Lecture Abstract:

Even as the fireworks faded at the close of the Beijing Olympics, it was hardly the end of China’s “coming-out party”. In fact, when the party ended, it marked the surge of a steroid superpower, a stark contrast to the massive economic meltdown in the West in 2008. The spectacular rise of China saw a more assertive Beijing flexing its muscles across Asia-Pacific, eager to showcase its strength in territorial disputes, arms race and even climate change. But this was accompanied by an upswing in tension at home, a fragility of social unrest, political intrigue and insecurity.

Peh Shing Huei has vividly captured these developments in his book, and will talk about them during this lecture. Through insightful interviews with scholars, dissidents, civil servants, politicians, and ordinary Chinese, a new narrative of China is told over eight chapters. The book will also be sold, at a special discount, during the talk.

About the Speaker:

Peh Shing Huei is a journalist for The Straits Times and the newspaper’s news editor. He was based in Beijing from 2008 to 2012, when he served as the China bureau chief of the Singapore daily. His book, When the Party Ends: China’s leaps and stumbles after the Beijing Olympics, was an instant best-seller when it was launched last November. It received favourable reviews from China watchers, and made it to the must-read list of Los Angeles Review of Books and Japan Times. The 320-page book offers an on-the-ground look at China’s ascent and challenges after the 2008 Games. He is also the co-author of Struck By Lightning, a collection of essays on Singapore politics. The graduate of Columbia University in New York and the National University of Singapore lives in Singapore. He has won the Journalist of the Year and Young Journalist of the Year awards in Singapore Press Holdings. He is also the co-founder of Macular Degeneration Society in Singapore, a non-profit organisation which aims to build awareness and offer support to patients of the low-vision disease.

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Organised by IDSS China Programme and RSIS Events Unit.