H-PRC is the H-Net presence of the PRC History Group, a network of scholars with interests in the history of the People’s Republic of China. We define history broadly, to encompass a wide variety of disciplinary approaches, and we understand the history of the PRC to include eras prior to the official change of state power in 1949.
Recent Discussions
Summer Reading?
I am a Mao magpie and have recently acquired a palimpsesty object:
a 1954 PLA Condolence Handbook that was given to someone in Nanjing “分开了8年，今天相逢。叙述骨肉情” in April 1957. The book remained unused until 1964 when a diary was begun.
There are sporadic, often lengthy, entries from 1964.2.29 to 1966.11.17 covering 86 closely written pages. There is one entry dated 1970 and a final one in 1986, which may be associated with some very minor redactions on a few of the earlier pages.
New Book: G. Samarani, C. Meneguzzi Rostagni, S. Graziani (eds.), "Roads to Reconciliation People’s Republic of China, Western Europe and Italy During the Cold War Period (1949-1971)", Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, 2018
G. Samarani, C. Meneguzzi Rostagni, S. Graziani (eds.), "Roads to Reconciliation People’s Republic of China, Western Europe and Italy During the Cold War Period (1949-1971)", Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, 2018
Core textbook for undergraduate modern China course
Dear Collegues,
First issue of PRC History Review Book Review Series
The PRC History Group is pleased to announce the first issue in the PRC History Review Book Review Series. Spencer Stewart reviews Sigrid Schmalzer's Red Revolution, Green Revolution: Scientific Farming in Socialist China (University of Chicago Press, 2016), with a response from the author. http://prchistory.org/prc-history-review/
Member publication: Who’s Afraid of Confucius?
Dear H-PRC: I have a new contribution coming out on the Confucius Institutes:
Fiskesjö, Magnus. Who’s Afraid of Confucius? Fear, Encompassment, and the Global Debates over the Confucius Institutes.
In: Yellow Perils: China Narratives in the Contemporary World, ed. Franck Billé and Sören Urbansky. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2018, pp. 221-245.
The book will come out very soon, this month or next, it is already listed: http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-9993-9780824875794.aspx
Fulbright U.S. Scholar Opportunities in China
Dear Colleagues,
Archives closing post-1949 materials?
Dear all:
I have received numerous reports via various channels regarding a number of archives denying access to post-1949 materials. I have updated the PRC History Resources wiki to reflect these:
http://www.prchistoryresources.org/doku.php?id=archives
I also added updated information regarding several other archives. We all know that archival access can be tricky in China, but recent changes are particularly distressing, with no end in sight.
Confessions Made in China
Dear all,
This is my new article on how media swallows, and helps disseminate (sometimes unwittingly), the worst kind of Chinese state propaganda: the TV confessions spectacles, coerced and produced under torture:
Fiskesjö, Magnus. "Confessions Made in China." Made in China 3.1 (January-March 2018), p. 18-22; 108-109 (list of references). http://www.chinoiresie.info/made-in-china-quarterly/
Beijing wages in the 1960s and 70s
Note from the editors: As Josh says below, you can contact him privately if you have relevant info -- But other members might be interested in this question too, so feel free to respond to the entire list as well.
Hello PRC historians all