A poster for a Chinese high-speed train at the construction site for a bridge over the Mekong River in Laos
Upcoming Events
Past Events
Taiwan Civil Society in Authoritarian Era 威權主義與台灣公民社會
Microsoft Team
吳介民教授〈從「106大搜捕」看「美麗島事件」前後的台灣民主運動〉內容簡介 「106大搜捕」剛發生時，不少人認為這次鎮壓類似台灣1979年的「美麗島事件」。但「106大搜捕」真的是「香港的美麗島事件」嗎？這場演講將說明，美麗島大逮捕與審判，是國民黨作為外來政權的最後一擊，最終也證明是自我挫敗的一擊。為什麼？因為它根本壓不住台灣社會。 講者將從內外因素進行分析。外部而言，當時東亞冷戰防線正在解除，美中和解使東亞局勢緩和，美國不再需要一個威權的國民黨政權來協助圍堵共產中國。來自地緣政治變遷的力量，解釋了美國對蔣政權態度的轉變。 內部而言：台灣社會力正在茁壯。本土社會要求在國家機器中佔有一定代表性。而面臨政權「外部正當性危機」的國民黨也需要「內部正當性」來維持其統治。因此，開放一定程度的選舉活動，是國民黨不得不做出的妥協，因而持續攪動了自由化的力量。選舉螺旋不斷迫使國民黨統治機器向本土化的方向傾斜。 在價值系統的鬥爭上，國民黨政權的「大中國神話」從1977-78年的「鄉土文學論戰」之後節節敗退。美麗島事件後的「中國結、台灣結」大辯論，更預示了民主化與本土化成為主流價值。 反觀今日香港，國安法建造了阻隔香港與世界的「柏林圍牆」；香港權力結構正在急遽落入「去本土化」、「中國化」；中共勢必企圖根本改造香港，製造「新香港人」。展望前景，自由化的動能何在？除了香港公民社會自身的調整與堅實化之外，中國內部權力結構變化或不變，以及地緣政治關係與美中對抗前景，都將影響中國未來的香港政策。 陳翠蓮教授 〈抵抗的意志：戰後台灣威權統治與民主運動〉內容簡介 二戰結束後，國民黨政府統治台灣，建立起強固的威權體制，獨裁統治幾乎達半世紀之久。威權體制為何能夠發揮強大的社會控制效果？台灣的威權體制有何特性？民眾如何抵抗？如何保存記憶、傳承經驗？台灣的經驗又可以提供香港怎樣的借鏡？ READ MORE...
China’s engagement with Brazil since 2000: Key actors, strategies and conflicts
Zoom
Brazil is China’s largest trade partner in Latin America, exporting petroleum, iron ore, soybeans and other agricultural commodities in exchange for manufactured products from China. This mushrooming bilateral trade triggered massive Chinese investments in Brazil, yet diplomatic ties have frayed and Brazil hasn’t joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This talk outlines the key actors and interests shaping this relation, arguing their strategies align in advancing an eco-modernist partnership that transcends current diplomatic controversies. The real problems at stake, therefore, emerge from political ecological conflicts within China and Brazil themselves that become aggravated when state and corporate interests from both countries align in a strategic partnership. READ MORE...
二戰後中共勝利的蘇聯因素問題
Zoom
二戰結束、日本投降後的國際國內形勢，並不利於中共用武力推翻國民黨政權。導致蔣介石國民黨失敗的原因很多，任何原因都不是唯一重要的，但對中共的成功而言，蘇聯因素的作用卻是不可或缺的。蘇聯因素的作用是多方面的，蘇軍佔領東北期間武器彈藥方面的協助對中共武裝在東北發展壯大至關重要，然而中共武裝能夠進入東北、在東北廣大區域利用中東鐵路等交通設施，包括能夠在和國民黨作戰期間出入朝鮮、外蒙，利用蘇軍控制的旅大地區等等，顯然是意識形態的因素，以及斯大林基於冷戰思維調整其對美對華政策所帶來的結果。換言之，毛澤東1949年7月公開發表《論人民民主專政》一文，宣布向蘇聯“一邊倒”；1950年2月締結中蘇友好互助同盟條約，毛澤東宣稱這是為中國找到一個“好幫手”，其實都可以看出中共對其戰後成功有著怎樣的經驗總結。 READ MORE...
Rosy Fantasies: Edgar Snow, John Service, Joseph Stilwell, and their China
Zoom
Edgar Snow, John S. Service, and Joseph W. Stilwell had overlapping and intertwined China experiences. They played unexpectedly pivotal roles in the rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Edgar Snow (1905-72) was a foreign correspondent in China from 1928 to 1941 and returned to the country in 1960, 1964-65, and 1970. He promulgated what was to later become prevailing imagery of the Chinese Communists as agrarian reformers. Born to an American missionary family in Chengdu, John S. Service (1909-99) served as a diplomat to China from 1933 to 1945 and revisited the country in 1971. Taking part in the Dixie Mission to Yan’an, Service emerged as Washington’s major source of information on the CCP. Old China Hand General Joseph W. Stilwell (1883-1946) was stationed in China in 1920-23, 1935-39 and 1942-44. He played a crucial role in changing American perceptions of the Chinese Communists and Chinese Nationalists. Snow, Service, and Stilwell all claimed to sincerely love the Chinese people. But what did they really think of China? This study will zoom in on their perceptions of China as expressed in their own words and deeds and explore how their perceptions impacted the course of history. READ MORE...
Global Medicine in Chinese East Asia, 1937-1970
Zoom
By examining two case studies on how the Chinese diaspora came to shape biomedicine in China and Taiwan from 1937 to 1970, my new book makes the case of the concept of "global medicine." "Global medicine" highlights the multivalent and multidirectional flows of medical practices and ideas circulating the world that shaped Chinese East Asia in the 20th century. The first case study examines how Chinese American women medical personnel established the first Chinese blood in New York and Kunming, China. Second, this talk reveals how Singapore-born and Edinburgh-educated Dr. Robert Lim successfully relocated the National Defense Medical Center from China to Taiwan in 1948 despite the Chinese Civil War's longstanding challenges. This presentation highlights the critical intersections of scientific expertise, political freedoms, and diasporic power in shaping global medicine in China and Taiwan through a critical examination of these two medical encounters between the diaspora and the local Chinese and Taiwanese. READ MORE...
China's Global Migration in the New Millennium
Zoom
China is the world’s largest source country of migrant students (making up 14% of the global total in 2018) and investors (PRC investors made up 75% of the recipients of US EB-5 visas in 2017). Why are those who have benefited the most from China’s development eager to leave China, the rising centre of the world economy? This lecture suggests that China’s global migration in the new millennium reflects the internationalization of life reproduction among those who have means. Chinese migrate overseas in order to benefit from better education, care, air, food and water, and personal and wealth security. They do so with considerable financial cost. All these benefits are meant to maintain and enhance life, instead of making money, thus “reproduction”. This lecture positions China’s on-going outflows in a historical context, and explores the relations between migration, capital accumulation, and shifts in the global political economy. READ MORE...
Global China Humanities Series: Maoism: A Global History
Zoom
Since 2012 – and for the first time since the death of Mao in 1976 – China has experienced an official revival of Maoist culture and politics. Despite the huge human cost of Mao’s rule, on 1 October 2019 (the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China) the Chinese Communist Party staged a festival of patriotism invoking Mao as august builder of the party and nation. But this definition of Mao as respectable paterfamilias obscures other, more destabilising legacies of Maoism – a volatile mix of militarised autocracy, anti-colonial rebellion and ‘continuous revolution’.... READ MORE...
"Global Hong Kong: Lessons from Elsewhere" Speaker Series - Book event: The Resistant Community (反抗的共同體)
Microsoft Teams
To many Hong Kong locals, Prof. Ma Ngok needs no introduction. Well known and respected for his commentary on Hong Kong politics and academic archievement in political science, Ma is Associate Professor of the Department of Government and Public Administration of CUHK. His research areas include party politics and elections in Hong Kong, social movements and state-society relations in Hong Kong, comparative politics, and democratization. He has published five books, more than 20 journal articles and 20 book chapters on Hong Kong politics.
Book event: The Resistant Community (反抗的共同體)
Microsoft Team
About the "Global Hong Kong: Lessons from Elsewhere" Speaker Series
As Hong Kong experiences unprecedented political and social upheavals, we invite speakers who can shed light on other societies which have faced similar challenges. Putting Hong Kong in global perspectives may inspire comparative research, theoretical and historical reflections, as well as public discussions on our collective future.
READ MORE...