Speaker: Sukhee Lee, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University

Title: "Cracking Administrative Documents in Classical Chinese: 'Adjudicating Lawsuits (聽訟)' in Hu Taichu's 胡太初 Pulling Down the Screen During the Daytime (晝簾緖論)"

About Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium
The group meets monthly during the semester to explore a variety of classical Chinese texts and styles. Other premodern texts linked to classical Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese have also been explored. Presentations include works from the earliest times to the 20th century. Workshop sessions are led by local, national, and international scholars. Participants with any level of classical Chinese experience are welcome to attend.
o At each session, a presenter guides the group in a reading of a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation.
o No preparation is required; all texts will be distributed at the meeting.
o Refreshments will be served.

Take your learning to the next level with minors from the Einaudi Center for International Studies and our programs. In this session, you'll learn about three international minors that can help you expand your global knowledge. View a full list of minors.

European Studies
Explore Europe’s past, present, and future and demonstrate a knowledge of European languages, culture, politics, and international relations.

International Relations
Study global governance, politics, economics, history, languages, and cultures across national boundaries.

Migration Studies
Learn about how human migration and migrant experiences shape our world on the move.

Can’t attend? Contact programs@einaudi.cornell.edu to learn more.

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The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.

Speaker: Jeffrey Niedermaier, Brown University

Title: "Intimacies of the Guestless Guesthouse: Diplomacy with the Departed in Post-Parhae Japan."

About Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium
The group meets monthly during the semester to explore a variety of classical Chinese texts and styles. Other premodern texts linked to classical Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese have also been explored. Presentations include works from the earliest times to the 20th century. Workshop sessions are led by local, national, and international scholars. Participants with any level of classical Chinese experience are welcome to attend.
o At each session, a presenter guides the group in a reading of a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation.
o No preparation is required; all texts will be distributed at the meeting.
o Refreshments will be served.

Speaker: Ting Hui Lau, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Singapore

Title: Decolonial Endurance: Indigenous Wellbeing Against Chinese Settler Colonialism

Abstract: Like many countries in Asia, China does not recognize the existence of Indigenous peoples within its borders, insisting instead on the category of ethnic minority. This denial of Indigeneity forecloses discussions of Chinese colonialism, with long-term implications for Indigenous health and wellbeing. Drawing on my new book, Decolonial Endurance: Lisu World-Making Against Chinese Settler Colonialism (Stanford University Press, 2026), I argue that Indigenous health is inextricably linked to decolonization: the return and repair of Indigenous relations to land, language, livelihood, and self-determination. I focus on Indigenous Lisu subsistence farmers on the China-Myanmar border and their experiences of Chinese development. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, I show how Lisu health challenges are connected to their experiences of Chinese colonialism, carried out today in the form of state-led development. At the same time, moving beyond discourses of Indigenous victimhood, I trace Lisu practices of everyday decolonization. Through storytelling, care, play, and prayer, Lisu enact forms of decolonial worldmaking that enable them to endure colonial erasure by sustaining relationships with land, refusing assimilation, and imagining alternative futures. These practices, too, are critical to health. The refusal to recognize Indigeneity, and the collapsing of Indigenous struggles into class-based or regional problems, obscures a major dimension of Indigenous health. Public health interventions must therefore attend not only to access to health services, but also to the political conditions of Indigenous wellbeing: decolonization, cultural revitalization, and Indigenous resurgence.

Speaker's bio:

Assistant Professor Lau Ting Hui is a sociocultural anthropologist in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in the National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on mental health, development, and Indigeneity in Asia.