Macau

Date:

  • 24 February 2010

Location:

  • Macau Ricci Institue

Time:

  • 18:00 to 21:30

Cost:

  • Free

Languages:

  • English

Speaker

Hao Zhidong (郝志東)

Hao Zhidong (郝志東) is associate professor of the Department of Sociology, the University of Macau. He has a Ph.D. degree in sociology from the City University of New York and has taught at both Chinese and American universities. His research interests are in the sociology of intellectuals, nationalism across the Taiwan Strait, rural development in China, corporate social responsibility, and Macao history, culture, and society. Among his books are Civil Society: Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (edited, forthcoming in Chinese, 2010); Macau History and Society: A Sociological Survey and Analysis (forthcoming in English, 2010); Whither Taiwan and Mainland China: National Identity, the State, and Intellectuals (in English, 2010); Xijiao Village: The Historical Transformation of a Rural Community in Northern China (co-authored in Chinese, 2009); Toward Democratization and Harmony: Difficulties in Social Progress in Macao, Taiwan, and Mainland China (in Chinese, 2008); National Identity and the Future of Cross Strait Relations (edited in Chinese, 2008); A Comparative Study of Village and Township Governance across the Taiwan Strait (co-edited in Chinese, 2008); and Intellectuals at a Crossroads: The Changing Politics of China’s Knowledge Workers (in English, 2003). His academic articles have appeared in journals such as Pacific Affairs (Canada), Issues and Studies (Taiwan), Journal of Contemporary China (the U.S.), China Perspectives (Hong Kong), etc.

Introduction

The history of hundreds of thousands of villages in northern China varies, but it is all affected by the development of greater China. This presentation attempts to understand what the peasants in northern China went through in the past one hundred years by looking at the stories of one such village in Pingding, Shanxi. It reports on what Hao Zhidong and Hao Zhigang, authors of the book Xiaojiao Village: The Historical Transformation of a Rural Community in Northern China (published in 2009) found regarding economic, social, and political transformations since especially the late Qing and early Republican era, including the war of resistance against the Japanese and the establishment of the Communist Party in the village; the Liberation War and the Land Reform; and various movements after 1949. We hope this study will help people learn more from the past, better understand the present, and plan for the future accordingly in China’s countryside.