Events

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 development in the remote, resource-rich west of the country. More recently, however, this same technology has been re-framed as a renewable energy that generates electricity […]

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. The discussion will be interpreted by Canaan Morse, a Ph.D. candidate in Chinese Literature at Harvard.  About the Film: As the world’s biggest plastic waste importer, […]

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 for viewing the present day environment and landscape in China through the lens of art history. In addition to the presentation, the artist will guide […]

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 […]

Alex Wang – Symbolic Legitimacy and Chinese Environmental Reform

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

Speaker: Alex Wang, UCLA At the heart of debates over Chinese rule of law is the question of state legitimacy. Critics argue that legitimacy requires liberal democratic rule of law. Chinese leaders have long relied on performance legitimacy – economic development and maintenance of social stability – as the core basis of their rule. Western […]

Yu Zhou – Technological Innovation: Exploring Chinese Models

CGIS South S020, Belfer Case Study Room 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA, United States

Read the event summary here Speaker: Yu Zhou, Vassar College China’s technological ambition and trajectory have become a central concern for the US-China Trade War and will likely to define US-China relations for a long time to come.  This talk traces the evolution of Chinese policies on technological innovation.  Based on case studies on ten […]

***POSTPONED*** Environment in Asia Reunion Workshop – With a Special Tribute to Profs. Robert B. Marks and Peter C. Perdue

CGIS South S020, Belfer Case Study Room 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA, United States

THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED DUE TO THE COVID-19 SITUATION. WE HOPE TO RESCHEDULE IT FOR APRIL 2021. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE Organizer: Ling Zhang, Boston College Featuring roundtable conversations on: Multispecies Entanglement Imaginaries and Representations Land, Water, Fire, Air Energy and Resource Food, Body, Health Environmental Politics and Policies of Contemporary China Building a […]

Webinar: Chris Nielsen – China’s Air Quality and Climate Change: The Known and the Unknown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrcL6ktHZp4 Read a full transcript of this event here Read event summary here Speaker: Chris Nielsen, Executive Director, Harvard China Project Chris Nielsen is the executive director of the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment. Working with faculty at collaborating Chinese universities and across the schools of Harvard, he has managed and developed the interdisciplinary […]