Contributor(s): Dr Elena Barabantseva, Professor Bill Callahan, Xiaolu Guo | A screening and discussion of two short films by Elena Barabantseva, University of Manchester and Bill Callahan, LSE. A discussion will follow with Xiaolu Guo, an award-winning writer and filmmaker. Border People (14 min, 2018) Elena Barabantseva, University of Manchester How does the border enter and shape a family life? What does it mean to the people who cross the border for marriage? This film juxtaposes a personal story of Meihua, a Vietnamese Yao woman who married a Yao man in China, with the stories and ritual practices that the Yao elders pass on to the young generation amidst the Chinese state’s ambitious border development plans and ethnic revival strategies. Great Walls: Journeys from ideology to experience (28 min, 2019) Bill Callahan, London School of Economics and Political Science As Trump’s Wall and the Berlin Wall show, border walls are key sites of ideology: both Cold War ideology, and anti-
