New Directions in Asia Lecture Series
Zhang Xin is the co-founder and CEO of SOHO China, one of the largest prime office developers in China. A renowned business leader repeatedly ranked amongst the “World’s Most Powerful Women”, Zhang Xin is acclaimed for bringing cutting-edge international architects to design iconic landmarks for Beijing and Shanghai. Her personal story emblematic of the “Chinese dream” has made her a social media celebrity with over 10 million followers on Weibo the Chinese version of Twitter. Born in Beijing, Zhang Xin moved to Hong Kong at age 14 where she worked as a factory girl for five years before...
Revolutions are not (always) what they seem. Lofty projects to remake a nation’s culture and identity produce larger-than-life heroes, but also all kinds of tricksters and con-men, opportunist fraudsters and ordinary people who resort to creative and unconventional means to make sense of the new. After 1949, producers and consumers of Chinese culture had to make space for themselves in the new society, and they did so in imaginative and unconventional ways. In this conversation, Christopher Rea (U. of British Columbia) and Nicolai Volland (Penn State University) offer new perspectives on the...
