2016 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the Cultural Revolution in China, where controversy over its meaning and its legacies continues to wage. Although the Communist Party’s unequivocal condemnation labelling the entire movement as “a grave ‘Left’ error… responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the state and the people since the founding of the People’s Republic,” decades later, it remains a lightening rod for contention. Professor Patricia M. Thornton of the Dickson Poon China Centre provides a brief overview of “Mao’s Last Revolution” and its legacies, both in China, as well as across the world.
Professor Patricia Thornton is a political scientist whose research interests span the political, socio-economic, and cultural history of modern China. She is a Fellow of Merton College where she is Tutor in the Politics of China, Associate Professor of Chinese Politics.
This event is part of the series A Festival of Anniversaries.