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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261109T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261109T180000
DTSTAMP:20260924T182412Z
CREATED:20260924T181801Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T182412Z
UID:45843-1794240000-1794247200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Humanities Seminar featuring Yunxiao Xiao — Writing on Bamboo and Wood: Text Technologies in Early China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Yunxiao Xiao\, University of Washington \n\n\n\nThis talk explores how written information was organized\, edited\, and transmitted through the ancient media of bamboo and wood. Drawing on excavated manuscripts from the Warring States through the Han\, I examine three practices of bookmaking and information management before the age of paper: 1) designing layouts\, 2) editing and updating legal compilations\, and 3) transmitting literary texts within local scribal communities. \n\n\n\nFirst\, I consider tables and tabular formats\, showing how scribes drew on a repertoire of spatial strategies to organize administrative\, calendrical\, and mathematical information on the two-dimensional writing surface. I then turn to normative legal manuscripts that were physically scraped and rewritten as regulations changed\, revealing statutory texts not as finished records but as objects continually maintained and updated in use. Finally\, I examine correspondences among scribal hands in manuscripts from different tombs and ask what they might reveal about relationships among otherwise anonymous scribes and the local transmission of literary knowledge. \n\n\n\nTogether\, these cases illuminate the interplay between knowledge and media in early China. What we know about the past depends not only on what was written and happened to survive\, but also on how knowledge was materially produced\, organized\, revised\, and transmitted. From legal practice to literary classics\, this talk approaches early Chinese manuscripts as evidence for a broader history of ancient media and information. \n\n\n\nYunxiao Xiao (Ch. 肖芸曉) is a scholar of Chinese literature and cultural history specializing in paleographic texts from the late Warring States and Qin–Han periods. With research interests in epistemological practices and information technologies before the age of paper\, she explores the interplay between knowledge\, people\, and historical media. Her first book project\, The Crafts of the Hidden Hands: Scribal Culture and the Making of Texts in Early China\, examines the ordinary producers and practices behind the formation of Chinese classical knowledge and traces how early written culture in East Asia emerged and evolved. Building on her interest in the history of media\, information\, and technology\, her other projects explore how administrative data and scholarly information were represented\, organized\, controlled\, and manipulated on bamboo and wood in the Qin and Han empires. Before joining the University of Washington\, she earned her PhD from Princeton University (2024) and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-humanities-seminar-featuring-yunxiao-xiao-writing-on-bamboo-and-wood-text-technologies-in-early-china/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:China Humanities Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/yxx.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261110T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261110T220000
DTSTAMP:20260810T162504Z
CREATED:20260810T162502Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260810T162504Z
UID:45330-1794342600-1794348000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture Series featuring Zhang Qingyong
DESCRIPTION:zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Zhang Qingyong\, Renmin University \n\n\n\nMore information coming soon! \n\n\n\nZoom meeting link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/94120080608 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/urban-china-lecture-series-featuring-zhang-qingyong/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/zhang-qinyong.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261117T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261117T173000
DTSTAMP:20261014T140030Z
CREATED:20260914T204114Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261014T140030Z
UID:45736-1794931200-1794936600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Modern China Lecture Series featuring Fei-Hsien Wang — Modernization Theory and Historical Knowledge in Cold War Taiwan
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Fei-Hsien Wang\, Associate Professor\, Department of History\, Indiana University Bloomington \n\n\n\nIn 1973\, the Institute of Modern History (IMH) at Academia Sinica launched an ambitious collaborative project to examine late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century China through the lens of modernization theory. Over the next sixteen years\, seventeen historians participated in “Modernization in China: A Regional Study” (中國現代化的區域研究)\, each focusing on a particular province or region. Although one of the largest and best-funded collaborative projects in the field and later celebrated as a defining legacy of the IMH\, more than half of its studies were never published. Some participants subsequently described the undertaking as a “completely pointless” endeavor. \n\n\n\nWhy did historians working at the margins of an American-centered field of China studies initially embrace modernization theory\, yet ultimately leave much of their research unpublished? This talk situates the project within the broader landscape of Cold War knowledge production in East Asia. It argues that the project’s ambitions and frustrations emerged from the interplay of Taiwan’s political and institutional environment under martial law\, changing geopolitical relations\, and shifting intellectual trends in American and Taiwanese academia from the 1970s to the early 1990s. \n\n\n\nRather than viewing the project as either an extension of American intellectual hegemony or a failed adoption of modernization theory\, I examine how IMH historians appropriated a transnational framework to pursue their own intellectual and institutional agendas while navigating epistemological and political constraints. Their experience invites us to reconsider how scholarly knowledge travels across unequal academic hierarchies—and what constitutes the “success” or “failure” of a research project. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/modern-china-lecture-series-featuring-fei-hsien-wang/
LOCATION:Room K354\, CGIS Knafel\, 1737 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Modern China Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mcl2.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261117T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261117T220000
DTSTAMP:20260929T172007Z
CREATED:20260810T162827Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260929T172007Z
UID:45333-1794947400-1794952800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture Series featuring Susan Whiting — Illiberal Law and Development: Property Rights and Conflict over Land in China
DESCRIPTION:zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker:Susan Whiting\, University of Washington \n\n\n\nIn Illiberal Law and Development\, Susan H. Whiting advances institutional economic theory with original survey and fieldwork data\, addressing two puzzles in Chinese political economy: how economic development has occurred despite insecure property rights and weak rule of law and how the Chinese state has maintained political control amid unrest. Whiting answers these questions by focusing on the role of illiberal law in reassigning property rights and redirecting grievances. The book reveals that\, in the context of technological change\, a legal system that facilitates reassignment of land rights to higher-value uses plays an important and under-theorized role in promoting economic development. This system simultaneously represses conflict and asserts legitimacy. Comparing China to post-Glorious Revolution England and contemporary India\, Whiting presents a critical new argument that brings the Chinese case more directly into debates in comparative politics about the role of the state in specifying property rights and maintaining authoritarian rule.  \n\n\n\nSusan H. Whiting (Ph.D. University of Michigan\, B.A. Yale University) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington. She is the author two books\, Illiberal Law and Development and Power and Wealth in Rural China\, both published by Cambridge University Press. She specializes in Chinese and comparative politics\, with an emphasis on the political economy of development. Her research has been published in journals such as Comparative Political Studies\, Studies in Comparative International Development\, China Quarterly\, Journal of Asian Studies\, and Voluntas\, as well as in edited volumes such as Holding China Together and Trust and Governance. \n\n\n\nZoom meeting link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/94120080608 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/urban-china-lecture-series-featuring-susan-whiting-illiberal-law-and-development-property-rights-and-conflict-over-land-in-china/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/whiting.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261119T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261119T131500
DTSTAMP:20261014T190040Z
CREATED:20261014T190037Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261014T190040Z
UID:46056-1795089600-1795094100@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Lynette Ong — Outsourcing Surveillance: Online Opinion Management in China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lynette Ong\, Distinguished Professor of Chinese Politics\, University of Toronto; Director\, China Governance Lab\, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public PolicyDigital technology facilitates information sharing among activists; however\, it also affords autocrats new vectors of control\, allowing them to surveil and subjugate dissenters. Yet\, in China—the world’s most powerful autocratic state where most of the dissent takes place online before it spillovers to the street—we argue the state’s prowess in digital surveillance stems from the co-optation of market forces. In this book\, we examine how the Chinese state manages\, moderates\, and represses online opinion. Drawing on public procurement documents\, we study how the Chinese Party-state at national and subnational levels have intended to manage online expression of public opinion. Private corporations\, along with for-profit arms of state-owned enterprises and public sector organizations\, are extensively involved in surveillance of public opinion. This opens up a Pandora’s box of state‒business dynamics in China. \n\n\n\nLynette Ong is Distinguished Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Toronto\, and Director of the China Governance Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Chinese and Asian Politics. Her latest books\, Outsourcing Surveillance: Online Opinion Management in China (Cambridge University Press\, 2026) and Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China (Oxford University Press\, 2022)\, examine the Chinese party-state’s capacity to mobilize nonstate actors to extend its reach into society. Her research has received multiple awards from APSA\, ASA\, ISA\, CPSA\, and SSHRC. Her academic publications have appeared in Perspectives on Politics\, Comparative Politics\, Journal of Democracy\, China Quarterly\,  among others. Her opinion pieces and research have been featured in The Economist\,  The New York Times (Editorial Opinion)\, The New Yorker\, Foreign Affairs\, and The Washington Post. \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-lynette-ong-outsourcing-surveillance-online-opinion-management-in-china/
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/2026/10/lynette-ong.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261120T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261120T130000
DTSTAMP:20260923T183941Z
CREATED:20260923T183936Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260923T183941Z
UID:45822-1795174200-1795179600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Sea Charts in the Eastern Half of Asia
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Yannan DING\, Associate Professor\, Historical Geography\, Fudan University; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2026-27Chair/Discussant: Peter K. Bol\, Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations\, Harvard University \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/sea-charts-in-the-eastern-half-of-asia/
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/2026/09/ding.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261124T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261124T220000
DTSTAMP:20260828T160905Z
CREATED:20260828T160903Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260828T160905Z
UID:45550-1795552200-1795557600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture Series featuring Zhao Miaoxi
DESCRIPTION:zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Zhao Miaoxi\, South China University of Technology \n\n\n\nMore information coming soon! \n\n\n\nZoom meeting link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/94120080608 \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/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/zhao-miaoxi.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261130T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261130T180000
DTSTAMP:20260924T183653Z
CREATED:20260924T183650Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T183653Z
UID:45855-1796054400-1796061600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Humanities Seminar featuring Kerstin Storm — Old Age and Aging in Medieval Chinese Poetry
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Kerstin Storm\, University of Münster***Please note the different location for this talk in the series.*** \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-humanities-seminar-featuring-kerstin-storm-old-age-and-aging-in-medieval-chinese-poetry/
LOCATION:CGIS South Room S354\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:China Humanities Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/kerstin-storm.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261207T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261207T180000
DTSTAMP:20260924T182125Z
CREATED:20260924T182123Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T182125Z
UID:45846-1796659200-1796666400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Humanities Seminar featuring Wendy Swartz — Literary Creativity and “The Use of the Mind” in Early Medieval China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Wendy Swartz\, Rutgers University \n\n\n\nThis lecture will examine accounts of wen (writing\, literary creation) by two of China’s earliest and most innovative literary theorists: “Rhapsody on Writing” by Lu Ji and The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons by Liu Xie. Writing on creativity and implicitly advocating for human creation was an act more audacious and ambitious than the modern reader might think. By the period of early medieval China\, there was already a long-established proscription against making claims of “creation” (zuo)\, considered to be the prerogative of ancient sages. This proscription can be traced to Confucius’ famous pronouncement recorded in the Analects\, in which he expressed his reverence for antiquity\, and perhaps also for a perceived mystery\, even sacredness\, inherent in creation: “I transmit and do not create.” Both Lu Ji and Liu Xie deftly circumvented the traditional aversion to claiming creation. Each also limned the writing process in varying degrees of detail\, while exposing its challenges and exalting the role of the mind (xin) in this process. This lecture will cast light on how investigating this process involved reflecting on matters of considerable importance not only in literary history\, but also in human history\, such as tradition\, culture\, invention\, originality\, conception\, expression\, identity\, work\, and ownership. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-humanities-seminar-featuring-wendy-swartz-literary-creativity-and-the-use-of-the-mind-in-early-medieval-china/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:China Humanities Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/wendy-swartz.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261208T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261208T130000
DTSTAMP:20261014T161149Z
CREATED:20261014T161146Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261014T161149Z
UID:46045-1796729400-1796734800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Rethinking the Golden Age of Journalism and Liberal Media in China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Fang Kecheng\, Associate Professor\, School of Journalism and Communication\, Chinese University of Hong Kong; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2026-27 \n\n\n\nChair/Discussant: Jie Li\, Ford Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies; Director of Graduate Studies\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nChina’s liberal media are often remembered through a familiar narrative: commercialization opened space for critical journalism\, outspoken newspapers challenged political authority\, and tightening state control brought their golden age to an end. This talk revisits that account\, asking what it reveals and what it leaves unexplained. Where did China’s liberal journalistic traditions come from? How did liberal media relate to the state’s reform agenda? And what\, beyond political repression\, helps explain their decline? Drawing on historical examples and research on Chinese newspapers\, the talk explores the tensions between professional ideals\, political commitments\, and the material conditions of journalism. It concludes by considering what survives the golden age and what its legacies and limitations might tell us about the future of journalism in China. \n\n\n\nhttps://www.harvard-yenching.org/events/rethinking-the-golden-age-of-journalism-and-liberal-media-in-china/ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/rethinking-the-golden-age-of-journalism-and-liberal-media-in-china/
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/2026/10/FANG-Kecheng.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261210T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261210T130000
DTSTAMP:20261014T161402Z
CREATED:20261014T161357Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261014T161402Z
UID:46048-1796902200-1796907600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Economic Historiography in Early PRC: An Intellectual Portrait
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Li Chenxiao\, Research Fellow\, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2026-27Chair/Discussant: Arunabh Ghosh\, Professor of History\, Harvard University \n\n\n\n\nEconomic Historiography in early PRC: An Intellectual Portrait\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/economic-historiography-in-early-prc-an-intellectual-portrait/
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/2026/10/LI-Chenxiao.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20270331T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20270331T191500
DTSTAMP:20260910T161550Z
CREATED:20260910T161547Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T161550Z
UID:45685-1806516000-1806520500@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Ilse and Leo Mildenberg Memorial Lecture: The Art and Design of Chinese Money
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Helen Wang\, Adjunct Researcher\, School of Art and Archaeology\, Zhejiang University \n\n\n\nMore info coming soon. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/ilse-and-leo-mildenberg-memorial-lecture-the-art-and-design-of-chinese-money/
LOCATION:Harvard Art Museum\, Menschel Hall\, Lower Level\, 32 Quincy St\, cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/helen-wang.jpg
END:VEVENT
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