February 2008

Andrew G. Walder

Denise O'Leary and Kent Thiry Professor
Department of Sociology
Stanford University

"The Beijing Red Guard Movement: China's Cultural Revolution in Retrospect"

Friday, February 22, 2008
3:00 pm - C103 Hesburgh Center

Abstract

Andrew Walder will talk about some of the major conclusions of his forthcoming book, Fractured Crusade: The Beijing Red Guard Movement. Based on a close documentary examination of university-level events in the Chinese capital from 1966 to 1968, Walder identifies a number of myths and misperceptions about the Red Guards and their motivations. He also draws a series of lessons for prevailing theories about social movements, which proved to be of limited relevance in unravelling the puzzles of this case.

Biography

Andrew Walder is the director emeritus of Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, a Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) senior fellow, and the Denise O'Leary and Kent Thiry Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He is an expert on the sources of conflict, stability and change in communist regimes, and his current research focuses on the impact of China's market reforms on income inequality and career opportunity. He is also conducting historical research on the Cultural Revolution of 1966–1969, with an emphasis on the Beijing Red Guard movement during 1966 and 1967.

Before coming to Stanford in fall 1997, Walder was a professor of sociology at Harvard University. He was also a professor and head of the Division of Social Sciences at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 1995–97. His recent publications include "Career Advancement as Party Patronage: Sponsored Mobility into the Chinese Administrative Elite," in the American Journal of Sociology (with Bobai Li, 2001); "Politics and Life Chances in a State Socialist Regime: Dual Career Paths into the Urban Chinese Elite, 1949 to 1996," in the American Sociological Review (with Bobai Li, 2000); Property Rights and Economic Reform in China (with Jean Oi, Stanford University Press, 1999); and Zouping in Transition: The Process of Reform in Rural North China (Harvard University Press, 1998). He received his PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan.