Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

In the drama of Chinese history, the environment - and the Yellow River (Huang He) in particular - plays a major role. The river's breaching of its northern banks in the year 1048, for example, precipitated an environmental catastrophe that caused political and economic turmoil in the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127 CE). Ling Zhang examines this catastrophe to reveal new information about China's transition from the Tang to the Song dynasty and prompt questions for how China handles its contemporary relationship with its environment. Ling Zhang is an Associate Professor in the History Department at Boston College, and an Associate in Research at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.

Graham Allison, Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard Kennedy School, asks how America and China can escape future conflict. Discussed by Roderick MacFarquhar,  Leroy B. Williams Professor of History at Harvard University, and Oriana Skylar Mastro, Assistant Professor of Security Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Chaired by Michael Szonyi, Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University,

China's leaders often invoke the "century of humiliation" at the hands of foreigners as a means to promote national unity and garner public support for China's return to great power status. An historical metaphor for outside intervention is the vivid image of foreigners "dividing China up like a melon." As Rudolf Wagner explains, however, this metaphor has a more complex history, which highlights a continuing reverse-engineering of history by China's leaders for political gain. Rudolf Wagner is Senior Professor in the Institute for Sinology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and Center Associate at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. His research spans Sinology, history, philosopher, and literature, and he has published extensively on topics ranging from Laozi to Buddhism, Republican China, and contemporary fiction. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.

From 1966 to 1968, youth in urban China were embroiled in factional battles in what many of them believed to be a revolution of a lifetime. Guobin Yang explores how this factional violence was the result of the enactment of China's earlier revolutionary tradition, and how echoes of this tradition persist in online forums. Guobin Yang is the Grace Lee Boggs Professor of Sociology and Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Yang’s research bridges the Cultural Revolution, critical social theory, social movements, activism, and media and politics in China. His recent books include, "The Power of the Internet in China" (2009), and "The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China" (2017), both from Columbia University Press. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

Mary Gallagher is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, where she is also the Director of the Center for Chinese Studies. Professor Gallagher researches the relationships between capitalism, law and democracy, which she examines in her latest book, “Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers and the State” from Cambridge University Press. In addition, her research also focuses on the resilience of China's authoritarian system and the use of censorship by the Chinese state. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Subscribe via SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitcher, or other podcast providers.

Kaiser Kuo is a household name among China watchers as host of the Sinica Podcast with Jeremy Goldkorn, a current affairs podcast that invites prominent China journalists and China-watchers to participate in uncensored discussions about Chinese political and economic affairs. Before launching the podcast, however, Kaiser was the guitarist in the Chinese heavy metal band "Tang Dynasty." Kaiser's story of China's burgeoning rock & roll scene in the late 1980s colorfully fuses the music, culture, and politics of the time to present an alternate angle on events that shaped a generation. Kaiser previously worked as director for international communications for Chinese search engine Baidu. Before that he was a technology correspondent for Red Herring magazine, and also worked as director of digital strategy, China, for Ogilvy & Mather in Beijing. He used to write a column for the foreigner-focused English-language magazine The Beijinger from 2001 to 2011, and is now a regular contributor for SupChina, which acquired the Sinica Podcast in 2016. The "Harvard on China Podcast" is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen and subscribe to the Harvard on China Podcast on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and Podbean.

As President Trump returns from his first visit to China as Commander-in-Chief, how is U.S. foreign policy reacting to a new administration in Washington and a new rising power in Beijing? The Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation present Ambassador and Harvard Kennedy School Professor Nicholas Burns, in conversation with Jeeyang Rhee Baum, Ezra Vogel, and Odd Arne Westad, moderated by Michael Szonyi. Speaker: Ambassador (Ret.) Nicholas Burns, Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, Harvard Kennedy School; Former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Discussants: Ezra Vogel, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus, Harvard University Odd Arne Westad, S.T. Lee Professor of U.S.-Asia Relations, Harvard Kennedy School Jeeyang Rhee Baum, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School Moderator: Michael Szonyi, Director, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Professor of Chinese History This event was sponsored by Harvard’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance, and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

The collapse of communist regimes at the end of the Cold War led to a “third wave” of democratization across the world. Despite this, five nominally communist regimes still survive, including the ruling Chinese Communist Party, and today a rising number of nation states appear to be embracing authoritarianism. Martin Dimitrov, Associate Professor of Political Science at Tulane University and a former postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, talks to the “Harvard on China” podcast about the institutions and mechanisms that it takes for an authoritarian regime to survive in the twenty-first century. The “Harvard on China” podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

Roderick MacFarquhar, Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science and former Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, explores the rise of Xi Jinping. Hosted by Ezra F Vogel at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies presents a panel discussion to celebrate the launch of our world-debut exhibition of Cultural Revolution-era artworks. This is the first time that these works, including "dazibao" (or “big-character posters”), have been publicly displayed since the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Panelists: Denise Ho, Assistant Professor of History, Yale University Jie Li, Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University Roderick MacFarquhar, Leroy B. Williams Research Professor of History and Political Science, Emeritus, Harvard University Julia Murray, Professor of Art History, Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison Xiaofei Tian, Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard University Moderated by Michael Szonyi, Director, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Professor of Chinese History, Harvard University Read blog posts by our panelists on dazibao and Cultural Revolution-era artworks on the Fairbank Center Blog: Part 1: Reading “Big-Character Posters”: https://medium.com/fairbank-center/exhibiting-the-cultural-revolution-part-1-reading-big-character-posters-d3edd7bb0104 Part 2: The Visual Spectacle of “Dazibao”: https://medium.com/fairbank-center/exhibiting-the-cultural-revolution-part-2-the-visual-spectacle-of-dazibao-7a61d5ba684b Part 3: Dazibao Exhibitionism: https://medium.com/fairbank-center/exhibiting-the-cultural-revolution-part-3-dazibao-exhibitionism-3855a62a8bc6 Part 4: Pictorial Posters: https://medium.com/fairbank-center/exhibiting-the-cultural-revolution-part-4-pictoral-posters-4475daf92185

The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation present a panel discussion with exclusive insight and opinions on China’s 19th Party Congress. Moderator: Mark Elliott, Vice Provost of International Affairs and Mark Schwartz Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History, Harvard University Panelists: Anthony Saich, Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs. Joseph Fewsmith, Professor of International Relations and Political Science at the BU Pardee School. Elizabeth Perry, Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. Edward Wong, journalist and a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Huang Yasheng, International Program Professor in Chinese Economy and Business and a Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

James Steinberg, University Professor of Social Science, International Affairs, and Law at Syracuse University, presents the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies' 2017 Neuhauser Lecture. In the past year, the leaders of China and the United States laid out their respective visions for future peace and prosperity in widely noted speeches at Davos (President Xi) and the UN (President Trump). What do those speeches tell us about the emerging grand strategies of the world’s two leading powers and the implications for East Asia and beyond? Mr. Steinberg was dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University from 2011 to June 2016. He was previously principal deputy secretary of state for Hillary Clinton, dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, vice president and foreign policy studies director at Brookings Institution, President Clinton’s deputy national security advisor, director of the State Department’s policy planning staff, and deputy assistant secretary for analysis in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He co-authored Strategic Reassurance and Resolve: US-China Relations in the 21st Century and Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power.

Digital methods are a developing field in the humanities and social sciences that is still little understood by many in the academy. Dr. Donald Sturgeon is a former Fairbank Center An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow, founder of the Chinese Text Project, and currently teaching digital methods at Harvard University. Based on his class at Harvard, Donald discusses how to develop a curriculum for teaching digital methods in Chinese Studies. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

The U.S. has maintained a policy of engagement with the People’s Republic of China since Richard Nixon normalized relations with Mao Zedong in 1972. But how is 'engagement' actually understood in Washington and Beijing? And has engagement changed under the new Trump administration? Orville Schell is Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society in New York. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

Gary King, Weatherhead University Professor at Harvard University and Director of Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science, talks to the "Harvard on China" podcast about his latest research into online censorship in China. Professor King is the co-author of a 2017 article, "How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument." This paper builds on his previous research about how censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression (2013), as well as the reverse engineering of Harvard's own Chinese social media site to better study censorship. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Follow us on SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcast apps.