Club Online Zoom Event – ‘The Shortest History of China’: A Conversation With Linda Jaivin

ONLINE ZOOM EVENT

‘The Shortest History of China’: A Conversation With Linda Jaivin

SPEAKER LINDA JAIVIN Author Tuesday, August 31, 2021 8:00pm HKT on Zoom

Chinese history is sprawling and gloriously messy. It is full of heroes who are also villains, prosperous ages and violent rebellions, cultural vibrancy and censorious impulses, rebels, loyalists, dissidents and wits. The story of women in China, from the earliest warriors to twentieth-century suffragettes, is rarely told. And historical spectres of corruption and disunity, which have brought down many a mighty ruling house, continue to haunt the People’s Republic today. In her new book, The Shortest History of China, renowned author and translator Linda Jaivin distils her more than forty years of experience studying Chinese politics, language and culture into an approachable and entertaining account that helps us frame China’s history, its place in the contemporary world and where it is likely to lead us in the future. Along the way, Jaivin shares anecdotes of some of Chinese history’s most colourful characters, the highlights of Chinese culture across millennia, and brings a particular focus on the role of women in Chinese history. Moderated by Correspondent Member Rebecca Bailey.

Linda Jaivin was senior correspondent for Hong Kong’s Asiaweek magazine in the first half of the 1980s and its first Beijing bureau chief. She studied, lived and worked in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China between 1977 and 1986, after which she moved to Australia as a freelance writer and literary translator from Chinese with a specialty in film subtitling. She is the author of twelve books, including seven novels, two of which are set in China. Her latest book is The Shortest History of China.