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:20250401T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250401T183000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250313T161012Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250331T190257Z
UID:39833-1743526800-1743532200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Trump’s U.S.\, Xi’s China\, and Our Future: An Evening with the Award-Winning Creators of Face-Off: The U.S. vs China
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers: Jane Perlez\, Former Beijing Bureau Chief\, The New York Times Rana Mitter\, S.T. Lee Chair in U.S.-Asia Relations\, Harvard Kennedy School Mia Lobel\, Executive Producer\, Face-Off: U.S. vs China Frank Zhou ’26\, Associate Producer\, Face-Off: U.S. vs China \n\n\n\n****THE EVENT VENUE HAS CHANGED TO CGIS S030.**** \n\n\n\nCurious what China’s rise means for you as a young American or international student? Want an inside look at how Pulitzer-winning New York Times reporter and leading producer craft longform reporting into an award-winning podcast? Want to hear one of the world’s leading experts break down what’s next in America’s competition with the world’s second-largest economy? Join a panel and meet-and-greet with top reporters and experts to celebrate Face-Off: The U.S. vs China | Season Two\, an award-winning podcast from Airwave Media supported by the Carnegie Corporation and Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.Dumplings will be served.Register at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScoKcNAy8bBu0ybwvkpExt7xxvr_4OWYTGjdl2tuFcm1EI0zQ/viewform. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/trumps-u-s-xis-china-and-our-future-an-evening-with-the-award-winning-creators-of-face-off-the-u-s-vs-china/
LOCATION:Room S030\, CGIS South\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-31-at-2.54.17 PM.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250401T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250401T220000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250130T143048Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250313T161411Z
UID:39205-1743539400-1743544800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture Series Featuring  Samantha Vortherms — Manipulating Authoritarian Citizenship
DESCRIPTION:Zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker:   Samantha Vortherms\, University of California\, Irvine \n\n\n\nIn Manipulating Authoritarian Citizenship\, Samantha Vortherms examines the institutions constructing authoritarian citizenship in the crucial case of China—where internal citizenship regimes control who can and cannot become a local citizen through the household registration system (hukou). She highlights how autocrats use internal citizenship regimes to create particularistic membership in citizenship\, creating a model of citizenship outside of the liberal democratic ideal. Vortherms shows how local governments explicitly manipulate local citizenship membership not only to ensure political security and stability\, but also\, crucially\, to advance economic development. This transition from subjecthood to citizenship also allows space for individual agency in the local naturalization decision—whether to change one’s hukou or not—that further creates variation in access to citizenship rights in China. \n\n\n\nSamantha Vortherms is an Assistant Professor at University of California\, Irvine’s Department of Political Science. She’s also a faculty affiliate at UCI’s Long U.S.-China Institute; Philosophy\, Political Science\, and Economic program; and a Non-resident Scholar at UC San Diego’s 21st Century China Center. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2017 and was a Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow in Contemporary Asia at Stanford University’s APARC. From 2014-2016\, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the National School of Development’s China Center for Health Economics Research at Peking University. \n\n\n\nThis event series is sponsored by 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. \n\n\n\nZoom Meeting Link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97147498753 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/urban-china-lecture-series-featuring-samantha-vortherms/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/urban-china.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250402T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250402T131500
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250122T190536Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250331T132202Z
UID:39117-1743595200-1743599700@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Wang Feng — The End of the Miracle: How a Shrinking Population Impacts China’s Future
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Feng Wang\, Professor\, Sociology\, UC IrvineDiscussant: Xiang Zhou\, Professor of Sociology\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nChina’s spectacular economic growth of the past four decades is a happy outcome of numerous historical junctures and opportunism. One pivotal factor was China’s population\, particularly its healthy and literate rural population on the eve of the economic take-off. China’s hyper-growth era commenced at the same time as the large migration flows is coming to an end\, and as the country embarks on an irreversible journey of population aging and decline. In this talk Professor Wang revisits the crucial role of China’s population in its economic transformation\, explore the forces shaping the country’s demographic future\, and highlights the social and political challenges as well as the opportunities\, that China faces as China enters a post hyper-growth era. \n\n\n\nWANG Feng is a professor of sociology at the University of California\, Irvine. He is a scholar with expertise in global demographic change\, social inequality\, public policy\, and comparative population and social history. Between 2010 and 2013\, he was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and directed the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy in Beijing. He is the author of several award-winning books in his research areas and has contributed to many other publications. His latest book\, China’s Age of Abundance: Origins\, Ascendance\, and Aftermath\, examines the underlying forces driving China’s four-decade-long historical transformations. He is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow. \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-wang-feng-the-end-of-the-miracle-how-a-shrinking-population-impacts-chinas-future/
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/2025/01/wang-feng.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250403T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250403T163000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250318T113740Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250318T113759Z
UID:39847-1743694200-1743697800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Rong Ma — Powering a Just Transition: The Impacts of Place-Based Solar Expansion in Rural China
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Rong Ma\, Associate Professor\, China Agricultural University; Alumnus (Visiting Fellow) and Collaborator\, Harvard-China Project \n\n\n\nThis paper examines a solar subsidy program in China designed to alleviate poverty among rural households in the country’s most impoverished regions through solar resource development. The empirical findings indicate a substantial increase in firm entry in treated villages\, accompanied by a marked structural transformation characterized by a reduction in self-employment and a shift in land use from farmland to built-up areas. This surge in firm entry appears to be driven primarily by improvements in local electricity availability and reliability\, as well as upgrades in local transportation infrastructure. Correspondingly\, the analysis identifies a notable rise in local nightlight intensity and a reduction in regional nightlight disparities. Moreover\, treated villages experience significant improvements in air quality\, largely attributable to decreased pollutant emissions from nearby thermal power plants. By elucidating the impacts of place-based renewable energy policies\, this study underscores their potential to foster a more equitable energy transition. \n\n\n\nDr. Rong Ma is an Associate Professor at China Agricultural University\, College of Economics and Management. He is also a former Visiting Fellow and Collaborator with the Harvard-China Project. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from Tsinghua University. His research focuses on environmental economics and energy economics. \n\n\n\nSponsored by the Harvard-China Project on Energy\, Economy\, and Environment at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/powering-a-just-transition-the-impacts-of-place-based-solar-expansion-in-rural-china/
LOCATION:Pierce Hall Room 301\, 29 Oxford St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Co-Sponsored-Event-LOGO.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250403T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250403T174500
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250220T191440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250314T143712Z
UID:39537-1743697800-1743702300@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Economy Lecture featuring Lizhi Liu — From Click to Boom: The Political Economy of E-Commerce in China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lizhi Liu\, Assistant Professor\, McDonough School of Business\, Georgetown University \n\n\n\nIn merely two decades\, China has transformed from a digital newcomer to the world’s largest e-commerce market\, with 800 million users and nearly 50% of global retail sales. In From Click to Boom\, Lizhi Liu examines how China’s e-commerce boom is inherently “paradoxical\,” why it addresses a core political economy question of institutional development\, and how it illuminates a digital development path for developing countries. She also explores the profound impact of e-commerce on China’s economic governance and state-business relations. The talk will draw on extensive interviews\, original surveys\, tens of millions of proprietary data points\, and a rare field experiment conducted across three Chinese provinces. \n\n\n\nLizhi Liu is an Assistant Professor at the McDonough School of Business and a faculty affiliate of the Department of Government at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on politics of trade and technology. Her work has been published in leading journals and university presses\, including American Economic Review: Insights and Princeton University Press. Liu’s research has received funding from institutions such as the Gates Foundation and has earned multiple accolades\, including recognition from the China-Britain Business Council as one of the “Best Books on China from 2024” and the 2020 Ronald Coase Award for Best Dissertation in Institutional and Organizational Economics. In 2021\, she was named one of Poets&Quants’ Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-economy-lecture-featuring-lizhi-liu/
LOCATION:CGIS South S020\, Belfer Case Study Room\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:China Economy Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/LizhiLiu.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250404T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250404T170000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250319T165654Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250319T165655Z
UID:39862-1743775200-1743786000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Reading Sinophone Women Writers
DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Li Zishu 黎紫書Lu Pin 鹿苹Lin Zhao 林棹Dorothy Tse 謝曉虹Moderators:David Der-wei Wang\, Harvard UniversityMingwei Song\, Wellesley CollegeDingru Huang\, Tufts University \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/reading-sinophone-women-writers/
LOCATION:Plimpton Room (133)\, Barker Center\, 12 Quincy St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/sinophone.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250404T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250406T150000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250403T194257Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250403T194258Z
UID:39937-1743786000-1743951600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Harvard College China Forum 2025 | April 4th - 6th
DESCRIPTION:Founded in 1997\, Harvard College China Forum (HCCF) is dedicated to a constructive dialogue on the challenges\, trends\, and issues affecting China. The Forum aims to engage leaders in business\, academia\, and politics in a discourse that offers insights and generates ideas. HCCF is North America’s leading and longest-running student-run conference on China. The annual Forum takes place every April in Boston\, Massachusetts. Over a thousand attendees and nearly a hundred speakers attend the forum\, making it the largest of its kind.You can find the full list of speakers for this 28th annual conference here: 2025 Harvard College China Forum Speakers.The event is free for Harvard undergraduates. Register to attend here. For further questions\, please email: contact@harvardchina.org. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/harvard-college-china-forum-2025-april-4th-6th/
LOCATION:Massachusetts
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-03-at-3.40.07 PM.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250404T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250404T200000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250227T182534Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250227T183808Z
UID:39610-1743789600-1743796800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Film Screening: Wang Bing's Youth Trilogy - Youth (Spring) Qingchun
DESCRIPTION:More than two decades after making his monumental West of the Tracks (2002)\, documentary auteur Wang Bing (b. 1967) has released a new cinematic fresco of Chinese workers. Whereas his debut work memorializes the declining Socialist industrial complex in Northeast China and its aging employees\, the Youth trilogy chronicles the plights of young migrant workers struggling with the vagaries and pressures of a free capitalist market. Between 2014 and 2019\, Wang Bing and his crew shot around 2\,600 hours of footage in the garment-making township of Zhili\, near Shanghai\, with hundreds of thousands of seasonal laborers from all over the country sewing children’s clothes in some 18\,000 workshops. The three installments of Youth—Spring\, Hard Times and Homecoming—premiered in competition at the Cannes\, Locarno and Venice film festivals\, respectively. Taken together\, this documentary trilogy not only provides a nuanced\, empathetic and critical look at China’s fashion industry\, but could also inspire in its audiences alternative experiences of time\, space and the material fabric of our lives.  \n\n\n\nYouth (Spring) QingchunThe first in Wang Bing’s opus centered on young migrant laborers in Zhili employs his trademark long takes and fixed camera setups\, contrasting routine days of sewing\, stitching and scissoring with bustling street scenes and after-hours sequences set in the workers’ cramped living quarters\, chancing upon dramas that inevitably emerge from such a repetitive\, cloistered and threadbare existence. While Zhili’s privatized structure and incentive-based production model allows for certain advantages over the kind of centrally governed factories seen in earlier Wang films like West of the Tracks (2002)\, it also leaves employees at the mercy of predatory managers\, a situation the director depicts as an endless tug-of-war for better pay. With textbook rigor\, Wang captures a new economic reality that\, for all it promises\, has only fostered a new form of exploitation. – Jordan Cronk \n\n\n\nDirected by Wang Bing \n\n\n\nFrance/Hong Kong/Luxembourg/Netherlands 2023\, DCP\, color\, 215 min. Mandarin with English subtitles \n\n\n\nGeneral Admission Tickets $10\, $8 Non-Harvard student\, seniors\, Harvard faculty and staff. Harvard students admitted free to regularly priced shows. \n\n\n\nSpecial event tickets (for in-person appearances) $15 – $20. \n\n\n\nTickets go on sale 30 minutes prior to show time at the box office and are also available in advance on the HFA website. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/film-screening-wang-bings-youth-trilogy/
LOCATION:Harvard Film Archive\, Carpenter Center\, 24 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Youth.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250405T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250405T200000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250227T182616Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250227T183928Z
UID:39614-1743876000-1743883200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Film Screening: Wang Bing's Youth Trilogy - Youth (Hard Times) Qingchun: Ku
DESCRIPTION:More than two decades after making his monumental West of the Tracks (2002)\, documentary auteur Wang Bing (b. 1967) has released a new cinematic fresco of Chinese workers. Whereas his debut work memorializes the declining Socialist industrial complex in Northeast China and its aging employees\, the Youth trilogy chronicles the plights of young migrant workers struggling with the vagaries and pressures of a free capitalist market. Between 2014 and 2019\, Wang Bing and his crew shot around 2\,600 hours of footage in the garment-making township of Zhili\, near Shanghai\, with hundreds of thousands of seasonal laborers from all over the country sewing children’s clothes in some 18\,000 workshops. The three installments of Youth—Spring\, Hard Times and Homecoming—premiered in competition at the Cannes\, Locarno and Venice film festivals\, respectively. Taken together\, this documentary trilogy not only provides a nuanced\, empathetic and critical look at China’s fashion industry\, but could also inspire in its audiences alternative experiences of time\, space and the material fabric of our lives.  \n\n\n\nYouth (Hard Times) Qingchun: Ku \n\n\n\nFocusing on the factory laborers’ economic struggles and workplace conflicts\, the second installment of Youth follows multiple narrative threads that stretch and tighten\, sometimes to a breaking point of violence and despair. A young woman keeps making mistakes and must redo several batches of trousers\, while her colleagues discuss ways to dodge the manager’s surveillance. Just released from police detention after an altercation with his boss\, a young man searches in vain for his lost account book. Parents pore over sewing machines while their child plays with scissors and cell phones. From the balcony outside their shop\, a group of workers watch their indebted boss beat up a fabric supplier and run away without paying their wages\, so they sell the shop’s sewing machines while the landlord cuts the power and water of their living quarters. In another dark dorm\, a worker who made tons of unsold denim recounts his participation in a labor riot and the ensuing police brutality. The exhaustion of overtime and deadlines thus alternates with the anxiety of dead time and wasted time\, accruing into the bitterness at the core of Wang Bing’s trilogy. \n\n\n\nDirected by Wang Bing \n\n\n\nFrance/Luxembourg/Netherlands 2024\, DCP\, color\, 226 min. Mandarin with English subtitles \n\n\n\nGeneral Admission Tickets $10\, $8 Non-Harvard student\, seniors\, Harvard faculty and staff. Harvard students admitted free to regularly priced shows. \n\n\n\nSpecial event tickets (for in-person appearances) $15 – $20. \n\n\n\nTickets go on sale 30 minutes prior to show time at the box office and are also available in advance on the HFA website. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/film-screening-wang-bings-youth-trilogy-2/
LOCATION:Harvard Film Archive\, Carpenter Center\, 24 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Youth-Hard-Times.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250406T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250406T200000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250227T183617Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250227T183618Z
UID:39624-1743962400-1743969600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Film Screening: Wang Bing's Youth Trilogy - Youth (Homecoming) Qingchun: Gui
DESCRIPTION:More than two decades after making his monumental West of the Tracks (2002)\, documentary auteur Wang Bing (b. 1967) has released a new cinematic fresco of Chinese workers. Whereas his debut work memorializes the declining Socialist industrial complex in Northeast China and its aging employees\, the Youth trilogy chronicles the plights of young migrant workers struggling with the vagaries and pressures of a free capitalist market. Between 2014 and 2019\, Wang Bing and his crew shot around 2\,600 hours of footage in the garment-making township of Zhili\, near Shanghai\, with hundreds of thousands of seasonal laborers from all over the country sewing children’s clothes in some 18\,000 workshops. The three installments of Youth—Spring\, Hard Times and Homecoming—premiered in competition at the Cannes\, Locarno and Venice film festivals\, respectively. Taken together\, this documentary trilogy not only provides a nuanced\, empathetic and critical look at China’s fashion industry\, but could also inspire in its audiences alternative experiences of time\, space and the material fabric of our lives.  \n\n\n\nYouth (Homecoming) Qingchun: Gui \n\n\n\nThe final installment of the Youth trilogyzooms in on a handful of workers as they return to their villages for the Lunar New Year\, meanwhile zooming out spatially from Zhili’s garment workshops to China’s vast countryside. After seeking payment of their owed wages\, Mu Fei and Dong Minyan board a packed train to Yunnan and take a van up a hazardous mountainside road. In homes decorated with giant Chairman Mao portraits\, their parents speak of illnesses and injustices\, debts and expenses. Firecrackers\, a confetti gang\, bride-carrying and karaoke create an exuberant atmosphere at Shi Wei’s and Liang Xianglian’s wedding. From the southwest mountains\, the film moves to the lower Yangtze River to celebrate the God of Prosperity and another wedding banquet. After the holidays\, the bride Fang Lingping takes her husband to Zhili and teaches him to sew. The last third of the film revisits familiar characters from Spring and Hard Times such as Lin Shao and Chen Wenting\, no longer teenagers in love but young parents\, uncertain how the cycles of seasonal labor will shape their children’s future. \n\n\n\nDirected by Wang Bing \n\n\n\nFrance/Luxembourg/Netherlands 2024\, DCP\, color\, 160 min. Mandarin with English subtitles \n\n\n\nGeneral Admission Tickets $10\, $8 Non-Harvard student\, seniors\, Harvard faculty and staff. Harvard students admitted free to regularly priced shows. \n\n\n\nSpecial event tickets (for in-person appearances) $15 – $20. \n\n\n\nTickets go on sale 30 minutes prior to show time at the box office and are also available in advance on the HFA website. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/film-screening-wang-bings-youth-trilogy-youth-homecoming-qingchun-gui/
LOCATION:Harvard Film Archive\, Carpenter Center\, 24 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Youth-Homecoming.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250407T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250407T180000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250403T210816Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250403T210818Z
UID:39953-1744045200-1744048800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China's Future: Navigating Geopolitics in a New Era
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers:David J. Firestein\, President and CEO of the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations \n\n\n\nAndrew S. Erickson\, Professor of Strategy\, U.S. Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute; Fairbank Center Visiting Scholar \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/chinas-future-navigating-geopolitics-in-a-new-era/
LOCATION:Room L-166\, Littauer Building\, 79 JFK St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/iop.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250408T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250408T130000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250220T180930Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250326T190247Z
UID:39517-1744111800-1744117200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Chen Chunxiao — Chinese Migrants in the Middle East during the Mongol-Yuan Period: Settlements and Activities
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Chen Chunxiao\, Associate Professor\, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2024-25 \n\n\n\nChair/Discussant: Mark Elliott \, Mark Schwartz Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History; Vice Provost for International Affairs\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nHYI Visiting Scholar Talk \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/chen-chunxiao-settlements-and-activities-of-chinese-immigrants-in-west-asia-during-the-mongol-era/
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/2025/02/Chen-Chunxiao-photo.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250408T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250408T220000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250130T143136Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250307T172927Z
UID:39207-1744144200-1744149600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture Series Featuring Qiao Shitong — Neighborhood Democratization in Urban China
DESCRIPTION:Zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Qiao Shitong\, Professor of Law and Ken Young-Gak Yun and Jinah Park Yun Research Scholar\, Duke University \n\n\n\nBased on six-year fieldwork across China including over 200 in-depth interviews\, this book provides an ethnographic account of how hundreds of millions of Chinese homeowners practice democracy in and beyond their condominium complexes. Using interviews\, survey data\, and a comprehensive examination of laws\, policies and judicial decisions\, this book also examines how the party-state in China responds to the risks and benefits brought by neighborhood democratization. Moreover\, this book provides a framework to analyze different approaches to the authoritarian dilemma facing neighborhood democratization which may increase the regime’s legitimacy and expose it to the challenge of independent organizations at the same time. Lastly\, this book identifies conditions under which neighborhood democratization can succeed. \n\n\n\nShitong Qiao is Professor of Law and Ken Young-Gak Yun and Jinah Park Yun Research Scholar at Duke University. He also taught property and comparative law at the University of Hong Kong and New York University and was Law and Public Affairs fellow at Princeton University. Professor Qiao employs mixed methods to explore the relationship between political power\, law\, and private ordering. He has published numerous articles in the top Chinese and US law journals and a prize-winning book about law and marketization\, Chinese Small Property: The Co-Evolution of Law and Social Norms (Cambridge University Press\, 2017). \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. \n\n\n\nZoom Meeting Link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97147498753 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/urban-china-lecture-series-featuring-qiao-shitong/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/neighborhood-commons.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T131500
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250220T183718Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250331T133020Z
UID:39524-1744200000-1744204500@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Chenggang XU — How Will China's Institutional Problems Cripple its Economy?
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Chenggang XU\, Senior Research Scholar\, Stanford Center on China’s Economic and Institutions; Visiting Fellow\, Hoover Institution\, Stanford University; Visiting Professor\, Department of Finance\, Imperial College London \n\n\n\nDiscussant: Meg Rithmire\, James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration\, Harvard Business School \n\n\n\nChenggang Xu is a Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on China’s Economic and Institutions\, and a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University\, and a Visiting Professor\, Department of Finance\, Imperial College London. \n\n\n\nChenggang received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1991. He previously taught at the University of Hong Kong as Chung Hon-Dak Professor of Economics\, at Tsinghua University as Special-term Professor of Economics\, at Seoul National University as World-Class University Professor of Economics\, and at LSE as Reader of Economics. He was the President of the Asian Law and Economics Association.  He was a first recipient of China Economics Prize (2016) and a recipient of the Sun Yefang Economics Prize (2013).  \n\n\n\nChenggang’s research is in political economics\, institutional economics\, law and economics\, development economics\, transition economics and the Chinese political economy. His research and opinions have been covered widely in the Greater China area and in the world. He is currently a board member of the Ronald Coase Institute (RCI) and a research fellow of the CEPR. \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-chenggang-xu-how-will-chinas-institutional-problems-cripple-its-economy/
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/2025/02/chenggang-xu.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T193000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250310T182439Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250404T230852Z
UID:39752-1744218000-1744227000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Film Screening + Discussion – River Elegy (河殇)\, Episodes 1 & 2 featuring Rana Mitter and Yasheng Huang
DESCRIPTION:Rana Mitter\, ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations\, Harvard Kennedy SchoolYasheng Huang\, Epoch Foundation Professor of Global Economics and Management\, MIT Sloan School of ManagementModerator: Dorinda (Dinda) Elliott\, Executive Director\, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies\, Harvard University \n\n\n\n\n“It may have been the most important television program ever broadcast in the history of the world.”—Rana Mitter\, BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time\, “The May Fourth Movement\,” December 9\, 2021 \n\n\n\n\nJoin us for a special screening of River Elegy (河殇)\, the landmark 1988 Chinese documentary series that ignited nationwide debate with its bold critique of China’s historical path and traditional culture. The event will feature a panel discussion with distinguished scholars Rana Mitter (Harvard University)\, Yasheng Huang (MIT)\, and Fairbank Center Executive Director Dorinda (Dinda) Elliott. \n\n\n\nWe will present a newly restored digital transfer of the series’ first two episodes\, “In Search of a Dream” and “Destiny”\, both in Chinese with newly translated English-language subtitles. \n\n\n\nFirst aired on CCTV1 in June 1988\, River Elegy uses the color “yellow” (symbolizing the Yellow River and the Yellow Emperor) as a metaphor for cultural and political stagnation\, contrasting it with “blue” (representing the open sea and maritime exploration) as a symbol of modernity and openness. Through poetic narration and a provocative visual collage of archival footage\, the series critiques China’s Confucian traditions and historical isolationism\, arguing that these forces hindered the country’s progress in the 20th century. It calls instead for reform\, global engagement\, and celebrates the economic liberalization taking place under Deng Xiaoping. \n\n\n\nRiver Elegy struck a deep chord with a generation navigating the tensions of modernization. Its writer\, Su Xiaokang\, quickly became one of China’s most prominent public intellectuals. The documentary received high-level endorsement from Party figures including former president Yang Shangkun\, Deng Pufang (son of Deng Xiaoping)\, and premier Zhao Ziyang—each of whom supported and even hosted special screenings of the series. But following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests—which some scholars argue were partly catalyzed by River Elegy’s widespread influence—the series was banned amid a sweeping political crackdown. \n\n\n\nDecades later\, River Elegy remains a powerful historical document. Its themes continue to resonate\, particularly as the liberal values that the series championed—democracy\, human rights\, the rule of law—appear increasingly embattled\, not only in China\, but also in the United States and around the world. \n\n\n\nRana Mitter is ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is the author of several books\, including Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II (2013)\, which won the 2014 RUSI/Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature\, and was named a Book of the Year in the Financial Times and Economist. His latest book is China’s Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New Nationalism (Harvard\, 2020). His writing on contemporary China has appeared recently in Foreign Affairs\, the Harvard Business Review\, The Spectator\, The Critic\, and The Guardian. He has commented regularly on China in media and forums around the world\, including at the World Economic Forum at Davos. His recent documentary on contemporary Chinese politics “Meanwhile in Beijing” is available on BBC Sounds. He is co-author\, with Sophia Gaston\, of the report “Conceptualizing a UK-China Engagement Strategy” (British Foreign Policy Group\, 2020). He won the 2020 Medlicott Medal for Service to History\, awarded by the UK Historical Association. He previously taught at Oxford\, and is a Fellow of the British Academy.Yasheng Huang is Epoch Foundation Professor of Global Economics and Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. From 2013 to 2017\, he served as an associate dean in charge of MIT Sloan’s global partnership programs and its action learning initiatives. His previous appointments include faculty positions at the University of Michigan and at Harvard Business School. He is the author of 11 books in both English and Chinese and of many academic papers and news commentaries. His book\, The Rise and the Fall of the EAST: How Exams\, Autocracy\, Stability\, and Technology Brought China Success\, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline\, was published by Yale University Press in 2023. He is collaborating with Chinese academics on a book project\, The Needham Question\, based on a comprehensive database on Chinese historical inventions and politics. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/film-screening-discussion-river-elegy-%e6%b2%b3%e6%ae%87-episodes-1-2-featuring-rana-mitter-and-yasheng-huang/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Tsai Auditorium (S010)\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Film Screening
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-2.06.20 PM-1.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250410T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250410T130000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250220T181125Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250220T181126Z
UID:39520-1744284600-1744290000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Lin Chen — Contested Sociocultural Spaces of Aging in Rural China: From Older Adults’ Lived Experiences
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lin Chen\,  Associate Professor\, Department of Social Work\, Fudan University; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2024-25 \n\n\n\nChair/Discussant: Arthur Kleinman\, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nHYI Visiting Scholar Talk \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/lin-chen-contested-sociocultural-spaces-of-aging-in-rural-china-from-older-adults-lived-experiences/
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/2025/02/Chen-Lin-Photo.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250410T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250410T171500
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250220T192243Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250326T141148Z
UID:39540-1744300800-1744305300@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Economy Lecture featuring Christine Wong — From Growth Engine to Fiscal Drag: Rethinking China’s Local Government Finance
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Christine Wong\, Visiting Research Professor\, East Asian Institute\, National University of Singapore \n\n\n\nChina’s local governments drive 85% of public spending and over 80% of infrastructure investment\, yet their finances are in crisis. A long-term fiscal erosion\, collapsing land revenues\, and soaring debt have left them struggling to meet obligations. These challenges stem from deeper structural issues—tax reforms that weakened revenue growth\, an overreliance on land sales to fund budgets\, and a misalignment between spending responsibilities and fiscal capacity. While recent debt relief measures provide temporary breathing room\, they fail to address the root causes. Bold reforms will be needed to close the fiscal gap\, reduce land dependence\, and realign revenue with spending. Without decisive action\, local fiscal distress will continue to impede economic stability and effective macroeconomic management in China. \n\n\n\nChristine Wong is Visiting Research Professor at the East Asian Institute (EAI)\, National University of Singapore; and Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Asia Institute\, University of Melbourne. She also teaches at the Schwarzman College\, Tsinghua University. Prior to joining EAI Christine taught at the University of Melbourne\, University of Oxford\, University of Washington\, and Mount Holyoke College. She also held senior staff positions in the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. \n\n\n\nHer research focuses on China’s public finance and public sector reform\, especially the impact of fiscal decentralization on policy implementation in education\, health\, social welfare\, environmental protection\, and urbanization \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-economy-lecture-featuring-christine-wong/
LOCATION:CGIS South Room S250\, 1730 Cambridge Street\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:China Economy Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Christine-Wong.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250411T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250411T173000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250307T182039Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250331T123959Z
UID:39736-1744362000-1744392600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Public Matters: Intellectuals and Political Life in China: A Symposium in honor of Merle Goldman (1931-2023)
DESCRIPTION:Co-sponsored by the Harvard-Yenching InstitutePlease join us at the Fairbank Center for a day-long workshop in honor of the work of Merle Goldman\, a leading figure at the center and a foremost scholar of her generation who pioneered the study of contemporary Chinese intellectuals. \n\n\n\nIn a full day of panel presentations and discussions\, an interdisciplinary group of China scholars from North America\, Asia\, and Europe will highlight ongoing research that either builds directly on Merle’s work or addresses some of the central concerns that animated her professional career: literary dissent\, state-intellectual relations\, conceptions of citizenship and political rights\, and more. \n\n\n\nThe panels will explore the myriad ways in which Chinese intellectuals\, from imperial days to the present\, have sought to express political agency and the extent to which their impact has matched their aspirations. \n\n\n\nPlease join in this celebration of our late colleague’s important legacy! \n\n\n\nOrganizers: Elizabeth J. Perry\, Harvard UniversityTimothy Cheek\, University of British ColumbiaJoseph Fewsmith\, Boston UniversityNancy Hearst\, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies \n\n\n\nProgram \n\n\n\n9:00 AM – Welcome \n\n\n\n9:15 AM – Panel 1Chinese Intellectuals and Chinese Society: Mobilization? Accommodation? Engagement? Alienation? Moderator: Elizabeth J. Perry\, Harvard UniversityPeter Zarrow\, University of Connecticut — The Language of Republicanism: Liang Qichao and Civic VirtueJoan Judge\, York University — Towards the Notion of a Politics of Accommodation: The minjian Classicist\, Hu Puan 胡檏安 (Yunyu 韞玉 1878 – 1947)Sebastian Veg\, School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) — The Rise and Fall of minjian Intellectuals \n\n\n\n10:45 AM – Break \n\n\n\n11:00 AM – Panel 2Chinese Intellectuals and the Chinese State: Proactive? Reactive? Reformist? Conservative?Moderator: Timothy Cheek\, University of British ColumbiaEls Van Dongen\, Nanyang Technological University — Jiang Shigong’s Foucault and Selective Borrowing in Reform Era Intellectual DebatesMatthew Johnson\, The Jamestown Foundation — Wang Huning’s Journey from Establishment Intellectual to ‘Red Eminence’: The Party as Ideological FortressJoseph Fewsmith\, Boston University — A Through Train to Democracy? Xiao Gongqin and the Yan Fu Paradox \n\n\n\n12:30 PM – Lunch Break (on your own) \n\n\n\n1:30 PM – Panel 3Between State and Society: Dissent? Acquiescence? Subversion? Support?Moderator: Joseph Fewsmith\, Boston UniversityHang Tu\, National University of Singapore — The Covert Sphere: Persecution and the Subtle Art of Literary Dissent in the People’s RepublicEddy U\, University of California\, Davis — Subversive Sociality: The Resistance of Intellectuals in the Chinese Cultural RevolutionTimothy Cheek\, University of British Columbia — Polishing the Mirror: Historians as Public Intellectuals in Xi’s ChinaDenise Ho\, Georgetown University — A ‘New-Style Socialist University with Chinese Characteristics’ \n\n\n\n3:00 PM – Break  \n\n\n\n3:30 PM – Panel 4Beyond State and Society: Nationalism? Cosmopolitan? Globalism?Moderator: Orville Schell\, Asia SocietyJeffrey Wasserstrom\, University of California\, Irvine — Chinese Publics Beyond Chinese Borders: Political Exiles and Political Debates from Late Qing Times to the PresentAngela Xiao Wu\, New York University — Postsocialist Press Theory: Information for Infrastructural ModernityClyde Yicheng Wang\, Washington and Lee University — The End of ‘Balanced’ Nationalism: Popular Revolt against Hu Xijin and the Changing Roles of Establishment Intellectuals \n\n\n\n5:00 PM – Wrap-up: Toward a Conference Volume \n\n\n\nLight reception to follow \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/public-matters-intellectuals-and-political-life-in-china-a-symposium-in-honor-of-merle-goldman-1931-2023/
LOCATION:Room G-08\, Larsen Hall\, 14 Appian Way\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Special Event
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/merle-goldman.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250411T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250411T133000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250122T163742Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250410T183155Z
UID:39097-1744372800-1744378200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Daisy Yan Du - Chinese Animation: Multiplicities in Motion
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Daisy Yan Du\, Associate Professor\, Division of Humanities\, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology  Moderator: Alexander Zahlten\, Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations\, Harvard University  \n\n\n\nRegistration appreciated for planning purposes.  \n\n\n\nChinese Animation: Multiplicities in Motion is the first edited volume that explores the multiple histories\, geographies\, industries\, technologies\, media\, and transmedialities of Chinese animation\, from early animated special effects to socialist classics\, from computer-generated-imagery (CGI) blockbusters to edgy independent films\, and from stop-motion to virtual reality. \n\n\n\nIts fifteen chapters\, grouped under the five themes of junctures\, gender\, identities\, digitality\, and practices\, span a century of animation since the 1920s across mainland China\, Hong Kong\, Taiwan\, Singapore\, and the diasporic world. Derived from the 2021 Inaugural Conference of the Association for Chinese Animation Studies (ACAS)\, this volume as a whole defines Chinese animation studies as a new field of research emerging from the peripheries of modern Chinese literature and film studies on the one hand\, and from the margins of Western and Japanese animation studies on the other. Incorporating diverse academic approaches and perspectives\, this groundbreaking book is an indispensable guide for a rapidly growing community of scholars\, students\, animators\, fans\, and general readers interested in Chinese and world animation. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/daisy-yan-du-%f0%9d%98%be%f0%9d%99%9d%f0%9d%99%9e%f0%9d%99%a3%f0%9d%99%9a%f0%9d%99%a8%f0%9d%99%9a-%f0%9d%98%bc%f0%9d%99%a3%f0%9d%99%9e%f0%9d%99%a2%f0%9d%99%96%f0%9d%99%a9%f0%9d%99%9e%f0%9d%99%a4/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Room S153\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/daisy.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250411T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250411T173000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250402T161354Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250402T161358Z
UID:39932-1744376400-1744392600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Art of Journeys: From Ape Tales to the Monkey King Wukong
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe launch of the hit game\, “Black Myth: Wukong\,” in August 2024 has sparked renewed interests in the many historical sites that inspired its stunning visuals. In fact\, the role that players take on in the game—an anthropomorphic monkey with supernatural abilities—also has many previous incarnations in the history of Chinese and East Asian art at large. The most well-known is perhaps the Monkey King Sun Wukong\, from Wu Chengen’s monumental sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West. Yet Wu’s Journey to the West was only one of the converging points that brought together visual and textual sources dating back to the Han dynasty. Harvard Visual China’s 2025 Graduate Symposium presents two panels on the topic of Art of Journeys—From Ape Tales to the Monkey King Wukong.For a complete program and more information\, visit https://www.harvardvisualchina.com/hvc-2025-symposium-info-reg.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/art-of-journeys-from-ape-tales-to-the-monkey-king-wukong/
LOCATION:Sackler Building\, Lower Level\, 485 Broadway\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/gsas.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250414T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250414T161500
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250324T135522Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250324T135524Z
UID:39884-1744642800-1744647300@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Visiting Scholar Presentation featuring Andrew Erickson — China’s Naval Leadership: Corruption and Capabilities
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Andrew Erickson\, Professor of Strategy\, China Maritime Studies Institute\, U.S. Naval War College \n\n\n\nRegarding China’s ability to seize Taiwan or achieve other top-level military objectives\, does corruption matter? Since assuming power in 2012\, paramount leader Xi Jinping has officially purged seven sitting and retired members of the Central Military Commission (CMC)\, including two Vice Chairmen. Beyond the CMC\, many other military leaders have likewise fallen\, including more than a dozen senior People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officials and defense industry executives over the past two years. The fight against “corruption” appears to be intensifying in 2025\, with more shoes set to drop. Second-ranked CMC Vice Chairman General He Weidong has not appeared at two recent meetings at which his attendance would be expected. Despite PLA Navy (PLAN) Political Commissar Yuan Huazhi having an inherently high-profile public role\, he has not been seen or heard from publicly since 7 September 2024. Many in the media and beyond speculate that these purges are significantly disrupting and limiting China’s military capabilities.  \n\n\n\nThis presentation will examine politicized corruption-related removals within PLAN leadership specifically and argue in contrast that their imposition of costs regarding endemic behavior are fundamentally a speedbump at most\, rather than a showstopper. Related removals are neither an indicator of prohibitive service incompetence nor a self-defeating constraint on operational capabilities. The PLAN may be playing high-stakes musical chairs with its leadership\, but it has a deep enough talent pool to do so without prohibitive problems and enjoys substantive strengths in its own right. Regardless of corruption’s pervasive persistence\, cutting-edge ships and weapons systems regularly enter service and PLAN capabilities to employ them operationally continue to improve. Corruption may impose inefficiencies\, but does not curtail the PLAN’s rapid advances across the waterfront. \n\n\n\nAndrew S. Erickson is a 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\, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He testifies periodically before Congress and briefs leading officials\, including the Secretary of Defense. Erickson helped to escort the Commander of China’s Navy on a visit to Harvard and subsequently to establish\, and to lead the first iteration of\, NWC’s first naval officer exchange program with China. He 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. His research focuses on Indo-Pacific defense\, international relations\, technology\, and resource issues. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/visiting-scholar-presentation-featuring-andrew-erickson-chinas-naval-leadership-corruption-and-capabilities/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Room S050\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Special Event
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Erickson-180110-N-FC129-026-3-e1597252590898.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250414T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250414T180000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250220T174124Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250220T174126Z
UID:39509-1744646400-1744653600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Humanities Seminar featuring Tamara Chin — How to Do Things with Loanwords: Premodern Sino-Xenic Language Contact in Modern Philology\, Linguistics\, and Politics\, 1870-1970
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Tamara Chin\, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature\, Brown University \n\n\n\nThe study of ancient language contact traditionally lacked prestige in both Confucian classical studies and European philology.  This changed somewhat in the early twentieth century.  The discovery of multilingual manuscript archives in and around Dunhuang coincided with the internationalization of Western-style linguistics\, prompting both scientific and political interest in the linguistic dimension of cross-cultural contact.  This talk explores where\, when\, and why during the 1870-1970 period spanning the late Qing through the Cold War\, Sino-xenic language contact became both a dedicated object of academic inquiry and a political symbol of internationalist ideals.  I ask what did the new units of analysis—such loanwords taken from foreign languages and transcriptions of sounds across writing systems—do to the mainstream study of national traditions?  To better understand how we study ancient language contact now\, I return to the role of loanwords within earlier debates about the disciplinary aims and methods of Dongfang xue\, Oriental Philology\, historical phonology\, and Area Studies. \n\n\n\nTamara Chin works on Han dynasty literature\, cross-cultural history and aesthetics\, and the modern reception of antiquity.  She is an associate professor of comparative literature at Brown University and the author of Savage Exchange: Han Imperialism\, Chinese Literary Style\, and the Economic Imagination (Harvard 2014).  The talk draws on her second book\, The Silk Road Idea: Ancient Contact in the Modern Human Sciences\, 1870-1970 (currently under review). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-humanities-seminar-featuring-tamara-chin-how-to-do-things-with-loanwords-premodern-sino-xenic-language-contact-in-modern-philology-linguistics-and-politics-1870-1970/
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/2025/02/Tamara-Chin.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250415T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250415T220000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250324T155316Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250324T155317Z
UID:39888-1744749000-1744754400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture Series Featuring Cecilia Chu — Building Colonial Hong Kong: The Production of Space in a Speculative City
DESCRIPTION:Zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Cecilia Chu\, Associate Professor in Architecture\, The Chinese University of Hong Kong \n\n\n\nThis talk will explore three central aspects of urban development in colonial Hong Kong: the advent of modern planning closely entwined with early British segregation policies; the role of property investment in the shaping of building forms; and the emergence of a distinct urban milieu in which different constituencies sought to claim a stake in a burgeoning colonial economy through housing speculation. Two historical periods will be revisited: the mid-1890s\, which witnessed the disastrous plague outbreak that prompted the territory’s first large-scale urban renewal project\, and the early 1920s\, when the opening of New Kowloon and intensified land speculation led to a series of ambitious planning schemes along racial lines. The intersections of economic interests and the politics of race have contributed to the forms and norms of the city and an evolving sense of local identity. Notably\, these discourses and policies have remained powerful frameworks for urban transformation in the post-colonial present. \n\n\n\nCecilia L. Chu is an Associate Professor and Director of the MPhil-PhD Programme in the School of Architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Trained as an urban historian with a background in design and conservation\, her works focus on the social and cultural processes that shape the forms of built environments and their impacts on local communities. She is the author of the award-winning book\, Building Colonial Hong Kong: Speculative Development and Segregation in the City\, which received the 2023 Best Book in Non-North American Urban History Award from the Urban History Association and the 2024 International Planning History Society Book Prize. Her other book publications include The Speculative City: Emergent Forms and Norms of the Built Environment (2022) and Hong Kong Built Heritage (forthcoming 2025). \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. \n\n\n\nZoom Meeting Link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97147498753 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/urban-china-lecture-series-featuring-cecilia-chu-building-colonial-hong-kong-the-production-of-space-in-a-speculative-city/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/urban-china.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250416T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250416T130000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250326T190146Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250326T190148Z
UID:39895-1744803000-1744808400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Indigenous Narrative: The Dynamic Biographies of gShen-rab Mi-bo\, Founder of the Tibetan Bon Religion
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Konchok Tsering\, Assistant Professor\, School for Tibetan Studies\, Minzu University of China; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2024-25 \n\n\n\nChair/Discussant: Janet Gyatso\, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nThis talk delves into the transformation of gShen-rab Mi-bo’s life stories within the Tibetan Bon religion\, examining three significant texts: mDo ‘dus\, mdo gzer mig\, and mdo dri med gzi brjid. Each biography\, emerging from distinct historical contexts\, showcases the evolving nature of Bon religious thought and its interaction with cultural influences. The mDo ‘dus\, a concise tenth-century work\, is recognized as an early foundational narrative. mdo gzer mig\, believed to originate in the eleventh century\, is essential for understanding the integration of Buddhist elements within Bon literature. The expansive mdo dri med gzi brjid\, from the fourteenth century\, enriches the narrative tapestry with folkloric and cultural details\, demonstrating how oral traditions have shaped its development. This exploration highlights the adaptive storytelling of the Bon tradition\, reflecting shifts in historical and cultural landscapes. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/indigenous-narrative-the-dynamic-biographies-of-gshen-rab-mi-bo-founder-of-the-tibetan-bon-religion/
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/2024/09/Co-Sponsored-Event-LOGO.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250416T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250416T131500
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250220T184151Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250220T184152Z
UID:39528-1744804800-1744809300@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Li Zhang — Anxious China: Rethinking Therapeutic Governing Before and After the Pandemic
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Li Zhang\, Professor of Anthropology\, University of California-Davis \n\n\n\nDiscussant: Arthur Kleinman\, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology; Professor of Medical Anthropology in Social Medicine; Professor of Psychiatry\, Harvard University \n\n\n\nLi Zhang (Ph.D. Cornell 1998) is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California-Davis. She is the author of three award-winning books: Strangers in the City (Stanford 2001)\, In Search of Paradise (Cornell 2010)\, andAnxious China: Inner Revolution and Politics of Psychotherapy (UC 2020). She is also a co-editor of Privatizing China\, Socialism from Afar (Cornell 2008) and Can Science and Technology Save China? (Cornell 2020). Broadly speaking\, her research concerns social\, political\, spatial and psychological repercussions of the post-Mao economic reform and postsocialist transformations in contemporary China. Currently\, she is working on a new project on aging\, care\, and the digital divide in post-COVID 19 China. She was a 2008 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and the President of the Society of East Asian Anthropology (2013-15). She also served as Interim Dean of the Division of Social Sciences (2015-17) and Chair of Anthropology Department (2011-15) at UC Davis. \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-li-zhang-anxious-china-rethinking-therapeutic-governing-before-and-after-the-pandemic/
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/2025/02/Li-Zhang.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250417T143000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250417T160000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250409T161655Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250411T214929Z
UID:39970-1744900200-1744905600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Rethinking Taiwan Workshop - New Interpretations of Taiwan History and Identity
DESCRIPTION:Speakers:Chia-Chiun Shih Chen (陳嘉君)\, 2024-25 Visiting Fellow of Practice; Chairperson\, Shih Ming-Te Cultural FoundationSarah Plovnick\, 2024-25 Hou Family Post-Doctoral Fellow in Taiwan Studies\, Fairbank Center for Chinese StudiesHardy Stewart\, 2024-25 Hou Family Pre-Doctoral Fellow in Taiwan Studies\, Fairbank Center for Chinese StudiesModerator: David Der-wei Wang\, Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature\, Harvard UniversityJoin us for three presentations by Taiwan experts on new interpretations of Taiwan’s history and identity. David Der-wei Wang\, Eric C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Culture\, will join as discussant. \n\n\n\nRethinking Taiwan Identity—Chia-Chiun (Jessica Gina) Chen Shih \n\n\n\nShifting the Taiwan narrative in American public discourse—Sarah Plovnick \n\n\n\nPhantom Routes\, Phantom Roots: Diaspora Subjects of Provincial Taiwan (1885–1915)—Hardy Stewart \n\n\n\nChia-Chiun Shih Chen (陳嘉君) is the chairperson of Shih Ming-Te Cultural Foundation. Her research project examines how the widespread systematic deployment of informants and secret police during the Taiwanese White Terror Period (1949-1991) affected Taiwanese democratization and political culture \n\n\n\nSarah Plovnick received her PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of California\, Berkeley. Sarah uses ethnographic methods to study the role of communication media in contentious political environments. Her dissertation\, entitled “Listening Through the Firewall: A Sonic Narrative of Communication Between Taiwan and mainland China\,” examines the recent history of the Taiwan Strait (1949-present) from the perspective of sound and audio technologies\, from loudspeakers and radio through social media and videogames. \n\n\n\nHardy Stewart Hardy Stewart is a Ph.D. Candidate in Chinese Language at the University of California\, Berkeley\, where he works on Taiwanese literature and poetry. Hardy asks how classical Chinese poetry traveled to Taiwan and changed or was changed by the island context. His doctoral dissertation\, “Man Beyond the Sea 海外人: Hong Qisheng 洪棄生 (1866–1928) and Peripheral Poetics of Provincial Taiwan\,” studies the influence of marginality on the genesis of cultural style and historical representation. \n\n\n\nDavid Der-wei Wang holds a joint appointment in Comparative Literature. He is Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies\, and Academician\, Academia Sinica. His research interests include modern and contemporary Chinese literature\, late Qing fiction and drama; comparative literary theory; colonial and modern Taiwanese fiction\, and Asian American and diasporic literature; plus Chinese intellectuals and artists in the mid-20th century. Wang took his B.A. in foreign languages and literature from National Taiwan University\, and his M.A. (1978) and Ph.D. (1982) in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Wang taught at National Taiwan University (1982-1986) and Columbia University (1990-2004). He first came to Harvard in 1986\, serving as Assistant Professor of Chinese for four years. He rejoined the Harvard faculty in 2004\, when he was named Edward C. Henderson Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures. Wang’s recent publications include Taiwan under Japanese Colonial Rule (co-ed. with Ping-hui Liao\, 2007)\, Globalizing Chinese Literature (co-ed. with Jin Tsu\, 2010)\,and The Lyrical in Epic Time: Modern Chinese Intellectuals and Artists through the 1949 Crisis (2014). He is Editor of Harvard New Literary History of Modern China (forthcoming\, 2015). Wang received the Changjiang Scholar Award in the PRC in 2008. He was the 2013-14 Humanitas Visiting Professor of Chinese Studies at CRASSH\, the Centre for Research in the Arts\, Social Sciences and Humanities\, at Cambridge University (U.K.)\, where he gave a series of three public lectures on the ‘Chineseness’ of Chinese literature. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/rethinking-taiwan-workshop/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Room S153\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Taiwan Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-11-at-5.48.29 PM.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250418T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250419T173000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250403T205350Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250403T211309Z
UID:39950-1744984800-1745083800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:What is China? New Perspectives in New Eras — An International Symposium 
DESCRIPTION:Keynote Speaker: Ge Zhaoguang 葛兆光\, Fudan UniversitySpeakers:April 18\, 2-5:30pm\, Yenching AuditoriumMark C. Elliot\, Harvard UniversityJames Robson\, Harvard UniversityPeter K. Bol\, Harvard UniversityRonald C. Po\, London University of Economics Kung Ling-wei\, Academia Sinica David Der-wei Wang\, Harvard UniversityApril 19\, 9:30 am – 5:30pm\, The Yenching Common RoomLi Yuyang\, Beijing Normal UniversityYing Lei\, Amherst College Tu Hang\, National University of SingaporeRichard Yu-cheng Shih\, Brown University Liu Shih Diing\, University of MacauDingru Huang\, Tufts UniversityDavid Dadui Yao\, Hainan University Kyle Shernuk\, Georgetown UniversityMichael Hill\, College of William and MaryMichael O’Krent\, Harvard University Li Jing\, Chinese National Academy of ArtsYedong Sh-Chen\, Harvard UniversityRoundtable:Chair: David Der-wei Wang \,Harvard UniversityAnnie Zhanling Wang\, Harvard UniversityJames Evans\, Harvard University Sophie Xiaofei Lei\, (Harvard UniversityShengqiao Lin\, Harvard UniversitySponsors:Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies Harvard-Yenching Institute East Asian Languages and Civilizations\, Harvard University Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/what-is-china-new-perspectives-in-new-eras-an-international-symposium/
LOCATION:Yenching Auditorium\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Special Event
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/whatischina.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250421T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250421T130000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250410T182756Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250415T145054Z
UID:39978-1745236800-1745240400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Visiting Scholar Presentation featuring Shih-Diing Liu — Who’s Afraid of Gender? Revisiting Engendering China 31 Years On
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Shih-Diing Liu (刘世鼎)\, Professor of Communication and Senior Research Fellow\, Institute of Advanced Studies\, University of MacauDiscussant: Susan Greenhalgh\, Professor of Anthropology; John King and Wilma Cannon Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society\, Harvard UniversityThis presentation has two intertwined goals: to highlight the significance of gender in understanding Chinese society and to underscore the role of emotion in shaping gender dynamics in China and beyond. I will develop my discussion by revisiting Engendering China: Women\, Culture\, and the State\, an edited volume published by Harvard University Press in 1994\, just before the landmark Beijing Women’s Forum in 1995. Through a symptomatic reading of Engendering China\, I articulate my perspective on the gender-emotion nexus—an articulation often overlooked not only in Chinese studies but also in gender studies more broadly. Rather than focusing on the conventional notion of gender “consciousness\,” I advocate for a critical inquiry into gender “emotion” –  to explore the deeply felt but often unrecognized and repressed dimensions of gendered feelings\, experiences\, fantasies\, investments\, promises\, and practices. My analysis of pop culture and stardom illustrates that gender power operates not merely through structural imposition but through emotions. By recontextualizing Judith Butler’s polemic Who’s Afraid of Gender? (2024)\, my presentation examines how the return of the repressed—including emotions such as fear\, anxiety\, optimism\, and frustration—shapes the gender landscape\, offering new insights into both its constraints and possibilities for emancipation. \n\n\n\nShih-Diing Liu (刘世鼎) is Professor of Communication and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies\, University of Macau. Liu’s research focuses on exploring the emotional dynamics of politics\, the formation of popular identity\, the expressive and embodied forms of political practices\, and the psychology of nationalism in contemporary China. His books include The Politics of People: Protest Cultures in China (SUNY Press\, 2019) and Affective Spaces: The Cultural Politics of Emotion in China (Edinburgh University Press\, 2024\, with Wei Shi). Continuing with a focus on emotion from the Affective Spaces project\, his current research explores the intersection of affect and gender in contemporary China. Arguing that Chinese gender has increasingly become an archive of feelings marked by ambivalence toward authorities\, this book project uncovers the power of emotion in negotiating the gendered order. Meanwhile\, he is also working on a book project that explores the emotional capabilities of Artificial Intelligence. \n\n\n\nSusan Greenhalgh (葛苏珊) is Professor of Anthropology and John King and Wilma Cannon Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society at Harvard University. Before moving to Harvard\, she was Professor of Anthropology at the University of California\, Irvine and\, before that\, Senior Research Associate of the NYC-based Population Council. \n\n\n\nIn April 2016\, Greenhalgh was named Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for twelve months starting July 2016. At Harvard\, she was named Walter Channing Cabot Fellow for the year for the 2015 publication of her book\, Fat-talk Nation. Her most recent book is Soda Science: Making the World Safe for Coca-Cola \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/visiting-scholar-presentation-featuring-shih-diing-liu-whos-afraid-of-gender-revisiting-engendering-china-31-years-on/
LOCATION:Room K354\, CGIS Knafel\, 1737 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Special Event
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/shihdiing.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250421T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250421T173000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250122T200154Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T161124Z
UID:39124-1745251200-1745256600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Modern China Lecture featuring Joseph Ho — Developing Mission: Photography\, Filmmaking\, and American Missionaries in Modern China
DESCRIPTION:Register for hybrid zoom attendance\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Joseph Ho\, Associate Professor of History\, Albion College\, Michigan; Center Associate\, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies\, University of Michigan  \n\n\n\nDeveloping Mission is a transnational cultural history of US and Chinese communities framed by missionary lenses through time and space – tracing the lives and afterlives of images\, cameras\, and visual imaginations from before the Second Sino-Japanese War through the first years of the People’s Republic of China. When American Protestant and Catholic missionaries entered interwar China\, they did so with cameras in hand. Missions principally aimed at the conversion of souls and the modernization of East Asia\, became\, by virtue of the still and moving images recorded\, quasi-anthropological ventures that shaped popular understandings of and formal foreign policy toward China. Portable photographic technologies changed the very nature of missionary experience\, while images that missionaries circulated between China and the United States affected cross-cultural encounters in times of peace and war. Developing Mission illuminates the centrality of visual practices in the American missionary enterprise in modern China\, even as intersecting modernities and changing Sino-US relations radically transformed lives behind and in front of those lenses. In doing so\, Developing Mission reconstructs the almost-lost histories of transnational image makers\, subjects\, and viewers across twentieth-century China. \n\n\n\nJoseph W. Ho is Associate Professor of History at Albion College\, Michigan\, and a Center Associate at the University of Michigan’s Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. He is a historian of modern China and Taiwan\, Sino-US encounters\, and transnational visual culture and media. He has published essays on his research in several edited volumes\, as well as the UCLA Historical Journal\, U.S. Catholic Historian\, and Education About Asia. Ho is the author of Developing Mission: Photography\, Filmmaking\, and American Missionaries in Modern China (Cornell University Press\, 2022).Also Presented via Zoom. Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_y84X7LHMSTe1bqk20XXmgQ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/modern-china-lecture-featuring-joseph-ho-developing-mission-photography-filmmaking-and-american-missionaries-in-modern-china/
LOCATION:CGIS Knafel K262\, 1737 Cambridge Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:FCCS Modern China
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/joseph-ho.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250422T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250422T133000
DTSTAMP:20260502T204234
CREATED:20250409T162359Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250409T162400Z
UID:39974-1745323200-1745328600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Economic Conjunctures: Planners\, Residents\, and Chinese-Led Urban Development in Nairobi
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Elisa Tamburo\, Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow\, Anthropology Department\, Harvard University; School of Geography and the Environment\, University of Oxford \n\n\n\nModerator: Michael Puett\, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology; Harvard College Professor; Director\, Harvard University Asia Center \n\n\n\nSince the early 2000s\, the rise of Chinese businesses in the construction sector of Nairobi has transformed how the city is planned\, built\, and lived. The talk sets out to examine such urban transformations from the point of view of builders\, planners\, and residents. Not only does Chinese-led urban development divide the Kenyan urban middle class\, but it evidences a multiplicity of interests among Chinese stakeholders. In examining how Chinese entrepreneurs have come to thrive in the real estate market in Nairobi\, the paper enlivens the role of transnational economic and temporal conjunctures\, which can impact individual and family trajectories in significant ways. \n\n\n\nRegistration appreciated for planning purpose.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/economic-conjunctures-planners-residents-and-chinese-led-urban-development-in-nairobi/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Room S153\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/conjectures.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR