Jeffrey Wasserstrom at Penn

From Beijing to Bangkok and Back Again: Songs and Slogans from the Time of Tiananmen to the Era of the Milk Tea Alliance and White Paper Protests

This talk will move between East and Southeast Asia and between the 1980s and the 2020s with a focus on recurring patterns and novel developments in youth movements that in most cases challenge different forms of autocratic rule but in some instances strive to defend hard won past democratic victories.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom will pay particular attention to events in Beijing, Bangkok, and Hong Kong, but also bring in events in Taipei, Yangon, and Seoul. Wasserstrom will introduce material from his latest book, The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia’s Struggle Against Autocracy and Beijing, but also draw on past work he has done in his early career writings on Tiananmen and his 2020 book Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink.

University of Pennsylvania
Center for the Study of Contemporary China
CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418
133 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6215

The political situations in Burma, Thailand, and Hong Kong are radically different. Yet, many young activists and exiles from these regions feel that their struggles are connected. How do these activists, each facing their unique situations, find common ground and sustain one another? For The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia’s Struggle Against Autocracy and Beijing, historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom traveled globally to interview members of this loosely constituted alliance, finding them united by the rising influence of a common adversary—the Chinese Communist Party.

“A story of resilient defiance against not just local oppression but the expanding shadow of Xi Jinping’s China—a defining battle of the twenty-first century.” —Evan Osnos

Learn more about The Milk Tea Alliance