Events

Erin Y. Huang – Ocean Media: South China Sea and Gilles Deleuze’s Desert Islands

Speaker: Erin Y. Huang, Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies and Comparative Literature, Princeton University “Humans can live on an island only by forgetting what an island represents,” writes Deleuze in his short essay “Desert Islands” (îles déserte; huangdao; mujintō; no-man island). But what does an island truly represent (that for Deleuze means the constant […]

The World is Watching: Activists and Academics on the Uyghur Genocide

Speakers: Rushan Abbas, Founder and Executive Director, Campaign for Uyghurs Kamaltürk Yalqun, General Secretary, Campaign for Uyghurs Darren Byler, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Colorado Rian Thum, Loyola University Join us to hear from activists and academics on the Uyghur genocide. Rushan Abbas, a prominent Uyghur American activist and the founder and Director of Campaign for […]

Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum featuring James Benn – Meditation in the Surangama Sutra

Speaker: James Benn, Professor and Director of the Centre for Buddhist Studies, McMaster University Please note earlier start time. In the later Chinese Buddhist tradition one text above all others has been extolled for the profundity of its ideas, the beauty of its language, and its insight into the practice of meditation—this is the scripture popularly […]

Modern China Lecture Series featuring Andrew B. Liu – Tea War: A History of Capitalism in China and India

https://youtu.be/LM5J3E5pDmQ https://soundcloud.com/fairbank-center/tea-war-a-history-of-capitalism-in-china-and-india-with-andrew-b-liu?in=fairbank-center/sets/public-lecture-series-fairbank Read the transcript for the event here. Speaker: Andrew B. Liu, Assistant Professor of History, Villanova University Tea remains the world’s most popular commercial drink today, and at the turn of the twentieth century, it represented the largest export industry of both China and colonial India. In analyzing the global competition between Chinese […]

Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Yuen Yuen Ang – China’s Corrupt Meritocracy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FXPUdMduNw https://soundcloud.com/fairbank-center/chinas-corrupt-meritocracy-with-yuen-yuen-ang?in=fairbank-center/sets/public-lecture-series-fairbank Read the transcript for the event here. Speaker: Yuen Yuen Ang, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan Portrayals of China’s political economy tend to be divided, with one side depicting it as a Confucian-style meritocracy, and the other arguing that the regime is a kleptocracy. In fact, neither view is correct: […]

Robert Morrison – Scientific Exchange at the Courts of Mehmed II and Bayezid II

Speaker: Robert Morrison, Professor and Chair, Department of Religion, Bowdoin College The courts of the Ottoman sultans Mehmed II (d. 1481) and Bayezid II (d. 1512) were, on one hand, the site of significant developments of earlier scientific traditions inherited from Iran and Central Asia. On the other hand, scholars at the Ottoman court were […]

The Stories We Tell and the Objects We Keep: Asian American Women and the Archives

The stories of Asian American women extend far beyond the geographic borders of the United States. Inspired by tales and objects from family history, their narratives often reflect the transnational nature of Asian American women’s lives. Despite the importance of these narratives to expanding and complicating our understanding of war, migration, inequity, and difference, the […]

Fairbank Center Director’s Seminar featuring Kerry Ratigan – Social Policy and Decentralization in China

https://youtu.be/1zocRxRANdE https://soundcloud.com/fairbank-center/social-policy-and-decentralization-in-china-with-kerry-ratigan?in=fairbank-center/sets/public-lecture-series-fairbank Speaker: Kerry Ratigan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Amherst College China is widely known for its strong central government, but the center needs the provinces to implement policies using their knowledge of local conditions. However, provincial priorities sometimes conflict with those of the center. Drawing on research conducted for her forthcoming book, Let […]

Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Jean Oi – The Political Genesis of Local Government Debt in China

https://youtu.be/kBCR9tSQaf4 https://soundcloud.com/fairbank-center/the-political-genesis-of-local-government-debt-in-china-with-jean-oi?in=fairbank-center/sets/public-lecture-series-fairbank Read the transcript of the event here. Speaker: Jean Oi, William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics, Department of Political Science; Director, Stanford China Program, Stanford University China’s rapidly growing local government debt (LGD) is now branded a “grey rhino,” a known threat that has received little attention.  Why did Beijing let LGD get […]