Join us to celebrate the retirement of UC San Diego’s Distinguished Professor of History and Chinese Studies Paul Pickowicz. He will recount lessons from decades of on-the-ground research on Chinese society, including gripping filmed interviews he conducted in rural China in the 1980s. Pickowicz is one of the country’s leading historians of modern China with 15 books to his credit. A true interdisciplinary scholar, his work has investigated the impact of the Cultural Revolution on Chinese peasants, the history of Chinese cinema, Cold War propaganda strategies, rural protest and Chinese soft-power initiatives. His book “Chinese Village, Socialist State” (co-authored with Edward Friedman and Mark Selden) was called “by far the best book on the impact of the Chinese Communist Party on peasant life” by The New York Review of Books. Schedule:

• 3 p.m. Program and Lecture by Paul Pickowicz
• 4 p.m. Q&A
• 4:30 p.m. Reception