Eddy U (UC Davis), Damian Mandzunowski (University of Freiburg), Jennifer Altehenger (Oxford University, as discussant)

In the Mao-era, multifaceted strategies of reading were existing next to one another. The eighth session of the ReadChina online lecture series will explore two such poles on the spectrum of reading acts. On the one side are hidden readings of suppressed or even forbidden texts during the radical phase of the Cultural Revolution. On the other side are officially organized group reading sessions in the mid-1970s. The first speaker, Prof. Eddy U investigates stealthy reading of books, letters, poems, and other material practiced by victims of abuse during the Cultural Revolution for purposes of self-preservation. The second speaker, Damian Mandzunowski, analyses depictions of collective reading activities in posters and photographs created during a mass-reading campaign in 1975 to explore their integrative aspects. Both forms of reading are crucial to take into account when researching the history of reading in the Mao era.