BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies - ECPv6.15.12.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251201T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251201T130000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080649
CREATED:20251022T162350Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251022T162351Z
UID:42827-1764588600-1764594000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Zong-Rong Lee — Kinship\, Business Elite and the Market in Contemporary Taiwan
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Zong-Rong LEE\, Research Fellow\, Institute of Sociology\, Academia Sinica\, Taiwan; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2025-26Chair/Discussant: Frank Dobbin\, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nIn the fields of history and anthropology\, kinship has long been regarded as a crucial factor in shaping the economic organization\, political authority\, and social mobility of East Asian societies. Yet\, due to the limitations of available data\, relatively little research has examined its influence on contemporary capitalist economies. The questions of whether\, and to what extent\, traditional kinship continues to shape and constrain the organization of modern markets remain unclear. In this lecture\, I introduce several ongoing empirical studies of family businesses and elite families in Taiwan\, with the aim of illustrating how kinship structures—and the family networks\, status dynamics\, and related mechanisms derived from them—affect contemporary corporate activities and the power relations of business elites. This interdisciplinary research not only offers new perspectives on the relevance of kinship studies for understanding contemporary societies\, but also provides new insights on class formation and market operations in postwar East Asia. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/zong-rong-lee-kinship-business-elite-and-the-market-in-contemporary-taiwan/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/zong-rong-lee.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251125T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251125T220000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080649
CREATED:20251118T164056Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251118T164059Z
UID:43362-1764102600-1764108000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Weila Gong — Implementing a Low-Carbon Future: Climate Leadership in Chinese Cities
DESCRIPTION:Zoom Meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Weila Gong\, University of California-San Diego \n\n\n\nWhy are some Chinese cities more successful than others in initiating and implementing low-carbon policy actions? Despite being the world’s largest carbon emitter\, China has committed to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. Since the early 2010s\, Beijing has selected over one hundred low-carbon pilot regions—from townships to cities to provinces—to explore policy solutions for decoupling economic growth from fossil-fuel use. In her new book\, Implementing a Low-Carbon Future\, Weila Gong finds variation in levels of low-carbon policy institutionalization across the case studies. This includes varying successes of the standards\, regulations\, and laws put into place through these policy experiments. Based on original research including extensive expert interviews\, comparative case studies\, and process tracing of the low-carbon policy experimentation in these pilot cities\, Gong opens the black box of the subnational climate policy process in China’s centralized political system and identifies mid-level local bureaucrats as playing an essential “bridge leader” role in successful implementation despite changes in political leadership.Weila Gong is a nonresident scholar at UC San Diego’s 21st Century China Center and a visiting scholar at UC Davis’s Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior. She is the author of Implementing a Low-Carbon Future: Climate Leadership in Chinese Cities (Oxford University Press\, 2025). With over ten years of experience working on the politics and policy of low-carbon energy transitions with a focus on China\, she holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Technical University of Munich and has held fellowships at Georgetown University\, Harvard Kennedy School\, and UC Berkeley School of Law. \n\n\n\nWe would like to thank the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab\, the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning\, and the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies 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/98722032936 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/weila-gong-implementing-a-low-carbon-future-climate-leadership-in-chinese-cities/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ucsd.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251121T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251121T133000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080649
CREATED:20251027T151241Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251027T151243Z
UID:42852-1763726400-1763731800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Chuncheng Liu — Metricocracy: The Data and Symbolic Politics of a Chinese Social Credit System
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Chuncheng Liu\, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies\, Northeastern University \n\n\n\nNumbers have become the universal language of modern governance. What happens when an authoritarian state attempts to quantify the moral worth of its citizens? Drawing from my fieldwork inside China’s social credit system bureaucracy\, this talk reveals how a quantification system designed to enhance state legibility and control instead produces opacity\, distortion\, and disillusionment. I document the everyday politics of quantification governance through two tensions: first\, between ambitious data collection goals and limited bureaucratic capacity\, resulting in selective data production and widespread fabrication; second\, between the state’s efforts to impose authoritative meanings on merit scores and citizens’ persistent reinterpretation and resistance. Through ethnographic observation\, I show how grassroots bureaucrats and citizens collaborate in maintaining an elaborate performance of governance while privately acknowledging its futility. Yet the system persists\, not because it achieves its stated objectives\, but because it fulfills internal political functions—particularly advancing officials’ careers within China’s competitive bureaucratic hierarchy. By demonstrating how quantification systems demand constant social and organizational maintenance while generating institutional strain and symbolic contestation\, this ethnography offers crucial insights into algorithmic governance worldwide—revealing how numbers designed as instruments of control transform into performative ends that ultimately govern the state more than society itself.   \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/chuncheng-liu-metricocracy-the-data-and-symbolic-politics-of-a-chinese-social-credit-system/
LOCATION:William James Hall\, Room 1550\, 33 kirkland st\, cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/chuncheng-liu.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251119T122000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251119T132000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080649
CREATED:20250930T142150Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250930T143210Z
UID:42557-1763554800-1763558400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Aaron Halegua — Fighting Forced Labor on U.S. Soil: Litigation on Behalf of Chinese Workers
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Aaron Halegua\, Lead Counsel for Plaintiffs\, Wang v. Gold Mantis Construction and Liu v. Wellmade Industries \n\n\n\nAaron Halegua leads a boutique litigation firm in New York City focused on labor and employment litigation\, with particular experience representing human trafficking and forced labor victims. In 2021\, he won $6.9 million for seven Chinese construction workers trafficked to build a casino on the island of Saipan. As a result\, Aaron was named the Human Trafficking Legal Center’s “Litigator of the Year” in 2021 and received the “Grantee Hero Award” from the Impact Fund in 2023. Since then\, Aaron has represented dozens of Chinese\, Filipino\, and other immigrant workers in forced labor cases around the country\, including in New Mexico\, New York\, Georgia\, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Since 2024\, Aaron has been a Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Immigration and Human Trafficking. Aaron began his legal career as a Skadden Fellow and clerked at the Southern District of New York. He speaks\, reads\, and writes Mandarin Chinese. \n\n\n\nA light lunch will be provided. \n\n\n\nPlease register here. \n\n\n\n*Location note: In past years\, EALS talks were generally in Morgan Courtroom (Austin 308)\, but due to the construction project currently underway next to Austin Hall\, we will hold most EALS talks in Wasserstein Hall during the 2025-2026 academic year. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/aaron-halegua-fighting-forced-labor-on-u-s-soil-litigation-on-behalf-of-chinese-workers/
LOCATION:WCC 3008\, Wasserstein Hall\, 1585 Massachusetts Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Halegua.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251117T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251117T180000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080649
CREATED:20251105T162147Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251105T162149Z
UID:42970-1763395200-1763402400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Domee Shi — Drawing from Life: Storytelling\, Heritage\, and Turning the Personal into the Universal
DESCRIPTION:Register for in-person attendance\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Domee Shi\, Academy Award–Winning Director\, Writer\, and Storyteller; Creative Vice President\, PixarDiscussant: Ju Yon Kim\, Patsy Takemoto Mink Professor of English\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nJoin the Academy Award–winning director\, animator\, and filmmaker Domee Shi for an engaging conversation about creative expression and empathetic storytelling. A self-described “film nerd\,” Shi will be joined by Ju Yon Kim\, the Patsy Takemoto Mink Professor of English at Harvard\, to discuss Shi’s life and career\, taking surprising creative risks\, and using animation to explore worlds different from our own while finding universality through the stories told.To attend in person\, each individual will need to register.To view this event online\, each individual will need to register via Zoom. \n\n\n\nDomee Shi is an Academy Award–winning director\, writer\, and storyteller with a 14-year career in the animation industry. She began as a story artist on Pixar’s Academy Award–winning Inside Out (2015) before contributing to The Good Dinosaur (2015)\, Incredibles 2 (2018)\, and Toy Story 4 (2019). In 2015\, she pitched the idea for Bao (2018)\, a deeply personal short film that went on to win the Academy Award for best animated short. \n\n\n\nShi made history with her feature directorial debut\, Turning Red (2022). Praised for its bold storytelling and exploration of adolescence and family\, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for best animated feature. Her latest film\, Elio (2025)\, a sci-fi adventure\, was released in theatres this past June. Alongside directing\, Shi is also a creative vice president at Pixar\, playing a key role in shaping the studio’s creative vision and consulting on projects in both development and production.  \n\n\n\nShi was born in Chongqing\, China\, and resided in Toronto\, Canada\, for most of her life. She currently lives in Oakland\, California\, and notes that her love of animation is only rivaled by her love of cats. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/domee-shi-drawing-from-life-storytelling-heritage-and-turning-the-personal-into-the-universal/
LOCATION:Radcliffe Knafel Center\, 10 Garden St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures,Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/domee-shi.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251117T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251117T163000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080649
CREATED:20251107T195636Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251107T200034Z
UID:43322-1763391600-1763397000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Once Burned\, Twice Shy: A Conversation on U.S.- China Trade with Ambassador Katherine Tai
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ambassador Katherine C. Tai\, U.S. Trade Representative (2021-2025)Moderator: Mark Wu\,  Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law\, Harvard Law School; Director\, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nJoin us for a conversation with Ambassador Katherine C. Tai\, U.S. Trade Representative (2021-2025) on U.S.- China trade relations\, moderated by Professor Mark Wu\, Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Ambassador Tai will examine the longstanding issues in the trade relationship\, dating back to her days as the Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative\, and the harms to U.S. communities and interests arising out of the “China Shock.”  She will also assess the ongoing trade conflict and the likelihood of further challenges ahead as the world’s two largest economies navigate a complicated and contentious relationship with immense economic\, strategic\, and social consequences.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/once-burned-twice-shy-a-conversation-on-u-s-china-trade-with-ambassador-katherine-tai/
LOCATION:Hall D\, Science Center\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Special Event
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/catherine-tai.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251117T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251117T130000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080649
CREATED:20251022T162105Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251022T162107Z
UID:42824-1763379000-1763384400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Wang Junqi — The Evolution of Iconography Associated with the Great Compassion Mantra
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: WANG Junqi\, Research Fellow\, Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Religious Theory; Associate Professor\, School of Philosophy\, Renmin University of China; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2025-26Chair/Discussant: Parimal Patil\, Professor of Religion and Indian Philosophy\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nThe Great Compassion Mantra (大悲呪) is one of the most widely recited mantras in Chinese Buddhism\, often accompanied by a set of eighty-four vibrant images. But where did these images come from? This talk traces the surprising origins of this popular illustrated tradition\, arguing that the canonical texts believed to be its source were not original translations\, but later compilations. By comparing the original Sanskrit with its Chinese transliteration\, we’ll see how new\, unofficial images were created and why they became so popular. We will then examine how later manuscripts helped build a sense of “canonical authority” around these illustrations. This study reveals a fascinating story of how a religious tradition evolved through a dynamic interplay between scripture\, visual art\, and the needs of its followers\, ultimately making the mantra more accessible to a wider audience. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/wang-junqi-the-evolution-of-iconography-associated-with-the-great-compassion-mantra/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/wang-junqi.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251113T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251113T200000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080649
CREATED:20251106T140148Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251106T140545Z
UID:43161-1763056800-1763064000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Films from the Film Study Center: Screening and Conversation
DESCRIPTION:Please join us\, in partnership with ArtsThursdays\, for a special screening of short films by Darol Olu Kae\, Kendra McLaughlin\, Tiff Rekem\, and Svetlana Romanova—current fellows at the Film Study Center at Harvard. Following the screening\, the filmmakers will participate in a conversation with Dennis Lim\, Artistic Director of the New York Film Festival. \n\n\n\nTiff Rekem
: Trilogy (working title)\, 2026\, work in progress\, 15 min. Ten years ago\, prominent director of Taiwan popular cinema Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖) set out to make three historical epics set during the little-known 17th-century Dutch colonial period in Taiwan — until the production fell apart\, unfinished\, in 2025. This project refashions the visual and sonic traces of the Taiwan Trilogy into an alternative historical period piece that\, during a time of rising nationalism in Taiwan\, observes the construction of cinema as the construction of a national identity. A work in progress. \n\n\n\nKendra McLaughlin
: Lo que las olas no rompen (What the Waves Don’t Break)\, 2026\, work in progress\, 12min 30s. Along Lima’s southern coast\, men fish\, camels eat\, and life cycles through death and back again. \n\n\n\nSvetlana Romanova: Hinkelten\, 2023\, Russia\, 15 min.
Filmed in the Yakutian Arctic and constructed out of personal poems and notes\, this visual essay poses questions about our perception of contemporaneity and image production’s intersection with the creation of narratives around the idea of love (romantic\, platonic\, intimate\, and maternal). \n\n\n\nDarol Olu Kae: Keeping Time\, 2023\, USA\, 32 min. Keeping Time is a kaleidoscopic audiovisual homage to musicians who pass on the magic and the communities that nourish them.
  \n\n\n\nThis event is co-presented by the Film Study Center at Harvard University and ArtsThursdays\, a university-wide initiative supported by Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/films-from-the-film-study-center-screening-and-conversation/
LOCATION:Harvard Film Archive\, Carpenter Center\, 24 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest,Film Screening,Taiwan,Taiwan Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/tiff-rekem.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251113T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251114T170000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080649
CREATED:20251007T153058Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251022T162923Z
UID:42752-1763049600-1763139600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Asia and Asians at Harvard Conference
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHarvard’s enduring engagement with Asia has shaped scholarly inquiry\, public policy\, and campus life—within the University and across the region. This two-day conference convenes faculty\, students\, alumni\, and institutional partners from across Schools and disciplines to examine the evolving relationship between Harvard and Asia from the late nineteenth century to the present and to consider paths forward. \n\n\n\nThrough a series of presentations\, the program revisits formative encounters\, collaborations\, and institutional linkages; recognizes the contributions of Asian students\, scholars\, and visitors who have transformed fields and enriched the University; and offers an assessment of Harvard’s roles in U.S. policy\, development\, and institution-building in Asia\, acknowledging both contributions and consequences. \n\n\n\nLooking ahead\, the conference asks how Harvard can advance more inclusive\, equitable\, and regionally balanced approaches to the study of Asia and to University engagement with the region—strengthening partnerships\, deepening interdisciplinary research and teaching\, and enhancing public impact. \n\n\n\nRegistration is not required but appreciated for planning purposes. \n\n\n\nDay 1: Thursday\, November 13\, 2025Belfer Case Study Room (S020)\,CGIS South\, 1730 Cambridge Street\n\n\n\n4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Welcome and Opening ReflectionsMichael Puett\, Victor and William Fung Foundation Director\, Harvard University Asia Center; Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology\, FAS; Harvard College Professor \n\n\n\nOpening Panel “Harvard’s Japan Encounter”Susan J. Pharr\, Edwin O. Reischauer Research Professor of Japanese Politics\, FAS\, Harvard University“Harvard and Asia: Brief Encounters\, Abiding Relationships”Sugata Bose\, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs\, FAS\, Harvard University  \n\n\n\nTraditional Sumatran Dance Performance Presented by Harvard Indonesian Students Association  \n\n\n\nReceptionConcourse Area\, CGIS South\, 1730 Cambridge Street  \n\n\n\nDay 2: Friday\, November 14\, 2025Belfer Case Study Room (S020)\,CGIS South\, 1730 Cambridge Street\n\n\n\n8:15 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Breakfast9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.                  Distinguished Visitors: Asian Intellectuals and Public Figures at Harvard  Moderator: Shigehisa Kuriyama\, Reischauer Institute Professor of Cultural History; Director\, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies; Interim Chair in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations\, FAS; and Faculty Director for the Humanities\, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced StudyPanelists:  “Imperfect Encounters: South Asians and Harvard in the Early 20th Century” Mou Banerjee\, Assistant Professor of History\, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Ph.D. in History\, Harvard University“Repurposing the ‘Civilizing Mission’: A Japanese Sinologist at Harvard\, 1915–1916”Yan Yu\, Associate Professor\, Shanghai Jiao Tong University\, and Visiting Scholar\, Harvard History Department\, FAS“Kissing Harvard Goodbye: The Cold War Considerations of Lee Kuan Yew’s American Visits”Eugene Chua\, Harvard College Student 10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Break  \n\n\n\n10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.                  Pioneers and Pathways: Asian Student Experiences at Harvard Moderator: Sun Joo Kim\, Harvard-Yenching Professor of Korean History\, FAS\, Harvard University Panelists: “Shared Paths\, Unique Stories: Harvard’s Korean Alumni”Sujin Elisa Han\, Ph.D. candidate in History and East Asian Languages\, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences\, Harvard UniversityTitle ForthcomingMui Poopoksakul\, Independent Literary Translator\, Berlin; Harvard College Graduate “The Earliest Asian Women at Radcliffe College” Shayna Leng\, Harvard College Student “’Democratizing Monarch?’ Harvard in the Himalaya and King Birendra at Harvard”Kashish Bastola\, Harvard College Student   \n\n\n\n12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Lunch 1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.          Harvard’s Engagement in U.S. Policy towards Asia Moderator: Sugata Bose\, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs\, FAS\, Harvard UniversityPanelists:   “Making Subjects of Subjects: Harvard and the Transnational Project of U.S. Colonial Education in the Philippine”Eleanor Wikstrom\, M.Sc. in Social Science of the Internet\, Oxford Internet Institute\, University  of Oxford; Harvard College Graduate  “Harvard Eugenicists and Immigration Restriction in the U.S.”Erika Lee\, Bae Family Professor of History\, FAS and the Faculty Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America\, Harvard University“A Cold War Redux in Asia: Harvard’s Legacy and Role” Thitinan Pongsudhirak\, Director of the Institute of Security and International Studies (ISIS) and Associate Professor of International Political Economy\, Faculty of Political Science\, Chulalongkorn University“Harvard and the Vietnam War: Contestation vs. Support”Nghia Nguyen\, Harvard College Student  \n\n\n\n2:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Break 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.                     Harvard’s Asian Futures: Rethinking Institutional Legacies and Regional Engagement \n\n\n\nModerator: Jay Rosengard\, Lecturer in Public Policy\, Harvard Kennedy School Panelists:  “Studying China at Harvard in the 1960s”Joseph Esherick\, Emeritus Professor of Modern Chinese History\, University of California\, San Diego“Impact Taking Many Forms”Bill Alford\, Jerome A. and Joan L. Cohen Professor of Law; Director\, East Asian Legal Studies Program; Chair\, Harvard Law School Project on Disability“Exporting Expertise: Institutionalizing Planning Education in Southeast Asia”Robin Albrecht\, MArch Candidate\, Department of Architecture\, Harvard  University Graduate School of Design  “Recovering Voices: Using Museum Collections to Address Institutional Histories”Ingrid Ahlgren\, Curator for Oceanic Collections\, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology\, FAS\, Harvard University; Research Associate\, Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History“Harvard and the Study of Southeast Asia”Michael Puett\, Victor and William Fung Foundation Director\, Harvard University Asia Center; Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and AnthropologyFAS; Harvard College Professor 4:50 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.            Closing AcknowledgementRachelle Walsh\, Executive Director\, Asia Center\, FAS\, Harvard University     \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by the Asia Center\, the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations\, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs\, the Korea Institute\, the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies\, the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute\, the Harvard-Yenching Institute\, and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/asia-and-asians-at-harvard-conference/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, CGIS South\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures,Conference and Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/asians-at-harvard.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251113T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251113T130000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20251022T161741Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251022T161744Z
UID:42821-1763033400-1763038800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Ma Xinrong — Migration Pathway\, Precariousness and Migration Control: the Case of Irregular Migrants From the Philippines and Myanmar to China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: MA Xinrong\, Associate Professor\, Sun Yat-sen University; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2025-26Chair/Discussant: Meg Rithmire\, James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration\, Harvard Business School \n\n\n\nChina\, emerging as a new destination for international migration\, has been receiving an increasing number of labor migrants from neighboring countries. Except for limited pilot schemes in border areas\, Chinese authorities have not issued work visas to foreign migrant workers nationwide; thus\, international labor migrants in most non-border regions are classified as sanfei renyuan (people entering\, staying\, and working illegally). This research focuses on irregular migrant workers from Southeast Asia to China\, with particular attention to female migrant workers from the Philippines and Myanmar. Based on interviews and participant observation with both irregular migrants and immigration officials at the grassroots level\, this study examines how irregular migration pathways are shaped by geopolitics and migration policies over the past decade. It also investigates how migration control—particularly the deportation regime toward irregular migrants—is mutually constituted by the state\, the discretionary power of migration officials\, citizens\, and non-citizens. The research further demonstrates that\, in the face of tightened migration controls during and after the COVID-19 pandemic\, irregular migrant workers have exercised agency despite their marginalized and precarious conditions. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/ma-xinrong-migration-pathway-precariousness-and-migration-control-the-case-of-irregular-migrants-from-the-philippines-and-myanmar-to-china/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ma-xinrong.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251112T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251112T131500
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250826T152449Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251112T152035Z
UID:41381-1762948800-1762953300@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Yi Lu — Garbage Time of History? Chinese Archives in the Era of Xi Jinping
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Yi Lu\, Assistant Professor of History\, Dartmouth CollegeDiscussant: Daniel Koss\, Associate Senior Lecturer on East Asian Languages and Civilizations\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nThe Chinese internet has recently been captivated by a meme: “the garbage time of history.” The phrase evokes the Soviet Union’s final\, suffocating decades to suggest that China\, too\, has entered an era of stagnation. Beyond a general sense of anomie born from Covid-19 and economic malaise\, the meme speaks to the very difficulty of remembering in Xi Jinping’s China — indeed\, the posts themselves are quickly scrubbed. \n\n\n\nIs China in the garbage time of history? This talk takes the concept seriously — as material\, as metaphor\, and as memento of our times — by exploring the fate of archives in contemporary China. Specifically\, I focus on China’s grassroots archives\, collections of de-accessioned Mao-era records salvaged by waste recyclers and sold in flea markets before being acquired by major universities. Once celebrated as counter-archives preserving history beyond the Party-State’s reach\, what has become of these collections as archives are folded ever more deeply into China’s information security system and Xi’s project of national rejuvenation? Drawing on documentary research\, ethnographic fieldwork\, and quantitative analysis\, I explore the challenges of remembering the past when revisionism\, nationalism\, and denialism make archives more politicized and precarious — and not just in China. \n\n\n\nYi Lu is a historian of modern China\, with particular interests in the history of information\, material culture\, and digital humanities. He is currently Assistant Professor of History at Dartmouth College and completing his first book project\, The Dustbin of History: Chinese Archives and Their Afterlives. \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-yi-lu-the-ccps-struggle-to-control-memory/
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/2025/08/Yi-Lu.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251105T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251105T131500
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250820T193618Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251020T151630Z
UID:41282-1762344000-1762348500@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Anthony Saich — Through the Past Darkly: Culture and Practice of the Chinese Communist Party 
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Anthony Saich\, Daewoo Professor of International Affairs; Director\, Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia\, Harvard Kennedy SchoolDiscussant: Rana Mitter\, ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations\, Harvard Kennedy School \n\n\n\nLittle could the founders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have known that they were setting in motion one of history’s greatest revolutionary movements. While much has changed\, there is important continuity in the practice and the culture of the party. It is an organization and propaganda party; an infallible and autonomous party; a controlling party; a collectivist party; an adaptable and flexible party; and a global party. \n\n\n\nAnthony Saich (托尼·赛奇) is the director of the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs\, teaching courses on comparative political institutions\, democratic governance\, and transitional economies with a focus on China. In his capacity as Institute Director\, Saich also serves as the faculty chair of the China Programs\, the Asia Energy Leaders Program\, Unseen Legacies of the Vietnam War and the Global Vietnam Wars Studies Initiative. \n\n\n\nHe holds a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Letters\, University of Leiden\, the Netherlands. He received his master’s degree in politics with special reference to China from the School of Oriental and African Studies\, London University\, and his bachelor’s degree in politics and geography from the University of Newcastle\, UK. \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-anthony-saich-through-the-past-darkly-culture-and-practice-of-the-chinese-communist-party/
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/2022/02/Faculty_Saich_Tony_MS17_2500-2048x1366-1-e1600961574561-768x768-1.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251103T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251103T180000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20251020T183037Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251020T183039Z
UID:42796-1762185600-1762192800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Humanities Seminar featuring Matthias Richter — Early Chinese Texts Between Oral Instruction and Written Literature
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Matthias L. Richter\, Associate Professor of Chinese\, University of Colorado at Boulder \n\n\n\nAudiences in early China were probably more aware of technicalities in texts than we are today\, since they had first-hand experience of a predominantly oral textual culture and the management of cognitive load it required. Conventions of structuring texts rooted in this mode of communication must have carried over into the production of texts that were designed for reading. Later readers may not always have recognized such textual forms as intentional. This should give us reason to reconsider whether some features of texts that are commonly considered as accidents of transmission may have been intentional. \n\n\n\nMatthias L. Richter\, Associate Professor of Chinese\, University of Colorado at Boulder\, obtained a PhD in sinology from the University of Hamburg in 2000\, taught at several German universities and the University of Chicago before joining the faculty of CU Boulder in 2007. His research focuses on Warring States and Early Imperial politico-philosophical literature\, particularly questions of rhetoric and redactional strategies\, textual criticism\, the formational history of texts\, and the methodology of studying early Chinese manuscripts. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-humanities-seminar-featuring-matthias-richter-early-chinese-texts-between-oral-instruction-and-written-literature/
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/2024/08/Matthias-Richter.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251103T121500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251103T134500
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20251017T144319Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251017T144712Z
UID:42785-1762172100-1762177500@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Antje Richter — Health and the Art of Living: Illness Narratives in Early Medieval Chinese Literature
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Antje Richter\, Associate Professor of Chinese\, University of Colorado\, Boulder \n\n\n\nModerator: Xiaofei Tian\, Ford Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nRegistration appreciated for planning purposes.  \n\n\n\nHealth and the Art of Living offers reflections on health and illness in early medieval Chinese literature (ca. 200–ca. 600). Surveying a range of literary sources—essays\, prefaces\, correspondence\, religious scriptures\, and poetry—it explores the spectrum of views on health and illness expressed in these texts. Part One\, centered on the essay “Nurturing the Vital Breath” in Liu Xie’s Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons\, reveals the deep concern of writers\, troubled by overwork and excessive mental exertion\, with the preservation and cultivation of their literary creativity. For them\, the ability to write was inextricably connected with their social roles as officials. Part Two turns to self-narratives of health and illness in authorial prefaces\, informal notes\, formal letters\, and official communications. Writers of these texts depicted their physical condition according to specific rhetorical purposes\, whether that was to legitimize authorship\, maintain intimate relationships\, or avoid office. Part Three describes the rise of sickbed poetry\, shaped by Xie Lingyun and the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra\, which established illness as a topic in the refined literature of the period. Drawing attention to the grounding of literature in the lived experience of their creators\, this book illuminates the conditions of literary production in early medieval China. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/book-talk-%f0%9d%98%8f%f0%9d%98%a6%f0%9d%98%a2%f0%9d%98%ad%f0%9d%98%b5%f0%9d%98%a9-%f0%9d%98%a2%f0%9d%98%af%f0%9d%98%a5-%f0%9d%98%b5%f0%9d%98%a9%f0%9d%98%a6-%f0%9d%98%88/
LOCATION:CGIS South S020\, Belfer Case Study Room\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/antje-richter.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T143000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20251017T143835Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251017T145022Z
UID:42782-1761915600-1761921000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Nicholas Morrow Williams — Dialogues in the Dark: Interpreting "Heavenly Questions" Across Two Millennia
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Nicholas Morrow Williams\, Professor of Chinese\, Arizona State University  \n\n\n\nModerator: Michael Puett\, Victor and William Fung Foundation Director\, Harvard University Asia Center; Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology; Harvard College Professor \n\n\n\nPresented online via Zoom. To join\, register here.  \n\n\n\nDialogues in the Dark traces how Chinese readers and scholars since the Han dynasty have variously interpreted the ancient poem “Heavenly Questions” (Tianwen)\, an enigmatic work attributed to Qu Yuan (fl. ca. 300 BCE). The poem\, composed entirely in the form of questions\, is an extended inquiry into early Chinese cosmology and history. Over centuries\, readers of the poem came to radically different understandings\, each providing a unique perspective on its meaning. The poem’s reception history comprises three main stages: first\, the commentary compiled by Han scholar Wang Yi (ca. 89–ca. 158); second\, the response by Tang poet Liu Zongyuan (773–819); and third\, the interpretations developed subsequently by late imperial and modern scholars. Nicholas Morrow Williams analyzes how the poem’s meaning evolved in different time periods and provides three new translations of “Heavenly Questions” to represent the three stages\, respectively. The ultimate thesis of this study\, inspired by the hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer\, is that this poem is best understood in light of the different interpretations supplied by readers over time in lively dialogues that continue even now. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/book-talk-%f0%9d%98%8b%f0%9d%98%aa%f0%9d%98%a2%f0%9d%98%ad%f0%9d%98%b0%f0%9d%98%a8%f0%9d%98%b6%f0%9d%98%a6%f0%9d%98%b4-%f0%9d%98%aa%f0%9d%98%af-%f0%9d%98%b5%f0%9d%98%a9%f0%9d%98%a6/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/nicholasmorrowwilliams.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T122000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T132000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250930T141803Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251027T144803Z
UID:42554-1761913200-1761916800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Joe Ngai — Where is the "Next China"? It's Still China — But It Will Require a Different Playbook
DESCRIPTION: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). \n\n\n\nJoe 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 aging society and the emergence of AI. What is the new playbook required for businesses to succeed? What does this mean for lawyers? \n\n\n\nJoe Ngai is a senior partner at McKinsey and chairman of its Greater China offices in Beijing\, Hong Kong\, Shanghai\, Shenzhen\, and Taipei. In the past two decades\, he has led large-scale transformations for Chinese and multinational organizations and advises many corporate leaders in the region. Mr. Ngai has been named one of the 2023 and 2024 Forbes China “100 Most Influential Chinese” and one of the 2022 “CEOs of the Year for Multinational Corporations in China” by Jiemian News. He holds an AB\, JD\, and MBA from Harvard University. \n\n\n\nA light lunch will be provided. \n\n\n\nPlease register here. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/joe-ngai-where-is-the-next-china-its-still-china-but-it-will-require-a-different-playbook/
LOCATION:WCC B015\, Wasserstein Hall\, 1585 Massachusetts Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138
CATEGORIES:China Economy Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Joe-Ngai.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T130000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250929T180800Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250929T180802Z
UID:42445-1761910200-1761915600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Wang Haiyan — Intellectuals\, Influencers\, and the Reshaping of Chinese Nationalism
DESCRIPTION: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 \n\n\n\nIntellectuals 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 undergone profound transformations. These shifts reflect changes in international relations\, domestic political development\, and a growing national confidence fueled by decades of economic growth. Equally important\, the rapid spread of digital technologies has altered how ideas circulate and how publics engage with nationalist discourse. Where intellectuals once mediated debates through traditional media\, many have now redefined themselves as digital “influencers”. With vast online followings\, they leverage platform logics to participate directly in nationalist debates\, monetize their reputations\, and reshape public discourse in ways that differ significantly from their predecessors. In this talk\, I will explore how these intellectuals reinvent themselves as digital influencers\, how they construct and disseminate nationalist narratives on digital platforms\, and the implications of their practices for China’s evolving nationalism. By situating these intellectual influencers at the intersection of state\, society\, technology\, and the platform economy\, this study seeks to shed new light on the dynamics of contemporary cyber-nationalism and the changing role of intellectuals in shaping national identity. \n\n\n\nhttps://www.harvard-yenching.org/events/wang-haiyan/ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/wang-haiyan-intellectuals-influencers-and-the-reshaping-of-chinese-nationalism/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/WANG-Haiyan.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251029T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251029T174500
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20251014T141308Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251021T160245Z
UID:42772-1761755400-1761759900@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Taiwan Studies Workshop featuring Andrew Erickson — Taiwan's Security: What's at Risk and What's at Stake?
DESCRIPTION: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 of key events regarding cross-Strait security\, with particular focus on China’s aborted invasion plans for 1950; as well as the 1954–55\, 1958\, and 1995–96 crises\, and sophisticated large-scale exercises beginning in 2022. It explains China’s current all-domain pressure campaign against Taiwan\, as well as the evolving operational capabilities and potential military campaigns that Xi has ordered his armed forces to prepare as part of his signature military development deadline: the Centennial Military Building Goal of 2027. It concludes by considering Taiwan’s strategic significance. \n\n\n\nAndrew S. Erickson is a Visiting Scholar at the Fairbank Center. He is also Professor of Strategy in the U.S. Naval War College (NWC)’s China Maritime Studies Institute\, which he helped establish and has served as Research Director. Erickson has received the Navy Superior Civilian Service Medal\, NWC’s inaugural Civilian Faculty Research Excellence Award\, and NBR’s inaugural Ellis Joffe Prize for PLA Studies. Erickson’s latest coedited volume\, Chinese Amphibious Warfare: Prospects for a Cross-Strait Invasion\, has been named the Samuel B. Griffith Foundation’s 2025 Publication of the Year and selected for the Commandant of the Marine Corps Professional Reading Program’s 2025 Reading List. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry published a Chinese-language translation of his coedited volume on China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations in 2023. \n\n\n\nDisclaimer: The views expressed by Dr. Erickson are his alone\, based solely on open sources and offered from an independent academic perspective. They do not represent the policies or estimates of the U.S. Navy or any other organization of the U.S. government\, or of any other organization with which he is affiliated. Dr. Erickson is presenting in his personal capacity\, not as an employee of the U.S. government. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/taiwan-studies-workshop-featuring-andrew-erickson-taiwans-security-whats-at-risk-and-whats-at-stake/
LOCATION:CGIS South Room S354\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Taiwan,Taiwan Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Andrew-Erickson.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251029T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251029T131500
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250826T151940Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251020T140045Z
UID:41378-1761739200-1761743700@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY: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
DESCRIPTION: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 \n\n\n\nOver the past decade\, Chinese NGOs gained formal roles in environmental governance through public interest litigations\, access-to-information requests\, and participation in legal processes. That space is narrowing today. A more centralized political climate\, the expanded authority of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment\, increased prosecutorial control\, and campaign-style enforcement have reasserted central state power. Drawing on cases like Friends of Nature v. State Grid Co. and the Green Peacock case\, this lecture explores how civil society actors continue to adapt\, influence\, and navigate in a shifting political landscape\, raising open questions about what forms of engagement remain viable\, and what strategies still make a difference. \n\n\n\nYanmei Lin is Acting Director of the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment and Professor of Law at Vermont Law and Graduate School\, where she also serves as Deputy Director of the U.S.-Asia Partnerships for Environmental Law. Her work focuses on comparative environmental rule of law and the role of civil society. She has supported environmental strategic litigation\, public interest legal networks\, environmental damages and compensation system’s legislative reform and community legal empowerment initiatives in collaboration with environmental NGOs\, legal clinics\, judicial institutions and academic partners in the region. \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-yanmei-lin/
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/2025/08/thumbnail_Yanmei-Lin-Headshot.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251028T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251028T220000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20251010T195009Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251010T195011Z
UID:42765-1761683400-1761688800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Lik Sam Chan — The Politics of Dating Apps in Urban China
DESCRIPTION:zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: 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 women migrating from villages to metropolitan areas\, straight men navigating the pressure to showcase wealth in a highly capitalized environment\, queer men envisioning a more equitable future in urban politics\, and queer women seeking community despite their invisibility in the city. These dynamics are reflected in diverse interpretations and interactions on dating apps. My concept of “networked sexual publics” underscores that such publics are always regionally specific. Consequently\, the use of dating apps—or communication technology more broadly—must be understood through the lens of local contexts and cultural concepts. \n\n\n\nDr. Lik Sam Chan is a Lecturer in Digital Cultures at the University of Sydney’s Discipline of Media and Communications and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Journalism and Communication. His research focuses on the intersections of digital platforms\, gender and sexuality\, and culture. His first book\, The Politics of Dating Apps (MIT Press\, 2021)\, explores dating app culture in China across diverse user demographics. His work has been cited by international media outlets\, including the BBC and Rest of World. \n\n\n\nJoin Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/98722032936  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/lik-sam-chan-the-politics-of-dating-apps-in-urban-china/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/lik-sam-chan.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T184500
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250826T151249Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251015T173318Z
UID:41375-1761154200-1761158700@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Dan Wang — Breakneck: Can China Outcompete the U.S. on Innovation?
DESCRIPTION: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 *** \n\n\n\nDan Wang is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution\, Stanford University\, in its Hoover History Lab and is one of the most-cited experts on China’s technological capabilities. He is the author of the forthcoming Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future (W. W. Norton [US] and Penguin [UK]\, Fall 2025). \n\n\n\nWang was previously a fellow at the Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center and a lecturer at Yale University’s MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. From 2017 to 2023\, he worked in China as the technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics\, based in Hong Kong\, Beijing\, and then Shanghai. \n\n\n\nWhile based in China\, Wang covered the web of US tech restrictions; their impact on leading companies; and the country’s growing capabilities in semiconductors\, clean technology\, and advanced manufacturing. \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-dan-wang/
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/2025/08/Dan-Wang.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T122000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T132000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250930T141326Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251002T173012Z
UID:42548-1761135600-1761139200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Ryan Martinez Mitchell — The Rise of Authoritarian Sustainability? China's Transformative Engagement with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: 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 \n\n\n\nSince 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\, intra-Party governance\, and a comprehensive ideological narrative articulating both national and global objectives. Indeed\, China’s role in and advocacy for the SDGs\, beginning during the negotiations on their formation\, is now at the heart of its foreign policy and international law initiatives. There has also been an increasing permeation of SDG indicators into Beijing’s domestic formulation and evaluation of policies (including for audiences of elite policymakers). Significantly\, China has also come to be seen by many as a model of achievement with regard to the SDGs at a time of US withdrawal and generalized crisis in the arena of global development. \n\n\n\nThe emerging pattern could be seen as one example of “authoritarian sustainability”: a configuration in which the legitimacy of illiberal governance is extensively reinforced by the discourse and metrics of sustainable development. As a unique melding of China’s domestic politics with a global agenda\, the SDG targets now serve as guiding principles\, integrating social and environmental policy\, economic regulation\, and state legitimacy claims into a single project. At the same time\, viewed in connection with the international legal order\, Beijing’s approach may help spur a global transition away from civil and political conceptions of human rights\, in favor of the similarly universalist but “post-liberal” SDG framework. However\, while in many ways a success story\, China’s model of SDG engagement also includes several paradoxical features that may indicate its own replicability challenges\, latent drawbacks or contradictions\, and the need to contemplate alternative paths. Empirical and structural analysis of China’s legal and regulatory approaches indicate features–such as reliance on controlled disruption\, völkisch ecology\, and “saltationist” mobilization–that call into question the viability of authoritarian sustainability as a long-term model in China or as an example for developing states. \n\n\n\nRyan Martínez Mitchell is an Associate Professor of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His work on international and comparative law\, legal history\, Chinese law\, and Asian legal systems has appeared in leading academic journals. His analysis of these issues has also featured in policy-related publications including Foreign Affairs\, The National Interest\, The Diplomat\, and others\, and his analysis has been cited in media including The New York Times\, The Wall Street Journal\, Financial Times\, The National Interest\, NPR\, Bloomberg\, Nikkei Asia\, Al Jazeera\, Foreign Policy\, and other major media outlets. His first book\, Recentering the World: China and the Transformation of International Law\, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. Mitchell holds a B.A. with honors from The New School\, a J.D. from Harvard Law School\, where he was also a Cravath International Fellow and an Irving R. Kaufman Public Interest Fellow\, and a Ph.D. in Law with distinction from Yale Law School\, where he was an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Fellow and obtained Yale’s Archaia qualification in the study of premodern societies. He is a member of the State Bar of California and has experience in international human rights litigation. In the current academic year\, he will be a visiting Fellow at Yale Law School’s Orville H. Schell Jr. Center for International Human Rights\, Global Faculty at the Freie Universität Berlin Department of Law\, and an International Affairs Fellow in Japan for the Council on Foreign Relations. \n\n\n\nA light lunch will be provided at this event. Please register here. \n\n\n\n*Location note: In past years\, EALS talks were generally in Morgan Courtroom (Austin 308)\, but due to the construction project currently underway next to Austin Hall\, we will hold most EALS talks in Wasserstein Hall during the 2025-2026 academic year. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/ryan-martinez-mitchell-the-rise-of-authoritarian-sustainability-chinas-transformative-engagement-with-the-un-sustainable-development-goals/
LOCATION:WCC 3018\, Wasserstein Hall\, 1585 Massachusetts Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/sustainable-goals.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251020T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251020T180000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250903T150808Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250903T150810Z
UID:41525-1760976000-1760983200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Humanities Seminar featuring Lili Xia — Geocultural “Northernness” of Jurchen-Ruled China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lili Xia\,  Assistant Professor\, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures\, Barnard College. \n\n\n\nThe 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 geopolitical reality and a poetic and intellectual imaginary. First\, after the loss of the Central Plain\, Southern Song literati enshrined their former territory of North China into “sites of memory” (lieux de mémoire). At the same time\, the Jurchen Jin proclaimed legitimacy by invoking its own “northernness” conceived in both literary texts and geocultural contexts. Extending beyond the Central Plain into what I term the Far North—territory inherited from the former Kitan Liao dynasty (907–1125)—this region received substantial cultural investment under Jurchen rule. Using GIS visualization to map historical agents from extant Jin corpora\, I show that these far northern literati were integral to Jin civil society. Finally\, I turn to zhongzhou 中州 as a discursive hallmark in Jin textual production\, a conceptual anchor for “northernness” that served as both cultural self-distinction and\, after the Mongol conquest\, a locus of collective nostalgia. Occupying the “North” with not only geographical but also conceptual significance\, the Jin positioned itself not as an alien regime but as an alternative\, heteroglossic vision of “China.” \n\n\n\nLili Xia is a scholar of premodern Chinese literature\, with a broader interest in Sino-steppe interactions and their role in challenging\, changing\, and pluralizing the mainstream literary history. She is currently working on her book project titled “North against South in Middle Period China: Classical Poetry and Literati Culture under Jurchen Jin Rule (1115–1234).” The book examines how the Sino-Jurchen North articulated a rival vision of China against the cultural orthodoxy of the Han Chinese-ruled South\, and highlights the vibrant and self-defining literati culture under Jurchen rule\, with a particular focus on Jin classical poetry. The book also adopts an interdisciplinary approach that integrates material culture\, digital tools\, and literary sources to better represent Jin literary ecology. It aims to portray Middle Period China as an intersubjective\, transcultural\, and border-crossing space. \n\n\n\nXia received her B.A. and M.A. in Classical Chinese Literature at Fudan University\, and her Ph.D. in East Asian Studies at Princeton University. She was the 2023–24 Louis Frieberg Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since 2024\, she is an assistant professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-humanities-seminar-featuring-lili-xia-geocultural-northernness-of-jurchen-ruled-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/2025/09/chs1020.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251017T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251017T160000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250930T185135Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250930T185138Z
UID:42580-1760709600-1760716800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Digital China Initiative GenAI Workshop
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis workshop is designed for anyone interested in using generative artificial intelligence in Chinese Studies.  \n\n\n\nThe 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.  \n\n\n\nWhether you’re interested in adapting generative AI to your research\, staying updated with the latest developments in generative AI\, or simply curious about what generative AI can offer you\, this workshop may provide valuable insights and practical skills. \n\n\n\nPlease register at: https://forms.office.com/r/H6McwDte5M \n\n\n\nYou will receive confirmation email on three days before the meeting. If you have any question\, please feel free to contact Kwok-leong Tang (kwokleongtang@fas.harvard.edu). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/digital-china-initiative-genai-workshop/
LOCATION:Room 202\, 61 Kirkland St.\, 61 Kirkland St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Digital-China-LOGO.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251017T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251017T130000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250929T180547Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250929T180549Z
UID:42443-1760700600-1760706000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY: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
DESCRIPTION: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 \n\n\n\nThis talk examines how agricultural practices\, food crops\, and related knowledge have influenced food regimes operated in Asia throughout periods of imperialism\, the Cold War\, and globalization. Three interventions are highlighted. First\, the case of Ponlai rice (蓬萊米) demonstrates how farmers and agronomists navigated innovation in both colonial and postwar contexts. Second\, the edamame case explores contemporary regional trade regimes and changing development agendas\, while also reflecting agricultural legacies from the era of empire and the Cold War. Finally\, a new emphasis on the geopolitical knowledge regime (地政學) of Japanese colonialism reveals how colonial geographical knowledge was adapted and transformed in envisioning the territorial expansion of the empire. Together\, these perspectives advance our understanding of Asian food regimes as dynamic histories intertwined with science\, knowledge\, and power. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/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-tra/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/WANG-Kuan-Chi.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251015T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251015T131500
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250826T150626Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250930T124656Z
UID:41372-1760529600-1760534100@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring David Yang — Laboratories of Autocracy: How China’s Re-centralization Impacted Economic Growth
DESCRIPTION: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 \n\n\n\nDavid 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 a Faculty Research Fellow at NBER\, a Global Scholar at CIFAR\, and a fellow at BREAD. David’s research focuses on political economy. In particular\, David studies the forces of stability and forces of changes in authoritarian regimes\, drawing lessons from historical and contemporary China. David received a B.A. in Statistics and B.S. in Business Administration from University of California at Berkeley\, and PhD in Economics from Stanford.A part of Harvard Worldwide Week \n\n\n\n\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-david-yang-laboratories-of-autocracy-how-chinas-re-centralization-impacted-economic-growth/
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/2022/02/yang-david.jpg.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251015T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251015T130000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250929T180253Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250929T180255Z
UID:42438-1760527800-1760533200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Wanlin Li — Appropriation or Dialogue — and Why It Matters: The Poetics and Politics of Transcultural Adaptation
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Wanlin Li\, Associate Professor\, Peking University; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2025-26Chair/Discussant: Karen Thornber\, Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature\, Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations\, Harvard University; Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning\, Harvard College \n\n\n\nAdaptation studies has long occupied an uneasy position between literary\, film\, and media studies. Its trajectory has been far from smooth\, moving from early fidelity criticism to later intertextual studies primarily informed by narratological insights. While earlier scholarship focused on the semiotic or formal dimensions of adaptation\, the field is now experiencing a cultural turn\, with adaptation increasingly situated within media culture and examined for its cultural implications. Whereas an earlier emphasis on transmedia adaptation compelled attention to the semiotic features of different media\, foregrounding topics such as media affordances\, the recent cultural turn urges us to consider adaptation’s broader cultural ramifications—not merely as functions of media culture\, but as part of wider processes of cultural negotiation and transformation. Transcultural adaptation\, an underexplored realm within adaptation studies\, offers a unique vantage point from which to understand such negotiation and transformation. \n\n\n\nTo illustrate the complexity of the process\, this talk approaches transcultural adaptation as a politically charged phenomenon with significant narrative consequences. The cultural negotiations involved\, which are never neutral\, may take the form of borrowing\, appropriation\, hybridization\, indigenization\, among others\, each producing distinct narrative effects. To demonstrate how these strategies operate in practice\, I examine Disney’s adaptations of The Ballad of Mulan—the 1998 animated feature and the more recent live-action film—highlighting the ways in which different cultural strategies leave discernible narrative traces.https://www.harvard-yenching.org/events/appropriation-or-dialogue-and-why-it-matters-the-poetics-and-politics-of-cross-cultural-adaptation/ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/wanlin-li-appropriation-or-dialogue-and-why-it-matters-the-poetics-and-politics-of-transcultural-adaptation/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/LI-Wanlin.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251014T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251014T223000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20251001T162533Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251001T162536Z
UID:42626-1760473800-1760481000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Zhongjie Lin— New Town Utopias: Lessons from China’s 21st-Century Urban Experiments
DESCRIPTION:zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Zhongjie Lin\, Benjamin Z. Lin Presidential Professor of Urban Design\, Weitzman School of Design\, University of PennsylvaniaAmid groundbreaking political reforms and the largest mass migration in human history\, China created over 3\,800 new towns to house its burgeoning urban population and sustain rapid economic growth. Driven by marketization\, global trade\, inter-city competition\, and an exponentially growing real estate industry\, this continuous urban expansion represents the most extensive urbanization initiative in history. Contemporary Chinese new towns have emerged as a national campaign to reimagine the Chinese city and reshape the global geo-economic landscape. This lecture examines four decades of Chinese urbanization through the lens of urbanism and utopianism. Case studies—including the Suzhou Industrial Park\, Shanghai’s One City and Nine Towns\, and prototypical eco-cities—illuminates fundamental issues of economic vitality\, cultural identity\, environmental sustainability\, and socio-spatial dynamics. Ultimately\, the lecture explores the complex interplay between space production and social transformation within the context of neoliberalism and globalization.Zhongjie Lin is Benjamin Z. Lin Presidential Professor of Urban Design at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design\, where he serves as Head of the Urban Design program and directs the Future Cities Initiative. An internationally renowned expert in urban planning and design\, Dr. Lin has published numerous books on Asian architecture and cities\, including Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan (2010/2023)\, Vertical Urbanism: Designing Compact Cities in China (2018)\, and Constructing Utopias: China’s New Town Movement in the 21st Century (2025). He was the recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship\, the Guggenheim Fellowship\, the Abe Fellowship\, and three Graham Foundation awards.We would like to thank the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab\, the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning\, and the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies 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/98722032936 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/zhongjie-lin-new-town-utopias-lessons-from-chinas-21st-century-urban-experiments/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/zhongjie-lin.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251008T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251008T131500
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250916T151810Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250930T115723Z
UID:41722-1759924800-1759929300@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Zenobia Chan — The Influence Game: What Does China Really Want?
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Zenobia T. Chan\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Government\, Georgetown UniversityMore information coming soon! \n\n\n\nProfessor Chan is a researcher in international relations\, focusing on economic statecraft\, as well as influence and information operations. I also develop machine learning methods for estimating heterogeneous treatment effects in experimental and observational data. \n\n\n\nHer book project Alms and Influence examines when economic inducements — such as foreign aid\, large-scale investment initiatives\, and discounted sales of natural resources — can buy influence abroad. She holds a PhD in Politics from Princeton and has taught at Columbia\, Georgetown\, Oxford\, Princeton\, and the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research (IQMR). She also led an analytics team at Google and worked at the United Nations\, World Bank\, and OECD on development assistance\, infrastructure financing\, and industrial policy. \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-zenobia-chan/
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/2025/09/zenobia-chan.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251007T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251007T130000
DTSTAMP:20260507T080650
CREATED:20250911T173531Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250911T173534Z
UID:41583-1759836600-1759842000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:The U.S. Cultural Relations Program towards China and the Emergence of Transpacific Intellectual Networks (1942-1947)
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ruiheng Wang\, Associate Professor\, Nanjing University; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2025-26Chair/Discussant: William C. Kirby\,  T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies\, Harvard University; Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration\, Harvard Business School \n\n\n\nBetween 1942 and 1947\, the U.S. Department of State launched a cultural relations program to provide “cultural assistance” to wartime China and promote democratic values. It originated from America’s wartime needs and a long-standing ambition to “change China\,” yet its outcome was that in the process of aiding China\, it also changed the United States itself. This talk adopts a transnational perspective and\, drawing on official and private archives from both countries\, examines the cultural interactions and cross-border experiences of Chinese and American technical experts\, visiting scholars\, and students in the 1940s. It argues that the China Program underwent a notable transformation during its implementation. Shaped by its organizers—most prominently John and Wilma Fairbank—and by key participants\, the Program shifted from a unilateral project of culture assistance to a more dynamic and reciprocal process of cultural exchange. The talk further explores the transnational intellectual networks that emerged from these interactions\, networks operating on personal\, academic\, and organizational levels with enduring impact in both countries.https://www.harvard-yenching.org/events/the-u-s-cultural-relations-program-towards-china-and-the-emergence-of-transpacific-intellectual-networks-1942-1947/ \n\n\n\nAn HYI Visiting Scholar Talk \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/the-u-s-cultural-relations-program-towards-china-and-the-emergence-of-transpacific-intellectual-networks-1942-1947/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-11-133427.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR