China Studies Research Centre, La Trobe University
2:30-4:00pm, Thursday 6 June 2019
Room 318, Education 2 (ED2), La Trobe University
This presentation will examine the emergence of Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province, as perhaps the most important Tibetan city in the PRC today. I argue that the significance of the city has emerged primarily over the past decade, as a result of the increasing securitization of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai, as well as the sealing of the border between India and China, in the wake of the 2008 Tibetan protests. The presentation will explore the sites and shape of Tibetan Chengdu, and examine a range of lived experiences of Tibetans in the city. It will also describe how an evolving social and institutional infrastructure is creating opportunities for continuing and innovating Tibetan social projects, which differentially empower and marginalize members of the Tibetan community. In doing so, the presentation investigates the relationship between the increasing territorialization of security across the Tibetan Plateau, and the simultaneous deterritorialization of Tibetan social mobilization in the PRC.
About the Speaker
Dr Gerald Roche is a senior research fellow in the Department of Politics, Media, and Philosophy at La Trobe University. He is currently working on an ARC project with James Leibold (La Trobe) and Ben Hillman (ANU) on urbanization in Tibet.