Learning About a Chinese Village in a Leninist Authoritarian State

Learning About a Chinese Village in a Leninist Authoritarian State

Edward Friedman - Hawkins Chair Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Thursday, October 21, 2004 - 11:30am to 1:00pm
Room 203, Henry R. Luce Hall See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 6511

In authoritarian regimes, people learn to play it safe. Truth is a scarce commodity. Interviewees are people who have learned to be complicitous to survive. Memory is shaped and mis-shaped by all of these forces and more. Therefore learning the truth about the impact of politics and policy in a place like Mao’s China or even post-Mao China requires innovative approaches. This talk is about how such work was done over 3 dozen or so visits to rural China over a quarter of a century.

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China