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Book Event: Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China

No one in the twentieth century had a greater impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. And no scholar is better qualified than Ezra Vogel to disentangle the contradictions embodied in the life and legacy of China’s boldest strategist.

Date & Time

Wednesday
Oct. 5, 2011
9:30am – 11:00am ET

Location

6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

Perhaps no one in the twentieth century had a greater long-term impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. And no scholar of contemporary East Asian history and culture is better qualified than Ezra Vogel to disentangle the many contradictions embodied in the life and legacy of China’s boldest strategist.

Once described by Mao Zedong as a “needle inside a ball of cotton,” Deng was the pragmatic yet disciplined driving force behind China’s radical transformation in the late twentieth century. He confronted the damage wrought by the Cultural Revolution, dissolved Mao’s cult of personality, and loosened the economic and social policies that had stunted China’s growth. Obsessed with modernization and technology, Deng opened trade relations with the West, which lifted hundreds of millions of his countrymen out of poverty. Yet at the same time he answered to his authoritarian roots, most notably when he ordered the crackdown in June 1989 at Tiananmen Square.

Deng’s youthful commitment to the Communist Party was cemented in Paris in the early 1920s, among a group of Chinese student-workers that also included Zhou Enlai. Deng returned home in 1927 to join the Chinese Revolution on the ground floor. In the fifty years of his tumultuous rise to power, he endured accusations, purges, and even exile before becoming China’s preeminent leader from 1978 to 1989 and again in 1992. When he reached the top, Deng saw an opportunity to creatively destroy much of the economic system he had helped build for five decades as a loyal follower of Mao—and he did not hesitate.

NOTE: We are no longer accepting RSVPs for this event. Seating will be on a first come-first serve basis, so please arrive early to ensure seating. There will be an overflow room set up if the Auditorium reaches capacity.

Copies of Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China will be sold on-site by Reiter's Books-for the Inquisitive

This event will be broadcast nationally as a Wilson Forum on MHz Worldview Sundays at 3PM ET and repeats on Tuesdays at 10AM ET and Thursdays at 5AM. It can be seen in the DC market on MHz1 on Sundays at 5PM ET and Thursdays at 5AM ET. 

Recorded live from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., the Wilson Forum explores big ideas through thought-provoking presentations featuring leading thinkers from the arenas of academia and public policy.  The Forum features a wide spectrum of influential opinion leaders addressing a range of highly relevant global issues and challenges.  The program represents the Woodrow Wilson Center’s mission to build bridges between the worlds of learning and public affairs for the purpose of creating a more informed discussion from which better policy can emerge.

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Hosted By

Kissinger Institute on China and the United States

The Kissinger Institute works to ensure that China policy serves American long-term interests and is founded in understanding of historical and cultural factors in bilateral relations and in accurate assessment of the aspirations of China’s government and people.  Read more

Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

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