Dr. Cathryn H. Clayton (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)

Macau's 123 Incident in 1966 – 67 is best known as a side-show to the Cultural Revolution, a piece of local history whose main significance is as a precursor to the far more violent Hong Kong "disturbances" six months later. In this paper, I argue that a bigger story is needed. Based on decades of oral history and archival research in collaboration with Dr. Agnes Lam of the University of Macau, this project argues that the 123 Incident cannot be understood without reference to Macau’s position at the intersection of multiple contradictory but overlapping global projects in the post-war world. Adopting a multi-scalar framework, I examine how particular combinations of institutions and individuals, interests and ideologies, understandings and misunderstandings — local, regional, national and transnational — came together in the 123 Incident to produce an effect that was at once intensely local and profoundly global. Such an approach can provide new perspectives not just on the 123 Incident, but also on the Cultural Revolution as a global event.