What did common readers read in the midst of the revolutions that punctuated China’s long Republic (1894-1954)? How did they manage the challenges of the era—from new technologies to novel diseases, from institutional failure to commercial globalization? What did they know and how did they know it?
These are the questions that animate The Politics of Common Reading: Vernacular Knowledge and Everyday Technics in China. In this book talk, Joan Judge introduces a gallery of common readers. She examines the practical problems they confronted, the informal knowledge infrastructure that served them, and a consequential politics of accommodation that engaged them as knowers rather than as an unenlightened mass.
Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Time: 5:00 PM – 6:20 PM (PST)
Venue: Coach House, Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Rd, Vancouver
Open to the public. No registration required (but please note that seating is limited).
This event is co-organized with the Centre for Chinese Research and Green College.
