Time and History across China's Northeastern Borders

Dr. Ed Pulford, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Thursday, November 7, 2024
1:30 PM (Pacific Time)

Young Research Library, West Classroom (2nd floor)

In many global locations, crossing state borders involves a sense of temporal shift. Modern citizen-subjects often perceive a world divided into areas of greater or lesser 'development' or 'backwardness', containers for different versions of the big-H official Histories which nations have written since the era of European Enlightenment and empire. Yet, inhabitants of (post)socialist states have inherited particularly intense projects to construct both linear borders around the state and linear senses of time progressing towards a more advanced future. As this talk explores drawing on a new book, at the three-way convergence of China, North Korea and Russia, populations with similarly stark but also very different experiences of socialism and its varied aftermaths interact regularly, and in doing so shed unique light on the progressive schemes which have unfolded here. Everyday cross-border encounters bring Maoist, Soviet and Kimist socialisms, the Soviet collapse and 'rise' of China into direct contact. As ethnographic fieldwork in this region shows, borderlanders here continue to navigate divergent visions of progress and struggle to see their neighbors as 'coevals' in an era of postsocialis trade and utilitarian friendship.  

Dr. Ed Pulford is an Anthropologist and Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. His research focusses on experiences of socialism and empire in borderland and minority regions in Eurasia, including along the China-Russia border, the focus of his first two books. His most recent project examines the experiences of cross-border 'Chinese' minorities in Southeast, Central, and Northeast Asia.  

This is part of the "Koreans in the World" project hosted by UCLA's Center for Korean Studies. This event is supported by the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS Award Number: AKS-2023-SRI-2200001) as part of its Strategic Research Institute Program for Korean Studies. 

Sponsor(s): Center for Korean Studies