Harvard University Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

Latest Episodes:

China, the UN, and Human Protection, with Rosemary Foot Oct 17, 2020

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Speaker: Rosemary Foot, Senior Research Fellow in International Relations at the University of Oxford; Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s College; Research Associate of Oxford’s China Centre This event is part of the Critical Issues Confronting China lecture series at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.

Rising China in Perspective: Global Threat or Great Power Competitor, with Robert S. Ross Oct 10, 2020

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Speaker: Robert S. Ross, Professor of Political Science, Boston College; Fairbank Center Associate Part of the Critical Issues Confronting China Series, hosted by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.

Beyond the Steppe Frontier: A History of the Sino-Russian Border, with Sören Urbansky Oct 09, 2020

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Speaker: Sören Urbanksy, Research Fellow, German Historical Institute Washington The Sino-Russian border, once the world’s longest land border, was special in many ways. It not only divided the two largest Eurasian empires, it was also the place where European and Asian civilizations met, where nomads and sedentary people mingled, where the imperial interests of Russia and later the Soviet Union clashed with those of Qing and Republican China and Japan, and where the world’s two largest Communist regimes hailed their friendship and staged their enmity. In this talk, Sören Urbansky will discuss his recent book, Beyond the Steppe Frontier: A History of the Sino-Russian border, which examines the demarcation’s remarkable transformation—from a vaguely marked frontier in the seventeenth century to its twentieth-century incarnation as a tightly patrolled barrier girded by watchtowers, barbed wire, and border guards. Part of the Modern China Lecture Series at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.

The Crisis of China's Investment Environment, with Lily Wu Sep 18, 2020

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Speaker: Lily Wu, Chief Investment Officer, China Prosper Group In over 40 years of opening and reform (改革开放, foreign and domestic direct investment has been a critical economic growth driver, and change driver. However, both drivers face significant challenges today, which could limit their role or efficacy in the future. What is the state of China’s investment environment today, how did we get here, and what is the outlook? Lily Wu is Chief Investment Officer Taiwan private equity investment company China Prosper Group. She has 30 years of investment research, and investment management experience in China, for various Taiwan investment companies and US brokerages Salomon Brothers and Bankers Trust. She graduated from Caltech with a BS in engineering, and attended Peking University for post-graduate work in history as a Thomas Watson Fellow in 1985. This webinar is part of the Critical Issues Confronting China lecture series, hosted by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University.

US-China Relations: Where We're Headed, with Evan A. Feigenbaum Sep 14, 2020

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Speaker: Evan A. Feigenbaum, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Evan A. Feigenbaum is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees research in Washington, Beijing and New Delhi on a dynamic region encompassing both East Asia and South Asia. He is also the 2019-20 James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Initially an academic with a PhD in Chinese politics from Stanford University, Feigenbaum’s career has spanned government service, think tanks, the private sector, and three major regions of Asia. From 2001 to 2009, he served at the U.S. State Department as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia (2007–2009), deputy assistant secretary of state for Central Asia (2006–2007), member of the policy planning staff with principal responsibility for East Asia and the Pacific (2001–2006), and an adviser on China to Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, with whom he worked closely in the development of the U.S.-China senior dialogue. This webinar is part of the Critical Issues Confronting China Series at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, hosted by Professor Ezra F. Vogel.

The River Dragon has indeed come! Chinese Floods and Flood Management in 2020 and in the past Aug 10, 2020

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Speakers: Clark ALEJANDRINO, Trinity College Chris COURTNEY, Durham University Xiangli DING, Rhode Island School of Design Yan GAO, University of Memphis Moderator: Ling Zhang, Boston College About the Speakers: Clark Alejandrino teaches at Trinity College. Clark finished a Ph.D. in East Asian Environmental History at Georgetown University. He specializes in the environmental history of China, especially its climate and animal history, covering the fifth to the twentieth century in his research. He is currently preparing a book manuscript on typhoons in the history of the South China coast and preparing to embark on a new project exploring the history of migratory birds in East Asia. At Trinity, he teaches courses on Chinese history, environmental history, world history, and Pacific history. Chris Courtney teaches at Durham University (UK). Chris is a social and environmental historian of China, specializing on the history of Wuhan and its hinterland. His previous research focused upon the history of nature-induced disasters in the 19th and 20th centuries. His monograph The Nature of Disaster in China examined the history of the 1931 Central China Flood. It was awarded the 2019 John K Fairbanks Prize. Chris has also published on topics including the history of environmental religion, fire disasters, and Maoist flood (mis)management. His current research focuses on the problem of heat in modern Chinese cities. Using a combination of archival and oral history he is examining how people coped with extreme temperatures through a period of rapid cultural, political and technological change. He explores how emergent technologies such as ice factories, electric fans, and air conditioning transformed the cultural and social landscape of urban China. Xiangli Ding teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. His research interests focus on the confluence of nature, technologies, economy and political forces in modern China and how that confluence has changed Chinese people’s lives and their relationship with the natural environment. His first book project, Transforming Waters: Hydroelectricity, State Making and Social Changes in 20th-Century China, examines the rise of hydroelectricity in modern China and argues that political powers aided by hydro-technologies consumed not only the natural resources at an unprecedented pace and scale, but also marginalized local communities in the making of the modern hydropower regime. Yan Gao teaches at the University of Memphis. Yan specializes in social and environmental history of late imperial and modern China, and her research focuses on water management of the central Yangzi region. She obtained her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and held a few research and teaching positions around the world. She was a Carson fellow at the Rachel Carson Center of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, a visiting post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, and a Research Associate at the Global Asia Initiative of Duke University. She has published several scholarly articles. Yan is finalizing a book entitled “Yangzi Waters: Transforming the Water Regime in Late Imperial China.” Part of the Environment in Asia series at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University

The Challenge of COVID 19: The Taiwan Experience Jun 24, 2020

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Speakers: Jen-Hsiang Chuang, Deputy Director-General at Centers for Disease Control, Taiwan Steve Kuo, President, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan Moderators: Winnie Yip, Professor of the Practice of Global Health Policy and Economics in the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Director, China Health Partnership. William Hsiao, K.T. Li Research Professor of Economics in Department of Health Policy and Management and Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Organizer: Steven Goldstein, Sophia Smith Professor of Government, Emeritus, Smith College; Fairbank Center Associate

The Belt-Road Initiative and COVID-19, with Min Ye May 20, 2020

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Speaker: Min Ye, Associate Professor of International Relations, Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University. Moderator: Michael Szonyi, Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History; Director, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University China’s Belt and Road Initiative, pronounced by Chinese leader Xi Jinping as the “project of the century”, now faces the most uncertain fate in China and abroad. In this new research, Min Ye evaluates policy discourses, interest groups, and nascent BRI networks in China and concludes that domestic drivers for the BRI have not been altered by the Covid-19. However, the external environment and demand for BRI are predicted to change, and we are likely to see important shifts in the BRI implementation in the future. Min Ye is Associate Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University. Her research situates in the nexus between domestic and global politics and the intersection of economics and security, with a focus on China, India, and the regional relations. Her publications include The Belt, Road and Beyond: State-Mobilized Globalization in China 1998 — 2018 (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Diasporas and Foreign Direct Investment in China and India (Cambridge University Press, 2014), and The Making of Northeast Asia (with Kent Calder, Stanford University Press, 2010). Min Ye has received grants and fellowship in the U.S and Asia, including a Smith Richardson Foundation grant (2016-2018), East Asia Peace, Prosperity, and Governance Fellowship (2013), Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program post-doctoral fellowship (2009-2010), and Millennium Education Scholarship in Japan (2006). In 2014-2016, the National Committee on the U.S-China Relations selects Min Ye as a Public Intellectual Program fellow. In 2020, Ye is selected as the Rosenberg Scholar of East Asian Studies at Suffolk University. In 2009-2010, Min Ye was the China and the World post-doctoral fellow at the Fairbank Center. She has since been an active participant in programs at the Fairbank Center. In 2016-2018, she served in the Faculty Council of Harvard-Yenching Institute. She currently mentors visiting scholars at HYI. Min Ye is a National Committee on US-China Relations PIP fellow (PIP 4). Ye’s recently published a new book, “The Belt, Road and Beyond.” This event was recorded on Zoom on Wednesday May 20, 2020.

China's Air Quality and Climate Change, with Chris Nielsen May 14, 2020

Show notes

Speaker: Chris Nielsen, Executive Director, Harvard China Project Chris Nielsen is the executive director of the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment. Working with faculty at collaborating Chinese universities and across the schools of Harvard, he has managed and developed the interdisciplinary China Project from its inception. This event is part of the Critical Issues Confronting China Lecture Series at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. The series is hosted by Professor Ezra F. Vogel. The event was recorded on Zoom, and does not include the Q&A.

Sino-Russian Territorial Dispute Settlement, with Alexander Lukin and Olga Puzanova May 09, 2020

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Can Sino-Russian Territorial Dispute Settlement be an example for Russia and Japan? Speakers: Alexander Lukin and Olga Puzanova, Higher School of Economics, Moscow Alexander Lukin is Head of the Department of International Relations at National Research University Higher School of Economics, Director of the Center for East Asian and Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University) and Chair Professor in the School of Public Affairs at Zhejiang University (China). He received his first degree from MGIMO University in 1984, a doctorate in politics from Oxford University in 1997, a doctorate in history from Russian Diplomatic Academy in 2007 and a professional development degree in theology from St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University in 2013. He is the author of The Political Culture of the Russian Democrats (Oxford University Press, 2000), The Bear Watches the Dragon: Russia’s Perceptions of China and the Evolution of Russian-Chinese Relations since the Eighteenth Century (M.E.Sharpe, 2003), Grasping Russia with your Mind (with Pavel Lukin, Ves’ Mir, 2015, in Russian), Pivot to Asia: Russia’s Foreign Policy Enters the 21st Century (Vij Books India, 2016), China and Russia: The New Rapprochement (Polity, 2018), Russia: A Thorny Transition from Communism (Vij Books India, 2019), as well as numerous articles and policy papers on international relations, Russian and Chinese politics. Olga Puzanova is a Lecturer at the Department of International Relations and Researcher at the International Laboratory of World Order Studies and the New Regionalism at National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow. She received her bachelor degree in international journalism from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), M.Phil in Japanese Studies from the University of Oxford and is now in the final stage of her D.Phil studies at the University of Oxford. She is the author of several articles on Japanese media, politics and Russian-Japanese relations, which were published in leading international journals, including “Russia’s Policy toward Japan and Regional Security in the Asia‐Pacific,” Asian Politics and Policy. 2019. Vol. 10. No. 4. P. 677-692 and “Japan’s Eurasian diplomacy: Successes and failures (1997-2017)”, Journal of Eurasian Studies. 2018. Vol. 9. No. 2. P. 134-142 (with Oleg Paramonov). She also serves as a contributor to country reports of The Asan Forum (South Korea). This event was recorded on Zoom as part of the Fairbank Center's Critical Issues Confronting China lecture series, hosted by Professor Ezra Vogel. The recording features the presentation, but not the Q&A.

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