Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

Aging in China: Labor Participation, Retirement, Pension and Long-term Care Insurance
2021-07-08 08:00 - 10:00 (America/New_York) | Massachusetts
China’s population is ageing rapidly at a rate that surpasses most of its Asian neighbors and advanced economies in the West. In 2015, 10.5% of the population was aged 65+, and this number is projected to grow to 26.1% by 2050. Evidencing increases in life expectancy, the growth of the 80+ population from 22 million (or 1.5%) in 2015 to an expected 115 million (or 8.2%) by 2050 is particularly consequential. The challenges presented by the ageing of China’s population are vast and complex. This session examines the effect of ageing on economic growth, labor market decisions and the opportunities and challenges in financing elder care to meet the needs of the ageing population.
This session brings together leading experts to share their research on these important issues. The session will start with a brief introduction by Winnie Yip, followed by four presentations and commentaries and moderated discussions with discussants. There will be plenty of time for exchanges and interactions with the online audience as well.
For more information, visit https://www.healtheconomics.org/page/PreCongressSessionJuly8-12pm-2pmGMT.

Nancy Steinhardt - Convergence and Entanglement: Reconsidering the Mongol Architectural Narrative
2021-07-23 21:00 - 23:00 | Massachusetts
Speaker: Nancy Steinhardt, Professor of East Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art, University of Pennsylvania
Among approximately four hundred buildings that survive in China from the period of Mongolian rule, 1271-1368, about one percent have features that sharply distinguish them from the rest: a pagoda, a minaret, an observatory, a mausoleum, and rock-carved architecture are examples. The pagoda, minaret, and observatory are put forth in any study that seeks to prove the infiltration of foreign architecture into China during the Mongol century.
We are pleased to invite Professor Nancy Steinhardt, Professor of East Asian Art at UPenn and Curator of Chinese Art at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, to present part of her work on the narrative of Chinese architecture during Mongolian rule.
This lecture, “Convergence and Entanglement: Reconsidering the Mongol Architectural Narrative” re-examines these buildings and their relation in the scope of Chinese architecture. The five buildings featured in this talk calls for a reconsideration of the impact of Mongolian rule on Chinese architecture, guided by the themes of convergence and entanglement. The lecture comes as part of CAMLab Embodied Architecture project, endeavoring to highlight the work of Chinese architects.
Nancy Steinhardt is Professor of East Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art at the University of Pennsylvania where she has taught since 1982. She received her PhD at Harvard in 1981 and was a Junior Fellow at Harvard from 1978-81. Steinhardt taught at Bryn Mawr from 1981-1982. She has broad research interests in the art and architecture of China and China’s border regions, particularly problems that result from the interaction between Chinese art and that of peoples to the North, Northeast, and Northwest.
Presented via Zoom
Registration Required
Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ORWTbEjCRr6ByTiAXdGwDg

Investment Screening and Supply Chain Security: Japanese, EU, and U.S. Perspectives on China
2021-09-27 12:00 - 13:00 | Massachusetts
Panelists:
Sarah Bauerle-Danzman, Assistant Professor, Department of International Studies, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, Indiana University Bloomington
Sophie Meunier Aitsahalia, Senior Research Scholar, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; Co-Director, European Union Program at Princeton, Princeton University
Kristin Vekasi, Academic Associate, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University; Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and School of Policy & International Affairs, University of Maine
Moderator: Christina L. Davis, Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations; Professor of Government; Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
For more information, please visit: https://programs.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/panel-9-27-21
Presented via Zoom
Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkcOiuqTIrHtGDut-qpTKogX-dwA9OLZXC

Yangyang Cheng - Those Who Fall Behind Get Beaten Up: Can Science Build a Strong China?
2021-09-28 10:30 - 11:45 | Massachusetts
Speaker: Yangyang Cheng, Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale Law School; Columnist at SupChina.
From the last Chinese empire to the current People’s Republic, generations of politicians and intellectuals have sought advanced science and technology to build a strong China. They pondered the relationship between East and West, tradition and modernity, national allegiance and cosmopolitan ideals. Their efforts have shaped the path of China’s development and mapped the contours of Chinese identity.
In this talk, I will trace their accomplishments and regrets, as well as lessons for today, through the lives of two men from my hometown of Hefei, born a century apart. One was late Qing’s most revered statesman. The other is one of the first two Nobel laureates from China. As the role of science and technology becomes one of the most contentious issues in U.S.-China relations, their stories teach about the forces that propelled China’s rise, the ways lives can be squeezed by geopolitics, and the risks of using science for state power.
Yangyang Cheng is a particle physicist and essayist. Her writings have appeared in The New York Times, MIT Technology Review, and ChinaFile, among other publications. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Yale Law School and a columnist at SupChina.|
Presented via Zoom
Registration Required
Register at: https://asiacenter.harvard.edu/events/those-who-fallbehind-get-beaten-up-can-science-build-a-strong-china-1454
Part of the Science and Technology in Asia Seminar Series

Weixia Gu - Dispute Resolution in China: Litigation, Arbitration, Mediation and their Interactions
2021-10-07 20:30 - 22:00 | Massachusetts
Speaker: Weixia Gu, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong
For more details, including a Zoom link, please visit http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/eals/events.html.

David Cheng Chang - Escaping From the Communists and Then From the Anti-Communists: A Prisoner’s Odyssey From Southwest China to Korea, India, and Argentina
2021-10-13 10:00 - 11:30 | Massachusetts
Speaker: David Cheng Chang, Division of Humanities, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; HYI-Radcliffe Institute Fellow, 2021-22
Chair/discussant: Arunabh Ghosh, Associate Professor of History, Harvard University
By the end of the Korean War, only 88 out of more than 150,000 Chinese and North Korean prisoners of war (POWs) refused to return to either side of their divided countries; instead, they sought asylum in neutral nations. Using oral history interviews and archival documents from the United States, Taiwan, and India, this talk charts the life history of Cheng Liren: from his education as a police academy cadet during the civil war and his first job as a police officer in his home province Guizhou in the final days of the Nationalist regime, to his desperate enlistment in the Communist army, desertion in Korea, rise and fall as an anti-Communist POW leader on Koje and Cheju Islands, his daring escape from fellow anti-Communist POWs at Panmunjom, to his two-year sojourn in India, and his final settlement and business success in Argentina.
Presented via Zoom
Registration Required
Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItd-qurD8rGNJBFrr8tS6X1695eSvlSswX
More info: https://www.harvard-yenching.org/events/escaping-from-the-communists-and-then-from-the-anti-communists-a-prisoners-odyssey-from-southwest-china-to-korea-india-and-argentina/

Panel Discussion - The Future of Africa-China Engagement/Relations
2021-10-15 11:15 - 12:30 | Massachusetts
Speakers:
Maria Adele Carrai, Assistant Professor of Global China Studies, NYU Shanghai; Associate, Harvard University Asia Center
Folashadé Soulé, Senior Research Associate, Global Economic Governance Programme, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
Lina Benabdallah, Assistant Professor, Politics and International Affairs Department, Wake Forest University
Moderator: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong, Ellen Gurney Professor of History and Professor of African and African American Studies; Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies
Sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center; Co-sponsored by the Harvard University Center for African Studies and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University
Presented via Zoom Webinar.
Register here: https://tinyurl.com/4hs83am4

Panel Discussion: Overcoming Challenges in the Research Environment in China
2021-11-01 12:00 - 13:30 | Massachusetts
Read the summary of the event here.
Panelists:Elizabeth Perry, Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard-Yenching InstituteDenise Ho, Assistant Professor of 20th Century Chinese History, Yale UniversityRobert Weller, Professor of Anthropology, Boston UniversityYuen Yuen Ang, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Michigan
Moderator: Michael Szonyi, Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History and Director, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University
This panel discussion will focus on guidance and advice for late-stage graduate students who are experiencing challenges accessing archives, conducting interviews, or who otherwise face the types of barriers faced when conducting research in China but are now intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the summary of the event here.
Presented via Zoom Webinar
***Note: This live discussion will NOT be simulcast on our YouTube channel nor available for viewing at a later date.***
Co-sponsored by:

Symposium - Social Technology for Eldercare in China and Global Aging
2021-11-17 19:00 - 21:30 | Massachusetts
Panelists:Ann Forsyth, Ruth and Frank Stanton Professor of Urban Planning, Harvard Graduate School of DesignFawwaz Habbal, Executive Dean for Education and Research, Harvard John A. Paulson School Of Engineering And Applied SciencesEric Krakauer, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Directs the Global Palliative Care Program, Massachusetts General HospitalJing, Jun, Professor, School of Social Sciences Tsinghua UniversityChen, Hongtu, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical SchoolPan, Tianshu, Professor, School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan UniversityWinnie Yip, Professor of the Practice of Global Health Policy and Economics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.David Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Conor Walsh, Paul A. Maeder Professor, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied SciencesTarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business SchoolSue Levkoff, Professor, University of South CarolinaEllen Seely, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical SchoolAn, Ning Hefei University of Technology

Moderator: Chen Hongtu, Assistant Professor of Psychology Harvard Medical SchoolPresented via ZoomRegister at:https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JytENc47RcmShXKwJL6ksA

Uyghur Culture Fest and Call to Action
2021-12-06 18:00 - 19:15 | Barker Center, Thompson Room, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA, 02138
The Harvard Human Rights Working Group is hosting a Uyghur culture fest and call to action together with members of Boston’s Uyghur community on Monday, December 6 from 6:00-7:15 pm, featuring Uyghur music, food, and art. This event will include opportunities to learn Uyghur calligraphy and dance, to hear a reading from a Uyghur poet, and to learn about the language and history of the Uyghur people. Speakers will share their own families’ experiences in the Uyghur genocide and provide information about ways to support Uyghur freedom. Registration is encouraged but not required; RSVP here.
It is important to us that everyone feels comfortable attending this event; to that end, nobody at this event will be photographed without their prior permission.

Art Study Center Seminar at Home, with Hong Chun Zhang
2021-12-10 11:00 - 12:00 | Massachusetts
Speakers:
Hong Chun Zhang, Artist
Jerrica Li, Harvard College Class of ’22, founder, The Wave magazine, Harvard University
Sarah Laursen, Alan J. Dworsky Associate Curator of Chinese Art, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art, Harvard Art Museums
In her work, Kansas-based Chinese artist Hong Chun Zhang reimagines the world around her as enveloped in hair. In conversation with The Wave, Harvard’s Asian literary and arts magazine, Zhang will explore how her identity, the environment, and the dual pandemics are woven into her recent work.
Presented via Zoom
Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PhWLKYlLT56HBdT_K3xXxQ
More information: https://harvardartmuseums.org/calendar/art-study-center-seminar-at-home-with-hong-chun-zhang

Japan, the U.S., and Economic and Security Policy Linkages in the Taiwan Strait
2021-12-13 09:15 - 10:45 | Massachusetts
Panelists:
Tain Jy Chen, Professor of Economics, Taipei School of Economics and Political Science; Professor Emeritus, National Taiwan UniversitySadamasa Oue, Senior Fellow, Asia Pacific Initiative; Lt. Gen. (retired), Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF)Shelley Rigger, Brown Professor of Political Science, Davidson CollegeDaniel Russel, Vice President, International Security and Diplomacy, Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI)Moderator: Christina L. Davis, Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations; Professor of Government; Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
More information: https://programs.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/panel-12-13-21
Presented via Zoom
Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAvdOGoqT8qHdyTPk93XDdtrGffSR8AeicM
This seminar is part of the Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises, supported by a grant from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP).

Harvard Film Archive Film Screening - Tabooed Initiation: Two Early Films by Mou Tun-Fei
2022-01-21 08:00 - 2022-01-31 07:59 | Massachusetts
I Didn’t Dare Tell You / Bugan gen ni jiang, 78 minutes, Taiwan, 1969. Mandarin with English subtitles.
The End of the Track / Pao Dao Zhongdian, 90 minutes, Taiwan, 1970. Mandarin with English subtitles.
Recently discovered by the Taiwan Film & Audiovisual Institute, I Didn’t Dare Tell You and The End of the Track debuted at the 2018 Taiwan International Documentary Festival and have since toured the world. Encompassing a wide affective spectrum—from repressed yearning to mournful regrets, from abusive love to homoerotic desire—they represent the tabooed initiation of a visionary director whose versatile career has yet to be fully appreciated.
This virtual series was curated and coordinated by Harvard University’s East Asian Film & Media Working Group.
For more information on each film, as well as virtual screening information, visit https://watchhfa.eventive.org/welcome.

Tatsuya Nakanishi - Chinese-Speaking Muslims’ Responses to Islamic Intellectual Trends from West, South and Central Asia during the Nineteenth Century
2022-01-26 16:00 - 17:30 | Massachusetts
Speaker: Tatsuya Nakanishi, Associate Professor, Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University; HYI Visiting Scholar, 2021-22
Chair/discussant: Ali Asani, Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Harvard University
HYI Visiting Scholars Talk
Presented via Zoom
Registration link: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEocuyrrDwiGdZ8o3s2RwLBWoSR8cKtEDE8
More information: https://www.harvard-yenching.org/events/chinese-speaking-muslims-responses-to-islamic-intellectual-trends-from-west-south-and-central-asia-during-the-nineteenth-century/

Yuen Yuen Ang - Does Corruption Really Disappear as Countries Grow Richer?
2022-02-10 12:00 - 13:00 | Massachusetts
Speaker: Yuen Yuen Ang, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Discussant: Patrick O. Okigbo, founder of Nextier and M-RCBG senior fellow
This webinar is part of M-RCBG’s weekly Business & Government Series. Yuen Yuen Ang is the author of How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016) and China’s Gilded Age: The Paradox of Economic Boom and Vast Corruption (2020). In 2021,she was named by Apolitical among the Top 100 Most Influential Academics in Government. She is also the inaugural recipient of the Theda Skocpol Prize for Emerging Scholar from the American Political Science Association for “impactful contributions to comparative politics.”
Hosted by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School
This event is being co-hosted by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Harvard University Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
Presented via Zoom
Register at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_o7m6hgkMRp-vG5WcVOmuVQ

Victoria Chen - Coastal Formosan, Nuclear Austronesian, and beyond: How do Formosan languages Inform Theories of Austronesian Expansion?
2022-03-03 19:30 - 21:00 | Presented via Zoom
Topics:

Science and Technology

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Speakers

The Indigenous languages of Taiwan feature two patterns of morphological discrepancy. First, only some possess a symmetrical morphological paradigm associated with a phenomenon known as ‘noun-verb homophony’. Second, only a handful of the languages allow the Proto-Austronesian stative affix ma- to be used in a transitive clause. This talk addresses how these two foci of variation inform our understanding of the Austronesian diaspora and further explains how new comparative data on these phenomena offers a simpler answer to two ongoing debates in the field.

Venue

Wendy Leutert - The Reform & Global Expansion of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises
2022-03-10 12:00 - 14:00 | Massachusetts
Speaker: Wendy Leutert, Assistant Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, Indiana University Bloomington.
Discussant: Meg Rithmire, F. Warren MacFarlan Associate Professor in Business, Government, and International Economy, Harvard Business School.
Hosted by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Presented via Zoom
Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MULQyAnBS52u1kSTQIGNNw

Roselyn Hsueh - Micro-Institutional Foundations of Capitalism: Sectoral Pathways to Globalization in China, India, and Russia
2022-04-07 12:00 - 13:00 | Massachusetts
Speaker: Roselyn Hsueh, Associate Professor of Political Science, Temple University
Hsueh will discuss how her book’s Strategic Value Framework shows that the perceived strategic value orientation of state elites rooted in significant phases of internal and external pressures shape dominant patterns of market governance, which vary by country and sector within country. Specifically, Hsueh’s research demonstrates techno-security developmentalism in China has shaped bifurcated capitalism, which governs dual-use capital- and knowledge-intensive versus labor-intensive industries. In India, neoliberal self-reliance has determined the bifurcated liberalism, which grounds transnationally networked high-tech versus rural, small-scale sectors. A bifurcated oligarchy governs defense and resource-oriented versus labor-intensive sectors in Russia shaped by resource security nationalism.
Ash Center Director Tony Saich will moderate.
Presented via Zoom
Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/8116415902412/WN_fzVkW01gRZS2iw01RSUJcw

More information: https://ash.harvard.edu/event/book-talk-micro-institutional-foundations-capitalism-sectoral-pathways-globalization-china

Jun Jing - Meaningful Dying and End of Life Care in China
2022-06-02 21:00 - 22:15 | Presented via Zoom
Topics:

Science and Technology

Register now

Improving end of life care in China represents one particularly important opportunity to enhance the well-being of the country’s older adult population as they enter their final phase of life. Designing effective end of life care policies and programs for Chinese communities necessitates asking fundamental questions about the factors that enable people to die meaningfully, including:

Does meaningful death signify only what is good for people themselves as individuals?How does one know what is best for oneself?What roles do doctors or families play in making critical end of life decisions?Is personal autonomy the sole criterion for advanced care planning?

To answer these questions, Dr. Jun JING, Professor of Social Anthropology at Tsinghua University, will discuss narratives on death and dying in mainland China based on hundreds of interviews conducted with family relatives, physicians, nurses, social workers, and voluntary workers in the field of palliative care. Dr. Jing will explore how these narratives relate to what he calls the “social ecology of healthcare,” defined as the social values governing healthcare systems, life-and-death decisions, and the corresponding behavioral patterns.

The event will be moderated by Dr. Winnie Yip, Professor of Global Health Policy and Economics and Faculty Director of the Harvard China Health Partnership.

Venue

Lessons for East Asia from Eastern Europe’s Institutional Changes and Governing Challenges
2022-07-28 08:00 - 10:00 | Presented via Zoom
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Speakers:Bojan Bugarič, Professor at the University of Sheffield and former Deputy Interior Minister of SloveniaLance Liangping Gore, Senior Research Fellow at the NUS East Asian InstituteJacques Rupnik, Professor at CERI-Sciences Po and former advisor to President Vaclav Havel and to the European Commission

Moderated by: Richard Yarrow, Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and Visiting Fellow at the National University of Singapore

In the 1980s, governing systems of Eastern Europe were in a state of turmoil. Few people trusted political leaders or regimes’ ideologies. Large, little-changed bureaucracies were unable to cope with growing pressure for social and economic improvement. By the late 1980s, widespread protests shook political systems across the region, leading to a period of steady, inconsistent political changes and reform attempts across the region.Thirty years after the first elections following the end of the Warsaw Pact, what can countries in Asia learn from the governing challenges and development of new political institutions in Eastern Europe? This webinar brings experts on Eastern European politics to discuss causes of political turmoil in the 1980s, the challenges of reforming Eastern Europe’s political structures, and why Eastern European countries experienced varied outcomes in their institutional development. Through this analysis, panelists will comment on lessons for East Asia to learn from Eastern Europe’s political changes.

This event is the first part of a two-part series of panels. One can register for the second part, on economic challenges and transition, at https://nus-sg.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IVgHUfzMQAiGAnef7aNwLQ?timezone_id=America%2FNew_York.

Venue

Lessons for East Asia from Eastern Europe’s Economic Challenges and Transformation
2022-08-03 08:00 - 10:00 | Presented via Zoom
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Speakers:Lajos Bokros, Professor at Central European University and former Minister of Finance of HungaryMarcin Piatkowski, Professor at Kozminski University, author of Europe’s Growth Champion, and former visiting scholar at Harvard’s Center for European StudiesDwight Perkins, Professor Emeritus in the Harvard Economics Department, former Director of the Fairbank Center and the Harvard Institute for International Development

Moderated by: Richard Yarrow, Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and Visiting Fellow at the National University of Singapore

In the 1980s, Eastern European economies were stagnant or in decline. Mass shortages and unemployment combined with decaying institutions to throw economies and societies in turmoil. Three decades later, Eastern Europe has transformed. Of the 23 countries to become high income since 1992, nine are in Eastern Europe. In the 1980s, Poland had a lower per capita GDP than Suriname; today, the total GDP of the EU states in Eastern Europe is larger than the GDP of Russia. In much of the region, corruption has declined, while education, health, and other social and economic indicators have improved.How did these changes occur, and what dilemmas did Eastern European countries encounter during the transformation of their economies and institutions? This webinar brings experts from across Eastern Europe to discuss causes behind Eastern Europe’s economic problems, and the challenges of rejuvenating economies and institutions after the end of the Cold War. In doing so, panelists will discuss the potential lessons that East Asian countries can learn from the challenges and successes of Eastern Europe’s economic reforms and transformation.

This event is the second part of a two-part series of panels. One can register for the first part, on governing challenges, at https://nus-sg.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IVgHUfzMQAiGAnef7aNwLQ?timezone_id=America%2FNew_York.

Venue

In Search for a New Architecture for New China— Zhang Kaiji and Chinese Modern Architecture in the 1950s
2022-08-16 09:00 - 11:00 | Presented via Zoom
Topics:

Register now

Organizer:Harvard CAMLab

Academic Convenor:Jeffrey W. CODYFormer Senior Project Specialist, Building & Sites Department, Getty Conservation Institute

WU JiangFormer Vice-President of Tongji UniversityAcademician of the French Academy of Architecture

Panelist:FAN SizhengTeaching Professor, College of Technology, Architecture and Applied Engineering, Bowling Green State University

CHENG LizhenAssociate Professor, School of Architecture and Design, Beijing Jiaotong UniversityAuthor of Architect, ZHANG Kaiji

CHANG Yung HoPrincipal Architect FCJZProfessor of the Practice MIT

LAI DelinMorgan Endowed Chair in Fine Arts, Department of Fine Arts, University of LouisvilleForeword Writer of Architect, ZHANG Kaiji

LI ShiqiaoWeedon Professor in Asian Architecture, Architecture + Architectural History,Director of the PhD in the Constructed Environment Program, School of Architecture, University of Virginia

Moderator:ZHANG QinAssociate in Research, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard UniversityAssociate, Harvard CAMLab

MIN JiajianProject Lead, Harvard CAMLab

Interpreter:ZHU NingResearcher, Harvard CAMLab

Abstract:Zhang Kaiji (1912-2006), graduated from the Department of Architectural Engineering of the Central University in 1935, is one of the most outstanding Chinese architects of the second generation. In the dynamic period of political and cultural transformation, the division and collision of different ideologies contributed to Zhang Kaiji’s architectural practice. In his 71 years of profession, he synthesized different ideologies and design theories, practiced with a wide range of typologies, focused on various issues of the built environment, and elevated the professional and technical exploration to a humanistic, social and historical level.

On the occasion of the 110th anniversary of Mr. Zhang Kaiji’s birth and the upcoming release of the new book “Architect Zhang Kaiji”, Harvard CAMLab China Builders Project launched this Academic Symposium. This event was academically convened by Professor Jeff Cody and Professor Wu Jiang. It is an honor to invite architect Chang Yung Ho, son of Zhang Kaiji, Professor Cheng Lizhen, the author of “Architect Zhang Kaiji”, Professor Lai Delin, the foreword writer of “Architect Zhang Kaiji”, and many other influential scholars. Starting from this new book, we will focus on Zhang Kaiji’s influence on Chinese modern architecture and urban planning, and more importantly, the underlying social, cultural and economic context in the 1950s, as well as the meaning of “New Architecture for New China” in a broader context.

Schedule:(120mins in total)

Part I Introduction 10minsIntroduction to Harvard CAMLab, Symposium, Panelists, Topic and Background

Part II Panel Talk 55minsEach Convenor/Panelist will have 10 mins to address the topic with their related research.

Part III Discussion and Q&A 45minsAcademic Convenors will summarize panel talks and start the discussion and the group dialogue.

Part IV Event Summary 10mins

Symposium in both Chinese and English with Simultaneous InterpretingThis virtual workshop is open to the public with registration. It will be recorded and the edited version will be released to the public online, or in other forms on the Harvard CAMLab platform.

Venue

Youth Political Mobilization & Socialization in Contemporary China: The Centenary of the Communist Youth League
2022-09-08 08:20 - 2022-09-09 13:15 | Massachusetts
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2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the official establishment of the Chinese Communist Youth League (中国共产主义青年团, CYL), one of the largest youth political organizations in the world. As the Chinese Communist Party’s assistant and reserve force, the CYL is the Party’s main channel to socialize youth in the official political discourse and practices, and mobilize them to support the current system. Despite the importance of the organization, English-language academic work on its history, politics and multifaceted role in contemporary China remains sporadic.The CYL’s centenary offers an opportunity to bring together scholars from different disciplines to discuss their research and insights on Chinese youth political socialization and mobilization, with particular attention to the League and connected youth organizations. The Ash Center, working with Dr. Jérôme Doyon (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Sofia Graziani (University of Trento) and Dr. Konstantinos Tsimonis (King’s College London), is pleased to organize an online seminar, taking place on September 8th and 9th, examining emerging scholarship related to communist youth organizations in China.

Event Schedule Thursday, September 8th • Introduction: 8:20-8:30 AM by Tony Saich, Daewoo Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School • Panel 1: The Mobilization of Youth during the Chinese Communist Party’s Early Years: 8:30-10:30 AM • Panel 2: The Socialization and Co-optation of Young Chinese: 11:00 AM-1:00 PMFriday, September 9th • Panel 3: Youth Organizations and State-Society Relations: 8:30-10:30 AM • Panel 4: Youth Narratives and Propaganda: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM • Concluding Remarks: 1:00-1:15 PM with Stanley Rosen, Professor of Political Science from the University of Southern CaliforniaDay 2 registration link: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0YAGp8NPRjyltJQPKgD1TQ

Venue

Christine Wong - Local Finance Under Siege: Unpacking the Paralysis of Fiscal Policy on the Eve of the 20th Party Congress
2022-09-12 20:30 - 22:00 | Massachusetts
Zoom Meeting link

Speaker: Christine Wong, National University of Singapore

Local finances are under stress. In the first seven months of 2022 tax revenues were down 14%, and land revenues 32%, yet payroll and other expenditures have to be met, including the Covid-related bills for mass testing and other containment measures. Since 2021 social media has been flooded with posts reporting steep pay cuts for civil servants even in rich coastal regions. National aggregate data show social spending trending downward in GDP-shares. This seminar looks at the crisis in local finance that has accelerated through the pandemic, with local governments increasingly underfunded and tied down by contradictory policies. I will argue that local fiscal problems caused the government to under-deliver on its announced fiscal stimulus programs in both 2020 and 2021, a scenario on-track to be repeated in 2022 despite the massive injection of special project bonds.

Christine Wong is currently Visiting Research Professor at the East Asia Institute, National University of Singapore. She has previously taught at the Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, the University of Melbourne, Oxford, University of Washington, University of California at Santa Cruz and Berkeley, and at Mount Holyoke College. She has also held senior positions at the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Christine has published widely on China’s public finance and rural development. Her recent publications include “Reforming public finance for the new era” (CPC Futures), “Why China’s 2022 fiscal stimulus will fall short” (EAI Commentary No. 53), “China’s 2022 budget and the fate of local government finance” (EAI Background Brief No. 1644), and “Plus ça Change: Three Decades of Fiscal Policy and Central–Local Relations in China” (China – an International Journal).

We would like to thank the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab, the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, and the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. for supporting this event. Please subscribe to our mailing list if you’d like to receive e-mail notifications: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/urbanchinaseminar.

Venue

Urban China Series featuring Yang Zhan - "Keep Moving, Little Bees!": Real Estate Promotion and the Financial Roots of Urban Precariousness in China
2022-09-26 20:30 - 22:00 | Presented via Zoom
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Speaker: Yang Zhan, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityDevelopers in China’s real estate industry organize temporary workers, or “little bees,” to promote sales. Most developers rely on high-interest loans, and must repay their creditors as quick as possible to keep the chain of funding intact, reduce risk, and secure profits. Thus, little bees are pushed to sell quicker, rather than to sell more units. Due to this hyper-financialization, time on the market becomes a key management target. The little bees aim to convert random encounters on the street into meaningful business relationships. This conversion is facilitated by maps, numbers and speculative culture. Moreover, the demands on sales time are exploitative because in the Chinese real estate market there is a discrepancy between agency and responsibility: Even though little bees’ daily movements are beyond their control, they shoulder immense responsibility, suffer from physical and psychological stress, and are fired at little cost to management. Analyzing this entanglement with time and financialization provides critical insight into urban precariousness in China.

Yang Zhan is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She was selected a research fellow of China India Institute at New School for Social Research in 2021. Zhan’s research interests include infrastructure of development, urbanization and migration, mobility and temporality, voluntarism and anthropological theory. Zhan is the winner of 2020 Eduard B. Vermeer Prize for the Best Article and was shortlisted for Holland Prize in 2022. Zhan’s articles have appeared in Urban Studies, Cities, Positions, Dialectical Anthropology, Urban Anthropology, Anthropological Forum, China Information, Pacific Affairs, among others. Zhan is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled Brutal Temporary: Venturing Migrants and the Politics of Future on China’s Urban Fringe.

We would like to thank the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab, the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, and the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. for supporting this event. Please subscribe to our mailing list if you’d like to receive e-mail notifications: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/urbanchinaseminar.

Venue

Film Screenings - The Face of Time: Recent Films by Tsai Ming-Liang
2022-09-30 19:00 - 2022-10-21 19:00 | Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Rare and valuable is the filmmaker who expands one’s conception of the cinematic art; rarer still is the filmmaker who enlarges one’s notion of the term “director.” Malaysian-born, Taiwan-based auteur Tsai Ming-liang (b. 1957) accomplished the former with his rigorous, uncompromising and reputation-defining features of the nineties and early 2000s, and ever since his self-declared retirement from narrative filmmaking after 2013’s Stray Dogs, he has been anything but inactive while exploring the endless permutations of what it means to be an image maker in the 21st century. Among the many formally adventurous international filmmakers who have struck out for greener pastures in the past decade upon finding the commercial prospects of arthouse cinema distribution increasingly deficient, Tsai has dabbled in the gallery space, the black box theater, virtual reality and the independently run exhibition space as venues to both showcase his uncategorizable work and influence how he produces it. Along the way, he has transformed his very approach to capturing filmic material, and where once a pithy precis for his films existed—Antonioni-esque studies of alienated Taiwanese youth, for instance—there is no longer such a firm summary for exactly what a Tsai Ming-liang project looks like or how it operates.Tsai Ming-Liang and his collaborators will appear in person at film screenings on October 10 and 14.For more information on this series, including a complete listing of showtimes and information on purchasing tickets, visit https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/the-face-of-time-recent-films-by-tsai-ming-liang.

This event is co-sponsored by the Harvard Film Archive and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

Venue

Navigating Asia: Interdisciplinary Conversations in Honor of Ezra Vogel
2022-10-14 16:00 - 2022-10-15 17:30 | CGIS South, Tsai Auditorium (S010), 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
This conference is organized to honor and celebrate the late Professor Ezra Vogel’s role as the inaugural Director of the Harvard Asia Center and his commitment to transnational scholarship.

Day 1: Friday, October 14, 2022

4:00-5:00pm Welcome:James Robson (Victor and William Fung Director, Harvard Asia Center; James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University)Opening Remarks:Neil Rudenstine (President Emeritus, Harvard University, 1991-2001)Keynote:“Why America Needs an Ezra Vogel for Southeast Asia” Professor Chan Heng Chee (Ambassador-at-Large, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, former Singaporean Ambassador to the United States 1996-2012; Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute; Chair of Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design)Reception to follow5:00-6:00pmDay 2: Saturday, October 15, 20228:15-8:45am Coffee and Continental Breakfast 8:45-9:00am Opening Comments by Arthur Kleinmen (Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Medical Anthropology in Global Health and Social Medicine, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Former Director of the Asia Center, Harvard University)

9:00-10:30am Panel 1: Governance and LeadershipModerator: Elizabeth J. Perry (Director, Harvard-Yenching Institute; Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government, Former Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University)Panelists:Christina L. Davis (Director, Program on US-Japan Relations, Harvard University; Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University)Cheng Li (Director, John L. Thornton China Center and Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy, Brookings Institute)Eun Mee Kim (President, Ewha Woman’s University; Professor, Graduate School of International Studies; former Dean, Graduate School of International Studies; and former Director, Institute for Development and Human Security)Nakano Koichi (Professor, Sophia University)Doreen Lee (Professor of Anthropology; Acting Director, Asia and the World Program, Northeastern University)10:30-10:45am Coffee Break10:45am-12:15pmPanel 2: Regional RelationsModerator: Arunabh Ghosh (Professor, Department of History, Harvard University) and Carter Eckert (Yoon Se Young Professor of Korean History, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University)Panelists:Selina Ho (Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore)Andrew Mertha (Inaugural Director, SAIS China Global Research Center; George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies, John’s Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies)Hirano Kenichiro (Professor Emeritus Tokyo University and Waseda University; Executive Director, Toyo Bunko)Li Tingjiang (Professor, Faculty of Law, Chuo University, Japan; Director, Center for Japanese Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing)John D. Ciorciari (Associate Dean for Research and Policy Engagement; Professor of Public Policy; Director, International Policy Center and Weiser Diplomacy Center, University of Michigan)12:15-1:15pm Lunch

1:15-2:45pmPanel 3: Political Economy and MarketsModerator: Mark Wu (Director of Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies; Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law, Harvard University)Panelists:William Overholt (Senior Research Fellow, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School)Kristen Looney (Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Government, Georgetown University)Meg Rithmire (F. Warren MacFarlan Associate Professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit, Harvard Business School)Steven Vogel (Il Han New Professor of Asian Studies; Professor of Political Science and Political Economy; Director, Political Economy Program, University of California, Berkeley)2:45-3:00pm Coffee Break 3:00-4:30pmPanel 4: Asia in a Global ContextModerator: Sugata Bose (Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, Harvard University)Panelists: Manjari Chatterjee Miller (Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia, Council on Foreign Relations; Associate Professor of International Relations; Director of the Rising Powers Initiative, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University)Aniket De (Ph.D. student in History, Harvard University)Engseng Ho (Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University; Muhammad Alagil Distinguished Visiting Professor in Arabia Asia Studies, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore)Ambassador Shyam Saran (President of India International Centre; Former Foreign Secretary of India; Indian Ambassador to Myanmar, Nepal, and Indonesia)Karen L. Thornber (Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature, Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Interim Chair, Regional Studies East Asia, Former Director of the Asia Center, Harvard University)

4:30-5:30pmPanel 5: Reflecting on Ezra Vogel and His LegacyModerator: James Robson (Victor and William Fung Director, Harvard Asia Center; James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University)Panelists:Charlotte Ikels (Professor Emerita of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University)Richard E. Dyck (Owner and President, TGK-Japan)Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good (Professor Emerita of Global Health and Social Medicine, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School)Mary C. Brinton (Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology; Director, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University)Chunli Li (Director, International Center for Chinese Studies; Professor, Faculty of Economics, Aichi University)

Venue

Urban China Series featuring Toby Lincoln - Out of the Rubble of World War II: Reconstruction in China in Comparative Perspective
2022-10-17 15:00 - 17:00 | Presented via Zoom
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Speaker: Toby Lincoln, Associate Professor of Chinese Urban History, Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester.This paper explores urban reconstruction in China after WWII, and argues that this was more successful than is normally thought, especially when compared with other countries similarly devastated by war. With a particular focus on Changsha, which probably suffered more destruction than any other city in China, it highlights how reconstruction in the late 1940s laid the foundation for the Chinese Communist Party to consolidate its power after 1949.

Studying postwar reconstruction frees modern Chinese history from the teleology of the Communist Revolution and the grand narrative of the Cold War. This opens the door to comparisons with Europe and other parts of the world, where reconstruction has long taken centre stage. It continues the historical re-evaluation of the Nationalist regime, casts the early years of Maoist China in a new light, and opens up new lines of historical enquiry into the social and cultural legacies of war. Finally, it is my contention that exploring how cities have faced disasters in the past has the potential to provide innovative solutions to contemporary issues.

Toby Lincoln is Associate Professor of Chinese Urban History at the Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester. He is the author of several articles and two books, the most recent of which is a summary of the history of Chinese cities entitled: An Urban History of China (Cambridge, 2021). His current research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, explores how Chinese cities were reconstructed after WWII. Aside from this, he is also interested in questions of urban sustainability in the past and the present.

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

Venue

The United States Indo-Pacific Strategy: A Conversation with Assistant Secretary of State Daniel J. Kritenbrink
2022-10-19 16:00 - 17:15 | Malkin Penthouse, Littauer Building, 79 JFK St., Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
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Speaker: Daniel J. Kritenbrink, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs

Please join the Asia-Pacific Initiative and Future of Diplomacy Project for a conversation with Daniel J. Kritenbrink, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. The Assistant Secretary will deliver remarks on the Biden Administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, followed by a conversation moderated by Chris Li (Director of the Asia-Pacific Initiative) and Erika Manouselis (Manager of the Future of Diplomacy Project).

Advance registration is required, and attendance is limited to current Harvard affiliates (students, staff, faculty, fellows).

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Chia-Ling Wu - Making Multiple Babies: The Anticipatory Governance of Assisted Reproduction in Japan and Taiwan
2022-10-25 10:30 - 11:45 | Presented via Zoom
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Speaker: Chia-Ling Wu, Professor, National Taiwan University

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