Please register in advance for each lecture through the linked titles below. All times are ET.
(Update: Click on the titles below to watch the event video recording (if available)).

At the Edge of China—life in a Tibetan town

Barbara Demick, author, journalist

September 27 at 4:45 p.m.*

Barbara Demick looks at life in Ngaba (Aba in Chinese), a small Tibetan county, which became the engine of Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule with a wave of self-immolations that started in 2009. Ngaba is the subject of Demick’s newest book, Eat the Buddha, which was listed among the best non-fiction of 2020 by the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Economist, and NPR, among others. 

Decolonizing Chinese Historiography—with special attention to Xinjiang

James Millward, Georgetown University

October 25 at 4:45 p.m.

This talk focuses on the use of history, and, more broadly, examines how common concepts and vocabulary used by nearly all China scholars teaching and writing in English not only mischaracterize the past of states and peoples on the East Asian mainland, but reinforce PRC justifications for its colonialism, now egregiously oppressive and verging on genocidal. The problematic terminology we all use includes the idea of "dynasties," "borderlands," "minorities," and even, as it is often employed, the word "China" itself.

Hong Kong: Global China’s Restive Frontier 

CK Lee, UCLA

November 8 at 4:45 p.m.

How did Hong Kong transform itself from a “shoppers’ and capitalists’ paradise” into a “city of protests” at the frontline of an anti-China global backlash? More than an ideological conflict between a liberal capitalist democratizing city and its Communist authoritarian sovereign, the Hong Kong story, stunning and singular in its many peculiarities, also offers general lessons about a global force and its uneven consequences.

Is China Part of Taiwan?

Shelley Rigger, Davidson University

November 15 at 4:45 p.m.

There is a long-standing debate over whether Taiwan is part of China. Beijing insists that not only is Taiwan part of China, it is part of the People’s Republic of China. Most Taiwanese reject the idea that the island they live on is part of the PRC, and they would prefer to remain outside the PRC state’s jurisdiction. But when it comes to China – the abstract, cultural, historical idea of China – the situation is more interesting. While some Taiwanese embrace an identity that relegates Chineseness to a minor role (or even dismiss it altogether), most of Taiwan’s 24 million people recognize a cultural and historical attachment to China. Where the two sides differ is over the meaning of that attachment for contemporary political arrangements. Few Taiwanese are swayed by the historical determinism and cultural essentialism that underlie the PRC’s case for “unification.” Rather, they believe that political identity and citizenship should follow the will of the people, not the dictates of history.

Fall 2021 EAP Event Schedule

All times are ET.

CCCI is the Cornell Contemporary China Initiative | CCCC is the Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium

Film screening: The Goddess Cornell Cinema co-sponsored by EAP with live multi-instrumentalist/singer Min Xiao-Fen

Thursday, September 23 at 7:00 p.m.

CCCI: Barbara Demick, journalist| At the Edge of China—life in a Tibetan town 

Monday, September 27 at 4:45 p.m.

Barbara Demick looks at life in Ngaba (Aba in Chinese), a small Tibetan county, which became the engine of Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule with a wave of self-immolations that started in 2009. Ngaba is the subject of Demick’s newest book, Eat the Buddha, which was listed among the best non-fiction of 2020 by the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Economist, and NPR, among others. 

CCCC 古文品讀: Joseph Dennis, University of Wisconsin

Friday, October 1 at 3:30 p.m.

The Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium welcomes Joe Dennis, University of Wisconsin.  His text reading is: Songs to Encourage the Cessation of Litigation (Xisong ge 息訟歌) in Ming and Qing.

Yoshiko Okuyama, University of Hawaii, Hilo | Reframing Disability: Manga’s Portrayals of Deaf Characters

Monday, October 18 at 4:45 p.m.

Yoshiko Okuyama will discuss Reframing Disability in Manga (University of Hawaii Press 2020), which she wrote after interviewing manga artists, conducting archival research, and visiting events and organizations serving disability communities in Japan as a Japan Foundation fellow.

CEAS Book talk with author Glynne Walley | Eight Dogs, or Hakkenden: Part One—An Ill-Considered Jest

Wednesday, October 20 at 1:30 p.m.

CEAS welcomes author Glynne Walley to talk about his book Eight Dogs, or Hakkenden: Part One—An Ill-Considered Jest, a translation of Kyokutei Bakin's Nansō Satomi hakkenden. This multigenerational samurai saga was one of the most popular and influential Japanese books of the nineteenth century and has been adapted many times into film, television, fiction, and comics. Part One tells the story of Princess Fuse of the Satomi clan, whose tragic and heroic sacrifice leads to the creation of the Eight Dog Warriors.

CCCI: James Millward, Georgetown University | Decolonizing Chinese Historiography—with special attention to Xinjiang 

Monday, October 25 at 4:45 p.m.

This talk focuses on that use of history, and, more broadly, examines how common concepts and vocabulary used by nearly all China scholars teaching and writing in English not only mischaracterize the past of states and peoples on the East Asian mainland but reinforce PRC justifications for its colonialism, now egregiously oppressive and verging on genocidal. 

The Annual Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture with Tim Brook, University of British Columbia | Government for the People: Troubling Legacies of the Confucian Statecraft Tradition

Thursday, October 28 at 4:45 p.m.

Americans are familiar with Lincoln’s “of the people, by the people, for the people,” just as the Chinese are familiar with Sun Yatsen’s “three principles of the people.” They are parallel discourses of government, but rise from different traditions and anticipate different outcomes both surprising and concerning.
 

CCCC 古文品讀: Tim Brook | Qiu Jun's "Daxue yanyi bu" (大學衍義補)

Friday, October 29 at 3:30 p.m.

Info Session: EAP Student Funding

Monday, November 1 at 1:00 p.m.

EAP offers substantial funding resources for multi-disciplinary student research and language learning. Come to this session to learn about them and bring your questions! Students who have received funding and grants from EAP will be present along with staff who will offer suggestions for submitting strong proposals.

Counting Dreams: The Life and Writings of the Loyalist Nun Nomura Bōtō author talk with Roger Thomas | CEAS (Cornell East Asia Series publication)

Wednesday, November 3 at 1:30 p.m. 

Counting Dreams tells the story of Nomura Bōtō, a Buddhist nun, writer, poet, and activist who joined the movement to oppose the Tokugawa Shogunate and restore imperial rule. Banished for her political activities, Bōtō was imprisoned on a remote island until her comrades rescued her in a dramatic jailbreak, spiriting her away under gunfire.

Legitimizing the State: China 1300 to the present | Roundtable with Tim Brook, U. of B.C., David Robinson, Colgate University, Jenny Day, Skidmore College, and Mara Yue Du, Cornell University

Friday, November 5 at 1:30 p.m.

This round-table includes Prof. Tim Brook of the University of British Columbia, Professor David Robinson of Colgate University, Professor Jenny Day of Skidmore College, and Mara Yue Du of Cornell University. Panelists will discuss the evolving meaning of "China" and how the self-legitimating state in China interacted with changing domestic and global conditions from the Mongol period to the present.

CCCI: CK Lee, UCLA | Hong Kong: Global China’s Restive Frontier

Monday, November 8 at 4:45 p.m. 

How did Hong Kong transform itself from a “shoppers’ and capitalists’ paradise” into a “city of protests” at the frontline of an anti-China global backlash? To unravel this Hong Kong puzzle, this talk situates the China-Hong Kong contestation in the post-1997 era in the broader context of “global China,” conceptualized as a double movement.

Rough Work: Whose America? Our America! - Ayukawa nobuo and the (Lost) Origin of Postwar Japanese Poetry

Wednesday, November 10 at 12:00 p.m.

Yoshiaki Mihara, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan

This Rough Work session examines post-WWII Japanese poetry of the Arechi-ha, "The Waste Land School" of poetry which was heavily influenced by T.S. Eliot and his contemporary Modernist poets in post-WWI Europe.

CCCC 古文品讀: He Bian, Princeton University

Friday, November 12 at 3:30 p.m.

CCCI: Shelly Rigger, Davidson University | Is China Part of Taiwan?

Monday, November 15 at 4:45 p.m.

There is a long-standing debate over whether Taiwan is part of China. Beijing insists that not only is Taiwan part of China, it is part of the People’s Republic of China. Most Taiwanese reject the idea that the island they live on is part of the PRC, and they would prefer to remain outside the PRC state’s jurisdiction. But when it comes to China – the abstract, cultural, historical idea of China – the situation is more interesting.

ROUGH WORK: Zifeng Liu, Ph.D. candidate, Diverse Knowledge East Asia Fellow | Translating Black Left Feminism: Shirley Graham Du Bois and Mao's China

Wednesday, November 17 at noon-1:30 p.m.

This presentation examines Shirley Graham Du Bois’s engagement with China in the long 1960s. It explores how she cautiously navigated the rapids of the unfolding Sino-Soviet split and sought to manipulate antagonistic geopolitical forces to aid global decolonial efforts.

Yunxiang Gao, Ryerson University Arise! Ye Who Refuse to be Bond Slaves: Paul Robeson, "The Black King of Songs, " and China 

Wednesday, December 1 at noon-1:30 p.m.

This lecture is adapted from a chapter in Gao Yunxiang’s new book Arise, Africa! Roar, China! Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century (UNC Press, December 2021). In this lecture, Gao unpacks the dynamic yet scarcely noted relations between Paul Robeson (1898-1976), the world-famous African American singer, actor, athlete, lawyer, and political activist, and China throughout most of the twentieth century.

CCCC 古文品讀: Nathan Vedal, University of Toronto |Fan Zongshi's "Jiang shouju yuanchi ji" and the Reception of an Impossible Text 

Friday, December 3 at 3:30 p.m.