Last night, on a rainy DC evening, The World affairs council-Washington DC hosted another author series event author series, at Merrill Lynch. This week we were able to have the author of China in the 21st Century, What Everyone Needs to Know, Jeffery N. Wasserstrom, a professor of history at University of California at Berkley, portrayed an insightful portrayal of modern day China. Wasserstrom discussed how the rapid industrialization of the young nation has created many cultural incongruities. He provided ample examples of how China is both culturally and economically similar to the United States during its era of rapid industrialization, during the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. He then discussed how these two facets have drastically changed the political atmosphere as drastically. He remarked how the political atmosphere China of today is almost unrecognizable of the China of Mao Zedong. He claimed that today’s atmosphere has taken a radically different approach than the hard line approach the Peoples Republic of China had towards controlling the public’s opinion.
After his presentation Professor Wasserstrom allotted time to take questions from the audience. After many insightful questions from the audience, there was a reception where Professor Wasserstrom signed copies of his book, and socialized with our distinguished guests.