About the Talk

Professor David Zweig was a young foreign student at Peking University in the mid-1970s. At this talk, he will share and discuss photos he took from November 1975 until April 1976, providing both historical context and personal observations. In particular, he will highlight four key points of the political drama:

• The initial establishment of the Big Character Poster compound at Peking University which attacked Deng Xiaoping’s summer 1975 reform program
• Emotional outpouring and mourning for Zhou Enlai following his death in January 1976
• Intensified assault on Deng via the Big Character Posters at Beida in February 1976
• The mass demonstration of support for ending Maoist policies in Tiananmen in April 3-4, 1976

The photo essay is available online in China Perspectives, 2016 (1), p.5-28.

About the Author

David Zweig is Chair Professor of Social Science, and Director of the Center on China’s Transnational Relations (CCTR) here at HKUST, where he has worked for the past 20 years, and is a past recipient of the SHSS Outstanding Teaching Award and the RGC’s Prestigious Fellowship (2013-14).

His research interests include China’s ‘resource diplomacy’, China’s human resources, Chinese politics and political economy, and Mainland-Hong Kong relations. In addition to many articles and several co-edited books and special journal issues. He has also published 4 books with topics ranging from the Cultural Revolution in the Chinese countryside, rural reform, China’s brain-drain and reverse migration, China’s internationalization, and its relations with oil rich states in the context of the continued global dominance of the US.

For enquiries, please contact Victoria Caplan at 2358-6756.