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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251001T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251001T131500
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
CREATED:20250820T142951Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250930T115609Z
UID:41277-1759320000-1759324500@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Jeffrey Wasserstrom — Hong Kong 2025: Competing Visions of a City's Past\, Present\, and Future
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jeffrey Wasserstrom\, Distinguished Professor of History\, UC IrvineDiscussant: Moira Weigel\, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature\, Harvard University  \n\n\n\nIn 2015\, a group of Hong Kong filmmakers made an anthology film called “Ten Years\,” made up of dystopian vignettes set in a dramatically transformed city one decade in the future. Now that 2025 has arrived\, while everyone agrees that Hong Kong has changed a lot\, some see the film as having proved prophetic but supporters of the Chinese Communist Party in the city itself and in Beijing insist that the metropolis has in fact been moving in a positive direction. This talk will bring in three kinds of comparisons to try to place the debate about today’s Hong Kong\, and the dilemmas the CCP has long faced and continues to face in dealing with the city and its discontents\, into perspective. It will ask what we can learn from looking at developments in Macau and Singapore in the recent past and in Shanghai circa 1950\, back when that port was the most important urban center shaped by cosmopolitan and capitalist currents that the Party was striving to integrate fully into the PRC. \n\n\n\nJeffrey Wasserstrom is a Distinguished Professor of History at UC Irvine. Along with publishing in academic journals\, he often writes for general interest periodicals\, ranging from the New York Times and the Atlantic to the TLS\, and he is on the editorial boards of two of them: Dissent Magazine and the Los Angeles Review of Books. His most recent books are a pair of interrelated short ones published by Columbia Global Reports–Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink (2020) and The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia’s Struggle Against Autocracy and Beijing (2025).  \n\n\n\nWasserstrom was educated at UC Santa Cruz (B.A. in History)\, Harvard (Masters in Regional Studies: East Asia)\, and Berkeley (PhD in HIstory)\, and he is a past editor of the Journal of Asian Studies (2008-2018) and a past member of the advisory board of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival. He will have a new book out in February from Brixton Ink\, which is a short primer on the era of Xi Jinping: Everything You Wanted to Know About China* (But Were Afraid to Ask). He is now working on a book about Orwell and Asia that is under contract with the trade division of Princeton University Press. \n\n\n\nMoira Weigel is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature in the Harvard University Department of Comparative Literature and a Faculty Associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She was a Junior Fellow at Harvard University and a Sociotechnical Security Fellow at the Data and Society Research Institute. She writes and teaches about the history\, theory\, and social life of media and communication technologies\, from the early 19th century to the present. \n\n\n\nHer first book\, Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating (2016\, Macmillan)\, countered widespread claims that the rise of mobile phones and apps were bringing about the “death of romance\,” showing that modern courtship practices have consistently coevolved with consumer capitalism and gendered work.  Labor of Love has been translated into six languages and appeared in dozens of outlets including The New Yorker\, The New York Times\, The Economist\, The Washington Post\, The Atlantic\, The Guardian\, The Wall Street Journal\, NPR\, CNN\, and  HBO. \n\n\n\nHer current recent research focuses on transnational online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay and China’s “four little dragons” (四小龍): Alibaba\, Shein\, Temu\, and TikTok. She notes that despite tech competition\, cross-border e-commerce (跨境電商) has made ordinary people in China and the U.S. ever more closely entangled. \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-jeffrey-wasserstrom-hong-kong-2025-competing-visions-of-a-citys-past-present-and-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/2024/10/wasserstrom.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251002T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251002T200000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
CREATED:20250929T175752Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250929T175754Z
UID:42431-1759424400-1759435200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Film Screening: “Made in Ethiopia” 
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFilmed over four years with singular access\, “Made in Ethiopia” lifts the curtain on China’s historic but misunderstood impact on Africa\, and explores contemporary Ethiopia at a moment of profound crisis. The film immerses viewers in two colliding worlds: a booming industrial powerhouse driven by profit and progress\, and a disappearing countryside where life is still guided by the rhythm of the seasons. Co-organized by the Boston University African Studies Center\, African Studies Library\, Center for the Study of Asia and Global Development Policy Center\, the event will feature a 90-minute film screening followed by a 30-minute Q&A with directors Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/film-screening-made-in-ethiopia/
LOCATION:Boston University Howard Thurman Center\, First Floor\, 808 Commonwealth Ave.\, Boston\, Massachusetts\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ethiopia.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251006T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251006T131500
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
CREATED:20250930T144102Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250930T145653Z
UID:42563-1759753800-1759756500@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CLA x Lambda Panel on LGBTQIA+ Advocacy in China
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers:Yanhui Peng\, LGBTQIA+ rights litigation advocate in ChinaMingyue Gao\, Partner\, Guantao Law Firm\, ChinaYing Xin\, Program Manager\, Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program\, HKS Carr-Ryan Center; Former Director\, Beijing LGBT CenterJoin CLA and Lambda for a panel discussion on LGBTQIA+ activism and advocacy in China! Lunch will be provided at the event.  \n\n\n\nRSVP(https://forms.gle/JZNxYivSGfTVxmFL9). Questions: Zeqing Li at zli@jd27.law.harvard.edu or Shengdong Guo at sguo@sjd.law.harvard.edu. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/cla-x-lambda-panel-on-lgbtqia-advocacy-in-china/
LOCATION:WCC 1015\, 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/lgbtqia.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251007T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251007T130000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251008T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251008T131500
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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:20251014T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251014T223000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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:20251015T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251015T130000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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:20251015T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251015T131500
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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:20251017T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251017T130000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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:20251017T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251017T160000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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:20251020T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251020T180000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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:20251022T122000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T132000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T184500
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251028T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251028T220000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251029T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251029T131500
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251029T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251029T174500
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T130000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T122000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T132000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251031T143000
DTSTAMP:20260502T170030
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
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