Light from the East”
Travel to China and Australian activism in the “long Sixties”
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12919979 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jon Piccini (0000-0002-0770-8963, The University of Queensland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 25-44 |
| Publication date | 2013-05-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Sixties (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1754-1336 • E-ISSN: 1754-1328 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17541328.2013.774796 |
| OpenAlex | W2058188595 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 23 |
Throughout the “long Sixties” a diverse array of Australian activists traveled beyond what was popularly known as the “bamboo curtain” into the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This paper will argue that they found not the monolithic “red menace” presented by media and government, but an often contradictory set of images mediated by their own political agendas and the changing nature of Chinese politics. More than useful idiots, these radicals took important political lessons from their Chinese counterparts, engaging in a largely unacknowledged process of transnational exchange. Through investigating three key groups of antipodean travelers – Communist Party members in the 1950s, student and worker revolutionaries in the late 1960s, and Indigenous activists in the early 1970s – it is possible to understand how not only their diverse political agendas, but also the changing realities of Chinese domestic and foreign politics, impacted on the lessons they took home. Drawing on memoirs, newspaper and magazine articles as well as archival sources, a light will be shone on this period of political and cultural exchange across seemingly impassable Cold War boundaries, illuminating Australia’s often forgotten involvement in the Sixties experience
Archaeology · China · East Asia · Economic geography · Geography · Media studies · Political science · Sociology · American Political and Social Dynamics · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · History · Race, History, and American Society
The Development of Radical Student Movements and Their Sequelae
The Cultural Revolution
Mao's New World
Dilemmas of Victory
Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World
Seizing the Time
Vacillating between Revolution and Détente
Australian fellow-travellers to China
University Unlimited
Australia's Maoists
Youth Movements
Marxism, Maoism, and Social Change
The Congress of African People
Journey into China
Black like Mao
Australia's China
Chifley, the Army and the 1949 Coal Strike
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |