ABOUT THE EVENT:

With gripping detail and deep insight, authors Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian will discuss their new book "The Great Transformation: China's Road from Revolution to Reform". Focused on the tumultuous events of the long 1970's and their impact, the authors will show how understanding this period in Chinese history is key to understanding what China has become today. In conversation with Melinda Liu, they'll reveal how they unearthed the revealing, granular details which make the book memorable – and why the book they published is not exactly the book they envisaged at the beginning of the project – a story behind the story. (Westad will be livestreamed; other participants and the audience will be in-person at the Yale Center Beijing; this event is co-organized by RASBJ and YCB.)

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS



Odd Arne Westad is a Norwegian scholar of modern international and global history, with a specialization in the history of Eastern Asia since the 18th century. Arne Westad won the Bancroft Prize for "The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times". "Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750", was released in the US and UK in 2012 and made two Top 100 lists for that year. He is the Elihu Professor of History at Yale. Arne Westad joined the faculty at Yale after teaching at the London School of Economics, where he was School Professor of International History, and at Harvard University, where he was the S.T. Lee Professor of US-Asia Relations. He is a fellow of the British Academy and of several other national academies.

Chen Jian is Distinguished Global Network Professor of History at NYU and NYU Shanghai and Hu Shih Professor of History Emeritus at Cornell University. His books include "China’s Road to the Korean War", "Mao’s China and the Cold War", and "Zhou Enlai: A Life". Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, he was the Michael J. Zak Professor of History for US-China Relations at Cornell University, Global Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics, and visiting research professor at the University of Hong Kong (2009-2013). Chen Jian holds a PhD from Southern Illinois University and an MA from Fudan University and East China Normal University in Shanghai.