On January 26th, Professor Anand Yang (International Studies and History) presented a lecture entitled “Commodities and Capitalism: A Tale of Tea in China and India,” as part of the History Department’s 2022 History Lecture Series, Capitalism in Action: Culture, Power, History.
In the lecture, Yang presents a history of capitalism in China and India narrated through the study of a specific commodity, tea. This talk traces the development of tea as a beverage of choice across the modern world and its growth as an industry in Asia. It offers a perspective on the rise of capitalism and globalization that highlights the social, cultural, and economic differentiations and distortions within the capitalist world system. View the lecture here.