Events

Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring David Zweig — China’s Battle for Talent and Technology

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

Speaker: David Zweig, Professor Emeritus, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Distinguished Visiting Professor of Taipei School of Economics and Political Science, National Tsinghua University, Taiwan; Vice President, Center for China and Globalization (Beijing) In the mid-1990s, China’s hope for a “reverse brain drain” of overseas scientists, academics, and entrepreneurs stalled. So, in […]

Zhang Jing — A Modernization Marching to Revolution: Science, Technology, and Diplomacy in Mao’s China

Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave. 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Speaker: Zhang Jing, Associate Professor, Department of History, Peking University; HYI Visiting Scholar, 2024-25Chair/Discussant, Arunabh Ghosh, Associate Professor of History, Harvard University As a set of terms, “modernization” and its earlier discursive forms, such as “industrialization” and “Westernization,” have been continuously invoked by historical actors and historians throughout over a century of Chinese history, particularly […]

Digital China Initiative Workshop — Beyond Chatbots: RAG and Agent

Room 202, 61 Kirkland St. 61 Kirkland St., Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

This workshop delves deeper into advanced applications of Large Language Models (LLMs) beyond simple chatbot interfaces. Participants will explore how to leverage APIs to connect various tools with LLMs, build private knowledge bases for more accurate and context-specific generation, and utilize agents to expand the capabilities of LLMs in Literay Sinitic Studies. Target Audience: Workshop […]

Exhibit: Dunhuang and Beyond

Sackler Building, Lower Level 485 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

A major milestone and world-renowned heritage site within Silk Road networks, Dunhuang preserves more than 400 embellished Buddhist cave shrines in present-day northwest China. Dunhuang’s cave shrines date from the fifth to fourteenth centuries. Each encloses visitors within murals and carved figures that depict Buddhist legends and paradises. Chronicling innumerable exemplary works of Buddhist artmaking […]

Exhibit: Dunhuang and Beyond

Sackler Building, Lower Level 485 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

A major milestone and world-renowned heritage site within Silk Road networks, Dunhuang preserves more than 400 embellished Buddhist cave shrines in present-day northwest China. Dunhuang’s cave shrines date from the fifth to fourteenth centuries. Each encloses visitors within murals and carved figures that depict Buddhist legends and paradises. Chronicling innumerable exemplary works of Buddhist artmaking […]

Exhibit: Dunhuang and Beyond

Sackler Building, Lower Level 485 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

A major milestone and world-renowned heritage site within Silk Road networks, Dunhuang preserves more than 400 embellished Buddhist cave shrines in present-day northwest China. Dunhuang’s cave shrines date from the fifth to fourteenth centuries. Each encloses visitors within murals and carved figures that depict Buddhist legends and paradises. Chronicling innumerable exemplary works of Buddhist artmaking […]

China Humanities Seminar featuring Shoufu Yin — The China that Could Have Been: Counterfactual Imagination and Political Thought, 1313-1621

Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave. 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Speaker: Shoufu Yin, Assistant Professor of History, University of British Columbia What could China—or the entire world—have been? Starting in the fourteenth century, hundreds of thousands of individuals in present-day China, Korea, and Vietnam were ruminating on this question in their own ways. They began by placing themselves in a moment in Chinese history, composing […]

Modern China Lecture Series featuring Janet Chen – Medium or Message? The Politics of Language in Broadcasting in Taiwan, 1945-1975

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

Speaker: Janet Y. Chen, Professor of Chinese History; Director, East Asian Studies Program, Princeton University At the end of 1975, the KMT government in Taiwan passed the Radio and Television Law, designating Mandarin as the “primary language of broadcasting” and mandating the reduction of dialect. This legislation, which took effect in January 1976, was the […]

Jim Suk-Fong (Theodora) – Divine Saving in Greek and Chinese Polytheism

Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave. 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Speaker: Jim Suk-Fong (Theodora), Associate Professor, Ancient Greek History, The University of Nottingham; HYI Library Research Scholar, 2024Chair/Discussant: Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology; Director, Asia Center, Harvard University Contrary to the tendency to study ancient Mediterranean religions in isolation from religions in the Far East, this project brings together […]

Michael C. Davis — Freedom Undone: The Assault on Liberal Values and Institutions in Hong Kong

124 Mount Auburn Street Suite 200N, Ash Center Seminar Room 225 124 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Speaker: Michael Davis, Global Fellow, Wilson Center; Senior Research Scholar, Weatherhead East Asia Institute; Professor of Law and International Affairs, O.P. Jindal Global University. Discussant: Dennis Kwok, Partner, Elliott Kwok Levine Jaroslaw Neils LLP What happens when liberal constitutional institutions guaranteeing basic freedoms are undone? Can Freedom survive the loss of separation of powers with the […]

Asia Beyond Borders: Transnational Activist Connections from Sun and Ho’s Day to this Era of Lennon Walls and Three-Finger Salutes 

CGIS South, Room S050 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Speaker: Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine Moderator: James Robson, James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Harvard College Professor; Director, Harvar-Yenching Institute  In-person event. RSVP appreciated.  This presentation will look at some of the various ways that activists fighting for change in different parts of Asia have learned […]

Sheng Liu — Why Climatic Uncertainty Matters to Building Energy Performance: Case Studies in a Subtropical High-Density City

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

Speaker: Sheng Liu, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Southwest Jiaotong University; Visiting Scholar, Harvard-China Project (SEAS) and Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) Dr. Sheng Liu is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture, Southwest Jiaotong University who works on climate-responding architecture design and low-carbon city design. His research interests include sustainable architecture design, building performance simulation and […]