Hong Kong, China’s ‘restive frontier,’ focus of next Modern China Lecture on Oct. 10

Lee’s presentation takes its title and topic from her new book, “Hong Kong: Global China's Restive Frontier” (Cambridge), published in July.

In the book, Lee examines how Hong Kong, a former British colony that reverted to China’s control in July 1997, transformed “itself from a 'shoppers' and capitalists' paradise' into a 'city of protests' at the frontline of a global anti-China backlash,” according to the book’s summary. “In Hong Kong, reactions against the totality of Chinese power have taken the form of eventful protests, which, over two decades, have broadened into a momentous decolonization struggle. More than an ideological conflict between a liberal capitalist democratizing city and its Communist authoritarian sovereign, the Hong Kong story, stunning and singular in its many peculiarities, offers lessons about China as a global force.”

The Modern China Lecture Series was initiated to promote awareness of important issues related to China for those on the Cal State San Bernardino campus and in the community.

In the series of more than 60 lectures, workshops, film screenings and roundtable forums since January 2014, China scholars from UC San Diego, UC Riverside, the Claremont Colleges, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, Columbia, Oxford and other institutions have visited the CSUSB campus to share their expertise and opinions.

Speakers in the series have included specialists in history, economics, political science, philosophy, finance, security studies, literature, anthropology and other fields.

Upcoming Modern China Lectures include:

• Oct. 26, 1 p.m., “Policing China: Street Level Cops in the Shadow of Protest,” by Suzanne Scoggins, associated professor of political science, Clark College, and presented with CSUSB’s Conversations on Race and Policing; and
• Nov. 2, 4 p.m., “Frontier Fieldwork: Building a Nation in China’s Borderlands, 1919-45,” by Andres Rodriguez, professor of history, The University of Sydney.

The series cosponsors this year are the CSUSB Department of History, the H.istory Club/Phi Alpha Theta, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration, and the Intellectual Life Fund. Series organizers are Murray and Alexander Serrano,

For more information on the Modern China Lecture Series, contact Jeremy Murray, associate professor of history, at jmurray@csusb.edu.