Necropolitics in Modern China, a lecture and discussion with Dr. Linh Vu (Arizona State U.)
Necropolitics in Modern China
a lecture and discussion with Dr. Linh Vu
Free and Open to the Public
Linh Vu is an assistant professor of history in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA. Her first book, Governing the Dead: Martyrs, Memorials, and Necrocitizenship in Modern China (Cornell University Press, 2021), examines the efforts of the Chinese nation-state to record, commemorate, and compensate military and civilian dead and how such efforts transformed China’s social and cultural institutions.
The ending of the Second Sino-Japanese War marked a crucial step in China’s nation building. The whole population, based on their eligibility for martyrdom, was incorporated into the nation-state. When the state granted to each of its members the right to die as a martyr, the necropower of the state was not limited to subjecting the population to death. It included urging civilians to sacrifice their lives in exchange for posthumous honors.
Presented by the CSUSB History Department, the History Club/Phi Alpha Theta, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Jack Brown College of Business and Public Administration, and the Intellectual Life Fund. Please contact Jeremy Murray (jmurray@csusb.edu) with any questions. Series organizers are Jeremy Murray and Alexander Serrano. Find out more about the series at this link.