Religion and Revolution in China

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies hosts a talk with Elizabeth Perry on religion in Communist China.

The Chinese Communist revolution, endorsing Marx's view of religion as the "opiate of the people," openly rejected all religious traditions. Yet quasi-religious beliefs and practices actually played an important role in mobilizing and sustaining the Chinese revolution and the Communist Regime to which it gave rise. Even today, the effects of this creative blending of religious and revolutionary authority may contribute to the surprising resilience of the Communist party-state.

Elizabeth J. Perry is Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute at Harvard University. She is a comparativist with special expertise in the politics of China. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, Professor Perry sits on the editorial boards of over a dozen major scholarly journals, holds honorary professorships at eight Chinese universities, and has served as the President of the Association for Asian Studies. Her current research focuses on cultural governance and the politics of higher education in modern and contemporary China.

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