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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260427T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260427T160000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260415T161927Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260415T161929Z
UID:44757-1777302000-1777305600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Green Transportation: Co-benefits for Climate\, Air Quality\, and the Economy
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: WU Ye\, Professor\, School of Environment\, Tsinghua University\, Beijing\, China; Executive Deputy Director\, Beijing Laboratory of Environment Frontier\, China \n\n\n\nElectric vehicle (EV) promotion is a key strategy to improve air quality and address climate change. As the world’s largest manufacturer of EVs and batteries\, China’s rapid development in both passenger and commercial fleets has also facilitated the global electrification transition. The promotion of electric vehicles must balance cost viability and environmental benefits\, and notable variations across different use scenarios. Air quality benefits depend on the amount and spatiotemporal distribution of pollutant emission reductions\, whereas climate benefits should be assessed from a life-cycle perspective across EV and battery supply chains. \n\n\n\nThis talk will involve recent data research on real-world carbon footprints\, air pollutant emissions\, traffic activity\, and cost to quantify the carbon reduction\, pollution mitigation\, and economic characteristics of EVs and batteries. Next\, it will present case studies of two megacities\, Shanghai and Chengdu\, evaluating the air quality benefits and costs of different electric truck fleets informed by real-world usage data. For example\, it will introduce the real case of road right policy design which has enhanced the economic competitiveness of electric trucks while generating considerable air quality improvements.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/green-transportation-co-benefits-for-climate-air-quality-and-the-economy/
LOCATION:Pierce Hall 100F\, 29 Oxford St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Wu-ye.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260424T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260424T170000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260408T184306Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260408T184309Z
UID:44742-1777021200-1777050000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Gender Studies and Performance Workshop
DESCRIPTION:9:00 – 9:15 AM: Welcome Remarks \n\n\n\n9:15 – 10:45 AM: Panel One \n\n\n\nCommentators: Waiyee Li\,  Harvard UniversityThomas Kelly\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nEugene Wang\, Harvard UniversityThe Woman Inhabiting a Dog’s Body: How Asian Theatre Evolved? \n\n\n\nWhen did Asian theatre begin—and how? I approach this question through a single\, startling image: Mulian’s mother reborn as a dog. The Mulian story—of a son descending into hell to rescue his damned mother—circulated as scripture\, transformation text\, cave mural\, Ghost Festival ritual\, and eventually full-fledged theatrical spectacle. Its remarkable transmedial persistence demands explanation. \n\n\n\nI argue that Mulian functioned as a conceptual engine for theatre’s evolution. The narrative’s internal pressures—how to render hell visible\, how to stage karmic punishment\, how to embody transformation\, how to make filial devotion sensorially overwhelming—forced successive media to innovate. Cave murals developed sequential and topographic pictorial logics; ritual performances mobilized immersive\, participatory environments; theatre devised acrobatics\, mechanical effects\, demonic choreography\, percussive soundscapes\, and startling audience infiltration. \n\n\n\nThe episode of “the woman inhabiting a dog’s body” crystallizes this engine at work: grotesque degradation and redemptive love fused into a single theatrical demand. The story did not simply migrate across media—it reconfigured them. Asian theatre\, I suggest\, emerged not as a sudden invention but as the cumulative response to a narrative that insisted the invisible be made visible\, the metaphysical made bodily\, and salvation staged before a crowd. \n\n\n\nKangni Huang\, University of Southern California\, Society of Fellows in the HumanitiesThe (After)life of a Stele: The Materiality of Writing in Jiang Shiquan’s Three Plays on Consort Lou \n\n\n\nThis paper focuses on the High Qing dramatist Jiang Shiquan’s 蔣士銓 (1725-1785) three plays on Consort Lou 婁妃\, wife of the rebellious Prince Ning\, Zhu Chenhao 朱宸濠 (d. 1520). The historical Consort Lou leaves only scarce traces in official history\, appearing primarily as a virtuous yet tragic figure whose repeated remonstrations against her husband’s rebellion went unheeded. Meanwhile\, Jiang’s theatrical portrayal of this historical figure shapes the image of Consort Lou into a reflexive voice on the issue of writing as material traces. Among the three plays by Jiang\, the first two\, Yi pian shi 一片石 (A Piece of Stone) and Di’er bei 第二碑 (The Second Stele)\, tell the rediscovery and commemoration of her burial site over the span of twenty-five years. And the last one\, Caiqiao tu 採樵圖 (The Painting of Gathering Wood)\, stages the rebellion and Lou’s virtuous actions during the turmoil. Building on recent scholarship that defines these works as “metahistorical plays\,” my analysis highlights the intricate relationship between Consort Lou’s life story as a virtuous woman and the materiality of writing. It argues that Jiang’s recurring reflection on the precariousness of material texts is deeply intertwined with the constructed image of Lou as both a female author and reader. By recentering on Lou’s authorial and readerly voice in these plays\, this study elucidates how theater not only reimagines but also reinvents gender history. \n\n\n\n10:45 – 11:00 AM: Refreshment Break \n\n\n\n11:00 AM – 1:00 PM: Panel Two \n\n\n\nCommentators: David Der-Wei Wang\, Harvard UniversityEileen Cheng-yin Chow\, Duke University \n\n\n\nNancy Rao\, Rutgers UniversityOpera Actresses in the Cantonese Sojourner Community: From Shanghai to San Francisco \n\n\n\nTaking the 1922 encounter in Shanghai between Cantonese opera actress Li Xuefang and Peking opera star Mei Lanfang as a point of departure\, this paper argues that Cantonese opera’s rising status then was a reconfiguration of cultural capital across regional and diasporic networks. By analyzing the circulation of the term “Bei-Mei-Nan-Xue” (北梅南雪) and the scholar–gentry–merchant alliances that underwrote both of their prominence\, the study demonstrates how operatic prestige was produced through urban modernity and elite patronage. The paper situates Shanghai as a mediating hub in the transpacific cultural economy that linked Cantonese opera to Chinese communities in North America. In this way\, opera actresses emerge not only as performers but as agents in the production of diasporic modernity\, negotiating gender\, regional identity\, and transpacific mobility. \n\n\n\nCatherine V. Yeh\, Boston UniversityHuashanas the Ideal Modern Women \n\n\n\nBetween 1910s and early 1920s a group of talented Peking Opera actors\, led by Mei Lanfang 梅兰芳and followed by three other great dan actors created a new female role called huashan 花衫\,or “flower-shirt.” This was remarked upon at the time by the theater world at large as the main reason for their rise in stardom. Undoubtedly\, the new huashan operas attracted large audiences in part because of the novelty of the role\, which combined the three main dan roles including the morally upright qingyi 青衣\,the coquette sexy huadan and the martial\, spirited wudan. In the huadan the audience saw a more rounded female character that seemed to fit the modern standards of realism\, while the dynamism expressed in this new role appeared to represent the spirit of the time. Yet\, in terms of ideology\, this huashan character does not pose a challenge to the Confucian image of the ideal woman. Embedded in each of the three main dan role types is an essentially Confucian view of womanhood. The real formal breakthrough that challenged the standard ideology of ideal womanhood came with the introduction of dance into Peking opera by Mei Lanfang. The re-creation of the lost Chinese dance by him and his adviser Qi Rushan transformed Peking opera aesthetics and its embedded social values. The form itself projected an alternative ideal womanhood that challenged standard gender ideals. At the same time\, Mei Lanfang and Qi Rushan legitimized the introduction of dance by making the claim that what they were doing was reclaiming a lost Chinese aesthetic heritage. The aestheticism of mei 美or beauty was this new ideology’s outer cloak. \n\n\n\nDaphne P. Lei\, University of California\, IrvineConformity as Rebellion? Convention\, Innovation\, and Gendered Interculturalism in Taiwan Jingju \n\n\n\nTraditional theatrical convention\, which made sense when it was invented in the past\, often appears dated or even ridiculous in the context of innovation or modernization. For instance\, the art of stilting (caiqiao) in jingju\, which was invented for male actors to mimic women’s bound feet during the Qing dynasty\, should have disappeared by now\, since women dominate female roles today and the modern definition of femininity goes beyond foot fetish. However\, not only do many “dated” conventions survive\, but they also work as wonderful stimuli for innovation and as a tool to negotiate conceptions of gender and interculturalism. This talk will focus on recent case studies in innovative jingju and jingju-inspired intercultural theatre in Taiwan\, such as The Tempest by Contemporary Legend Theatre. \n\n\n\n1:00 – 2:00 PM: Lunch Break \n\n\n\n2:00 – 2:15 PM: Workshop participants move to Harvard FAS CAM Lab Lower Level\, Sackler Building\, 485 Broadway\, Cambridge MA \n\n\n\n2:30 – 4:00 PM: Room — A Corporeal Dialogue Across Time (2026) \n\n\n\nJingqiu Guan\, Choreographer/Dancer\, Duke UniversityHan Qin\, Visual Design\, State University of New York at Stony BrookEthan Eldred\, Lighting Design\, Duke University \n\n\n\nRoom is a multimedia solo dance performance inspired by poems carved onto the wooden walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station\, written by Asian immigrants detained and interrogated upon their arrival in the United States between 1910 and 1940. Originally staged inside a translucent cube with four projection walls activated through motion-capture choreography\, the work is reimagined for the spatial architecture of Harvard’s CAMLab\, where four parallel screens transform the space into a layered landscape of memory\, surveillance\, and inscription.  \n\n\n\nHan Qin’s visual design\, combining charcoal drawing\, cyanotype blueprint\, and digital art derived from Guan’s original footage of Angel Island\, renders the archive as both tactile and mediated\, material and spectral. Within this constructed “room\,” the dancer\, juxtaposing the labor of birthing with the violence of immigration control\, positions her body as both witness and translator\, engaging in a cross-temporal dialogue with voices that persist through absence and erasure. Room invites us to ponder how we might listen to and touch our histories with openness and humility\, and how freedom is imagined\, constrained\, and valued.  \n\n\n\nPerformance to be immediately followed by a conversation with Jingqiu Guan and Han Qin\, moderated by Eileen Cheng-yin Chow \n\n\n\n4:00 PM: Reception \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/gender-studies-and-performance-workshop/
LOCATION:CGIS South S020\, Belfer Case Study Room\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Gender Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GSW.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260423T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260423T173000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260420T173810Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T173813Z
UID:44839-1776961800-1776965400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:A Conversation with Ambassador Lui Tuck Yew of Singapore
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJoin us for a fireside chat between Ambassador Lui Tuck Yew and Ambassador Nicholas Burns. The conversation will explore Singapore’s role amid intensifying U.S.–China competition and consider the broader forces shaping today’s international landscape. \n\n\n\nAmb Lui Tuck Yew was appointed Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States in June 2023\, after serving as Ambassador to China (2019–2023) and Japan (2017–2019). He was Minister for Transport (2011–2015)\, concurrently Second Minister for Foreign Affairs (2011–2012) and Defense (2015)\, and Minister for Information\, Communications and the Arts (2009–2011). First elected to Parliament in 2006\, he served as Senior Minister of State until 2009. A Singapore Armed Forces scholar\, Amb Lui rose to Chief of Navy in 1999. He later served as Chief Executive of the Maritime and Port Authority (2003) and CEO of the Housing and Development Board (2005). He has degrees from University of Cambridge\, Trinity College United Kingdom\, and Tufts University\, and he was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) (Military) in 1993\, the Public Administration Medal (Gold) (Military) in 2000\, and the Long Service Medal in 2005. \n\n\n\nAmbassador Nicholas Burns is a Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at the Kennedy School and the Founder and Faculty Chair of the Program on Diplomacy and Statecraft. Burns served as the U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China from 2021-2025.Registration required. Open to Harvard Faculty\, Students\, and Staff.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/a-conversation-with-ambassador-lui-tuck-yew-of-singapore/
LOCATION:Ellwood Democracy Lab – Rubenstein 414AB\, 79 JFK St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/cosponsored-lecture-thumbnail-e1705695585733.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260423T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260423T123000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260415T163611Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260415T163921Z
UID:44769-1776942000-1776947400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:What Factors Influence Senior People’s Digital Health Technology Adoption Decision in China and Thailand: A Qualitative Study
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPanelists:Haijing Hao\, Associate Professor\, Computer Information Systems\, Bentley University; Associate\, Harvard University Asia Center Heiko Gewald\, Research Professor of Information Management\, Neu-Ulm University\, Neu-Ulm\, Germany (joining virtually) Assadaporn Sapsomboon\, Associate Professor of Information Technology\, Department of Statistics\, Chulalongkorn Business School\, Bangkok\, Thailand (joining virtually) \n\n\n\nModerator: Hongtu Chen\, Co-director\, Social Technology for Global Aging Research Initiative at Harvard; Assistant Professor of Psychology\, Harvard Medical School \n\n\n\nRegistration appreciated for planning purpose.  \n\n\n\nThis panel discussion will cover the TAMAG project\, a cross-cultural study examining how seniors in China\, Thailand\, and Germany navigate digital health technologies and the personal challenges of aging. \n\n\n\nThe TAMAG project (Technology Acceptance Model for the Aging Generation) conducted field interviews with seniors (65+) in China\, Thailand\, and Germany during 2025/26. Participants were drawn from diverse backgrounds and varied geographical regions\, including major cities and rural areas. The study focused on seniors’ daily use of digital technologies\, such as smartphones and tablets\, particularly for health-related purposes. Researchers also explored issues critical to older adults\, including the ease of navigating healthcare systems\, experiences with medical consultations\, and personal perceptions of aging and loneliness. While the interviews highlighted the diverse cultural contexts within China and Thailand\, the next phase of analysis will contrast these findings with the Western context\, as represented by the interviews with German participants. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/what-factors-influence-senior-peoples-digital-health-technology-adoption-decision-in-china-and-thailand-a-qualitative-study/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Room S153\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/whar-factors.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260422T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260422T130000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260312T153727Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260312T153730Z
UID:44569-1776857400-1776862800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:What Does It Mean to “Write Oneself” in Tibetan Autobiographical Tradition: The Amazing  Life of Guru Chowang
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Geri Jiebu\, Associate Professor\, School of Chinese Ethnic Minority Language and Literature\, Minzu University of China; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2025-26Chair/Discussant: Janet Gyatso\, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies\, Harvard Divinity School \n\n\n\n\nWhat Does It Mean to “Write Oneself” in Tibetan Autobiographical Tradition: The Amazing Life of Guru Chowang\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/what-does-it-mean-to-write-oneself-in-tibetan-autobiographical-tradition-the-amazing-life-of-guru-chowang/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/FNU-Geri-Jiebu.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T220000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260415T161101Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260415T161103Z
UID:44753-1776803400-1776808800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture Series featuring Zhao Miaoxi —Mismatched Industrial Land Lease Terms: Urban Land Vacancy Induced by Business Turnover
DESCRIPTION:Zoom Meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Zhao Miaoxi\, South China University of TechnologyIn China’s system of public land ownership\, industrial land leases often extend beyond the relatively short lifespan of enterprises. Consequently\, formulating land use strategies that account for business turnover has emerged as a crucial task for urban planning. This lecture explores urban land vacancy through the primary lens of firm turnover data\, examining the complete business life cycle from market entry to exit. Using downtown Guangzhou as an empirical case study\, the research reveals that the survival spans of most companies are significantly shorter than their granted land tenure\, inevitably leading to spatial inefficiency and vacancy. By simulating the interaction between company survival rates and land tenure periods\, the study evaluates various policy interventions aimed at minimizing land waste. We propose several targeted planning strategies\, including flexible land transfer mechanisms\, the revitalization of underutilized industrial spaces\, and the promotion of mixed-use development.Professor Miaoxi Zhao holds dual Ph.D. degrees in Urban Planning (China) and Geography (Belgium). He is a Professor and Department Head of Urban Planning at South China University of Technology.  His research centers on urban transformation in contemporary China\, examined through the theoretical and empirical lens of the global network society. His methodological and technological innovations in spatial planning have directly informed high-impact policy documents and strategic frameworks\, including the Pearl River Delta Regional Integrated Development Plan\, the Guangzhou Urban Development Strategy (2040)\, and the Shenzhen Hub City Construction Research Report.We would like to thank the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies\, the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab\, and the Australian Centre on China in the World 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.Join Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97955535212 \n\n\n\nhttps://mit.zoom.us/j/97955535212 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/urban-china-lecture-series-featuring-zhao-miaoxi-mismatched-industrial-land-lease-terms-urban-land-vacancy-induced-by-business-turnover/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Urban-China.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T121500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T133000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260415T162928Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260415T162944Z
UID:44763-1776773700-1776778200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Navigating Economic Lawfare: Multinational Firms in U.S.–China Competition
DESCRIPTION:Speakers:Mitch Presnick\, Founder of Super 8 Hotels ChinaMatthew Bock Esq. LCB\, Bock Trade LawJoin us for this timely and important lunch talk on how U.S.–China economic competition is reshaping the legal and business landscape for multinational firms. We are honored to welcome distinguished speakers with deep expertise in cross-border business and trade law: Mitch Presnick 柏力 ( China Veteran | Founder of Super 8 Hotels China) and Matthew Bock Esq. LCB (r\, Bock Trade Law | Customs & International Trade | Export Controls & Sanctions)\, who will share practical insights on export controls\, sanctions\, and the global supply chain. Lunch will be provided. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/navigating-economic-lawfare-multinational-firms-in-u-s-china-competition/
LOCATION:WCC 5044\, Wasserstein Hall\, 1585 Massachusetts Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T113000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260129T190506Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T143755Z
UID:44165-1776767400-1776771000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Revisiting the Wasteocene: Shifting Circular Economies of Human Manure in Early 20th-Century China
DESCRIPTION:Register for zoom webinar\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Gonçalo Santos\, University of Coimbra \n\n\n\nPresent-day climate and environmental disruptions are connected to the workings of a global capitalist order that generates ever-growing amounts of waste. Emerging scholarship on what has come to be known as the Wasteocene has highlighted how waste in the age of global capitalism is never simply about matter; it is also about systems of power and wasting relationships. One the best ways to explore this relational history of waste in global capitalism is through the history of the modern flush toilet and the wider waterborne system of waste disposal supporting its operation. This system of waste disposal is widely regarded as a symbol of global modernity\, but it uses a lot of water and carries considerable environmental costs\, and for this reason\, there is a growing body of multidisciplinary research promoting alternative approaches to sanitation. Some of this research is historical and focuses on civilizations like China that developed a seemingly more sustainable model of sanitation based on the large-scale commercialization of human manure. In this paper\, I draw on collaborative research with my colleague Jun Zhang to revisit the rise of Chinese agro-urban circular economies of human manure in the late imperial period\, providing a new explanation of why these circular economies did not collapse after the end of the imperial order and during much of the 20th century. My account questions “Western-centric” historical narratives of sanitation and modernity\, while showing that contemporary debates on global ecological transitions have much to learn from Chinese historical experiences.Meeting Registration – Zoom \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/revisiting-the-wasteocene-shifting-circular-economies-of-night-soil-in-early-20th-century-china/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/cosponsored-lecture-thumbnail-e1705695585733.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260417T093000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260417T170000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260408T182441Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260408T182443Z
UID:44740-1776418200-1776445200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Taiwan Studies+ 2.0 Symposium
DESCRIPTION:As Taiwan finds itself reentering into the global conversation today\, where does the field of Taiwan Studies find itself in this historical moment? From the origins of capitalism to the threat of nuclear pollution\, from soundscapes in the authoritarian era to contemporary video games\, from indigenous identities to Cold War activism\, and from geopolitical competition to ecological imaginations – how do we identify different moments of Taiwan’s history as key nodes of global and local processes? This symposium\, now in its second iteration\, seeks to bring together different generations of global Taiwan scholars\, with the goal to foster new linkages and networks for a burgeoning field. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/taiwan-studies-2-0-symposium/
LOCATION:Yenching Auditorium\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/taiwan.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260416T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260416T133000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260406T172546Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260406T172550Z
UID:44731-1776340800-1776346200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Sinophone South Studies: A Dialogue
DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Chia-rong Wu\, University of CanterburyKyle Shernuk\, Georgetown UniversityModerator: David Der-wei Wang\, Harvard University \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/sinophone-south-studies-a-dialogue/
LOCATION:Plimpton Room (133)\, Barker Center\, 12 Quincy St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/kyle.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260416T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260416T131500
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260312T154333Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260312T154336Z
UID:44572-1776340800-1776345300@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Taiwan Workshop featuring Thung-Hong Lin — Stormy Seas: Taiwan’s Democratic Resilience under China’s Sharp Power
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Thung-Hong Lin\, Research Fellow\, Institute of Sociology\, Academia Sinica\, Taiwan.  \n\n\n\nHow can a small democracy resist the influence of a powerful authoritarian neighbor? Taiwan is often praised for its successful economic development and peaceful democratic transition\, yet it faces substantial challenges from both internal political divisions and external geopolitical pressures. Taiwan’s political landscape is shaped by several major cleavages\, including national identity\, economic inequality and class conflict\, and generational and cultural differences. The greatest challenge to Taiwan’s democracy comes from China\, which has sought to exploit these cleavages through economic leverage\, propaganda\, and political interference. Under the pressure of Beijing’s sharp power\, Taiwan’s democracy has repeatedly faced threats of regression. Yet each time these pressures escalate\, Taiwan’s civil society has mobilized in response\, playing a crucial role in defending democratic institutions. Drawing on case studies such as the 2014 Sunflower Movement\, the 2019 wave of solidarity with Hong Kong protests\, and recent civic mobilizations in 2024\, this talk highlights how Taiwan’s vibrant civil society has become a key source of democratic resilience. \n\n\n\nThe talk is based on Lin’s forthcoming book\, Stormy Seas: Taiwan Under the Shadow of China in the 21st Century (Stanford University Press\, forthcoming September 2026)\, which situates Taiwan’s democratic resilience within the broader trajectory of U.S.–China relations and global geopolitics over the past half century. \n\n\n\nThung-Hong Lin is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology\, Academia Sinica\, Taiwan. He studies inequality\, political economy\, disasters\, and Taiwan’s democracy\, and was a 2023–24 Stanford–Taiwan Social Science Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) and a Fulbright Fellow. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/taiwan-workshop-featuring-thung-hong-lin-stormy-seas-taiwans-democratic-resilience-under-chinas-sharp-power/
LOCATION:CGIS Knafel K262\, 1737 Cambridge Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Taiwan
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/lin.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T130000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260406T172247Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260406T172259Z
UID:44729-1776254400-1776258000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Taiwan: The Politics of Difference
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Anthony Hao Yeh\,  National Chengchi UniversityModerator: David Der-wei Wang\, Harvard University \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/taiwan-the-politics-of-difference/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/hao-yeh.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T131500
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20251215T202338Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260305T193139Z
UID:43878-1776254400-1776258900@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China series featuring Ian Johnson — Reclaiming Historical Memory and the Struggle for China’s Future
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ian Johnson\, Author; Founder\, China Unofficial Archives \n\n\n\nDiscussant: Michael Szonyi\, Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History; Former Director\, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nIan Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist\, author\, teacher\, and researcher. He has been engaged with China for the past thirty-five years\, writing on the country’s search for faith and values\, as well as efforts to control dissent and history. \n\n\n\nHe was a 2024-2025 fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin\, where he is writing a new book on China. He also contributes to The New York Review of Books\, The New Yorker\, and regularly speaks in the media or to public audiences about China.  \n\n\n\nHe is the founder of the China Unofficial Archives\, an online repository of hundreds of samizdat magazines\, books\, and underground films. This website is a registered (501c3) non-profit that uploads and annotates new movies and publications daily. \n\n\n\nHis latest book\, Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future\, describes how some of China’s best-known writers\, filmmakers\, and artists have overcome crackdowns and censorship to forge a nationwide movement that challenges the Communist Party on its most hallowed ground: its control of history.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/critical-issues-confronting-china-series-featuring-ian-jonshon-reclaiming-historical-memory-and-the-struggle-for-chinas-future/
LOCATION:CGIS South S020\, Belfer Case Study Room\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Critical Issues Confronting China,Critical Issues Confronting China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IanDJohnson.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260414T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260414T171500
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260406T172004Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260406T172006Z
UID:44724-1776182400-1776186900@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Machine and Sovereignty: For a Planetary Thinking 
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Yuk Hui\, Erasmus UniversityModerator: David Der-wei Wang\, Harvard University \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/machine-and-sovereignty-for-a-planetary-thinking/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/yuk-hui.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260413T154500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260413T174500
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260406T150510Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260406T150514Z
UID:44718-1776095100-1776102300@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Lively (linghuo) Accumulation: China’s 1980s Coastal Development Strategy and Histories of Capitalist and Socialist Crises
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Andrew Liu\, Associate Professor of History\, Villanova University \n\n\n\nCommentators:Ya-Wen Lei\, Professor\, Department of Sociology\, Harvard UniversityKashish Bastola\, PhD Candidate in History\, Harvard University \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/lively-linghuo-accumulation-chinas-1980s-coastal-development-strategy-and-histories-of-capitalist-and-socialist-crises/
LOCATION:Room 125\, Robinson Hall\, 35 Quincy St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/andrew-liu-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260410T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260410T130000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260401T160509Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260401T203404Z
UID:44680-1775822400-1775826000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Li Xiaojiang: Feminism and the Question of Affect in Contemporary China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Shih-Diing Liu\, 2024-25 Visiting Scholar; Professor of Communication and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies\, University of MacauModerator: David Der-wei Wang\, Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nShih-Diing Liu (刘世鼎) is Professor of Communication and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies\, University of Macau. Liu’s research focuses on exploring the emotional dynamics of politics\, the formation of popular identity\, the expressive and embodied forms of political practices\, and the psychology of nationalism in contemporary China. His books include The Politics of People: Protest Cultures in China (SUNY Press\, 2019) and Affective Spaces: The Cultural Politics of Emotion in China (Edinburgh University Press\, 2024\, with Wei Shi). Continuing with a focus on emotion from the Affective Spaces project\, his current research explores the intersection of affect and gender in contemporary China. Arguing that Chinese gender has increasingly become an archive of feelings marked by ambivalence toward authorities\, this book project uncovers the power of emotion in negotiating the gendered order. Meanwhile\, he is also working on a book project that explores the emotional capabilities of Artificial Intelligence. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/li-xiaojiang-feminism-and-the-question-of-affect-in-contemporary-china/
LOCATION:CGIS Knafel K450\, 1737 Cambridge Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/shih-ding.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260409T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260409T173000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260406T184512Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260406T184517Z
UID:44733-1775751300-1775755800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:The OpenClaw Paradox: AI Agents\, Labor Anxiety\, and Radical Pragmatism in China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lihui Zhang\, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government Senior Fellow\, Harvard Kennedy School \n\n\n\nIn this study group\, led by M-RCBG Senior Fellow Lihui Zhang\, we will explore how Chinese society demonstrates a distinctive duality in its approach to emerging technologies like AI\, combining both enthusiastic adoption and underlying anxiety. While American and European companies increasingly restrict employee access to AI tools due to security concerns\, Chinese organizations have embraced such technologies nearly universally across workplaces.Paradoxically\, this widespread integration occurs alongside growing public apprehension about workforce displacement. Many Chinese workers express genuine concern that AI will eventually replace human labor\, creating a complex emotional landscape of excitement and fear. This tension reflects broader global conversations about technological advancement and economic transformation in the AI era. China’s unique societal response to technology is precisely what makes it a potential testing ground for how humanity can address the challenges of AI. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/the-openclaw-paradox-ai-agents-labor-anxiety-and-radical-pragmatism-in-china/
LOCATION:M-RCBG Conference Room B-102\, 79 JFK St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260409T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260409T173000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260401T163403Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260403T124829Z
UID:44686-1775746800-1775755800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Discovering History in China: Remembering Paul Cohen
DESCRIPTION:We hope you will join us for a symposium and celebration of the late Paul Cohen\, a longtime Fairbank Center Associate and the Edith Stix Wasserman Professor of History and Asian Studies Emeritus at Wellesley College. Opening Remarks: Michael Szonyi\, Former Director\, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies\, Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nPanel Discussion: How Paul Cohen Changed HistoryModerator: Michael Szonyi\, Former Director\, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies\, Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nPanelists:Cynthia Brokaw\, Chen Family Professor of China Studies\, Brown UniversityAngela Ki Che Leung\, Professor Emerita\, Hong Kong University (video)Ellen Widmer\, Mayling Soong Professor of Chinese Studies\, emerita\, Wellesley College; Center Associate\, Fairbank Center for Chinese StudiesGuoqi Xu\, David Chang Professor of Chinese history\, University of Hong Kong (video)Joseph Esherick\, Professor of History\, emeritus\, University of California San DiegoRemembrancesModerators:Waiyee Li\, 1879 Professor of Chinese Literature\, Harvard UniversityEllen Widmer\, Mayling Soong Professor of Chinese Studies\, emerita\, Wellesley College; Center Associate\, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies \n\n\n\nSpeakers:Andrew Shennan\, Professor of History and Provost emeritus\, Wellesley CollegeC. Patterson Giersch\, Edith Stix Wasserman Professor in Asian Studies and Professor of History\, Wellesley CollegeJoanna Handlin Smith\, Editor emerita\, Harvard Journal of Asiatic StudiesCatherine Yeh\, Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature\, Boston UniversityDailan Xu\, Class of 2027\, Harvard CollegeAudience Remembrances \n\n\n\nSpecial Remarks:Elizabeth Sinn\, Honorary Professor\, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences\, University of Hong KongCLOSING REMARKSWaiyee Li\, colleagueEllen Widmer\, colleagueReception to follow  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/discovering-history-in-china-remembering-paul-cohen/
LOCATION:Lower Level Conference Center Rooms 4-5\, Gutman Library\, 6 Appian Way\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Special Event
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260409T122000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260409T132000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260319T153829Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260319T153832Z
UID:44628-1775737200-1775740800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:What Would a Rational and Effective U.S.-China Trade Policy Look Like? Is One Still Possible?
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Katherine Tai\, U.S. Trade Representative (2021-2025) \n\n\n\nAmbassador Katherine C. Tai served as the 19th United States Trade Representative. As a member of President Biden’s Cabinet\, Ambassador Tai was the principal trade advisor\, negotiator\, and spokesperson on U.S. trade policy from March 2021 to January 2025. Prior to her unanimous Senate confirmation\, Ambassador Tai spent nearly 2 decades in public service focusing on crafting\, monitoring\, and enforcing U.S. and international trade laws. She previously served the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives as Chief Trade Counsel and Trade Subcommittee Staff Director. She is also an experienced WTO litigator. From 2007 to 2014\, Ambassador Tai developed and tried cases for USTR\, eventually becoming the agency’s Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement. Ambassador Tai graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School. She began her career practicing law in the private sector\, clerking for federal judges in the Districts of Columbia and Maryland\, and teaching English in Guangzhou\, China. \n\n\n\nA light lunch will be provided. Please register here. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/what-would-a-rational-and-effective-u-s-china-trade-policy-look-like-is-one-still-possible/
LOCATION:WCC B015\, Wasserstein Hall\, 1585 Massachusetts Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260408T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260408T131500
DTSTAMP:20260501T070434
CREATED:20260109T155333Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260325T151741Z
UID:44011-1775649600-1775654100@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Dongsheng Zang — China's Great Leap Forward to AI Supremacy
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Dongsheng Zang\, Professor of Law\, University of Washington School of LawModerator: Feng Zhu\, MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration\, Harvard Business SchoolThe talk aims to provide a framework in understanding China’s industrial policy on artificial intelligence (AI) in the last decade\, 2016-2026. It examines the AI policy from the perspective of state-industry relationship. For this purpose\, it divides the decade into three stages of development: (1) the harmonious period\, 2016-2018; (2) the crackdown\, 2018-2022; and (3) the DeepSeek paradox\, 2022-2026. It explains the success\, to some degree\, China has in AI development; but also reveals the underlying dilemma that China under Xi Jinping is facing in this crucial area of technology in the competition with the United States.   \n\n\n\nProfessor Zang joined the UW faculty full-time in 2006\, after serving as a visiting professor in 2005-06. His academic interests include international trade law\, and comparative study of Chinese law\, with a focus on the role of law and state in response to social crises in the social transformation in China. He holds an S.J.D. and LL.M. from Harvard Law School\, in addition to his LL.M. from Renmin University (Beijing) and LL.B. from Beijing College of Economics. His doctoral dissertation\, One-way Transparency: The Establishment of the Rule-based International Trade Order and the Predicament of Its Jurisprudence\, was awarded the 2004 Yong K. Kim ’95 prize. He was a research fellow at the East Asia Legal Studies at Harvard Law School during the 2004-05 academic year. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/critical-issues-confronting-china-series-featuring-dongsheng-zang/
LOCATION:CGIS South S020\, Belfer Case Study Room\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Critical Issues Confronting China,Critical Issues Confronting China Series
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260406T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260406T180000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070435
CREATED:20260401T161715Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260401T161717Z
UID:44683-1775491200-1775498400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Humanities Seminar featuring Natasha Heller — What is Ecology for a Chan Monk?
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Natasha Heller\, University of VirginiaThe “ecocritical turn” has reached premodern studies and Asian humanities\, but both contexts present significant challenges. Although the nonhuman world and the experience of it would have been different in meaningful ways a millennium ago\, can we understand “green readings” of Buddhist literature? Is it possible to recover “environmental thought” from the poetry of Chan monks? To think through these questions\, I will consider four sets of poems authored by Zhongfeng Mingben 中峰明本 (1263–1323) about living in different places: on a boat\, in the mountains\, on the water\, and in the city. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-humanities-seminar-featuring-natasha-heller-what-is-ecology-for-a-chan-monk/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/trees.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260401T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260401T171500
DTSTAMP:20260501T070435
CREATED:20251216T161628Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260319T170703Z
UID:43968-1775059200-1775063700@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Economy Lecture featuring Panle Jia Barwick — From Free Rider to Innovator: The Rise of China’s Drug Development
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Panle Jia Barwick\, Todd E. and Elizabeth H. Warnock Distinguished Chair Professor\, Department of Economics\, University of Wisconsin-Madison \n\n\n\nThis paper examines China’s transition from pharmaceutical “free rider” to global innovator over the last decade. In 2010\, China accounted for less than 8% of global clinical trials; by 2020\, it had surpassed the US in annual registered clinical trial volume. To study this transformation\, we compile a comprehensive\, synchronized database spanning the pharmaceutical drug development supply chain\, covering scientific publications\, clinical trials\, drug development milestones for China\, the U.S.\, and Europe\, alongside drug sales and government policies over the same period. We provide strong evidence that China’s rise was primarily driven by the National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL) reform\, which dramatically expanded the effective market size for innovative drugs. We document a sharp rise in both the quantity (86% increase) and novelty of drug trials post reform\, with growth concentrated in reform-exposed disease categories\, first- or best-in-class drugs\, and among domestic firms. A decomposition exercise reveals that the NRDL reform accounts for 43% of the growth in oncology trial activity\, nearly doubling the combined contribution of upstream knowledge accumulation and talent flows (24%)\, while other government policies play a minor role. Finally\, dynamic gains from induced innovation exceed the reform’s static gains in consumer access to innovative drugs by threefold\, underscoring the importance of accounting for the reform’s long-run effects on innovation incentives in addition to near-term improvements in drug affordability. \n\n\n\nPanle Jia Barwick is the Todd E. and Elizabeth H. Warnock Distinguished Chair Professor in the Department of Economics at UW-Madison. Her expertise includes Industrial Organization\, Chinese Economy\, Applied Microeconomics\, and Applied Econometrics with a strong interest in environmental economics. Her papers have appeared in top Economic journals\, including the American Economic Review\, Econometrica\, the Quarterly Journal of Economics\, and the Review of Economic Studies. She is a co-founder and co-director of UW-Madison’s Pan Asia Pacific Sustainability Initiative (PAPSI). She also co-founded Cornell Institute for China Economic Research (CICER) and currently serves as its board member. She is a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a research fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)\, associate editor for the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics\, Journal of Economic Perspectives\, Rand Journal of Economics\, and International Journal of Industrial Organization\, and an editorial board member of Journal of Urban Economics and VoxChina. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-economy-lecture-featuring-panle-jia-barwick/
LOCATION:CGIS South Room S250\, 1730 Cambridge Street\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:China Economy Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/panle-jia-barwick.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260401T093000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260402T193000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070435
CREATED:20260312T193844Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260312T193847Z
UID:44600-1775035800-1775158200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Harvard Asia Law Conference II
DESCRIPTION:more information\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPlease join us for HALS 2026 Conference\, which will take place at the WCC on Harvard Law School Campus April 1st & 2nd. This year\, panels will feature topics like AI regulations across Asia\, the future of US-China trade relations\, practicing in-house at multinational companies\, and more. Please click here for details on the full agenda\, panel locations\, and programming. \n\n\n\nPlease contact hals@mail.law.harvard.edu with any questions. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/harvard-asia-law-conference-ii/
LOCATION:WCC\, Wasserstein Hall\, 1585 Massachusetts Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260331T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260331T163000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070435
CREATED:20260318T211740Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260325T151345Z
UID:44607-1774969200-1774974600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Fairbank Center Visiting Scholar Presentations
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for research presentations by two Fairbank Center Visiting Scholars: \n\n\n\nTommy Tse\, Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies\, University of AmsterdamChina as data colonizer? Rethinking cultural production\, cultural mediation\, and consumer agency on Kenyan and Chinese e-commerce platforms \n\n\n\nIs China becoming a new “data coloniser” in the Global South? As Chinese digital platforms expand across Africa\, debates about infrastructure\, power\, and data have become increasingly urgent. This talk examines how these dynamics unfold in everyday life through the case of Chinese-invested e-commerce platforms operating in Kenya’s fashion market. Drawing on focus groups and platform walkthrough research\, I explore how cultural production\, mediation\, and consumer practices are shaped by different platform infrastructures and algorithmic logics. Rather than framing Chinese platforms simply as instruments of domination\, the talk highlights how users negotiate\, adapt\, and sometimes resist these systems—revealing more complex forms of cultural exchange and consumer agency within emerging South–South digital economies. \n\n\n\nBowen Sun\, Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Design\, Shanghai Business SchoolManuscript Handbooks of Vernacular Carpenters from Early Twentieth-Century South ChinaIn the field of local document studies\, new materials continue to be discovered and organized. By sharing a selection of manuscripts collected from vernacular carpenters in South China\, this talk engages in an open-ended discussion of how these materials can be defined\, how the knowledge they embody may be interpreted\, and how textual practices shape the functioning of vernacular construction knowledge within local social contexts. \n\n\n\nTommy Tse is Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam and currently a Visiting Fellow at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. His research examines platform economies\, digital and creative labour\, consumer culture\, and global cultural industries. He leads the ERC-funded project China Africa Fashion Power\, a five-year ethnographic study of fashion and cultural economies across Asia and Africa. More information: https://www.tommyhltse.com  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/fairbank-center-visiting-scholar-presentations-3/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Room S153\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260331T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260331T130000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070435
CREATED:20260312T153520Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260312T153523Z
UID:44566-1774956600-1774962000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Butchered Rooms: Precarity\, Resilience\, and the Politics of Informal Housing in Post-Handover Hong Kong
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ruby YS LAI\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Sociology and Social Policy\, Lingnan University; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2025-26Chair/Discussant: Ya-Wen Lei\, Professor of Sociology\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nIn the past decades\, the growing housing crisis has destabilized individual housing tenure and exacerbated an everyday sense of insecurity\, especially among low-income renters in megacities\, where housing costs continuously soar under increased financialization and commodification. How do individuals and families build a home while facing heightened precariousness? This talk argues that housing precarity is an outcome of inequality resulting from the macro political-economic structure rather than a condition of poverty\, by focusing on one of the world’s most unaffordable housing markets\, Hong Kong\, and its infamous subdivided units\, also called ‘butchered rooms’—a form of informal housing unit subdivided from an entire compartment\, characterized by an extremely tiny size\, with a median as small as 11m?. Drawing on years of ethnographic and participatory fieldwork and policy analysis\, the talk first illustrates the homemaking strategies through which occupants of butchered rooms navigate the spatio-material constraints of their built environment and the processes of resilience building. The second part of the talk provides a critical analysis of the housing policy regime in Hong Kong during the post-1997 period and unravels the political-economic structures that necessitate the invisible labor of occupants that buffers the consequences of housing inequality resulting from the city’s neoliberal housing regime and developmental urban governance\, which resonate with housing crises in urban areas across the globe. \n\n\n\n\nButchered Rooms: Precarity\, Resilience\, and the Politics of Informal Housing in Post-Handover Hong Kong\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/butchered-rooms-precarity-resilience-and-the-politics-of-informal-housing-in-post-handover-hong-kong/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260331T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260331T103000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070435
CREATED:20260313T201959Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260313T202002Z
UID:44605-1774947600-1774953000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture featuring Chris Courtney — Defrosting the Deep History of Chinese Cold Chains
DESCRIPTION:Zoom Meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Chris Courtney\, Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History\, University of Durham\, UK.Cold chains are a vital component of modern cities. Most histories trace their origins to the advent of the ice trade in the nineteenth century. This paper argues that cold chains have been around a lot longer. In China\, they have been used to provision cities for around a thousand years. Later\, the British consciously emulated these Chinese infrastructural arrangements\, using them as the inspiration for their own cold chains. This paper continues by describing how industrial cold chains allowed treaty port foreigners in China to manufacture temperate lifestyles in tropical climes\, while also amassing great fortunes by exporting frozen protein. After this system was disrupted by war and revolution\, the Chinese Communist government struggled to rebuild their infrastructural capacity\, and had to rely on ersatz solutions\, such as cave cold storages. This paper concludes by exploring the refrigerator revolution\, when cold chains were reinvented in 1980s China. \n\n\n\nChris Courtney is Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of Durham\, UK. He a social and environmental historian who focusses upon the city of Wuhan and its hinterland. He has published on the history of hazards such as floods and fires\, including the monograph The Nature of Disaster in China. In his more recent research\, he has examined the history of extreme heat\, from a technological\, medical\, and social perspective. He is currently writing a monograph entitled Wuhan: City at the End of Empires. \n\n\n\nJoin Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97955535212 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/urban-china-lecture-featuring-chris-courtney-defrosting-the-deep-history-of-chinese-cold-chains/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260327T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260327T173000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070435
CREATED:20260318T213208Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260319T155721Z
UID:44612-1774627200-1774632600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Against Erasure: Uyghur Poems\, Imprisoned Souls\, and the Act of Resistance
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Aziz Isa Elkun\, University of London \n\n\n\nIn the face of the Chinese government1s systemic efforts to silence the Uyghur people\, the written word becomes a profound act of resistance. Against this backdrop of cultural erasure\, two recently pubIished English-language poetry anthologies – Uyghur Poems and Imprisoned Souls\, stand as vital testaments to love\, survival\, and defiance. These works serve as both a sanctuary for a threatened identity and a resonant cry for justice. Together\, they form more than a mere collection of verses; they are a living archive for both the present and the future. They prove that while bodies may be confined and traditions targeted for erasure\, the human pulse of love and collective memory remains indestructible. As enduring evidence of the Uyghur spirit\, these works carry a cultural legacy to the next generation and awaken the consciousness of humanity as a whole\, offering a glimmer of hope for the future. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/against-erasure-uyghur-poems-imprisoned-souls-and-the-act-of-resistance/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Room S050\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260327T101500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260327T124500
DTSTAMP:20260501T070435
CREATED:20260204T172555Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260204T172556Z
UID:44220-1774606500-1774615500@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Rethinking the Global Order: Latin America\, China\, and the U.S. Amid Transforming Economic and Political Paradigms
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKeynote: Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar\, President\, Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceModerator: Marisol Argueta de Barillas\, Head of Latin America; Member of the Executive Committee\, World Economic Forum \n\n\n\nPanelists:Enrique Dussel Peters\, Professor\, Graduate School of Economics\, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)Mark Wu\, Director\, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies\, Harvard University; Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law\, Harvard Law SchoolPedro Henrique Batista Barbosa\, Diplomat\, Brazilian Ministry of Foreign AffairsRebeccca Bill Chavez\, President and CEO\, Inter-American DialogueClick for more information and registration \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/rethinking-the-global-order-latin-america-china-and-the-u-s-amid-transforming-economic-and-political-paradigms/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Tsai Auditorium (S010)\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260326T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260326T180000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070435
CREATED:20260303T170005Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260305T193651Z
UID:44506-1774542600-1774548000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:The Death of Strategic Ambiguity: Middle Power Survival in the New U.S.-China Cold War
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Seong-Hyon Lee\, Senior Fellow\, George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations; Associate\, Harvard University Asia Center \n\n\n\nModerator: Andrew Erickson\, Visiting Scholar\, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies\, Harvard University; Professor of Strategy\, China Maritime Studies Institute\, U.S. Naval War College \n\n\n\nRegistration appreciated for planning purposes. \n\n\n\nFor decades\, East Asian middle powers like South Korea thrived by navigating a delicate geopolitical balance—relying on the United States for security architecture while depending on China for economic prosperity. However\, as the “New Cold War” intensifies\, this era of “riding two boats” has abruptly ended. Faced with shifting U.S. alliance postures\, escalating technology and trade frictions\, and the pressing realities of nuclear deterrence on the Korean Peninsula\, nations can no longer afford strategic ambiguity. This talk will explore how middle powers are being forced into strategic clarity\, recalibrating their foreign policies to survive a prolonged rivalry between Washington and Beijing. Drawing on recent developments in international security\, we will examine the difficult choices ahead for East Asia’s most critical geopolitical fault lines. \n\n\n\nDr. Seong-Hyon Lee is a Senior Fellow at the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations and an Associate at the Harvard University Asia Center. He is the author of The New Cold War: U.S.-China Rivalry and the Future of Global Power (2025). He specializes in U.S.-China strategic competition\, East Asian security\, and North Korea and Korean Peninsula geopolitics. \n\n\n\nhttps://asiacenter.harvard.edu/events/death-strategic-ambiguity-middle-power-survival-new-us-china-cold-war \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/the-death-of-strategic-ambiguity-middle-power-survival-in-the-new-u-s-china-cold-war/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Room S050\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260325T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260325T133000
DTSTAMP:20260501T070435
CREATED:20260312T190918Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260312T190924Z
UID:44588-1774440000-1774445400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:How US Internet Optimism Turned to AI Alarm with China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Graham Webster\, Stanford University \n\n\n\nUS thinkers once looked to the future of Internet technology in China with dreams of liberalization. China and the US co-built and jointly profited from the 2000s digital economy and the smartphone revolution\, yet in the 2010s both countries’ governments became increasingly anxious about their vulnerability and interdependence in the digital sphere. By 2020\, anxieties combined with trade conflict\, Covid recriminations\, and AI futurism\, cementing a rivalry mindset that today shapes partial decoupling and conditions of continued interconnection. This talk traces how US officials and thinkers acted on their visions of the future\, and how reality intervened. \n\n\n\nGraham Webster is a lecturer and research scholar in the Program on Geopolitics\, Technology\, and Governance at Stanford University\, where he leads the DigiChina Project. He specializes in technology policy and development in China and US-China relations. His reporting and commentary has appeared in WIRED\, Foreign Affairs\, and the MIT Technology Review\, among others. Graham was previously a senior fellow and lecturer at Yale Law School\, where he was responsible for the Paul Tsai China Center’s Track 2 dialogues between the United States and China. In the past\, he wrote a CNET News blog on technology and society from Beijing\, worked at the Center for American Progress\, and taught East Asian politics at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. Graham holds a master’s degree in East Asian studies from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and international studies from Northwestern University. He is based in Oakland\, California. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/how-us-internet-optimism-turned-to-ai-alarm-with-china/
LOCATION:WCC 3013\, Wasserstein Hall\, 1585 Massachusetts Ave\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
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