Presenter Information

Jesse Du, University of Washington

Start Date

4-9-2021 9:00 AM

End Date

4-9-2021 10:15 AM

Disciplines

History

Subjects

Student movements -- Japan -- History, Nihon Kyōsantō -- History, Chinese -- Japan -- Tokyo -- History, China -- History -- Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

Description

The Zenrin gakusei kaikan incident (善隣学生会館事件) in 1967 was a major street fight between left-wing student rioters from the Japanese Communist Party and the ethnic Chinese community in Tokyo. The open fighting lasted three days and at its peak involved upwards to seven hundred people from both sides. In the grand scheme of the global “long 1968,” this one particular brawl perhaps did not amount to much, and is generally forgotten in today’s scholarship. However, it is unique as a point of intersection between three separate historical processes: Japan’s student movement, China’s Cultural Revolution, and the diplomatic normalization between the two countries. By situating this incident as the centre of the story instead of the periphery of these larger movements, this paper is an exercise in transnationalism, hoping to illustrate the impressive degree of exchange of people and ideas between China and Japan, even in the most seemingly improbable times.

PART OF SESSION 1D. ACTIVISM AND PROTEST:

Comment: Jeff Kyong-McClain, University of Idaho
Chair: Dale E. Soden, Whitworth University

Jesse Du, University of Washington, undergraduate student
“Bad Neighbors: The 1967 Zenrin Student Hall Incident and Transnational Student Radicalism in China and Japan”

Kyle Evers, Whitworth University, undergraduate student
“Whitworth University’s Response to the Vietnam War: A Historical Record of News”

Ashley M. Lambert, Eastern Washington University, undergraduate student
“Cesar Chavez: The 1965 Grape Boycott and the 400-Mile Pilgrimage”

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35223

Included in

History Commons

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Apr 9th, 9:00 AM Apr 9th, 10:15 AM

Bad Neighbors: The 1967 Zenrin Student Hall Incident and Transnational Student Radicalism in China and Japan

The Zenrin gakusei kaikan incident (善隣学生会館事件) in 1967 was a major street fight between left-wing student rioters from the Japanese Communist Party and the ethnic Chinese community in Tokyo. The open fighting lasted three days and at its peak involved upwards to seven hundred people from both sides. In the grand scheme of the global “long 1968,” this one particular brawl perhaps did not amount to much, and is generally forgotten in today’s scholarship. However, it is unique as a point of intersection between three separate historical processes: Japan’s student movement, China’s Cultural Revolution, and the diplomatic normalization between the two countries. By situating this incident as the centre of the story instead of the periphery of these larger movements, this paper is an exercise in transnationalism, hoping to illustrate the impressive degree of exchange of people and ideas between China and Japan, even in the most seemingly improbable times.

PART OF SESSION 1D. ACTIVISM AND PROTEST:

Comment: Jeff Kyong-McClain, University of Idaho
Chair: Dale E. Soden, Whitworth University

Jesse Du, University of Washington, undergraduate student
“Bad Neighbors: The 1967 Zenrin Student Hall Incident and Transnational Student Radicalism in China and Japan”

Kyle Evers, Whitworth University, undergraduate student
“Whitworth University’s Response to the Vietnam War: A Historical Record of News”

Ashley M. Lambert, Eastern Washington University, undergraduate student
“Cesar Chavez: The 1965 Grape Boycott and the 400-Mile Pilgrimage”