The Contested Memory of the Chinese Cultural Revolution 2015.10.19

Non-CAS Event

Monday, October 19, 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Sturm Hall 453, University of Denver

Departments of History & Languages & Literatures at the University of Denver, with the support of Marsico Visiting Lecture Funding, welcome Dr. Rae Yang, Dickinson College, for a public presentation.

"The Contested Memory of the Chinese Cultural Revolution," followed by a screening of the documentary film, Morning Sun.

Spanning the years from 1950 to 1980, Dr. Rae Yang records in her autobiography Spider Eaters her life from her early years as the daughter of Chinese diplomats in Switzerland, to her girlhood at an elite middle school in Beijing, to her adolescent experience as a Red Guard and later as a laborer on a pig farm in the remote northern wilderness. She tells of her eventual disillusionment with the Maoist revolution, how remorse and despair nearly drove her to suicide, and how she struggled to make sense of conflicting events that often blurred the line between victim and victimizer, aristocrat and peasant, communist and counter-revolutionary. The author artfully conveys the vast complexity of life in China as well as the richness, confusion, and magic of her own inner life.

The film Morning Sun attempts in the space of a two-hour documentary film to create an inner history of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (c. 1964-1976). It provides a multi-perspective view of a tumultuous period as seen through the eyes--and reflected in the hearts and minds--of members of the high-school generation that was born around the time of the founding the the People's Republic of China in 1949, and that came of age in the 1960s. Others join them in creating the film's conversation about the period and the psycho-emotional topography of high-Maoist China, as well as the enduring legacy of that period.

We welcome students, faculty, and guests to attend. For further information, please contact Hilary Smith, Hilary.Smith@du.edu, or Li Li Peters, Li.Peters@du.edu.