65th Edward H. Hume Memorial Lecture, Zhou Enlai and China's "Age of Revolutions", Chen Jian

The Council on East Asian Studies is pleased to present the 65th Edward H. Hume Memorial Lecture in Chinese Studies. Chen Jian (Distinguished Global Network Professor of History at NYU-Shanghai and NYU) presented "Zhou Enlai and China's 'Age of Revolutions'" on October 30, 2025. Zhou Enlai was one of the most important and influential figures of 20-century China and the world. He was a communist revolutionary, yet he was never an internalized Maoist. As a central actor of China's “Age of Revolutions,” Zhou and his comrades made that age, and were also remade by it. Zhou and his experience thus epitomize the dilemmas, tragedies and, in the final analysis, lessons and legacies of that age.