Lisa Richaud, PhD in Anthropology at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium and resident researcher for 2025-2026 at the IEA in Paris, will speak as part of the Centre for Modern and Contemporary Chinese Studies (CECMC) debate series, a forum for discussion dedicated to recent works published by the Centre's researchers.

Her presentation will focus on her book Casual Assemblies: Afterlives of Maoist Performance Culture in Beijing’s Public Parks (Routledge, formerly Amsterdam University Press collection, China: From Revolution to Reform, to be published in spring 2026).

Presentation 

Over the past thirty years, generations who lived through the Maoist period (1949–1976) have transformed Chinese public parks into gathering places, where choirs and fans of revolutionary model opera seem to re-enact the theatricality of the decades preceding the transition to reform. This book explores these transpositions of Maoist culture into China's urban public space, drawing on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Beijing between 2011 and 2014. The analysis focuses on the apparent paradox between the reiteration of political messages in the heart of the capital and the reframing of these singing practices as simple ‘entertainment’ (ziyu zile) or ‘for fun’ (wan'r). Departing from previous interpretations in terms of political expression or nostalgia, the book takes these claims of light-heartedness seriously. What happens when the modes of involvement of participants cease to be relevant in activities once conceived as the very means of shaping the engagement of socialist subjects? This is the question at the outset of the book, which explores the productive dimension of detachment from the literal meanings of the songs and the period to which they refer.

Program

Coffee will be served at 10 a.m. to those present at the venue. The debate itself will begin at 10:30 a.m.

Discussants: Chayma Boda (young doctor supported by CECMC), Sarah Carton de Grammont (CNRS, Lesc).
Moderation : Isabelle Thireau (CNRS/EHESS, CCJ-CECMC).

Pratical details 

Event in French, Hybrid (in-person and remote).
Open to the public without registration.

Link Zoom to folllow  : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83390567590?pwd=v5q3t1bS2LASDrhOlF2KjnSKqnBacM.1
ID: 833 9056 7590
Code: 153993

More information