Time: 12 May 2023  (Friday)  1：30-3：30pm  (Beijing Time)

Venue: Room 1127, Block A, Creative Building, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University

Language:  English

Topic: States and Communist Parties in Southeast Asia in the Cold War

Abstract: Communism was a threat to military leaderships in Southeast Asia in the 1960s, but not all leaders were equally repressive of communist parties. Under Ne Win, the Burma Communist Party was contained most of the time. In Indonesia, the Communist Party of Indonesia was coopted under Sukarno’s rule, but on the eve of Suharto’s new order, it was eradicated. In late colonial Malaya, the Malayan Communist Party was suppressed, while in early post-colonial Malaysia, it was coerced. What accounts for differences in how states dealt with their local communist party? First was whether parties had reconcilable interests with the administration. Second was the level of societal influence communist parties had.

Lecturer: Marie-Eve Reny, ZJU100 Young Professor，Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University. She works on China and Southeast Asia, and teaches an undergraduate course on Southeast Asian Politics and Societies. Research wise, her main area of interest in Southeast Asia is Myanmar, where she has already conducted research in 2014, 2018 and 2019, but she studies many subjects and has written comparative studies of Myanmar, Malaysia, and Indonesia.