collection Courtyard, and Socialist Undead," by Haiyan Lee (Literature, University of Colorado at Boulder/Harvard University)

Discussants: Henrietta Harrison (History, Harvard University)
David Wang (Literature, Harvard University)

Panel III: Habitus 1:00-2:30

“’Guard against the Tendency to Seek Pleasure’: The Fate of Consumerism under Communism," Karl Gerth (History, University of South Carolina)

“Justifying Inequality: The Worker-Peasant Alliance in Mao’s China," Jeremy Brown (History, University of California, San Diego)

Discussants: Thomas Bernstein (Political Science, Columbia University)
Catherine Yeh (Literature, Boston University)

Panel IV: Revolution 2:40-4:10

“From the Entrails of the Old: Rethinking Cultural Revolution Politics and Ideology of Class," Yiching Wu (Anthropology, University of Chicago)

“Geopolitics, National Development, and Third World Cinema in the Cultural
Revolution," by Ban Wang (Literature, Rutgers University)

Discussants: Bill Kirby (History, Harvard University)
Xueping Zhong (Literature, Tufts University)

Roundtable 4:20-5:30 (Moderator: Bill Kirby)

Carma Hinton (Visual Culture, Carnegie-Mellon University)
Terry Martin (History, Harvard University)
Rudolph Wagner (History, University of Heidelberg)
Robert Weller (Anthropology, Boston University)

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Haiyan Lee (haiyan.lee@colorado.edu) or Yu Liu (yl487@columbia.edu).