Wang Bing’s Youth Trilogy: a cinematic fresco of Chinese workers
This piece was originally published on the Harvard Film Archive’s website. The HFA has upcoming screenings of each film in Wang Bing’s Youth trilogy: Youth (Homecoming) (April 25), Youth (Hard Times) (April 26), and Youth (Spring) (May 5). More than…
Faculty Spotlight: Celebrating Ellen Widmer’s Storied Career in Chinese Literature and Gender Studies
Ellen Widmer has been a Center Associate at the Fairbank Center since 1981 and a driving force behind the Center’s Gender Studies Workshop since 1999. This year’s workshop, The Beauty and the Book: Women, Knowledge, Literature, and Book Culture in…
Poetic Soundscapes: How Li He (李賀), a “Demonic Talent,” Brings the Quirky to Tang Poetry
A Conversation with Robert Ashmore about the poetry of Li He. Robert Ashmore, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley, recently delivered a talk as part of the China…
Remembering Steven M. Goldstein: Taiwan Studies leader, nurturing mentor, friend of the Fairbank Center
Steven M. Goldstein, longtime Associate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Director of the Taiwan Studies Workshop, died on Monday, February 10, 2025, at age 84. Steve taught at Smith College as the Sophia Smith Professor of Government…
Heritage Matters: Post-demolition urban redevelopment in China
A Q+A with Anthropologist Philipp Demgenskiand Urban China Seminar co-organizer Li Hou Philipp Demgenski, Assistant Professor in Anthropology in the Department of Sociology at Zhejiang University. Philipp Demgenski, Assistant Professor in Anthropology in the Department of Sociology at Zhejiang University,…
Faculty Spotlight: To Karen Thornber, literature is a vital force in fighting the world’s greatest challenges
Karen L. Thornber is Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature and Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, as well as Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University. She is…
Meet Our Fellows 2024-25: Jason Chan
We continue our series of Q+As introducing you to the Fairbank Center’s new Fellows with Jason Chan, whose research is being supported by a 2024-25 Desmond and Whitney Shum Fellowship. Jason is a Ph.D. candidate in modern Chinese history at…
Transforming the Work of Literary Sinitic Studies Through Generative AI: A Q+A with the Digital China Initiative’s Kwok-leong Tang
For the great majority of Fridays during this Fall semester, the Digital China Initiative—which studies the impact of digital technologies in the field of China Studies—is offering workshops on Generative AI for Literary Sinitic Studies. Two sessions from the initial…
Support for a New Generation of China Scholars: Spotlight on Yuhua Wang
In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yuhua Wang, Professor of Government at Harvard University, and a group of other leading scholars of Chinese politics saw a pressing need: traditional opportunities to attend conferences and receive feedback had been…
Meet Our Fellows 2024-25: Sarah Plovnick
Last week, it was our pleasure to introduce you to Hardy Stewart, the Fairbank Center’s new Hou Family Pre-Doctoral Fellow in Taiwan Studies. We are now happy to introduce you to Sarah Plovnick, our Hou Family Postdoctoral Fellow. Her dissertation, titled “Listening Through the…