“The Chinese Communist Party is one of the most important, yet least understood, political organisations in the world today”. – Rana Mitter
International time: 23:00 Beijing, 16:00 Oslo, 10:00 (AM) Washington DC.
Governing China since 1949 and now listing about 90 million members: Is the Communist Party really a political party? Are there other ways to better understand this organisation and its history?
In this seminar, three internationally renowned China scholars will present their recent books on the Chinese Communist Party as the party turned 100 years in 2021.
Tony Saich’s book From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party tells the story from the CCP’s origins as a small group of revolutionaries in Shanghai to becoming one of the world’s largest organisations, challenging the US for international leadership.
Bruce Dickson will present his book The Party and the People: Chinese Politics in the 21st Century. Dickson highlights how the Party does not sustain dominance through repressive tactics alone – it pairs this with a surprising responsiveness to the public. His book explores how this balance has shifted increasingly towards repression under the rule of President Xi Jinping.
The book presented by Timothy Cheek, The Chinese Communist Party: A Century in Ten Lives, is a collection of essays, one for each decade with a personal story representing that decade. The book has chapter contributions from 11 different China experts and is co-edited with Klaus Mühlhahn and Hans van de Ven.
Tony Saich
Bruce Dickson
Chair of the Political Science Department, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University.
Timothy Cheek
Professor, Louis Cha Chair in Chinese Research, Director of the Centre for Chinese Research, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia
Rebekka Åsnes Sagild
PhD in Modern China Studies from the University of Oslo. She will chair this seminar.
Heidi Østbø Haugen
The seminar series is hosted by Heidi Østbø Haugen, professor of China Studies at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages. She heads the ERC-funded project Brokering China’s Extraversion: An Ethnographic Analysis of Transnational Arbitration (Brokex).
Other Events in the BROKEX Spring 2022 Seminar Series
China´s International Relations: South-South Perspectives
Date and time: 10 February 2022. 22:00 (Beijing), 15:00 (Oslo), 09:00 (EST). Sign-up.
Dawn Murphy: China's Rise in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing's Alternative World Order
Adam Grydehøj and Ping Su: China and the Pursuit of Harmony in World Politics: Understanding Chinese International Relations Theory
Discussant: Zeno Leoni
China´s Restless Young Women: Negotiating Gender, Class, and National Identities
Date and time: 6 April 2022. 17:00 (Beijing), 11:00 (Oslo), 05:00 (EST). Sign-up.
Fran Martin: Dreams of Flight: The Lives of Chinese Women Students in the West
Kailing Xie: Embodying Middle Class Gender Aspirations: Perspectives from China's Privileged Young Women
Discussant: Mimi Lau
The Lives and Roles of Cadres in the Chinese Communist Party
Date and time: 4 May 2022. 21:00 (Beijing), 15:00 (Oslo), 09:00 (EST). Sign-up.
Julia Marinaccio: Linking Theory with Practice?: Cadre Training and Environmental Governance in China
Yunyun Zhou: Book project on communist women cadres' political encounters in China's local party-state
Discussant: Hedda Faltø
Organiser
The seminar is organised by Siv H. Oftedal and Kristian Sløgedal, as part of the project Brokering China’s Extraversion: An Ethnographic Analysis of Transnational Arbitration (Brokex). The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 802070) and the Research Council of Norway (project ID 275002).
