Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

Mandopop: 40 Years of Chinese Popular Music and Culture Speakers: GAO Xiaosong 高曉松 FANG Wenshan 方文山 LO Ta-yu 羅大佑 YIN Yue 尹約 Moderated by TIAN Xiaofei 田曉菲 and Li Jie 李潔, sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. Please note that this recording is in Mandarin Chinese.

Speaker: Paul Cohen, Fairbank Center Associate In his memoir Paul Cohen, one of the West’s preeminent historians of China, traces the development of his work from its inception in the early 1960s to the present, offering fresh perspectives that consistently challenge us to think more deeply about China and the historical craft in general. The book’s title reflects the crucially important disparity between the past as originally experienced and the past as later reconstructed historically, by which point the historian and the world in which he or she lives have both undergone extensive change. This distinction is very much on Cohen’s mind throughout the book. Paul Cohen began his teaching career at the University of Michigan and Amherst College. He then taught for thirty-five years at Wellesley College, where he is Edith Stix Wasserman Professor of Asian Studies and History, Emeritus. He is also a long-time Associate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. Cohen’s books include Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past (1984); History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth (1997); Speaking to History: The Story of King Goujian in Twentieth-Century China (2009); and History and Popular Memory: The Power of Story in Moments of Crisis (2014). History in Three Keys was the winner of the 1997 New England Historical Association Book Award and the American Historical Association’s 1997 John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History. Cohen’s work has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

“From ‘Touches of History’ to ‘Exercises in Thought’: My Views on May Fourth and May Fourth Studies” (从“触摸历史”到“思想操练”——我看五四以及五四研究) Chen Pingyuan 陳平原 (Peking University) presents the second keynote speech at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies' "May 4th @ 100: China and the World" conference. With welcome and opening remarks by Professors David Der-wei Wang (Harvard University) and Olga Lomová (Charles University, Prague). Hosted by Harvard University. Sponsored by: the Chiang Ching-Kuo Center for Sinology; National Taiwan University; the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard; the Harvard University Asia Center; the Harvard-Yenching Institute; and the Harvard Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations Please note that this presentation is in Mandarin.

Rudolf Wagner (University of Heidelberg) presents the opening keynote speech at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies' "May 4th @ 100: China and the World" conference. With welcome and opening remarks by Professors David Der-wei Wang (Harvard University), Michael Szonyi (Harvard University) and Zhaoguang Ge 葛兆光 (Fudan University). Hosted by Harvard University. Sponsored by: the Chiang Ching-Kuo Center for Sinology; National Taiwan University; the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard; the Harvard University Asia Center; the Harvard-Yenching Institute; and the Harvard Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Susan Thornton was Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State during the first 18 months of the Trump administration. Prior to her departure, Thornton led East Asia policy-making amid crises with North Korea, escalating trade tensions with China, and a generally deteriorating environment in the United States for international economic and diplomatic engagement. She was the architect of the diplomatic pressure campaign on the North Korean regime, structured the administration’s initial approach to China, and developed the administration’s trademark Indo-Pacific Strategy. In previous leadership roles in Washington, Thornton worked on China and Korea policy, including stabilizing relations with Taiwan, the U.S.-China Cyber Agreement, the Paris Climate Accord and led a successful negotiation in Pyongyang for monitoring of the Agreed Framework on denuclearization. In her 18 years of overseas postings in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus and China, Thornton’s leadership furthered U.S. interests and influence and maintained programs and mission morale in a host of difficult operating environments. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, she was among the first State Department Fascell Fellows and served from 1989–90 at the U.S. Consulate in Leningrad. She was also a researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute from 1987–91. Thornton received her M.A. in International Relations and Soviet Studies from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1991 and earned an M.S. in National Strategy and Resource Management at the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School in 2010. Thornton received her B.A. from Bowdoin College in Economics and Russian in 1985, and taught in international secondary schools in Brussels, London, and Chile. She speaks Russian, Mandarin Chinese and French, is a member of numerous professional associations and is on the Board of Trustees for the Eurasia Foundation. The Charles Neuhauser Memorial Lecture is an annual lecture at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. Read and download the transcript for this event on our website: https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/neuhauser-lecture-featuring-susan-thornton-can-we-live-with-china-a-roadmap-for-co-evolution/

Speaker: Derek Scissors – American Enterprise Institute Derek M. Scissors is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on the Chinese and Indian economies and on US economic relations with Asia. He is concurrently chief economist of the China Beige Book. Dr. Scissors is the author of the China Global Investment Tracker. In late 2008, he authored a series of papers that chronicled the end of pro-market Chinese reform and predicted economic stagnation in China as a result. He has also written multiple papers on the best course for Indian economic development. This event is from the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies' "China Economy Lecture Series," hosted by Professor Meg Rithmire. https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/derek-scissors-china-economy-lecture/

Denise Y. Ho is assistant professor of twentieth-century Chinese history at Yale University, and the author of "Curating Revolution: Politics on Display of Mao’s China" (2018). Using a wide variety of primary sources, including Shanghai’s municipal and district archives and oral history, "Curating Revolution" depicts displays of revolution and history, politics and class, and art and science. Analyzing China’s “socialist museums” and “new exhibitions,” Ho demonstrates how Mao-era exhibitionary culture both reflected and made revolution. Denise Y. Ho is an historian of modern China, with a particular focus on the social and cultural history of the Mao period (1949-1976). She is also interested in urban history, the study of information and propaganda, and material culture. Ho teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on modern and contemporary China, the history of Shanghai, the uses of the past in modern China, and the historiography of the Republican era and the PRC. The "Harvard on China Podcast" is hosted by James Evans at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. Download and read the transcript for this podcast interview on our website: https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/denise-ho-modern-china-lecture-series/

A panel discussion at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, on Taiwan's 2018 election. Panelists: Ming-sho Ho, National Taiwan University Chang-ling Huang, National Taiwan University Steven Goldstein, Sophia Smith Professor of Government, Emeritus, Smith College

On the eve of International Women’s Day in 2015, the Chinese government arrested five feminist activists and jailed them for 37 days. The Feminist Five became a global cause célèbre, with Hillary Clinton speaking out on their behalf, and activists inundating social media with #FreetheFive messages. But the Feminist Five are only symbols of a much larger feminist movement of university students, civil rights lawyers, labor activists, performance artists and online warriors that is prompting an unprecedented awakening among China’s urban, educated women. Journalist and scholar Leta Hong Fincher argues that the popular, broad-based movement poses a unique threat to China’s authoritarian regime today. Leta has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Dissent Magazine, Ms. Magazine, BBC, CNN and others. She is the recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi award for television feature reporting. Fluent in Mandarin, Leta is the first American to receive a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University’s Department of Sociology in Beijing. She has a master’s degree from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree with high honors from Harvard University. She has often been quoted by news organizations such as BBC, CNN, Washington Post, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, TIME and The Economist on the subject of women and feminism in China. Named by the Telegraph as an “awesome woman to follow on Twitter,” Leta was a Mellon Visiting Assistant Professor at Columbia University and recently moved to New York. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted and produced by James Evans at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.

Speaker: Stephen Owen, Harvard University Stephen Owen is a sinologist specializing in premodern literature, lyric poetry, and comparative poetics. Much of his work has focused on the middle period of Chinese literature (200-1200), however, he has also written on literature of the early period and the Qing. Owen has written or edited dozens of books, articles, and anthologies in the field of Chinese literature, especially Chinese poetry, including An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 (Norton, 1996); The Making of Early Chinese Classical Poetry (Harvard Asia Center, 2006); and The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century (827-860) (Harvard Asia Center, 2006). Owen has completed the translation of the complete poetry of Du Fu, which has been published as the inaugural volumes of the Library of Chinese Humanities series, featuring Chinese literature in translation. Owen earned a B.A. (1968) and a Ph.D. (1972) in Chinese Language from Yale University. He taught there from 1972 to 1982, before coming to Harvard. In acknowledgment of his groundbreaking work that crosses the boundaries of multiple disciplines, Owen was awarded the James Bryant Conant University Professorship in 1997. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, held a Guggenheim Fellowship, and received a Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award (2006) among many other awards and honors. Discussant: Stephen H. West Stephen West is a Foundation Professor of Chinese in the School of International Letters and Cultures. West works in the textual culture of late medieval and early modern China (1000–1600), with specialties in performance literature, drama, urban literature, and garden studies. The Reischauer Lectures were established in 1985 to honor Edwin O. Reischauer, University Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, by celebrating his distinguished contributions to the study not only of Japan but also of China and Korea. As a reflection of Reischauer’s research, this series intends to highlight current scholarship that deepens understandings of East Asia as a region. Sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. Co-sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center, Korea Institute, Mittal South Asia Institute, and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies.

Speaker: Stephen Owen, Harvard University Stephen Owen is a sinologist specializing in premodern literature, lyric poetry, and comparative poetics. Much of his work has focused on the middle period of Chinese literature (200-1200), however, he has also written on literature of the early period and the Qing. Owen has written or edited dozens of books, articles, and anthologies in the field of Chinese literature, especially Chinese poetry, including An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 (Norton, 1996); The Making of Early Chinese Classical Poetry (Harvard Asia Center, 2006); and The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century (827-860) (Harvard Asia Center, 2006). Owen has completed the translation of the complete poetry of Du Fu, which has been published as the inaugural volumes of the Library of Chinese Humanities series, featuring Chinese literature in translation. Owen earned a B.A. (1968) and a Ph.D. (1972) in Chinese Language from Yale University. He taught there from 1972 to 1982, before coming to Harvard. In acknowledgment of his groundbreaking work that crosses the boundaries of multiple disciplines, Owen was awarded the James Bryant Conant University Professorship in 1997. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, held a Guggenheim Fellowship, and received a Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award (2006) among many other awards and honors. Discussant: Michael Puett, Harvard University Michael Puett is the Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, as well as the Chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion, at Harvard University. His interests are focused on the inter-relations between philosophy, anthropology, history, and religion, with the hope of bringing the study of China into larger historical and comparative frameworks. He is the author of The Ambivalence of Creation: Debates Concerning Innovation and Artifice in Early Chinaand To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China, as well as the co-author, with Adam Seligman, Robert Weller, and Bennett Simon, of Ritual and its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity. The Reischauer Lectures were established in 1985 to honor Edwin O. Reischauer, University Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, by celebrating his distinguished contributions to the study not only of Japan but also of China and Korea. As a reflection of Reischauer’s research, this series intends to highlight current scholarship that deepens understandings of East Asia as a region. Sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. Co-sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center, Korea Institute, Mittal South Asia Institute, and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies.

Speaker: Adrian Zenz, Lecturer in social research methods, European School of Culture & Theology, Germany. Dr. Zenz is author of the recently published paper, '"Thoroughly Reforming Them Towards a Healthy Heart Attitude" - China's Political Re-Education Campaign in Xinjiang,' (Central Asian Survey 2018). Moderator: Mark Elliott, Vice Provost, International Affairs, Harvard University Co-Sponsored by: Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies East Asian Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program Read the transcript of this event on our website: https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/adrian-zenz-recent-developments-in-xinjiang/

Panelists: Fabio Lanza, University of Arizona Ellen Schrecker, Yeshiva University Andrew Gordon, Harvard University Joseph Esherick, University of California San Diego Sugata Bose, Harvard University Lien-Hang Nguyen, Columbia University Bruce Cumings, University of Chicago Moderator: Karen Thornber, Harvard University Asia Center Organized by: Arunabh Ghosh, Harvard University Co-Sponsored by: Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies Harvard University Asia Center Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies Korea Institute Mittal South Asia Institute

As the role of “strongman” leaders on the world stage appears to be on the rise, this panel examines “strongman politics” in a comparative context. In May 2018, Time Magazine proclaimed in an article that “The ‘Strongmen Era’ Is Here” (Time, May 3, 2018). Highlighting Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping’s tightening authoritarianism in Russia and China, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Rodrigo Duterte, and Viktor Orbán’s undermining of democratic norms in Turkey, the Philippines, and Hungary, it certainly appears that Huntington’s post-Cold War “third wave” of democratization is witnessing a strongman-inspired reversal. But does this entail a new “era” of authoritarianism advance as the United States rhetorically withdraws from its global leadership role? This panel examines the role of politically-strong male leaders in authoritarian countries in a comparative context. Elsa Clavé, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center, examines the 2016 election of Duterte in the Philippines; Ayşe Kadıoğlu, Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, looks at Erdoğan’s reversal of Turkey’s previous move towards democratization; Joseph Fewsmith, Professor Political Science at Boston University, compares Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power in China to Mao’s historical rise at Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party; and Valerie Sperling, Professor of Political Science at Clark University, interrogates the cult-like masculinity of Vladimir Putin’s image as a “manly” leader in post-Soviet Russia. Regarding her upcoming discussion of the presidency of Duterte at the panel, Asia Center Postdoctoral Fellow Elsa Clavé, a historian of the Philippines working on the expression of authority and power in its Muslim periphery, stated “President Duerte is not only a populist; he was elected and stays extremely popular for various other reasons. Understanding these reasons is essential to understanding the present society and the direction it is taking. Models and theory are a good approach to reality, but reality exceeds both. A conversation between different fields and disciplines will help, I hope, to refine the model.” The panel is moderated by Thomas Vallely, Senior Advisor at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, and a specialist on Southeast Asia, and introduced by Karen Thornber, Director of the Harvard University Asia Center. Co-sponsoring Centers: Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University Harvard University Asia Center Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

Xi Jinping is consolidating power just as China has embarked on an unprecedented push to become a global and technological power. Xi’s followers are fashioning an economic and administrative system that they hope can achieve these ambitious goals. Some parts of this multi-stranded program will succeed and some will fail. The global economy—and global power relations—will depend on the balance between success and failure, and the ways in which Chinese manages the success and failure of individual initiatives. Barry Naughton is the Sokwanlok Chair of Chinese International Affairs at UCSD. He is one of the world’s most highly respected economists working on China. He is an authority on the Chinese economy with an emphasis on issues relating to industry, trade, finance and China’s transition to a market economy. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.