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ROUGH WORK “Translating Black Left Feminism: Shirley Graham Du Bois and Mao’s China”

November 17, 2021

12:00 pm

Zifeng Liu, Ph.D. candidate and Diverse Knowledge East Asia Fellow presents an excerpt from his dissertation: “Translating Black Left Feminism: Shirley Graham Du Bois and Mao’s China”

This presentation examines Shirley Graham Du Bois’s engagement with China in the long 1960s. It explores how she cautiously navigated the rapids of the unfolding Sino-Soviet split and sought to manipulate antagonistic geopolitical forces to aid global decolonial efforts. This presentation also argues that, through multilateral transnational practices of quotation, translation, exchange, and distribution, her own publications and China’s state-controlled mouthpieces fostered for her Black left feminist discourse a broad reading public that transgressed nation-states’ boundaries and created followers, who (re)interpreted and (re)activated her messages of Afro-Chinese solidarity.

Rough Work is research in progress and the main purpose of the session is to provide feedback and insight for the presenter. This session is hosted by EAP's Graduate Student Steering Committee. We encourage grad students who are engaged in East Asia-related research or who are from or connected to East Asia to get involved. GSSC provides a welcoming community for academic, creative, professional, and personal development.

Additional Information

Program

Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies

East Asia Program