New England China Seminars

Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The Memoirs of Zhao Ziyang
Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Zhao Ziyang was published in 2009, twenty years after China’s Communist Party general secretary and former premier was stripped of power and put under house arrest for his sympathies toward student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. He died in 2005. The memoirs he secretly recorded at home were translated, edited, and made public by Bao Pu, Renee Chiang, and Adi Ignatius. The book’s co-editors join Roderick MacFarquhar and Joseph Fewsmith in discussing the impact of Zhao Ziyang’s memoirs.

5:15 pm
Prisoner of the State--The Great Publishing Coup of 2009
Bao Pu, Renee Chiang, and Adi Ignatius, co-editors
Discussant: Roderick MacFarquhar, Harvard University

6:30 pm
Dinner break, see option below

7:30 pm
What Zhao Ziyang Tells Us about Elite Politics in China
Joseph Fewsmith, Boston University

Bao Pu, who translated and co-edited Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Zhao Ziyang, is a political commentator and veteran human rights activist. He is a publisher and editor of New Century Press in Hong Kong, which produced the Chinese-language version of the book. He has a Masters degree in international relations and public administration from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. Bao Pu is the son of Bao Tong, who served as Zhao Ziyang's most trusted aide.

Adi Ignatius, who co-edited the book and wrote its preface, is an American journalist who covered China for the Wall Street Journal during the Zhao era. He later became editor of Time magazine's Asian edition and then deputy managing editor of the magazine's U.S. edition. He is currently editor in chief of Harvard Business Review Group.

Renee Chiang, who translated and co-edited the book, is a publisher and the English editor of New Century Press in Hong Kong. As a teacher in Beijing in 1989, she was an eyewitness to the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Roderick MacFarquhar, who wrote the foreword to Prisoner of State, is the Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard University. His research focuses on modern Chinese politics, the Cultural Revolution, and the legacy of Mao Tse-tung. He has been a journalist, a TV commentator, and a Member of Parliament. His most recent, jointly-authored book on the Cultural Revolution is titled Mao's Last Revolution (2006, Belknap Press).

Joseph Fewsmith is director of the East Asian studies program and professor of international relations and political science at Boston University. He is the author of four books: China Since Tiananmen: The Politics of Transition (2001), Elite Politics in Contemporary China (2001), The Dilemmas of Reform in China: Political Conflict and Economic Debate (1994), and Party, State, and Local Elites in Republican China: Merchant Organizations and Politics in Shanghai, 1980-1930 (1985). He is also an associate in research of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

New England China Seminar Dinner.
We welcome participants who wish to attend both sessions of the New England China Seminar to join colleagues for a buffet dinner at 6:30-7:30 pm, in Room S050. The dinner cost is $15 per person ($10 for students). Due to space limitations, we will accept 30 reservations on a first come first serve basis. Advance reservation and payment is required.  Please register by November 24, 5:00 pm, to Wendy Duan at wduan@fas.harvard.edu. You will receive instructions for payment by cash or check.
Location: CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street, Belfer Case Study Room, S020