Party Spirit: Producing a Communist Civil Religion in Contemporary China
The Chinese Communist Party is confronted with a growing gap that separates the rhetoric about socialism and party rule from the individualism and materialism caused by capitalism and opening up to the outside world. In response, the Party has developed strategies that draw on an understanding of the dedication to the Party that is specifically religious, yet does not require belief, conviction, or faith in a doctrine. These strategies revolve around the Leninist concept of ‘Party spirit’, which, paradoxically, has been turned into a commodity that can be produced, supplied, and consumed.
Date: 23 November 2018, 17:00 (Friday, 7th week, Michaelmas 2018)
Venue: Dickson Poon Building, Canterbury Road OX2 6LU
Venue Details: The Kin-ku Cheng Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Professor Frank Pieke (Mercator Institute for China Studies)
Organising department: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Organiser: Professor Rana Mitter
Organiser contact email address: clare.orchard@orinst.ox.ac.uk
Host: Professor Rana Mitter
Booking required?: Not required
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Clare Orchard