Past Events
Institutions, Institutionalization, and Governance in China
A talk by Joseph Fewsmith.
Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
There are many reasons to expect political reform of some sort to take place in China - the economy has grown rapidly over three decades, new generations of leaders have come to power, there are many demands for greater public participation, and there are numerous "mass incidents" that can seemingly be addressed only through political reform. By looking at a number of reforms, this talk will try to lay out the logic of the ever increasing number of political reforms in China as well as the limits to such reforms.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
Variation and change in language: an East Asian perspective
A talk by C.T. James Huang, Professor of Linguistics, Harvard University
Date: Thursday, February 18, 2010
Time: 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
Humanistic Buddhism and Its Global Philanthropic Reach
A talk by KUAH-PEARCE Khun-Eng
Discussant: Arthur Kleinman, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University and Professor of Medical Anthropology in Social Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director, Harvard University Asia Center.
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Time: 12:00 - 1:30
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
Is the Past Always Behind Us? A Past-Oriented Model for the Chinese Perfective Aspect Marker "Le"
A talk by WANG Wei, Professor of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; HYI Visiting Scholar 2009-2010.
Discussants: Professors Gennaro Chierchia and James Huang
Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010
Time: 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
It is generally believed that temporal meanings in human languages are universally construed in terms of space, and that almost equally universally, the past is construed as the world behind us whereas the future is the one in front of us. Professor Wang's talk, however, points out that in Chinese, it is very hard to associate the word qian (前 front/before) with the meaning of 'future' and the word hou (后 behind/after) with the meaning of 'past'--it is actually always the other way around. The underlying schema of the so-called 'universal' spatial construal of time involves a moving-ego metaphor in which time is a road the ego moves on. The talk manages to point out that the Chinese perfective aspect le (了) prefers the other metaphor of moving-object, in which time is a flowing river beside which the ego stands still.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
The Politics of "Illicitly Brewed Liquor" in Colonial Korea
Co-sponsored by the Korea Institute.
A talk by ITAGAKI Ryuta, Professor of Anthropology, Doshisha University, Japan; HYI Visiting Scholar 2009-2010.
Discussant: Andrew Gordon, Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History, Harvard University
Date: Friday, December 11, 2009
Time: 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
Ethnographic Biography: How the Personal Connects with the Professional
A talk by LIU Heng, HYI Coordinate Researcher 2009-2010.
Discussant: Michael Herzfeld, Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
Date: Friday, November 20, 2009
Time: 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
The Alchemy and Jouissance of Death: Sichuan Sarcophagi in New Perspective
A talk by Eugene Wang, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art, Harvard University.
Date: Friday, November 13, 2009
Time: 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
Proba's Virgilian Cento
A talk by GAO Fengfeng, Professor of Literature, Peking University; HYI Visiting Scholar 2009-2010.
Discussant: Richard Thomas, Professor of Greek and Latin, Classics Department, Harvard University
Date: Monday, November 16, 2009
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
Harvard-Yenching Institute Panel at the Beijing Forum: Grassroots Mobilization in 20th Century China: A Rural-Urban Comparison
Date: November 7, 2009
Time: 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location: Beijing, China
This panel will be part of the session: Crisis and Mobilization in Twentieth Century China (under the sub-theme "Crisis and Opportunity -- Historical reflection on Contemporary Challenges").
Panel Chair: Elizabeth Perry
Panel Discussants: Michael Herzfeld and Elizabeth Perry
Presenters: Jeong Jong-Ho, Liu Jundai , Liu Chun (Brenda), Yan Xiaojun, Yu Jianrong, Zhou Yi
Social Consequences of Rapid Expansion of Higher Education in South Korea
Co-sponsored by the Korea Institute
A talk by HAN Joon, Associate Professor of Sociology, Yonsei University, South Korea; HYI Visiting Scholar 2009-2010.
Discussant: Frank Dobbin, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
Date:Friday, November 6, 2009
Time:11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Location:Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
During the 1980s and 1990s, South Korea experienced an exceptionally rapid expansion of higher education, reflecting a sharp increase in demand for higher education among Korean parents. In this presentation, the social consequences of higher education expansion will be discussed, with a focus on inequality. Professor Han's research has investigated whether the expansion of higher education has affected class mobility among Korean males, finding that a mechanism of class inheritance has changed from direct inheritance to one mediated by education. He has also examined inequality among college graduates in the labor market and has found a substantial wage gap among different groups of college graduates. Results from previous research indicate that expansion of higher education in Korea did not alleviate the degree of inequality but rather modified the mechanism of generating inequality.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
"The Spirit of the Chrysanthemum" (Kiku no sei monogatari) and Flower Personification in Medieval Japanese Art
A talk by Melissa McCormick, Professor of Japanese Art and Culture, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Date: Friday, October 30, 2009
Time: Time: 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
Co-sponsored by the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
From as early as Ovid's representation of the goddess Flora, the personification of flowers by women appears throughout Western art and literature, signifying seasonal regeneration, fertility and reproduction, beauty, and its ephemeral nature. An equally common visual and literary trope in medieval Japan, however, is the flower who materializes in masculine form. "The Spirit of the Chrysanthemum", a sixteenth-century Japanese illustrated narrative scroll, provides the starting point for a consideration of how flower personification structures medieval Japanese illustrated narratives, metaphorically, allegorically, and symbolically.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
Harvard-Yenching Institute Alumni Conference: Multiple Perspectives on the Meaning of Community and Citizenship
Sponsored by Peking University and the Harvard-Yenching Institute
Date: October 31-November 2, 2009
Location: Beijing, China
Conference description:
The conference aims to promote active discussion among scholars from universities and research institutes in East Asia on the topics of citizenship and community. The fast pace of economic and information globalization in the latter half of the 20th century has greatly influenced human development. In China, after 1949, and particularly after reform and an open policy were implemented in 1978, the fast pace of modernization has lead to rapid changes of the social structure. This conference will look at China's social progress and social development from the perspectives of community construction, citizenship, and civilian society. At the same time, the conference will enhance international understanding of China's situation by offering international comparisons. Scholars will further explore the ideas of community and citizenship development and evolution, and discuss contributions to world development and cooperation in the 21st century.
For more information, contact Guan Shijie, guansj@pku.edu.cn
Religion and the Public Good in Modern Chinese Societies
A talk by Robert Weller, Professor and Chair of Anthropology and Research Associate, Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University
Date: Friday, October 23, 2009
Time: Time: 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
While during much of China's twentieth century religion was separated from broader society, the last few years have brought a reversal in all Chinese societies. Based on case studies from China, Malaysia, and Taiwan, this talk examines the new rise of religious philanthropy. It focuses on four core questions: (1) the influence of denomination (with particular attention to local temples, Buddhists, and various forms of Christianity), (2) the role of scale (the effects of large scale institutions vs. local and less institutionalized groups), (3) the power and ability of varying state/society relationships to affect the public role of religion, and (4) the revival of ritual, with its important implications for managing social relations between individuals and groups in a pluralist context.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
Comparative World Literature: China and the United States
A talk by Professor David Damrosch, Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
Date: Friday, October 9, 2009
Time: Time: 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
World literature is often regarded today as a global phenomenon, sometimes even seen as a cultural expression of an emerging "world system." Yet any view of the world is a view from somewhere, and in practical terms, world literature is experienced very differently in different places. It consists first and foremost of the body of material that is available to actual readers: works that are assigned in schools, sold in bookstores, and reviewed and analyzed in a country's journals. In this talk, the speaker would like to explore the shaping of world literature in a national cultural and institutional environment, looking at the United States and then at China. He will argue that the American and Asian cases show reciprocal possibilities and limitations and have much to learn from study of each others' approaches.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
Self-reflection by Mirroring : Understanding the culture of China from Japanese and Korean Literature
A talk by GE Zhaoguang, Fudan University (2009 HYI Coordinate Researcher).
Date: Friday, October 2, 2009
Time: 11:30 am -1:30 pm
Location:Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
Talk will be given in Chinese.
Please feel free to bring your lunch with you; coffee and beverages will be served.
Twenty-First Century Urbanization: Social Science Perspectives on China's Urban Transformation
Sponsored by the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, the Association for Asian Studies and the Harvard-Yenching Institute
Date: Saturday, October 3, 2009
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Meanderings Between Borders--Cultural Transmission and the Production of Knowledge in Contemporary East Asia
Held under the joint administration of the Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature at National Taiwan University and the Harvard-Yenching Institute, with the assistance and backing of Taiwan's Ministry of Education as well as the National Science Council.
Date: Sept. 10-11, 2009
Location: National Taiwan University
Twenty papers will be presented over the course of the conference from scholars in Europe, the United States, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan. Two round table discussions will also be held, the first of which, "Revisiting Formosa," will focus on the issue of East Asian cultural transmission in Taiwanese literature.
The other round table discussion, "Borders, Meanderings, and Interdisciplinary Talks," will be a interdisciplinary forum. During this forum Harvard-Yenching Institute fellows involved in different fields of study will explore questions concerning the transmission of East Asian culture and the production of knowledge in and around East Asia.
For more information, contact Mei Chia-ling, meicl@ntu.edu.tw.
13th Harvard (Biennial) International Symposium on Korean Linguistics
Date: August 8-9, 2009
Location: Science Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Co-sponsored by the Harvard-Yenching Institute
For more information on Harvard-ISOKL, visit http://www.harvard-isokl.org/
Ideas, Networks, Places: Rethinking Chinese History of the Middle Period
Date: July 7-8, 2009
Location: CGIS South, Room S020, Harvard University
Sponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University Asia Center and the Harvard-Yenching Institute
Introduction
Over the past few decades, there have been significant advancements in the scholarship of middle period China (roughly 8th-17th centuries), particularly in the areas of 1) intellectual history, 2) the study of social networks, and 3) local history. Although these approaches have often developed separately and with their own sets of paradigms, connecting them leads to new insights into the patterns of historical change. Professor Peter K. Bol has been a leading figure in the attempt to fuse the historical study of ideas with research on society and culture. On the occasion of Professor Bol's sixtieth birthday this conference aims to bring together these various approaches, delineating how the articulation and promotion of ideas influenced social structures, and how intellectual discourse in turn was shaped by historical and social developments. The papers for the conference not only will deepen our understanding of middle period history through the analysis of rarely used sources such as maps, architectural images, and archeological sources, but also will provide new perspectives on the significance of local dynamics within broader geographical and political configurations and the definition and status of the literati.
Approaches to Chinese Material Culture: an Interdisciplinary Discussion
Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2:30-5:30 pm
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave.
Program agenda
Media in Chinese Politics
Date: Saturday, April 25, 2009, 8:30 am-4 pm
Introduction:
In recent years a growing body of scholarship has emerged that examines the evolving role of media in Chinese politics. While traditionally the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, mass media have periodically performed a watchdog role by exposing governmental misconduct. The rising popularity of new media has also expanded public awareness of environmental problems, health threats, and natural disasters.
The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University and the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies have invited scholars researching media and politics in the People's Republic to present papers at a workshop held at Harvard on 25 April 2009 for publication in a special issue of a refereed journal. Themes of particular interest include the effect of commercialization on media content, propaganda and public opinion, political expression and new media, interaction between new media and traditional media, governmental use of the internet technology, and journalists as actors in political and legal processes.
In addition to advancing scholarship, the workshop aims to increase awareness of the role of media in Chinese politics in the Boston area by hosting a round table discussion open to the public and the press.
For a program agenda and list of participants, please visit http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~fairbank/events/Postdoctoral_Workshops_Ashley.html
East Asian Studies and Science & Technology: Towards Productive Cross-fertilization
Date: Friday, April 24, 2009, 12:00-6:00 PM
Location: Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA
Program agenda
This conference aims to encourage interaction between EAS (East Asian Studies) and Science & Technology Studies, to appreciate the importance of science and technology in understanding the histories of China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, to incorporate the multifaceted perspective of EAS into the analysis of science and technology phenomena in East Asian countries, and to promote the study of science and technology phenomena in East Asia.
Asian Neighborhoods Research Group: "Mobility and Territory" Workshop
Date: April 17-19, 2009
Location: Yenching Common Room
Directed by Prof. Michael Herzfeld (Harvard University),
Workshop
Assistant Chiara Kovarik
Click here for program agenda.
2006-2008 HYI Past Events
