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Williams College Museum of Art Presents
Wal-Mart, China, and You
Monday, March 13 at 7:30 pm
Brooks Rogers Auditorium, Williams College
Williamstown, MA–The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) presents “Wal-Mart, China, and You,” a free, public lecture by Gary Hamilton, Professor of Sociology at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. The lecture will be held at Brooks Rogers Auditorium, Bernhard Music Center, Williams College on Monday, March 13, 2006.
Wal-Mart is a firm that everyone has an opinion about. Some love it, some loath it. But what most people don’t realize is that Wal-Mart is one of a number of firms that is substantially changing the global economy. Wal-Mart is part of a retail revolution that started in the 1960s and that continues today. This revolution is not simply Wal-Mart’s doing, but rather Wal-Mart is part of a broad movement that has increasingly taken economic power out of the hands of manufacturers and put it in the hands of merchants. Who drives this revolution? You, the consumer. What is the consequence of your consumer choices? The concentration of global manufacturing in China and elsewhere in Asia. Who is the beneficiary this revolution? Wal-Mart and other global retailers. Is this revolution good or bad for Americans? That is for you to decide.
This lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the US, which includes drawing, installation, painting, photography, video, prints, sculpture, and mixed media works by 26 contemporary Chinese artists. Merging Chinese art traditions with the global lingua franca of today’s art, their works are characterized by their monumental size and a bold, confident attitude that has propelled them to the forefront of the international art scene. Considering the effect of their country’s rapid urbanization on human relations, personal and collective identity, and the “rediscovery” of China’s glorious past in light of the manipulation of historic facts throughout the communist era, this diverse exhibition investigates and comments upon the social and cultural transformations of this extraordinary nation. Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the US is on view at the Williams College Museum of Art through May 14, 2006.
Gary G. Hamilton is a Professor of Sociology and the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He specializes in historical/comparative sociology, economic sociology, and organizational sociology. He also specializes in Asian societies, with particular emphasis on Chinese societies. He has previously held teaching positions at the University of California, Davis, and Tunghai University in Taiwan. He is the recipient of numerous honors and research grants, including a Fulbright Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a fellowship at The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He has received sizeable research awards from the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. He has published numerous books and articles, including most recently Commerce and Capitalism in Chinese Societies (Routledge 2006), Emergent Economies, Divergent Paths: Economic Organization and International Trade in South Korea and Taiwan, with Robert C. Feenstra (Cambridge University Press, 2006), Cosmopolitan Capitalists: Hong Kong and the Chinese Diaspora at the end of the 20th Century, editor and contributor (University of Washington Press, 1999), and The Economic Organization of East Asian Capitalism, with Marco Orrù and Nicole Biggart (Sage 1997).
The Williams College Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free and the museum is wheelchair accessible. Contact: Suzanne Augugliaro, Public Relations Coordinator 413.597.3178.
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