Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

Chinese Kinesthetic Forms
2022-11-11 09:30 - 2022-11-12 17:00 (America/New_York) | Sackler Building Auditorium, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Topics:

Movement has a distinctively rich tradition in China. Chinese Kinesthetic Forms considers movement as an organizing principle across myriad media and cultural forms—from dance and music, to painting and calligraphy, to theater and martial arts. The conference explores how movement, as both expression and object of perception, opens experiential dimensions, even beyond the corporeal. Coinciding with the presentation of installations from CAMLab’s Cave Dance project, the conference joins fresh conversations on dance, kinesthetics, and China’s long history of performance, and it seeks to further understanding of movement as a way of defining experience.

This conference is organized by Harvard FAS CAMLab, with support from the Department of History of Art and Architecture.

Friday, November 11

9:30 AM Welcome RemarksDavid Roxburgh, Harvard University

9:45–10:30 AM Opening Remarks and Keynote Eugene Wang, Harvard University. “When and How Did Art Become Art? Crane Dances in Chinese Imagination”

11:00–12:30 PM The Lightness of Being: Sensorial KinestheticsPanel Chair: Alice Tseng, Boston UniversityChenchen Lü, Harvard University. “Flame and Fragrance: The Bodiless Body of Dancing Apsaras in Medieval Buddhist Art”Anne Feng, Boston University. “Taking Flight: The Modern Art of the Apsaras in East Asia”Panel Discussant: Shanti Pillai, Williams College

1:00–3:00 PM Sword Dance: Three Readings of Lady GongsunPanel Chair: Michael Szonyi, Harvard UniversityStephen Owen, Harvard University. “Where the Feet Touch the Ground”Xiaofei Tian, Harvard University. “The Phantom of the Dance”Lucas Bender, Yale University. “Sharp Turns, Indirect Transmission, and the Unity of the Arts”Panel Discussant: Wai-yee Li, Harvard University

3:30–5:00 PM Reviving Repertoire: Dunhuang Dance, Then and NowPanel Chair: Rowan Flad, Harvard UniversityMuyun Zhou, Pennsylvania State University. “How to Get From Dance Scores to Murals?: Bridging Representations of Tang Dance Events”Emily Wilcox, College of William & Mary. “From Wall to Stage: Flowers and Rain on the Silk Road (1979) and the Making of Contemporary Dunhuang Dance” Panel Discussant: Thomas Kelly, Harvard University

Saturday, November 129:00–11:00 AM Furor and Festivity: The Song-Yuan TurnPanel Chair: Leonard van der Kuijp, Harvard UniversityHuiping Pang, Hangzhou Normal University. “No More Fear: How Did the Southern Song Nuo Exorcists Cope with Pandemics?” Discussant: Heping Liu, Wellesley CollegeWen-chien Cheng, Royal Ontario Museum. “Tage (Stomping Songs): Images of Rural Festive Dancing in Chinese Paintings”Discussant: Heping Liu, Wellesley CollegeXiaotian Yin, Harvard University. “Demonic Divine: Reassessing ‘Dance of the Sixteen Heavenly Devils’ in the Mongol-Yuan Court”Discussant: Jinah Kim, Harvard University

11:00 AM–12:30 PM Calligraphic KinestheticsPanel Chair: Jeffrey Moser, Brown UniversityKathleen Ryor, Carleton College. “Martial Heroics in the Calligraphy and Painting of Xu Wei”Amy McNair, University of Kansas. “Like the Splash of a Great Whale Rising: Motion in the Criticism and Practice of ‘Mad Cursive’ Calligraphy”Panel Discussant: Aida Yuen Wong, Brandeis University

1:30–3:30 PM Kinesthetic MediaPanel Chair: Christina Yu Yu, Museum of Fine Arts, BostonJeehee Hong, McGill University. “Haptic Vision: Kinetic Architecture in Middle-Period China”Discussant: Aurelia Campbell, Boston CollegeCatherine Yeh, Boston University. “Dancing Pictures: Mei Lanfang’s ‘The Goddess Spreads Flowers’ and the Inherent Ambiguity of Modernism”Discussant: Eugene Wang, Harvard UniversityHu Ying, University of California, Irvine. “Recreating the Sword-dance, Reinventing Qiu Jin (1875–1907)” Discussant: Weihong Bao, University of California, Berkeley

4:00–5:00 PM From Immersion to Access: Lenora Lee Dance’s Filmic RemediationLenora Lee, Lenora Lee DanceSanSan Kwan, University of California, BerkeleyModerator: Simone Levine, Harvard FAS CAMLab

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Seung Wha Chang - An Arbitration Model for Resolving International Economic/Public Disputes: A (Korean) WTO Appeal Arbitrator's View
2022-11-11 12:15 - 13:15 | Morgan Courtroom, Austin Hall, 1515 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Speaker: Seung Wha Chang, Chairman of Korea Trade Commission & Professor of Seoul National University

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Youqin Hang - Families in Transition: Living Arrangements, Intergenerational Support, and Subjective Wellbeing in 21st Century China
2022-11-14 20:30 - 22:00 | Presented via Zoom
Zoom meeting link

Speaker: Youqin Huang, Professor of Geography and Planning, Research Associate of the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis, University at Albany, State University of New YorkThis paper examines whether the Chinese family is undergoing a Western process of modernization and an associated reduction in previously very high rate of parent-adult child co-residence, and how this change in living arrangement affects subjective wellbeing. Using the China Household Finance Survey, this study reveals that only two decades into the 21st century, co-residence in China is as low as, if not lower than that in the West. Instead, living apart in proximity in the same city has replaced co-residence as the most prevalent living arrangement. This shift to proximity is a result of the negotiations between traditional and modernizing tendencies and is further enabled by significantly improved housing and household financial conditions. This is in contrast to an emerging trend of moving back to parents’ house in the West due to rising housing cost. Furthermore, living apart in proximity, together with strong inter-generational support, has a significant positive effect on subjective wellbeing. We conclude that even as China continues its progress in modernization and market transition, strong intergenerational connections based on Confucian values continue to persist, although with some modern twists, which promotes wellbeing.

Dr. Youqin Huang is a Professor of Geography and Planning and a Research Associate of the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at University at Albany, State University of New York. Her research aims to understand the impact of major socioeconomic transformations and government policies, focusing on housing, migration, health, and wellbeing. She is the (co-)author/(co-)editor of ten books/edited volumes and has published papers in leading journals in geography, China, urban studies, and housing, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, The China Quarterly, Urban Studies, Housing Studies, as well as Environment and Planning A, and B.

Zoom meeting link: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/96217779608

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Urban China Seminar Series featuring Tingting Lu - Collaborative Neighborhood Governance During the COVID-19 Pandemic
2022-12-05 20:30 - 22:00 | Presented via Zoom
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Speaker: Tingting Lu, ​Shanghai Jiao Tong University

​The COVID-19 pandemic is a governance challenge for nations and cities across the world. While early observations have primarily focused on nation-scale government actions, our research shows that neighborhood social capital also plays a key role in Chinese neighborhoods. Drawing from collaborative governance theory, we examine the horizontal and hierarchical dynamics of neighborhood governance collaboration during crisis responses in urban China. Using a large-scale questionnaire survey of frontline community workers conducted in six Chinese cities in February 2020, we find that from the perspective of residents’ committees, the effectiveness of collaborative governance in pandemic control is predicted by both neighborhood social capital (i.e. civic engagement and citizen participation) and hierarchical steering by the government through setting policy priorities and providing support. We also surveyed residents for their opinions on neighborhood collaborative governance post pandemic. Social capital presents opposite correlations to one’s collaboration with a residents’ committee and collaboration with a private management company.

Tingting Lu is an Associate Professor at School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her research focuses on neighborhood governance and housing development in urban China. Recently she has also worked on gated communities, social segregation, and neighborhood attachment, and has published in leading journals in urban studies and geography, including Urban Studies, Urban Geography, and Geoforum.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/96217779608

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The Significance of Small Things: Small Hydropower, Renewable Energy, and Rural Development in the PRC, 1949-1979
2022-12-07 15:00 - 16:00 | Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
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Speaker: Arunabh Ghosh, Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History, Harvard UniversityArunabh Ghosh is a historian of modern China, with research and teaching interests in social and economic history, history of science and statecraft, transnational history, and China-India history.

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Shaoda Wang - Judicial Independence, Local Protectionism, and Economic Integration: Evidence from China
2023-01-30 12:45 - 14:15 | Room 105, Hauser Hall, 18 Everett St., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
Speaker: Shaoda Wang, University of Chicgao

Shaoda Wang is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). He also serves as the Deputy Faculty Director at the Energy Policy Institute at UChicago, China center (EPIC-China). He is an applied economist with research interests in development economics, environmental economics, and political economy. His main research agenda aims at understanding the political economy of public policy, with a regional focus on China.

He holds a BA from Peking University, and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining Harris, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Economics and Energy Policy Institute (EPIC) at the University of Chicago.

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Stephen Halsey - Rocks and Bugs: Developmentalism and the Environment in Early Twentieth Century China
2023-02-07 10:30 - 11:45 | Presented via Zoom
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Speaker: Stephen Halsey

Presented via Zoom. Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItfuuopzgpH9QA2pFC6FpjH_0wL_Nd7nB1

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Zhou Zhenyu - The origin of ancient Austronesian: from the perspective of archaeological discoveries in Southeast China
2023-02-08 11:00 - 12:30 | Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave., 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
Speaker: Zhou Zhenyu, Associate Professor, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; HYI Visiting Scholar, 2022-23

Discussant: Rowan Flad, John E. Hudson Professor of Archaeology, Harvard University

Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar talk

Seating is limited. Masks are required for all in-person audience members.

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Asia-Pacific Practices: A Conversation with Brian Burke of Shearman & Sterling
2023-02-08 16:30 - 17:30 | WCC 1010, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
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Speaker: Brian Burke, Partner, Shearman & Sterling.

Brian Burke has conducted dozens of investigations across Asia-Pacific and is experienced in FCPA/anti-corruption, economic sanctions, antitrust, shareholder litigation, anti-money laundering, and other compliance and investigative matters. Mr. Burke acted as lead advisor to GlaxoSmithKline on the landmark bribery case against GSK in China, the first such case against a foreign company in China.

Mr. Burke will share his insights into litigation practice, Asia-related cases, and practice at Shearman & Sterling. He will also share career advice with students who wish to pursue a litigation career or a BigLaw career in general.

This event is co-hosted by the Harvard Trade Forum and the China Law Association at Harvard Law School. Please RSVP at https://tinyurl.com/BurkeHLS. Free boba will be provided.

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Scott Kennedy - Xi Jinping’s About Face: Implications for China’s Economy, Politics, and Relations With the West
2023-02-09 12:00 - 13:30 | Rubenstein 414AB, 79 JFK St., Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
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Speaker: Scott Kennedy, Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business & Economics, Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Lunch will be served for those joining us in person in Rubenstein 414AB. Others should register to join us remotely via Zoom. Register at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mrBlnYUUSwW9rduJgp_6wQ.

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Wei Wei - Family Matters: Chinese Queer Politics Around the Rise of a Family-State
2023-02-13 11:00 - 12:30 | Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave., 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
Speaker: Wei Wei, Professor of Sociology, East China Normal University; HYI Visiting Scholar, 2022-23

Chair/Discussant: Michael Bronski, Professor of the Practice In Media And Activism In Studies Of Women, Gender, And Sexuality, Harvard University

LGBT activism in mainland China, based on the trajectory of identity politics, faces increasing challenges from the state in recent years. Drawing insights from the scholarship of provincizing sexual citizenship and building on my decades-long researches into Chinese LGBT communities and activism, the study situates such challenges and responses of the LGBT communities in the context of a rising Chinese family-state. It first lays out the bleak reality of civic participation and mobilization, parallel to the ascendance of familist discourses, that lead to the reconfiguration of Chinese queer politics. The engagement of LGBT communities to the Chinese family-state will be the focus of the talk. On the one hand, the newly emerging LGBT parent families utilize the opportunities of policy change to strive for the state’s recognition; on the other hand, family value as a shared rhetoric but open for contestation, has been appropriated by the LGBT activism to negotiate with the state for survival. The talk concludes with a discussion of Chinese homonationalism in the making, which may also have implication for queer politics beyond China.

Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar Talk

Masks are required for all in-person audience members. Seating is limited.

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Bo Li - Regulating Fintech: The Asian Experience
2023-02-24 12:20 - 13:20 | WCC 2036 Milstein East A, Harvard Law School
Speaker: Bo Li, J.D. ‘99, Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

Boxed lunch will be provided.

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Final Conference of 1st Fudan-Harvard China-U.S. Young Leaders Dialogue
2023-02-24 16:45 - 2023-02-25 10:30 | Starr Auditorium, Belfer Building, Floor 2.5, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK St., Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
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Featuring: James Heller, Consul General of the US Embassy in ShanghaiRandall Schriver, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs and more.

The U.S.-China relationship is undoubtedly the most important bilateral relationship in the world today. In recent years, the conflicts between China and the United States in various key areas and issues have become increasingly prominent. It is urgent for the two countries to carry out dialogues at a broader, deeper, and more profound level. Among them, youth exchanges between China and the U.S. play an irreplaceable role in promoting mutual trust and appreciation between China and the U.S., enhancing people-to-people ties between the two countries, and even cultivating future talents in the world.

The Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative and Center for American Studies at Fudan University is organizing the first US-China Conference hosted jointly at Harvard and virtually with Fudan University in Shanghai, China The conference will explore cooperation and competition between the U.S. and China on the global stage in four major technological topics: Artificial Intelligence, Space, Biotechnology, and Internet as well as special panels on security and economics. Mixed panels of academic, political, and business leaders will introduce perspectives on both sides, and look toward the future of the essential and dynamic relationship between our two countries.

Conference AgendaFriday, February 24th4:45 – 5:15 p.m.Keynote by Assistant Secretary Randall Schriver5:25 – 6:15 p.m.Trade & Business Panel6:25 – 7:15 p.m.US-China Security Panel7:30 – 7:50 p.m.Welcoming Ceremony8:00 – 8:45 p.m.Keynote by Consul General Heller8:50 – 9:35 p.m.Artificial Intelligence Panel9:40 – 10:30 p.m.Biotechnology Panel

Saturday, February 25th8:00 – 8:45 a.m.Keynote by Director Wu Xinbo8:50 – 9:30 a.m.Internet Panel9:35 – 10:15 a.m.Space Panel10:15 – 10:30 a.m.Closing Ceremony

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Li Chunyuan - Contextualizing the Numbers: grain prices in Yuan 元 dynasty China, 1250-1350
2023-03-01 11:00 - 12:30 | Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave., 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
Speaker: Li Chunyuan, Associate Professor, Department of History, Xiamen University; HYI Visiting Scholar, 2022-23

Chair/Discussant: David Yang, Associate Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar Talk

Masks are required for all in-person audience members. Seating is limited.

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Dean's Symposium on Social Science Innovation - China in Focus: New Social Science Approaches
2023-03-02 15:00 - 17:00 | Presented via Zoom
zoom Info

Host: Lawrence Bobo, Dean of Social Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard UniversityModerator: Mark Elliot, Vice Provost for International Affairs; Mark Schwartz Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History, Harvard UniversityPanelists:Ya-Wen Lei, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Harvard UniversityVictor Seow, Assistant Professor, History of Science, Harvard UniversityYuhua Wang, Professor of Government, Harvard UniversityDavid Yang, Professor, Department of Economics, Harvard UniversityMore info: https://socialscience.fas.harvard.edu/event/deans-symposium-china-in-focus.

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Journey of an Exile Tibetan Leader: From Harvard to Dharamsala
2023-03-08 16:15 - 18:00 | CGIS South, Tsai Auditorium (S010), 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Speaker: Dr. Lobsang Sangay, Former Sikyong (President), Central Tibetan Administration; Senior Visiting Fellow, East Asian Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School

Harvard University Asia Center’s 17th Tsai Lecture, sponsored by the Tsai Lecture Fund at the Harvard University Asia Center, co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University and Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

See more details here: https://asiacenter.harvard.edu/journey-exile-tibetan-leader-harvard-dharamsala

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The Shōsōin Imperial Treasury: New Directions in Research
2023-03-16 09:30 - 17:00 | Sackler Building Auditorium, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
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The Shōsōin Treasury, located near the Tōdaiji monastery in Nara, Japan, houses over 9000 objects and ancient documents dating to the eighth century or earlier. These diverse objects showcase the cultural traditions of not only Nara Japan, but also Silla Korea, Tang China, the Central Asian kingdoms, Sasanian Iran, and beyond. This inaugural conference, “The Shōsōin Imperial Treasury: New Directions in Research,” engages specialists to discuss new trajectories in the Shōsōin studies. The conference features an opening lecture by Professor Yukio Lippit, panel discussions with renowned scholars, an interview with Natsuki Kitazawa, the curator of the Nara National Museum, and three lightning talks on Shōsōin objects by Harvard graduate students.

Organized by: Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University and Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University

This is a hybrid event. For in-person and Zoom attendance, please register through the Google Form: https://forms.gle/WpFHh6nuqoWjHCRX7. If you have any questions, please email them to shosoinconference@gmail.com.

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Wealth and Politics in Asia: HYI Annual Roundtable
2023-03-22 16:00 - 18:00 | Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall, Boylston Hall, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Panelists:Yuen Yuen Ang, Alfred Chandler Chair of Political Economy, Johns Hopkins UniversityYasheng Huang, Epoch Foundation Professor of International Management, MIT Sloan School of ManagementDevesh Kapur, Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)Pasuk Phongpaichit, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy, Chulalongkorn UniversityBridget Welsh, Honorary Research Associate, University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute Malaysia

Moderator:Elizabeth J. Perry, Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government, Harvard University; Director, Harvard-Yenching Institute

How does the recent rise of a super-rich stratum across much of Asia affect the politics of different countries? Are the ultra-affluent more likely to wield influence in democracies or in authoritarian regimes? Through what means and to what ends? An inter-disciplinary panel of experts on China, India and Southeast Asia will share observations and insights on this timely issue.

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Harvard Visual China Inaugural Graduate Symposium--"Luminosity in Chinese Art & Culture"
2023-03-24 11:00 - 17:30 | Sackler Building Auditorium, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
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From Prometheus the Fire-Bringer to myths of cosmogony, light and luminosity is an enduring metaphor in human history. In modern science, light and luminosity are understood as matters of wavelength and energy. Yet in the Chinese context, luminosity is not confined to issues of the visual and visibility. In fact, luminosity had long been associated with consciousness and vitality beyond the expiration of the physical body, especially in connections with certain materials and objects. The Harvard Visual China Inaugural Graduate Symposium presents three panels on this topic: Panel 1: Visualizing Luminosity; Panel 2: Painting Luminosity; Panel 3: Luminous Jewels.

More information and registration: https://www.harvardvisualchina.com/hvc-2023-symposium-info-registration.

This event is sponsored by the Department of History of Art & Architecture, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Innovation Fund, and Harvard FAS CAMLab.

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2023 China Law Symposium: Reacquainting with China through Common Interests - Discussing Disability Law in China
2023-04-03 12:15 - 13:15 | WCC 2012, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
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2023 China Law Symposium: Reacquainting with China through Common InterestsThe Harvard Law School China Law Association (CLA) will host its annual China Law Symposium, “Reacquainting with China through Common Interests,” over the first two weeks of April. This year, we are highlighting topics of common interest to China and the United States, ranging across the public and private sectors. The panels will feature issues on disability law, education in China, US-China climate change collaborations, antitrust law, and blockchain technology.This Symposium is cosponsored by the Harvard Law School East Asian Legal Studies Department, the Harvard Antitrust Association, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology. Food/snacks will be provided at each speaker event. RSVP: bit.ly/CLA2023Symposium

Schedule:

Discussing Disability Law in ChinaMon, April 3, 12:15–1:15 pm ET | WCC 2012

Antitrust in China: Debunking the Myth and Unravelling the IntricaciesTues, April 4, 12:15–1:15 pm ET | WCC 2012Double Reduction Policy in China: An Educational Double-Edged Sword?Tues, April 4, 8:00–9:00 pm ET | WCC 1015Blockchain from a Chinese PerspectiveMon, April 10, 12:15–1:15 pm ET | WCC 2004Collaborating on Climate ChangeWed, April 12, 12:15–1:15 pm ET | WCC 2009

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Jacob Eyferth - Agrarian Taylorism: Reorganizing the Rural Labor Process in Collective-Era China
2023-04-04 10:30 - 11:45 | Presented via Zoom
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Speaker: Jacob Eyferth

Presented via Zoom. Register at: https://scholar.harvard.edu/seow/STinAsia

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2023 China Law Symposium: Reacquainting with China through Common Interests - Antitrust in China: Debunking the Myth and Unravelling the Intricacies
2023-04-04 12:15 - 13:15 | WCC 2012, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States

2023 China Law Symposium: Reacquainting with China through Common Interests - Double Reduction Policy in China: An Educational Double-Edged Sword?
2023-04-04 20:00 - 21:00 | WCC 1015, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States

Wangdao and Leadership: A Zoom Talk by Stan Shih
2023-04-04 20:30 - 21:45 | Presented via Zoom
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Speaker: Stan Shih, Co-founder & Honorary Chairman, Acer Group

Presented via Zoom. Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1rO8EfocTC27eSYbRM7jaA

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Sinophone Southeast Asian Crossings:A Symposium on Nanyang Culture, History, and Memory
2023-04-06 14:00 - 17:00 | Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave., 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
Register for hybrid zoom attendance

Panel 1: 2:00 – 3:20pmSpeaker: Chan Cheow Thia, National University of Singapore, Author of Malaysian CrossingsRespondent: Mei Nan Mingxue, Harvard UniversityPanel 2: 3:40-5pmSpeaker: Li Zishu, Author of The Age of GoodbyesRespondent: Jannis Jizhou Chen, Harvard UniversityAlso via Zoom. Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_NC-Rw5ksTZiNT9H9_73F7w

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2023 China Law Symposium: Reacquainting with China through Common Interests - Blockchain from a Chinese Perspective
2023-04-10 12:15 - 13:15 | WCC 2004, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States

Beijing Olympiad: First Time as Mass Spectacle, Second Time as Digital Ornament
2023-04-11 16:00 - 18:00 | CGIS Knafel K262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Speaker: Cassandra Xin Guan, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology

The opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics was notable for its spectacular deployment of the mass human ornament. In 2022, a second Olympic opening ceremony took place amidst a global pandemic and rising geopolitical tension between China and the US. This time around the hot and noisy masses that thrilled American television viewers with their coordinated precision have vanished from the scene of representation. In documentations of the two events: one hot, one cold; one crowded, one empty; one bursting with life, one eerily devoid of humanity—we see a thermal-aesthetic inversion that assigns representational values to an under-theorized historical interval between China’s first and second Olympic Games. This talk will tarry with the chronotopic form of this interval, with, that is, the time-space of historical figuration. Drawing attention to the emergence of a nationalist imaginary determined by the paradox of automation, I ask what global forces are responsible for the cooling of the mass spectacle’s hot noise, and what happens to the efficacy of the vitalized icon when the masses exit the mass ornament?

Cassandra Xin Guan is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at The MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology. She holds a PhD in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University and was Dean’s Faculty Fellow in the Program of Science, Technology, Society (STS). She is currently working on two books in tandem: “Maladaptive Media: ‘Life’ and Other Works of Animation” and “Imagine There’s No Human: China in Animation.” Her writings have appeared in October, Screen, and Critical Inquiry.

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Yu-Yueh Tsai - Indigenous DNA as A Metaphor: Scientific Debate on the Rediscovery of Taiwanese Ancestry and Nation-Building
2023-04-12 11:00 - 12:30 | Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave., 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
Speaker: Yu-Yueh Tsai, Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica; HYI Visiting Scholar, 2022-23Chair: Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School

The development of genealogical science in the twenty-first century has important implications for national and racial/ethnic construction. In Taiwan, genetic research on the origins of Taiwanese has involved racial/ethnic issues but also the dispute over Taiwan’s national identity with the People’s Republic of China, which claims that “we have the same roots” or “blood is thicker than water.” After the end of martial law (1945-1987), scientific research on multi-origins and genetic makeup of Taiwanese emerged. In particular, Marie Lin, M.D., widely known as “the mother of the research on Taiwanese blood,” and her teams have been devoted to revealing the origins of the ethnic groups in Taiwan. My research pushes the concept of co-production between science and politics (Jasanoff, 2004) further by addressing the “nationalization of biomedicine” and the “biomedicalization of the nation”. I explore how Taiwan’s changing identity politics, including the emergence of the new categorization of four great ethnic groups, multiculturalism, and Taiwanese nationalism, has profoundly influenced genetic research on Taiwanese genealogy and how scientific findings produced in the lab have then spilled out into both Taiwan and the PRC through journals, media, history textbooks, and public disputes since the 1990s. For genealogical science to play a constructive role in identity-making, this research shows that we need to remain vigilant to genetic technology, scientific knowledge formation, and methodology by looking at scientists’ works and discourses through an STS perspective to extend the epistemological reflection.

Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar talk

Seating is limited. Masks are required for all in-person audience members.Info: https://www.harvard-yenching.org/events/indigenous-dna-as-a-metaphor-scientific-debate-on-the-rediscovery-of-taiwanese-ancestry-and-nation-building/

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2023 China Law Symposium: Reacquainting with China through Common Interests - Collaborating on Climate Change
2023-04-12 12:15 - 13:15 | WCC 2009, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138

The Future of the U.S.-Philippines Alliance: A Conversation with Martin Romualdez, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
2023-04-19 14:45 - 16:00 | Wexner W-434 A.B, 19 Eliot St, Cambridge, 02138, United States
RSVP Required

Speaker: Martin Romualdez, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the PhilippinesPlease join the Asia-Pacific Initiative and the Defense Project for a conversation with Martin Romualdez, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines. The Speaker will deliver remarks on the future of the U.S.-Philippines alliance, the foreign and defense policy of the Philippines under President Marcos, and evolving geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region. His remarks will be followed by a conversation moderated by Eric Rosenbach (Co-Director of the Belfer Center).

Advance registration is required, and attendance is limited to current Harvard affiliates (students, staff, faculty, fellows) who are Harvard ID holders. Confirmed attendees will receive a confirmation email.

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