The Realignment

319 | Frank Dikötter: Shattering the Myths of China After Mao

Episode Summary

Frank Dikötter, author of China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower, How to Be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century, and The People's Trilogy, joins The Realignment to discuss how unprecedented access to Chinese archives during the brief 2000s-2010s period of openness offers a corrective to the conventional wisdom in the West about China's post-1976 ambitions. Frank and Marshall also cover what questions future researchers should study should the archives ever open again, particularly relating to Zero-COVID.

Episode Notes

This episode is a part of The Realignment's daily end-of-year coverage of the themes and topics that defined 2022. 

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 Frank Dikötter, author of China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower and The People's Trilogy, joins The Realignment to discuss how unprecedented access to Chinese archives during the brief 2000s-2010s period of openness offers a corrective to the conventional wisdom in the West about China's post-1976 ambitions. Frank and Marshall also cover what questions future researchers should study should the archives ever open again, particularly relating to Zero-COVID.