The French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Centre for China Studies (CCS) present a hybrid seminar:

“Contemporary History of China: The Successes and Limits of Unofficial (minjian) History”

Since imperial times, and even more so since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese authorities have endeavored to control the historical narrative. But an unofficial (or minjian) history has often proposed complements or corrections to the official one. This conference will present the essential role played by minjian history in our understanding of the history of contemporary China. It will also show the inevitable limits of this historical approach.

Date: 22 April 2024
Time: 4:00pm – 5:30pm (Hong Kong time, UTC +8)
Location: CUHK (Yasumoto International Academic Park, Room 502) / hybrid via Zoom: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/92391971242?pwd=dzVYVjVKZDBMeU1QSmozbzZldlZHdz09
The seminar will be held in English.
Benjamin Taunay, Director of the CEFC, will chair the session.

Speaker
Prof. Michel Bonnin

Michel Bonnin is Professor Emeritus at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris and Adjunct Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In the 1990s, he was the founding director of the French Research Centre on Contemporary China (CEFC) and of the journal China Perspectives, both based in Hong Kong. In 2013, he published The Lost Generation: The Rustication of China’s Educated Youth (1968-1980), which already had one French and two Chinese editions. He has also published books and articles on the question of generations, on collective memory and other socio-political topics of contemporary China.

Thank you for your support. The seminar registration is now closed . Kindly email your request to [email protected] and we will inform you when additional vacancies are available.