• Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring David Yang — Laboratories of Autocracy: How China’s Re-centralization Impacted Economic Growth

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

    Speaker: David Yang, Yvonne P. L. Lui Professor of Economics, Harvard UniversityDiscussant: Anthony Saich, Daewoo Professor of International Affairs; Director, Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia, Harvard Kennedy School David Y. Yang is a Professor in the Department of Economics at Harvard University and Director of the Center for History and Economics at Harvard. David is

  • Kwan-Chi Wang — Food, Memories, and Agri-Science in Action: Reconsidering Food Regimes in Asia — Appropriation or Dialogue — and Why It Matters: The Poetics and Politics of Transcultural Adaptation

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

    Speaker: Kuan-Chi Wang, Associate Research Fellow, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica; HYI Visiting Scholar, 2025-26Chair/Discussant: Victor Seow, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University This talk examines how agricultural practices, food crops, and related knowledge have influenced food regimes operated in Asia throughout periods of imperialism, the

  • Digital China Initiative GenAI Workshop

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

    This workshop is designed for anyone interested in using generative artificial intelligence in Chinese Studies.  The workshop will cover the following topics:1. Basic concepts of generative artificial intelligence;2. How to create a chatbot to answer queries based on your own data;3. How to equip a chatbot with tools to complete research tasks beyond simple question-answering. 

  • China Humanities Seminar featuring Lili Xia — Geocultural “Northernness” of Jurchen-Ruled China

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

    Speaker: Lili Xia, Assistant Professor, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Barnard College. The geocultural significance of the “North” was crucial to the competing claims to China between the Jurchen Jin (1115–1234) and Southern Song (1127–1279) dynasties. This talk examines the contemporary conception of “northernness,” arguing that Jurchen-ruled North China was at once a

  • Ryan Martinez Mitchell — The Rise of Authoritarian Sustainability? China’s Transformative Engagement with the UN Sustainable Development Goals

    WCC 3018, Wasserstein Hall 1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

    Speaker: Ryan Martinez Mitchell, Associate Professor of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Author of Recentering the World: China and the Transformation of International Law Since the adoption of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, this global development concept has been increasingly incorporated into the People’s Republic of China’s structures of state planning,

  • Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Dan Wang — Breakneck: Can China Outcompete the U.S. on Innovation?

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

    Speaker: Dan Wang, Hoover InstitutionDiscussants: Susan Greenhalgh, John King and Wilma Cannon Fairbank Research Professor of Chinese Society Emerita, Department of Anthropology, Harvard UniversityMark Wu, Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Director, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University***PLEASE NOTE DIFFERENT START TIME FOR THIS CRITICAL ISSUES CONFRONTING CHINA SERIES TALK *** Dan Wang

  • Lik Sam Chan — The Politics of Dating Apps in Urban China

    Presented via Zoom

    Speaker: Lik Sam Chan, Lecturer, University of SydneyMomo, Blued, Aloha, Rela, Lesdo. These were, once upon a time, some of the most popular mobile dating apps in China. In this book talk, Lik Sam Chan dissects how urban life and dating apps shape each other in the context of southern China. The narratives explored include straight

  • Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Yanmei Lin — The Fire Alarm and the Iron Hand: Civil Society’s Place in China’s Environmental Rule of Law

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

    Speaker: Yanmei Lin, Professor of Law, Vermont Law and Graduate SchoolDiscussant: William P. Alford, Jerome A. and Joan L. Cohen Professor of East Asian Legal Studies; Director of East Asian Legal Studies; Chair, Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard Law School Over the past decade, Chinese NGOs gained formal roles in environmental governance through

  • Taiwan Studies Workshop featuring Andrew Erickson — Taiwan’s Security: What’s at Risk and What’s at Stake?

    CGIS South Room S354 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA, United States

    Speaker: Andrew S. Erickson, Visiting Scholar, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies; Professor of Strategy, China Maritime Studies Institute, U.S. Naval War CollegeThis presentation addresses the subject of Taiwan’s security—not from a political or policy standpoint, but rather from a geographical, historical, military operational, and strategic perspective. It explicates Taiwan’s geostrategic position and surveys the military aspects

  • Wang Haiyan — Intellectuals, Influencers, and the Reshaping of Chinese Nationalism

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

    Speaker: Wang Haiyan, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University of Macau; HYI Visiting Scholar, 2025-26Chair/Discussant: Wai-yee Li, 1879 Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard University Intellectuals have historically played a central role in the development of Chinese nationalism since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 21st century, however, their roles and practices have

  • Joe Ngai — Where is the “Next China”? It’s Still China — But It Will Require a Different Playbook

    WCC B015, Wasserstein Hall 1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Speaker: Joe Ngai, Senior Partner and Chairman of Greater China Offices, McKinsey & CompanyLocation Change: This event will now be held in WCC B015 (previously WCC 3018). Joe will share his observations of the opportunities ahead for businesses in China, especially in the context of increasingly complex geopolitics, slowdown in the China macro-economy, a rapidly

  • Nicholas Morrow Williams — Dialogues in the Dark: Interpreting “Heavenly Questions” Across Two Millennia

    Presented via Zoom

    Speaker: Nicholas Morrow Williams, Professor of Chinese, Arizona State University  Moderator: Michael Puett, Victor and William Fung Foundation Director, Harvard University Asia Center; Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology; Harvard College Professor Presented online via Zoom. To join, register here.  Dialogues in the Dark traces how Chinese readers and scholars since the Han dynasty have variously interpreted