In a visit four days after the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, a Harvard University professor highlighted the positive outcomes of the Chinese Communist revolution and its reverberations in the next 40 years of the country’s history.
Harvard government professor Elizabeth Perry spoke to a crowd of more than 70 students and faculty members about China’s revolutionary past on Monday. Perry is working to learn the true meaning of the revolution as experienced by common workers and to distinguish changing interpretations of the revolution throughout the world as time passes.
“When I visit China and ask people, ‘What is the legacy of the Chinese revolution?’ almost nobody can give me an answer,” Perry said.
Perry discussed her current research on the Anyuan coal mine labor movement from 1926-27 and its connection to the Chinese revolution. Mao Zedong organized a school for workers in Anyuan, which led to the creation of a labor union and a strike. The strike won higher wages and better security for Anyuan workers, and the community stood out as a positive exception during the period of oppression across China, Perry said.
“There may actually be something worth retrieving from one’s youthful idealism about the Chinese revolution,” Perry said.
Perry said the current rejection of revolutions as tragic mistakes is a fairly recent phenomenon and that previous generations saw revolutions in a positive light.
The Center for East Asian Studies hosted the lecture to attract more students to the study of Chinese language, history and politics, said Patricia Maclachlan, director of the center and associate professor of Asian Studies. Students and faculty members attended the lecture in the Texas Union’s Santa Rita Room, many staying for a Q&A session and refreshments afterward.
“We think this is a really good move for us academically,” Maclachlan said. “Some events we hold are designed to draw interest to China, and this is one of them.”
William Hurst, a UT assistant professor of government, said Perry is one of the world’s leading scholars on Chinese politics in the first half of the 20th century, and her visit was a great opportunity for the University to raise the profile of Chinese studies and politics.
“What’s particularly interesting to me is that all of China’s revolutionary leaders who were involved in labor politics were in [Anyuan] organizing coal miners,” Hurst said.
Jeff Marrs and his classmates from the Texas National Guard are preparing for deployment to Afghanistan early next year and recently studied Mao Zedong and Eastern philosophy in a course. They attended the lecture to further broaden their perspectives on the issue, Marrs said.
“Coming here was an opportunity to take a look at different aspects of revolution,” Marrs said. “It gives us more of an intellectual curiosity instead of getting into a group-think mentality or tunnel vision.”
Perry’s work is well-grounded historically, appealing to both political scientists and to historians, said David Sena, assistant professor of Asian Studies. Sena studied under Perry as an undergraduate.
“I hope people come away with a better understanding of the way the Communist revolution is perceived in China and a richer understanding of how the meaning of that historic event changes all the time,” Sena said.
Professor sparks interest in Chinese revolution, culture
Published: Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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