Fairbank Center

Two presentations by Ezra Vogel, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

In this two-part evening, Ezra Vogel will share his research and insights on Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997), China’s paramount leader who reopened China’s door to the West in 1978 and spurred market reform in the 1980s.

4:15 pm   The Life of Deng Xiaoping
In the first lecture, Professor Vogel offer a general presentation accompanied by photographs to allow the public to better understand Deng Xiaoping’s background, education, ambitions, struggles, and achievements.
7:30 pm    Deng's Foreign Policy and Domestic Politics
In the second lecture, which will be for a specialized academic audience, Professor Vogel will examine Deng’s political strategy and his vision for China.

Deng Xiaoping had extraordinarily broad preparation for becoming the pre-eminent leader of China in 1978: five years in France; one year in the Soviet Union; twelve years of war-time military leadership; two years as the key foreign policy leader; local leadership in a county, border region, and the entire Southwest region; ten years as general secretary of the Party; one year as finance minister; and decades working under Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. When he took over China’s leadership in 1978 he provided political direction until he stepped down in 1992. He led the crackdown in June 1989. He also set China on a path that would enrich the people and strengthen the country.

Ezra Vogel received his PhD from Harvard in social relations with a specialty in sociology. He was a professor at Harvard from 1967 until 2000. He is the former director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the Program on US-Japan Relations, and the founding director of the Harvard University Asia Center. For seventeen years he was head of the undergraduate concentration in East Asian studies. He taught courses on Japanese society, Chinese society, and industrial East Asia. He is the author of the books Japan as Number One, Canton under Communism, The Four Little Dragons, and One Step Ahead in China. He is the editor of Living with China. After retiring in 2000, he spent a decade working on his book Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China (Harvard University Press, 2011).

Cosponsored with the Harvard University Asia Center
Reception will follow the first lecture
6:30 Dinner break—see option below

Location: CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street, Harvard University
4:15 lecture in the Tsai Auditorium, S010
7:30 lecture in the Belfer Case Study Room, S020

Dinner Option
We welcome participants who wish to attend both sessions of the New England China Seminar to join colleagues for a buffet dinner at 6:30-7:30 pm, in Room S030. The dinner cost is $15 per person ($10 for students). Due to space limitations, we will accept 30 reservations on a first come first serve basis. Advance reservation and payment is required. Please register before noon on Thursday, September 29, 2011, by clicking here>>