Theatres of Land Reform, Prof. Julia Strauss, SOAS, University of London
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 2014-10-28

This Inaugural Lecture titled "Theatres of Land Reform: Performance and State Building in Su'nan and Taiwan, 1950-53" was given by Professor Julia C Strauss at SOAS, University of London on 16th October 2014.

Find out more about studying Chinese Politics at SOAS at http://www.soas.ac.uk/politics

More about this event...
Most of the received wisdom on land reform in China and Taiwan postulates that it was economically necessary, socially desirable, and demanded from below. Rather than evaluating land reform in these terms, this lecture conceives of land reform initiatives as campaigns that were both performative in seeking to inculcate rural populations into a new set of state norms and directly instrumental in clearing the ground of extant social elites that could block regime penetration of the countryside.

Julia C. Strauss is Professor of Chinese and Comparative Politics at SOAS, University of London. Her key focusses on the evolution and transformation of the 20th century Chinese state, and she served as Editor of The China Quarterly from 2002-2011. 

Find out more about Professor Julia C Strauss at http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff36176.php