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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261102T121500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261102T144500
DTSTAMP:20260925T125150Z
CREATED:20260924T174726Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260925T125150Z
UID:45830-1793621700-1793630700@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Emergent Visions Film Screening & Discussion — New Moon Chapter One (新月一章)
DESCRIPTION:Filmmaker Xinyue Li in conversation with Jie Li\, Ford Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies\, Harvard College Professor\, Director of Graduate Studies\, Harvard University. \n\n\n\nThis film is part of a three-part series presenting documentaries from China’s Caochangdi Workstation\, a collective of documentary filmmakers and performance artists whose work explores memory\, history\, and everyday life through long-term\, participatory projects. \n\n\n\nDirector’s statement: “In July 2020\, I returned to my hometown\, Harbin\, where I had been away for six years. At the age of 24\, the trajectory of my life came to a halt\, and I began to re-examine how I had been carried along and shaped by the currents of life. ‘Xinyue’ (New Moon) was the name my mother gave me\, inspired by the beauty she looked up to amid pain and chaos. It led me to reflect on the 1990s\, the decade I was born\, and to examine the eternal entanglement between hopeful aspirations and harsh realities. \n\n\n\nThis is my first film\, created alongside fellow artists from the creative community of Caochangdi Workstation. In early 2021\, I participated in the online Caochangdi Video Writing Workshop\, and since then\, I’ve communicated and collaborated with my Caochangdi peers through online theater\, email groups\, book clubs\, workshops\, and more. The material\, direction\, structure\, and final form of this film all grew out of this process. Through this creation\, I have borne witness to my 27 years of life\, from which I hope to continue my work under the name ‘New Moon\,’ with chapter two\, three\, and more.” \n\n\n\nAbout the director: Xinyue Li\, born in Harbin in 1996\, worked in Beijing for two years after graduating from university. In 2020\, she returned to Harbin and participated in the Caochangdi Workstation creative community\, starting a series of writing and video creation under the name of “New Moon.” \n\n\n\nNew Moon Chapter One (Xinyue Li/New Moon\, 2024\, 138 min\, China\, in Chinese dialects w/ Chinese & English subtitles\, DCP) \n\n\n\n\n\n\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-new-moon-chapter-one/
LOCATION:Carpenter Center Theater\, 24 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Emergent Visions Film Screening
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/moon2.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261103T122000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261103T132000
DTSTAMP:20261006T152744Z
CREATED:20261006T152740Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261006T152744Z
UID:46009-1793708400-1793712000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Networked State Capital in China's AI Ecosystem
DESCRIPTION:Register now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Curtis J. Milhaupt\, William F. Baxter International Professor of Law\, Stanford Law School; Senior Fellow\, by courtesy\, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies \n\n\n\nProfessor Milhaupt will discuss “Networked State Capital in China’s AI Ecosystem\,” his current joint project with Liwen Lin\, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia\, Allard School of Law. \n\n\n\nSelf-reliance and technological resilience in artificial intelligence are national priorities of the Chinese party-state. Yet most of the key players in China’s AI ecosystem – including major platform and technology groups designated by the government as members of the “AI National Team” as well as AI unicorns – remain privately controlled at the apex of their corporate groups. If AI is a strategic priority\, why are many of the leading players not subject to apex-level state ownership and hierarchical administrative control traditionally associated with Chinese state capitalism? \n\n\n\nUsing corporate registry data\, the article maps where state-affiliated capital enters otherwise private technology groups and AI unicorns. The analysis shows that state capital is positioned at multiple points within AI ownership\, investment\, and deployment networks\, typically in subsidiaries below the apex. Some of these positions create durable channels through which the development of technology\, pilot projects\, standard setting\, and deployment can be coordinated with policy priorities. \n\n\n\nThe article conceptualizes China’s approach to state capitalism in the AI sector as a networked system of state capital and institutionalized state-private encounters rather than a binary divide between state-owned and private firms. \n\n\n\nCurtis J. Milhaupt is an internationally recognized expert on comparative corporate governance\, the legal systems of East Asia (particularly Japanese law)\, and state capitalism. \n\n\n\nA light lunch will be served. Please register here. Registration is not required but appreciated\, for planning purposes. \n\n\n\nA Harvard ID is required in order to enter Harvard Law School buildings. If you have questions\, please contact eals@law.harvard.edu in advance of the event. \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/networked-state-capital-in-chinas-ai-ecosystem/
LOCATION:WCC 3019\, Wasserstein Hall\, 1585 Mass. Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/milhaupt.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261103T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261103T203000
DTSTAMP:20260925T125235Z
CREATED:20260924T175031Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260925T125235Z
UID:45836-1793725200-1793737800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Emergent Visons Film Screening & Discussion — Self-Portrait: 47 KM 2020 (自画像：47 KM 2020)
DESCRIPTION:Filmmaker ZHANG Mengqi in conversation with Jie Li\, Ford Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies\, Harvard College Professor\, Director of Graduate Studies\, Harvard University\, and Lucien Castaing-Taylor\, John Cowles Professor of Art and Anthropology\, Director of the Sensory Ethnography Lab\, Harvard University. \n\n\n\nThis film is part of a three-part series presenting documentaries from China’s Caochangdi Workstation\, a collective of documentary filmmakers and performance artists whose work explores memory\, history\, and everyday life through long-term\, participatory projects. \n\n\n\nOver the past thirteen years\, ZHANG Mengqi has documented her father’s village in Hubei\, China\, as a repository of ancestral memory. The title of her ongoing series\, “Self-Portrait\,” suggests the degree of Zhang’s awareness of filmmaking as an act that always implies a vital and intersubjective relation between the artist and the world to which she is connected. This tenth film\, 47 KM 2020\, carries that recognition to its logical endpoint\, as Zhang opted to install herself permanently in the village after the outbreak of COVID-19. Filmed between early January and late December 2020\, and divided into chapters corresponding to the Chinese lunisolar calendars’ 24 solar terms\, this vivid account of a year in the life of a stoic community\, far removed from an urban-centered pandemic\, unfolds with the simultaneous vastness and fine detail of a classical Chinese handscroll painting. Featuring some of the most authentic pastoral scenes in any film\, as well as some of the most delightful dialogues with children\, Zhang’s film is an immense accomplishment. Award of Excellence\, 2023 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. —Museum of the Moving Image \n\n\n\nAbout the director: ZHANG Mengqi was born in 1987. Filmmaker and choreographer\, a founding member of Caochangdi Workstation’s Folk Memory Project. Mengqi has made eleven feature-length documentaries\, known as the “Self-Portrait series.” Her films have been selected by Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival \, Cinéma du Réel\, Visions du Réel\, BFI London Film Festival\, etc. Her films Won the “White Goose Award” in DMZ International Documentary Film Festival; “BIFF Mecenat Award” in Busan International Film Festival; “The Jean Vigo prize for best Director”; “The Youth prize for best film” in Punto de Vista and “Best Feature Film” in Festival internacional de cine independiente de cosquín; “International Competition Award of Excellence” in Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. \n\n\n\nSelf-Portrait 47 KM 2020 (ZHANG Mengqi\, 2023\, 190 min\, China\, in Chinese dialects w/ Chinese & English subtitles\, DCP) \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/emergent-visons-film-screening-self-portrait-47-km/
LOCATION:Carpenter Center Theater\, 24 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Emergent Visions Film Screening
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/portrait.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261104T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261104T131500
DTSTAMP:20261008T160855Z
CREATED:20260901T175501Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T160855Z
UID:45582-1793793600-1793798100@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Jean Oi — China’s New Venture Capitalists? The Transformation of Local Government Financing Vehicles
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jean Oi\, William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics\, Department of Political Science; Senior Fellow\, The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies\, Stanford UniversityIn the wake of COVID-19 and the property-market collapse\, China’s local government financing vehicles (LGFVs)—entities created to borrow and invest on behalf of local governments—had accumulated more than $8 trillion in debt by 2022. This enormous burden has forced some localities to cut back public services and has intensified concerns about fiscal sustainability. \n\n\n\nYet recent research\, including fieldwork in China\, points to a surprising development: in some places\, LGFVs are taking on a new role as venture capital investors. Where is this transformation occurring\, and how have heavily indebted LGFVs become vehicles for funding innovative firms? This talk examines what this shift means for local development strategies—and for China’s broader challenge of managing local government debt. \n\n\n\nJean C. OI is the William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics in the Department of Political Science and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University.  She directs the China Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and is the founding Lee Shau Kee Director of the Stanford Center at Peking University.  She served as the President of the Association for Asian Studies from March 2023 to March 2024.  \n\n\n\nA Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan\, Prof Oi first taught at Lehigh University and later in the Department of Government at Harvard University before joining the Stanford faculty in 1997.  \n\n\n\nProf Oi has published extensively on China’s political economy and institutions in the process of reform. Central-local relations in China are the core of her research\, which has “followed the money”—first grain\, then taxes\, and most recently local government debt as a window into politics.  Recent publications include “China’s Changing Development Model:  Insights from Recent Fieldwork\,” The Journal of Asian Studies\, Vol. 85\, No. 3 (August 2026); and “A Perfect Storm: Fiscal Discipline\, COVID\, and Local Government Debt in China\,” with Jason Luo and XU Yunxiao. The China Journal\, Vol. 93 (January 2025). \n\n\n\nCurrently\, she is studying how some local governments are acting like venture capitalists—investing in “new industries” to spur fresh revenue and growth in the wake of the collapse of land-based finance and the heavy burden of local government debt after COVID. Building on her earlier work\, Prof. Oi is also pursuing a project that uses an institutional\, micro-level lens to identify the key actors—and their interests—as local governments try to expand overseas through the Belt and Road Initiative. \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-jean-oi-2/
LOCATION:CGIS South S020\, Belfer Case Study Room\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Critical Issues Confronting China,Critical Issues Confronting China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/jean-oi.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261104T131500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261104T143000
DTSTAMP:20260929T183614Z
CREATED:20260929T183611Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260929T183614Z
UID:45926-1793798100-1793802600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Structuring Chinese History: Diwang Tu 帝王圖\, Nianbiao 年表\, “Chinese Dynasties” Charts\, and Paradigmatic Crisis in Chinese Historiography
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: James Millward\, Georgetown UniversityPeriodization by “Chinese dynasties” is a structural foundation of the historiography of continental eastern Eurasia\, but even those passingly familiar with the field know the idea is beset with problems: The Chinese dynasties aren’t all “Chinese.” They weren’t all in the same place\, but were scattered around geographical China and Inner Asia\, often two or more at the same time. What we call “dynasties” go by many names in Chinese (what’s the difference between a chao\, a dai\, and a guo?). And no one can tell you exactly how many “Chinese dynasties” there were. \n\n\n\nDespite these issues\, the modern list of “dynasties” is central to the notion of a unified\, linear\, and continuous “China” that is said to be the “oldest civilization in the form of a state in the world.” This lecture examines charts and tables of monarchs and polities from Sinitic and European traditions to scrutinize dynasties periodization as a translingual practice. It will argue that Sinitic efforts to periodize were linear and progressive\, not cyclical; always discursive rather than canonical; and that the list of so-called “Chinese dynasties” changed with political winds and trends in historical philosophy. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/structuring-chinese-history-diwang-tu-%e5%b8%9d%e7%8e%8b%e5%9c%96-nianbiao-%e5%b9%b4%e8%a1%a8-chinese-dynasties-charts-and-paradigmatic-crisis-in-chinese-historiography/
LOCATION:CGIS South\, Room S050\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jamesmillward-x400.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261104T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261104T183000
DTSTAMP:20260926T060223Z
CREATED:20260924T175301Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260926T060223Z
UID:45838-1793809800-1793817000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Emergent Visons Film Screening — Zhuang Wei’s Witness: Return of the Survivor (庄炜的见证：幸存者归来)
DESCRIPTION:Followed by a Q+A with filmmaker ZHUANG Wei. \n\n\n\nThis film is part of a three-part series presenting documentaries from China’s Caochangdi Workstation\, a collective of documentary filmmakers and performance artists whose work explores memory\, history\, and everyday life through long-term\, participatory projects. \n\n\n\nDirector’s Statement: “Returning to the unfamiliar Chaoshan homeland to live\, I encountered my grand-uncle Ajun\, who had returned from Cambodia. Carrying stories of surviving the Khmer Rouge\, he stirred my life as I tried to become a witness.” \n\n\n\nAbout the director: ZHUANG Wei\, born in 1999\, is a documentary filmmaker and freelance artist from Chaoshan\, Guangdong. She engages in artistic practices across different mediums that intervene in society. In 2021\, she joined the “Folk Memory Project” at Caochangdi Workstation\, where she created the feature-length documentaries Zhuang Wei’s Mouth (2024) and Zhuang Wei’s Witness: Return of the Survivor (2026). She is now processing her long-term filming in the ancestral Wushi Village. \n\n\n\nZhuang Wei’s Witness: Return of the Survivor (ZHUANG Wei\, 2026\, 89 min\, China\, Teochew dialect w/ English subtitles) \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/emergent-visons-film-screening-zhuang-weis-witness/
LOCATION:CGIS South S020\, Belfer Case Study Room\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Emergent Visions Film Screening
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Witness.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261109T093000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261109T104500
DTSTAMP:20260910T163516Z
CREATED:20260828T150500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T163516Z
UID:45537-1794216600-1794221100@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians after World War II
DESCRIPTION:zoom registration\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Chunmei Du\, Professor\, Department of History\, Lingnan University\, Hong Kong; Associate\, Harvard University Asia Center  \n\n\n\nIn this rich history of everyday encounters between US soldiers and Chinese civilians\, Chunmei Du explores their entangled relations from the end of World War II to the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Drawing upon official\, popular and personal accounts from both countries\, Du examines the sensorial\, material\, and symbolic exchanges that took place between GIs and ordinary Chinese people-stall vendors\, pedestrians\, rickshaw pullers\, “Jeep girls\,” and suspected thieves. Through the conceptual lens of the everyday\, this book reveals how interactions such as traffic accidents\, sexual relations\, theft\, and black-market dealings\, impacted larger political dynamics during this pivotal era. Du shows how mundane struggles made imperialism and sovereignty tangible\, fueling anti-American sentiment. Meanwhile\, these encounters fostered informal diplomacy\, shaping identities and forging new bonds that left a lasting imprint on both countries. \n\n\n\nProfessor Du’s talk will be based on her book Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians after World War II\, published by Cambridge University Press (2026). This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. \n\n\n\nTo join the webinar\, register here. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/everyday-occupation-american-soldiers-and-chinese-civilians-after-world-war-ii/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Co-Sponsored Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/everyday.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261109T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261109T180000
DTSTAMP:20260924T182412Z
CREATED:20260924T181801Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T182412Z
UID:45843-1794240000-1794247200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Humanities Seminar featuring Yunxiao Xiao — Writing on Bamboo and Wood: Text Technologies in Early China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Yunxiao Xiao\, University of Washington \n\n\n\nThis talk explores how written information was organized\, edited\, and transmitted through the ancient media of bamboo and wood. Drawing on excavated manuscripts from the Warring States through the Han\, I examine three practices of bookmaking and information management before the age of paper: 1) designing layouts\, 2) editing and updating legal compilations\, and 3) transmitting literary texts within local scribal communities. \n\n\n\nFirst\, I consider tables and tabular formats\, showing how scribes drew on a repertoire of spatial strategies to organize administrative\, calendrical\, and mathematical information on the two-dimensional writing surface. I then turn to normative legal manuscripts that were physically scraped and rewritten as regulations changed\, revealing statutory texts not as finished records but as objects continually maintained and updated in use. Finally\, I examine correspondences among scribal hands in manuscripts from different tombs and ask what they might reveal about relationships among otherwise anonymous scribes and the local transmission of literary knowledge. \n\n\n\nTogether\, these cases illuminate the interplay between knowledge and media in early China. What we know about the past depends not only on what was written and happened to survive\, but also on how knowledge was materially produced\, organized\, revised\, and transmitted. From legal practice to literary classics\, this talk approaches early Chinese manuscripts as evidence for a broader history of ancient media and information. \n\n\n\nYunxiao Xiao (Ch. 肖芸曉) is a scholar of Chinese literature and cultural history specializing in paleographic texts from the late Warring States and Qin–Han periods. With research interests in epistemological practices and information technologies before the age of paper\, she explores the interplay between knowledge\, people\, and historical media. Her first book project\, The Crafts of the Hidden Hands: Scribal Culture and the Making of Texts in Early China\, examines the ordinary producers and practices behind the formation of Chinese classical knowledge and traces how early written culture in East Asia emerged and evolved. Building on her interest in the history of media\, information\, and technology\, her other projects explore how administrative data and scholarly information were represented\, organized\, controlled\, and manipulated on bamboo and wood in the Qin and Han empires. Before joining the University of Washington\, she earned her PhD from Princeton University (2024) and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-humanities-seminar-featuring-yunxiao-xiao-writing-on-bamboo-and-wood-text-technologies-in-early-china/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:China Humanities Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/yxx.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261110T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261110T220000
DTSTAMP:20260810T162504Z
CREATED:20260810T162502Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260810T162504Z
UID:45330-1794342600-1794348000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture Series featuring Zhang Qingyong
DESCRIPTION:zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Zhang Qingyong\, Renmin University \n\n\n\nMore information coming soon! \n\n\n\nZoom meeting link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/94120080608 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/urban-china-lecture-series-featuring-zhang-qingyong/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/zhang-qinyong.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261117T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261117T173000
DTSTAMP:20261014T140030Z
CREATED:20260914T204114Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261014T140030Z
UID:45736-1794931200-1794936600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Modern China Lecture Series featuring Fei-Hsien Wang — Modernization Theory and Historical Knowledge in Cold War Taiwan
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Fei-Hsien Wang\, Associate Professor\, Department of History\, Indiana University Bloomington \n\n\n\nIn 1973\, the Institute of Modern History (IMH) at Academia Sinica launched an ambitious collaborative project to examine late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century China through the lens of modernization theory. Over the next sixteen years\, seventeen historians participated in “Modernization in China: A Regional Study” (中國現代化的區域研究)\, each focusing on a particular province or region. Although one of the largest and best-funded collaborative projects in the field and later celebrated as a defining legacy of the IMH\, more than half of its studies were never published. Some participants subsequently described the undertaking as a “completely pointless” endeavor. \n\n\n\nWhy did historians working at the margins of an American-centered field of China studies initially embrace modernization theory\, yet ultimately leave much of their research unpublished? This talk situates the project within the broader landscape of Cold War knowledge production in East Asia. It argues that the project’s ambitions and frustrations emerged from the interplay of Taiwan’s political and institutional environment under martial law\, changing geopolitical relations\, and shifting intellectual trends in American and Taiwanese academia from the 1970s to the early 1990s. \n\n\n\nRather than viewing the project as either an extension of American intellectual hegemony or a failed adoption of modernization theory\, I examine how IMH historians appropriated a transnational framework to pursue their own intellectual and institutional agendas while navigating epistemological and political constraints. Their experience invites us to reconsider how scholarly knowledge travels across unequal academic hierarchies—and what constitutes the “success” or “failure” of a research project. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/modern-china-lecture-series-featuring-fei-hsien-wang/
LOCATION:Room K354\, CGIS Knafel\, 1737 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Modern China Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/mcl2.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261117T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261117T220000
DTSTAMP:20260929T172007Z
CREATED:20260810T162827Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260929T172007Z
UID:45333-1794947400-1794952800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture Series featuring Susan Whiting — Illiberal Law and Development: Property Rights and Conflict over Land in China
DESCRIPTION:zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker:Susan Whiting\, University of Washington \n\n\n\nIn Illiberal Law and Development\, Susan H. Whiting advances institutional economic theory with original survey and fieldwork data\, addressing two puzzles in Chinese political economy: how economic development has occurred despite insecure property rights and weak rule of law and how the Chinese state has maintained political control amid unrest. Whiting answers these questions by focusing on the role of illiberal law in reassigning property rights and redirecting grievances. The book reveals that\, in the context of technological change\, a legal system that facilitates reassignment of land rights to higher-value uses plays an important and under-theorized role in promoting economic development. This system simultaneously represses conflict and asserts legitimacy. Comparing China to post-Glorious Revolution England and contemporary India\, Whiting presents a critical new argument that brings the Chinese case more directly into debates in comparative politics about the role of the state in specifying property rights and maintaining authoritarian rule.  \n\n\n\nSusan H. Whiting (Ph.D. University of Michigan\, B.A. Yale University) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington. She is the author two books\, Illiberal Law and Development and Power and Wealth in Rural China\, both published by Cambridge University Press. She specializes in Chinese and comparative politics\, with an emphasis on the political economy of development. Her research has been published in journals such as Comparative Political Studies\, Studies in Comparative International Development\, China Quarterly\, Journal of Asian Studies\, and Voluntas\, as well as in edited volumes such as Holding China Together and Trust and Governance. \n\n\n\nZoom meeting link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/94120080608 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/urban-china-lecture-series-featuring-susan-whiting-illiberal-law-and-development-property-rights-and-conflict-over-land-in-china/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/whiting.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261119T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261119T131500
DTSTAMP:20261014T190040Z
CREATED:20261014T190037Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261014T190040Z
UID:46056-1795089600-1795094100@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Lynette Ong — Outsourcing Surveillance: Online Opinion Management in China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lynette Ong\, Distinguished Professor of Chinese Politics\, University of Toronto; Director\, China Governance Lab\, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public PolicyDigital technology facilitates information sharing among activists; however\, it also affords autocrats new vectors of control\, allowing them to surveil and subjugate dissenters. Yet\, in China—the world’s most powerful autocratic state where most of the dissent takes place online before it spillovers to the street—we argue the state’s prowess in digital surveillance stems from the co-optation of market forces. In this book\, we examine how the Chinese state manages\, moderates\, and represses online opinion. Drawing on public procurement documents\, we study how the Chinese Party-state at national and subnational levels have intended to manage online expression of public opinion. Private corporations\, along with for-profit arms of state-owned enterprises and public sector organizations\, are extensively involved in surveillance of public opinion. This opens up a Pandora’s box of state‒business dynamics in China. \n\n\n\nLynette Ong is Distinguished Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Toronto\, and Director of the China Governance Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Chinese and Asian Politics. Her latest books\, Outsourcing Surveillance: Online Opinion Management in China (Cambridge University Press\, 2026) and Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China (Oxford University Press\, 2022)\, examine the Chinese party-state’s capacity to mobilize nonstate actors to extend its reach into society. Her research has received multiple awards from APSA\, ASA\, ISA\, CPSA\, and SSHRC. Her academic publications have appeared in Perspectives on Politics\, Comparative Politics\, Journal of Democracy\, China Quarterly\,  among others. Her opinion pieces and research have been featured in The Economist\,  The New York Times (Editorial Opinion)\, The New Yorker\, Foreign Affairs\, and The Washington Post. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/critical-issues-confronting-china-series-featuring-lynette-ong-outsourcing-surveillance-online-opinion-management-in-china/
LOCATION:CGIS South S020\, Belfer Case Study Room\, 1730 Cambridge St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Critical Issues Confronting China,Critical Issues Confronting China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/lynette-ong.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261120T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261120T130000
DTSTAMP:20260923T183941Z
CREATED:20260923T183936Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260923T183941Z
UID:45822-1795174200-1795179600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Sea Charts in the Eastern Half of Asia
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Yannan DING\, Associate Professor\, Historical Geography\, Fudan University; HYI Visiting Scholar\, 2026-27Chair/Discussant: Peter K. Bol\, Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations\, Harvard University \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/sea-charts-in-the-eastern-half-of-asia/
LOCATION:Common Room\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, 2 Divinity Ave.\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events of Interest
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ding.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261124T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261124T220000
DTSTAMP:20260828T160905Z
CREATED:20260828T160903Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260828T160905Z
UID:45550-1795552200-1795557600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Urban China Lecture Series featuring Zhao Miaoxi
DESCRIPTION:zoom meeting link\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Zhao Miaoxi\, South China University of Technology \n\n\n\nMore information coming soon! \n\n\n\nZoom meeting link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/94120080608 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/urban-china-lecture-series-featuring-zhao-miaoxi/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Urban China Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/zhao-miaoxi.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261130T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261130T180000
DTSTAMP:20260924T183653Z
CREATED:20260924T183650Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T183653Z
UID:45855-1796054400-1796061600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:China Humanities Seminar featuring Kerstin Storm — Old Age and Aging in Medieval Chinese Poetry
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Kerstin Storm\, University of Münster***Please note the different location for this talk in the series.*** \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/china-humanities-seminar-featuring-kerstin-storm-old-age-and-aging-in-medieval-chinese-poetry/
LOCATION:CGIS South Room S354\, 1730 Cambridge St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:China Humanities Seminar
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