CANCELLED: Reporting China, 1978-2003: A quarter century of change on the mainland and in Hong Kong; what did we get right — or wrong?

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED

CANCELLED

John Gittings (SOAS China Institute)

**Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has been cancelled.**

Abstract

John Gittings reported from mainland China for The Guardian from the 1970s  until he retired in 2003 after setting up the paper’s first staff bureau in Shanghai. He also reported regularly from Hong Kong, charting the British negotiations with Beijing from their outset. He now reviews his own coverage of this period, also referencing the work of other commentators, and focusing on the two and a half decades after the return of Deng Xiaoping. This carries forward in time the enquiry he began with a talk at SOAS in April 2018 on “ China-Watching during the Cultural Revolution ”. Especially in the light of current events, what can we learn from our past perceptions and misperceptions? Have we perhaps forgotten some key features of the earlier period when the course that post-Mao China would take was not set in stone? For this talk, he will look in detail at the issue of Hong Kong.

Biography

John Gittings was on the staff of The Guardian from 1983 to 2003 and was Foreign Leader-writer and East Asia Editor. A graduate in Oriental Studies from Oxford University, he had worked at Chatham House, the Universidad de Chile, the Far Eastern Economic Review (Hong Kong), LSE and the Polytechnic of Central London. His books include The Changing Face of China (2005), Real China (1996), The World and China (1974), and The Role of the Chinese Army (1966). In his latest book The Glorious Art of Peace (new edition, 2018), he makes a particular study of the contribution of ancient Chinese thinkers to the philosophy of peace. He is a Research Associate at the SOAS China Institute.

Chair: Professor Steve Tsang (Director, SOAS China Institute)

Organiser: SOAS China Institute

Contact email: sci@soas.ac.uk

Contact Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4823