Civilizing China: A Talk by Martin Schoenhals

Please join Dr. Martin Schoenhals for a talk on cultural beliefs about the urban and modern in China. He will discuss his observations of the Chinese government’s treatment of peasants since the 1949 Chinese Revolution and how the government focused on ‘civilizing’ China by encouraging peasants to leave their farms and migrate to cities. His talk concludes by considering the negative consequences of China’s cultural love affair with the city and all that is “modern.”

Tuesday, October 10
FedEx Global Education Center || 5:00– 6:30 p.m.
Room 3009

Parking will be available under the building after 5 p.m.

Please contact Shuyi Lin, CAC Program Associate, at 919-843-9203 or shuyilin@unc.edu with any questions.

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Martin Schoenhals is a cultural anthropologist specializing in China. He first conducted research in China in 1988-89 at an elite urban high school. He later returned to study the Sichuan Province countryside and the consequences of Sichuan’s huge out-migration of peasants to coastal urban work sites.

Schoenhals has been a professor at numerous universities, including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University and Swarthmore College. He is currently Carolina Asia Center Research Affiliate.

The Carolina Asia Center is the University of North Carolina’s flagship organization for Asia-related activities. In 2014, we became the first Title VI-funded pan-Asia National Resource Center in the southeast United States. Our mission is to positively transform our understanding of and relationship with Asia and to equip students and others with the knowledge of Asia to assume leadership roles.