Tong Lam: China’s Forgotten Gated Communities
Wednesday, November 18, 2015 · 5:30 - 6:30 PM
Tong Lam, photographer and Associate Professor of History, University of Toronto
In
post-socialist China, gated communities have become conspicuous symbols
of affluence for the country’s rising middle class amid the so-called
“economic miracle.” However, Chinese cities also have many
not-so-visible neighborhoods with mostly low-income migrant workers from
the countryside that are physically being gated off in the name of
urban beautification and social management. This talk uses a
research-driven visual project to examine the systematic dispossession,
exploitation, and social discrimination that take place in these
forgotten urban sites.
Sponsored
by the Dresher Center for the Humanities; the Visual Arts Department;
the History Department; the Asian Studies Program; and the Global
Studies Department.