Date: 28 August 2024 (Wednesday)
Time: 4-5:30pm
Venue: AE-040 HKIAS Lecture Theatre, LG/F, Academic Exchange Building, City University of Hong Kong
Speaker: Prof. Hans van de Ven (University of Cambridge)
Language: English

Registration
Limited seats available on a first-come first served basis. Please complete the online registration form on or before 20 August 2024. Successful registrants will receive a confirmation email not later than 23 August 2024.

Registration closed

All are welcome!

Abstract
The talk will trace the radical uncertainty that came over Asia following the defeat of Japan. The USA, trying to bring the boys home, withdrew; the USSR was happy which what it had; and Europe’s empires failed to resurrect themselves. In that age of radical uncertainty, Asia could have re-organized itself in different ways, but in the end, it was the form of the nation-state that prevailed. The speaker will trace the processes by which forces that had strengthened before 1949 — the CCP in China; Indonesian nationalism as led by Sukarno, and the Congress Party in India — were able to amass the authority and hard power to emerge victorious.

Biography
Prof. van de Ven is an authority on the history of 19th and 20th century China. He holds several positions at the University of Cambridge, where he is Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor of Modern Chinese History, Fellow and Director in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at St Catharine's College and previously served as Chair of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. He studied sinology at Leiden University. Then, after studying with Susan Naquin at the University of Pennsylvania for a period of time, he moved to Harvard University, where he studied modern Chinese history under Philip Kuhn and received his PhD. He specializes in the studies of Chinese Communist Party before 1949, the history of warfare in modern China from the Taiping Rebellion to the Civil War between the Communists and the Nationalists, and the history of Chinese globalization in the 1850-1950 period with a focus on Chinese Maritime Customs. He has published a number of monographs and numerous articles on these topics, of which some are published in Chinese in Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Inquiry：
Department of Chinese and History
Tel.：3442 2054
Email：cah@cityu.edu.hk