MONDAY, APRIL 24 / 5:30 PM
BARNES & NOBLE @ Dog Lane and One Royce Circle
“They Came from Everywhere: The People of the Amur”
Pre-Talk Refreshments Served at 5PM
This talk, based on Victor Zatsepine’s recently published book, Beyond the Amur: Frontier Encounters between China and Russia, 1850-1930 (UBC Press, 2017), illuminates the varied social, economic and political contacts that enlivened the borders of the two empires (Qing China and Romanov Russia) and their successor states. Arguing that the Amur ‘frontier’ region functioned as a meeting place between empires, shaped by migration, settlement and trade networks, where different cultures (Chinese, Indigenous, Korean, Manchu, Mongol, Russian) learned and borrowed from each other, the author highlights the unique evolution of this local society and how the physical environment affected people living there, their habits, occupations and economic activities. Dr. Zatsepine adds a modern socio-economic dimension to predominantly ideological histories of Sino-Russian relations through analysis of the roles of migration, railways, urban development, and wars in shaping the frontier region.
Victor Zatsepine is Assistant Professor in the History department of the University of Connecticut with a joint appointment in the Asian/Asian American Studies Institute of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He holds degrees from Beijing Language and Culture University, Harvard and the University of British Columbia, and specializes in China’s frontier and international history. Prior to joining the UConn, he was a research assistant professor at the Hong Kong University. Among his recent publications is a volume, co-edited with Laura Victoir, Harbin to Hanoi: The Colonial Built Environment in Asia, 1840 to 1940 (HKU Press, 2013).
Open to the public, this talk is sponsored by the Asian/Asian American Studies Institute and the Department of History. Beyond the Amur: Frontier Encounters between China and Russia, 1850-1930 (UBC Press, 2017) will be available for purchase at this event.
For more information, contact: Ms Fe Delos-Santos at fe.delos-santos@uconn.edu