A conversation with Stephen R. Platt, author of Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age

The Opium War has come to stand for everything that today’s China seeks to put behind it. As China reclaims its position as a world power, the humiliations of that conflict and the carving up of the country by Western colonial powers continue to haunt the national psyche, fueling nationalism. China Institute is proud to host Steven R. Platt, author of a new book, Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age, for a conversation about the historic roots of China’s national insecurity, and a discussion of nationalism today.

STEPHEN R. PLATT is a professor of Chinese history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His last book, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War, was a Washington Post Notable Book, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and won the Cundill History Prize. Platt lives with his wife and children in Northampton, Massachusetts.

For tickets and more information: https://www.chinainstitute.org/event/fallen-empire-rising-nation/