Apr 16
Breakfast with Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Stop by for breakfast and conversation with Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor of History, University of California - Irvine. Wednesday, April 16
Burma is in a state of civil war. Hong Kong has changed from a place with virtually no political prisoners to one with many in a few years. Thailand is a monarchy with lèse-majesté laws. While the political situations in Burma, Thailand, and Hong Kong are radically different, many young activists and exiles from these regions feel their struggles are connected. How do these activists, each facing unique situations, find common ground and sustain one another?
Wasserstrom is a historian who has traveled globally to interview dozens of dissidents who express solidarity with one another online and on the streets, and sometimes refer to themselves as belonging to the "Milk Tea Alliance" - a nod to their shared opposition to nationalistic Beijing loyalists and the fact that their cultures' iconic drinks contain dairy, unlike mainland China's traditional tea. In this loosely constituted alliance united by democratic values, Wasserstrom finds shared concerns over autocrats and the rising influence of a common adversary, the Chinese Communist Party.