Julia STRAUSS (University of London)

1951 was a time of both high optimism and great promise for China's socialist modern. The country was finally at peace, the leadership was united, and "the people" were being inculcated into the vocabularies, norms and practices of the revolution. Linking 1951 backward to the civil war years and forward to the later Mao campaigns, this lecture will focus on the ways in which New China was performed through campaigns of regime consolidation that simultaneously established the parameters of correct speech, extended the reach of the state, and invited popular participation.