Distinguished Speaker Series: David Fraser
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Campus Location
Office/Remote Location
Description
Beauty and THE RAT: Commercial Warfare and Modernity in Early 20th Century Shanghai Advertising
Chinese in the early/mid-20th century sought to use goods to sell nationalism, and nationalism to sell goods. Confronted with both foreign imperialism and domestic turmoil, advertisers harnessed visions of modernity and Chinese national pride to create compelling stories of a rejuvenated, muscular China in the context of the National Goods Movement. The movement has influenced both Liang Qichao and Sun Yat-sen.
About the Speaker
David Fraser’s career has for decades focused on China through work as a journalist and scholar. He started learning Chinese following Nixon’s visit to China and has kept at it ever since. After majoring in Asian studies at Columbia University, he spent two years in Taiwan (1976-78), followed by his first trip to mainland China in 1981 as a tour guide for neurosurgeons. Following a year as a Gannett journalism fellow at the University of Hawaii, he moved to Hong Kong and then Beijing as a copy editor and correspondent for Reuters. He worked at the San Diego Union newspaper before entering the graduate program in East Asian history at the University of California, Berkeley, earning his Ph.D. in 1999. Thereafter he spent a year as an editor in Silicon Valley. He returned to Berkeley and spent the next 20 years merging his dual interests as managing editor at the scholarly journal Asian Survey. He retired three years ago and has pursued his fascination with China while teaching sailing in San Francisco Bay and relaxing on his 30-foot sailboat, Campanile.
Admission Information
The event is open to the public. Please RSVP - not required, but greatly appreciated.