Zixiong Lin

LIN Zixiong holds an MA in History and Politics of the 20th Century from Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. He also studied Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Freiburg and holds a BA in History from Heilongjiang University. His research interests primarily focus on Chinese social, political and intellectual history in the Maoist era.

Project: Emotions in Maoist China: State Mobilization and Local Response in the Socialist Education Campaign (1962-1966)

The massive mobilization of emotions plays a decisive role in the Communists’ revolutionary victory. Mao Zedong attached great importance to emotional works and intended to ignite the passion of Chinese ordinary popularity to serve the revolutionary purpose by launching a succession of massive campaigns. This project selects the Socialist Education Campaign (SEC) as the case for illustration. By drawing “history of emotions” as a theoretical approach I envisage developing a sketch of the CCP’s emotional regime and evaluating its influence on reshaping the state of emotions among normal Chinese people. To carry out this study, I plan to collect resources from two domains: institutional archives and ego-documents focusing on personal letters and diaries to reveal the sentimental interaction between the regime and the popularities.