EASC Colloquium

PRESENTER: Denise Ho (University of Kentucky)

TOPIC: Commemorating Party Founding: The First Party Congress Site in the Mao Years
DATE: Friday, October, 7, 2011

TIME: 12:00-1:15 p.m.
LOCATION: Ballantine 004

(Light refreshments will be served. You are also welcome to bring your own lunch.)

Abstract: In light of China's recent celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party, this talk examines the history of its commemoration in the Maoist era.  How did local party officials conceive of the First Party Congress Site, how was it portrayed, and how did propaganda officials write (and rewrite) the narrative within the memorial museum?  This talk uses archival documents from the Shanghai Municipal Archive, going behind the scenes at the museum to reconstruct the way history was told in the first thirty years of the PRC.  It demonstrates how the "red line" determined the presentation of history, how officials were constrained by politics, and how ambiguities were purposely constructed.  Reflecting on this year's 90th anniversary, it suggests that the experience of the Mao-era First Party Congress Site has left many legacies in today's historical understanding.

Bio: Denise Ho is assistant professor of history at the University of Kentucky.  She is interested in the history of museums and exhibitions in twentieth-century China.  Her article, "Revolutionizing Antiquity: The Shanghai Cultural Bureaucracy in the Cultural Revolution," is published in the September 2011 volume of The China Quarterly.

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