Speaker: Guobin Yang, Grace Lee Boggs Professor of Communication and Sociology, Annenberg School for Communication and the Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
Moderator/discussant: Nara Dillon, Senior Lecturer on Government, Harvard University

The sealing off of Wuhan from January 23 to April 8, 2020 was an extraordinary historical event in modern world history. Recently published by Columbia University Press, Guobin Yang’s The Wuhan Lockdown recounts this history by presenting a galaxy of scenes and characters. This talk introduces the main features of the book and then zooms in on one theme – that of voice. The lockdown of the city was a period of life marked by both loud voices of shouting and yelling and by quiet voices of reflection and rumination. What did residents in Wuhan try to say in their loud or quiet ways? Who heard their voices? Who listened?

Guobin Yang is the Grace Lee Boggs Professor of Communication and Sociology at the Annenberg School for Communication and the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Center on Digital Culture and Society and serves as deputy director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China. He is the author of The Wuhan Lockdown (2022), The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China (2016), and The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online (2009). He is also the editor or co-editor of six books, including Engaging Social Media in China: Platforms, Publics and Production (2021).

Presented via Zoom

Also streaming on YouTube

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