14-15 June 2012

Venue：City University of Hong Kong and Baptist University of Hong Kong

Organizers:

• Jean-Pierre Cabestan, Baptist University of Hong Kong
• Joseph Cheng Yu-shek, City University of Hong Kong
• Sebastian Veg, French Centre for Research on Contemporary China

Date & Time:

• Thursday 14 June, City University of Hong Kong
• Friday 15 June, Baptist University of Hong Kong

Languages:

English and Mandarin
(translation to be arranged in the room upon request)

Argument

As the 18th Party Congress approaches, much discussion has focused on the purported "red revival" spurred by Bo Xilai's campaign of chang hong da hei or "Praise the Red and crack down on the Black" in Chongqing, a policy of tough measures on crime, accompanied by propaganda steeped in Mao-era references.

While some dismiss its significance as pure political strategy, the lifting of the Mao-taboo in Chinese politics seems to have unleashed a wide scope of related debates, ranging from the critique of China's present unequal growth and the role of the state in the economy to a reevaluation of the Cultural Revolution and the role of ideology today.

As the Party prepares for the leadership transition of 2012, one cannot help noting that it once again seems to be staging its divisions over personalities in ideological terms, a fact all the more interesting as the incoming leadership generation received its political education during the Cultural Revolution.

This conference will attempt to analyze the underlying forces involved in the battle over the uses of Mao today in order to better understand the place of Mao today and the meaning of the reference to Maoism in the contemporary political, social, and intellectual debate.

The following topics may be discussed:
- Mao in the Economic and Social policy debate
- The Chongqing Experiment: Bo Xilai and the uses of Maoism on the political scene
- Maoism in the intellectual debate: liberal and New Left critiques of Maoism
- The Mao Generation: the educated youth in power after the 18th Congress
- Mao in Chinese historiography and official discourse
- Red culture: nostalgia and critique of Mao in literature, film, art.

Pour voir le programme dans l'agenda des Ifre