Events

Environment in Asia Seminar: “Layer upon Layer: Experience, Ecology, Engineering, Heritage, and (most of all) History in the Making of China’s Agricultural Terraces”

CGIS Knafel K262 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Speaker: Sigrid Schmalzer, University of Massachusetts Amherst Professor Schmalzer's research focuses on social, cultural, and political aspects of the history of science in modern China. Her first book, The People's Peking Man: […]

“Behemoth”: Film Screening and Discussion with Director Zhao Liang

Brattle Theater 40 Brattle St, Cambridge, MA, United States

Beginning with a mining explosion in Mongolia and ending in a ghost city west of Beijing, documentarian Zhao Liang’s new film Behemoth details, in one breathtaking sequence after another, the social and environmental devastation driven by the totality of humankind’s desire and greed. After the screening, Director Liang will attend via Skype for a discussion with […]

Tyler Harlan – Small Hydropower and the Low-Carbon Frontier in China

Pierce Hall 100F 29 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA, United States

Speaker: Tyler Harlan, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles Since the 1950s, the Chinese government has used small hydropower (SHP) to drive rural electrification and local economic […]

Film Screening of “Plastic China” and Q&A with Director Wang Jiuliang

CGIS South, Tsai Auditorium (S010) 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA, United States

After the screening, Director Wang Jiuliang will attend via Skype for a Q&A with the audience moderated by Professor Zhang Ling of Boston College and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. […]

Those Waters Giving Way

An overview of Michael Cherney’s artistic process and recent works. The art combines photography with the subject matter, aesthetics, materials and formats traditionally associated with classical Chinese painting, which allows […]

Workshop: Chinese Food: Culture, Economy, and Ecology

CGIS South CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA, United States

Part of the Fairbank Center's "Environment in Asia" series April 27, 8:30am-6:30pm, CGIS South Room S153 April 28, 8:30am-3:30pm, CGIS South Room S250 Organizer: Ling Zhang (Boston College); Elizabeth Lord […]

From Eco-Threat to Green Leader: Narratives of China’s Environment

Speaker: Elizabeth Lord, An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies This talk aims to unpack dominant narratives about China’s environment, including the discourse of crisis, the idea that growth brings environmental protection and the potential that China can act as an environmental ‘vanguard’ at the international level. By analyzing how each of these […]

Rob Efird – Nature for Nurture: Environmental Education, Nature Experience, and the Healthy Chinese Child

CGIS Knafel K262 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Speaker: Robert Efird, Professor of Anthropology and Asian studies, Seattle University For the past 15 years, the Chinese Ministry of Education’s attempt to promote environmental education in public schools has faced nearly insurmountable structural obstacles. By contrast, there is a growing popular embrace of the value of nature exposure for children’s health and well-being. Drawing […]

Wen-Yi Huang – Families Divided: Migration and Those Left Behind in Fifth- and Sixth-Century China

Speaker: Wen-Yi Huang, An Wang Post-Doctoral Fellow, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University In this talk I explore the impact of migration on family members left behind, particularly those whose parents, children, siblings, and spouses were forcibly moved to the Northern Wei (386-534 CE) from four successive southern states of Eastern Jin (317-420 CE), Liu-Song (420-479 […]

Ruth Mostern – The Natural and Unnatural History of the Yellow River

Speaker: Ruth Mostern, University of Pittsburgh The geographer Jamie Linton has observed that under conditions of human entanglement, there is no such thing as a hydrological cycle, and that we should seek to understand the dynamics of hydrosocial cycles instead.  Under anthropogenic conditions, water still precipitates and evaporates. Rivers are still fluvial systems in which […]