Bombard the Headquarters! From Mao to Musk

  • 15 Sep 2025
  • 17:45 - 19:15
  • Hybrid - in-person at History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney and online

Registration

  • Attending in-person at History House, Sydney
  • Attending in-person at History House, Sydney
  • Attending online from 6pm, a Zoom link will be sent the day before the meeting
  • Attending online from 6pm. A Zoom link will be sent the day before the meeting
Registration is closed

Join the PHA NSW & ACT and Linda Jaivin, author of Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China (Black Inc., 2025) for this timely presentation:

Bombard the Headquarters! From Mao to Musk

Almost six decades before the newly elected US president Donald Trump and his then closest-comrade-in-arms Elon Musk were planning their attack on America’s ‘deep state’, Mao Zedong, chairman of the Communist Party of China, called on his comrades to ‘bombard the headquarters’. Bureaucrats were a common enemy for both leaders, who perceived them as impediments to their very different, but equally urgent and sweeping revolutionary visions. China’s Cultural Revolution was enormously destructive for China’s education system and cultural institutions, its economy and its social cohesion. It was horrifically violent as well, with nearly two million people beaten, tortured or otherwise driven to their deaths, and millions more left with life-changing injuries. Its memory still shadows China. What lessons does this traumatic period offer the world today?


About the presenter

Linda Jaivin is the author of 13 books including her latest, Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China, which was recently named No. 1 Nonfiction title for the first half of 2025 by fivebooks.com. Her Shortest History of China has been translated into about two dozen languages and was named No. 1 China book of 2021 by fivebooks.com as well. She has also written a number of novels and is a prolific essayist, cultural commentator and literary translator from Chinese specialising in film subtitles.

Linda will have books for sale and will be available for signing after her presentation.

This event is free for all PHA members (including those outside of NSW and the ACT).

Zoom Webinar will commence at 6pm through to 7.00pm

Registration is essential to receive the Zoom link. 

Non-members are welcome to register for $10.

5.45pm - Nibbles and drinks. 

6.00pm - Presentation by Linda Jaivin.

6.45 pm - Questions.

7.00 - 7.15pm(ish) Book signings.

Please note: this event will be followed by the PHA NSW-ACT Annual General Meeting to commence at 7.30pm. The AGM will be a hybrid event.