Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

How could bugs and insects be used to process urban waste in an environmentally-conscious way? Amy Zhang - An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at New York University - talks to the "Harvard on China" podcast about how black fly larvae are used in communal composting in Guangzhou, China. Could insects hold the answer to China's urban organic waste crisis? 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.

What role is there for storytelling and roleplay in teaching about Chinatowns and Chinese diasporas? The "Harvard on China" podcast talks to Eileen Chengyin Chow, Professor in Duke University's Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Co-Director of Duke’s Story Lab, director of the Shewo Institute of Chinese Journalism at Shih Hsin University, and Harvard alum. She is the author of the forthcoming “Chinatown States of Mind,” as well as the co-translator with Carlos Rojas of Yu Hua’s two-volume novel “Brothers” and the co-editor of the “Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas.” The “Harvard on China” podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Don’t forget to subscribe to the “Harvard on China” podcast on iTunes, or listen to us on Soundcloud, Stitcher, and other podcast apps.

Pundits have been predicting the impending collapse of the Chinese banking system. The collapse has not happened, so what have these pundits been missing? James Stent is the former director of two Chinese banks from 2003 to 2016, and the author of the “China’s Banking Transformation: the Untold Story,” which dissects China’s hybrid banking model. Stent demonstrates that the banking system can be used as a prism for understanding how the contemporary Chinese political economy works. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

Ian Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, journalist, and reviewer of China’s society, religion, and history. His writing appears regularly in leading publications such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, National Geographic, and the New York Review of Books. This year, he was awarded the Shorenstein Journalism Award by Stanford's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Ian's latest book, "The Souls of China: The Return of Religion after Mao," follows three religious groups in China - an underground Protestant church in Chengdu, pilgrims in Beijing, rural Daoist priests in Shanxi, and meditation groups in caves in the country's south - and their differing approaches to spirituality. This event was recorded at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and introduced by the Fairbank Center's Director Michael Szonyi.

On May 24, 2017, a court in Taipei struck down Taiwan’s ban on same-sex marriage. This ruling, the result of years of campaigning by LGBT-rights activists in Taiwan combined with recent political support, opens the doors for Taiwan to become the first place in Asia to recognize same-sex unions. The Taiwanese legislature now has two years in which to pass a law permitting same-sex marriage, but in the meantime the effects of today's ruling will resonate across Taiwan and Asia. George Yin, a former Fairbank Center Graduate Student Associate and newly appointed Research Fellow in government at Dartmouth College, talks to the "Harvard on China" podcast about how this same-sex marriage ruling will influence Taiwan's political scene, as well as the island's international reputation. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen to more podcasts at the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.

Michael Forsythe is a New York Times journalist who is well known for his detailed reports on the links between money and politics in China. The "Harvard on China" podcast spoke to Michael Forsythe on the eve of China's 19th Party Congress, an important political event where Chinese President Xi Jinping will formally appoint new members to China's politburo standing committee. What outcomes can we expect to see from this quinquennial event? How do foreign journalists cover sensitive political topics in China? And how is money altering the U.S.-China relationship in light of revelations regarding Jared Kushner's family and their attempted financial deals with a leading Chinese company? The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. Listen to more podcasts at the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.

In 2004, David Barboza became the New York Times' Shanghai correspondent, where he began researching a story that would fundamentally change the relationship between Western journalists and the Chinese government. The story involved the former Prime Minister of China, Wen Jiabao, and his billions of hidden assets in stocks, companies, and through family and close friends. By confirming rumors that indicated corruption at the highest levels of the Chinese government, David Barboza's report was explosive, and received the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. The scandalizing nature of his report did not go unnoticed by Beijing, however, and the New York Times website remains blocked in China to this day. The "Harvard on China" podcast sat down with David Barboza while he was in residence at Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism in 2016. This interview is the inaugural conversation in the Fairbank Center’s “Communicating China” project, where we examine how China is communicated in public discourse by academics, journalists, and officials, and how that shapes conversations about China’s position in the world. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen to more podcasts at the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.

China has a long and complex history of interacting with foreign thinkers. After Mao's death in 1976, the Chinese leadership solicited foreign economists in order to curate China’s path towards market reforms and the economic boom that continues today. These little-understood partnerships between foreign economists and China's leaders are the subject of Julian Gewirtz’s new book “Unlikely Partners: Western Economists, and the Making of Global China" from Harvard University Press. This project developed out of Julian's senior thesis here at Harvard, supervised by the Fairbank Center’s own Professor Erez Manella in 2013. Julian is currently a Rhodes Scholar and DPhil Candidate in history at the University of Oxford. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen to more podcasts at the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.

Today’s guest on the “Harvard on China” podcast is Sarah Allan, the Burlington Northern Foundation Professor of Asian Studies at Dartmouth College, and Chair of the Society for the Study of Early China. Professor Allan's research explores previously undiscovered Chinese philosophical texts from the Warring States period (475-221 BCE) written on bamboo slips and buried in tombs in rural China. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen to more podcasts at the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.

Today’s guest on the Harvard on China podcast is Gail Hershatter, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California Santa Cruz. Her research spans the history of China’s long twentieth century. She re-examines the immense societal changes of China's communist past through oral histories of rural women. While Mao Zedong's mass campaigns for collectivization, anti-intellectualism and ideological purity raged in China’s coastal cities, did these rural women experience the same messages as their urban counterparts? The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen to more podcasts at the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.

This week, President Donald Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time. Will their meeting herald a new era in U.S.-China relations? Probably not, and in fact we may see a lot of short term instability between Washington and Beijing. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be optimistic about the future of this vital relationship. The "Harvard on China" podcast spoke with John Pomfret - former Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post from 1996 to 2003, and author of "The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present" - about how he sees the Trump-Xi meeting in the historical context of U.S.-China relations. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen to more podcasts at the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.

President-elect Donald Trump broke diplomatic protocol by receiving a call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen. Why is this phone call so important, why shouldn’t Trump have taken the call, and why are the foreign policy establishment seemingly split on the issue? We spoke with Steven Goldstein, Fairbank Center Associate, organizer of the Center’s Taiwan Studies Workshop, and Sophia Smith Professor of Government, Emeritus at Smith College. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen to more podcasts at the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.

In the West, we often consider Western philosophical discourse to have a degree of universality. This is not always the case, however, when we think about Chinese thought. Why does Chinese philosophy not hold a similar degree of universal applicability that is assigned to thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Kant? Can China’s past be conceptualized as a global heritage beyond individuals who are considered Chinese? Leigh Jenco is an Associate Professor in Political Theory at the London School of Economics. Her research examines Chinese political thought and linkages in political theory between East Asia and the West, and she is the author of the forthcoming Changing Referents: Learning Across Time and Space in China and the West, from Oxford University Press. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen to more podcasts at the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.

Sino-Japanese relations are often portrayed as a rivalry hindered by historical grievances. Joshua Fogel, Canada Research Chair at York University, Toronto, explores a different side of China’s relationship with Japan. Fogel is the author of many books on Sino-Japanese relations, with his latest book, Japanese for Sinologists, forthcoming from University of California Press. The Harvard on China podcast talks to Joshua Fogel about his recent research on Kanzo Uchiyama—the founder of Shanghai’s Uchiyama Bookstore and close friend of Chinese literary giant Lu Xun—about how this deep friendship fostered a personal connection between China and Japan and provides grounds for further research on Sino-Japanese relations. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen to more podcasts on the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.

Europe’s post-2008 financial crises have provided opportunities for Chinese overseas investment in cash-strapped European states. From infrastructure investments in a high-speed rail line between Serbia and Hungary, to developing Greece’s port of Piraeus, becoming majority shareholders in France’s Toulouse airport, and developing business parks in Belarus, China’s continent-wide investments are altering economic and political realities across Europe. In the wake of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (Brexit), how will Chinese investment continue to change realpolitik in the Old Continent? The Harvard on China podcast talks with Phillipe Le Corre, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute, former advisor at France’s Ministry of Defense, and former fellow at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Le Corre is the author of “China Offensive in Europe” from Brookings Institution Press. The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Listen to more podcasts at the Fairbank Center's SoundCloud page.