Boston University Center for the Study of Asia and the BU Center for Global Christianity and Mission

Join us as Elizabeth Perry (Harvard University) explores China’s longest-lived mass movement: the Patriotic Health Campaign (PHC). Introduced by Mao Zedong in 1952 during the Korean War, the PHC continues even today, having recently played a role in Xi Jinping’s Zero-Covid effort.  The talk will question the official characterization of the PHC as a “uniquely Chinese” approach to sanitation and epidemic control, noting the influence of the American Tuberculosis Movement and YMCA health campaigns, while at the same time emphasizing the central importance of public health in the legitimation of Chinese Communist rule, from revolutionary days to the present.

About the Speaker:

Elizabeth J. Perry is Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government at Harvard and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. She is a former President of the Association for Asian Studies and former Director of Harvard's Fairbank Center. Her research focuses on the Chinese revolution and its implications for contemporary Chinese politics.