The Annual Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture welcomes Tim Brook, History, University of British Columbia. He will speak on Government for the People: Troubling Legacies of the Confucian Statecraft Tradition .

Americans are familiar with Lincoln’s “of the people, by the people, for the people,” while Chinese citizens 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. On the Chinese tradition of government for the people, no-one writes more clearly than Qiu Jun (1421-1495), chancellor of the National Academy and compiler of the authoritative handbook of state administration. Caught between the models of Great State ambition and Confucian self-cultivation, Qiu put Confucian philosophy to work so that the state acted for the people—but not of them or by them. If he deserves our notice, it is because even today his vision shapes Chinese perceptions of good government in ways that surprise and trouble.

Cornell University Faculty hosts: TJ Hinrichs, History, and Suyoung Son, Asian Studies

Co-sponsored with the East Asia Program and the Department of History

Timothy Brook is a historian of China whose work has focused on the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) but extends to issues that span the period from the Mongol occupation of China in the 13th century to the Japanese occupation of China in the 20th. In addition to serving as the general editor of Harvard University Press’ History of Imperial China, he has published extensively on China in the world. A co-edited volume on the inter-polity relations of Inner and East Asia, Sacred Mandates: Asian International Relations since Chinggis Khan, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2018. His most recent book, Great State: China and the World, appeared in Britain and France (the French edition under the title of Le Léopard de Kubilai Khan) in September 2019 and on this side of the Atlantic by HarperCollins in March 2020. The French edition was awarded the Grand Prix des Rendez-vous de l’Histoire in October 2020.

Yoshiko Okuyama, a professor of Japanese studies at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, 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. Focusing on the book’s chapter on the deaf community in Japan, she will discuss their representation in manga using comic examples such as A Silent Voice (Koe no katachi) while sharing manga images and anecdotes she did not include in her book. She will conclude with a discussion of emerging issues as the pandemic continues to impact disability communities in Japan.

This event will have RID/NIC certified ASL interpreters throughout and is EAP's first fully bi-lingual English-ASL event.

Co-sponsored by the East Asia+ Collaborative.

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.

Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium 古文品讀

The Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium (CCCC) 古文品讀 is a reading group for scholars interested in premodern Sinographic (古文) text. The group typically 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 been explored. Presentations include works from the earliest times to the 20th century. Workshop sessions are lead by local, national, and international scholars.

All are welcome, with any level of experience with classical Chinese.

At each session, a participant presents a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation.

No preparation is required, all texts will be distributed at the meeting.Contact eap-guwen@cornell.edu for more information.
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In 1821, as insurgent forces battled Spanish royalists in what would become the last throes of the Wars of Independence in the northern Andes, representatives of the newly constituted republic of Gran Colombia (present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama) passed a gradual emancipation law to address the problem of slavery. At the center of this law was a Free Womb law that declared legally free the children of enslaved women born after the law's promulgation while bonding these children to their mothers' masters until the age of eighteen. This presentation explores the emergence of Colombia's gradual emancipation law, in addition to the violent financial lives of Free Womb children in the autonomous rainforests and gold mines of the Colombian Black Pacific. Although gradual emancipation was ostensibly designed to destroy slavery, Barragan shows how slaveholders in Colombia came to have even greater stake in it.

In recent years China has emerged as a leading economic power and is expanding its military capability in both conventional and nuclear forces. How should the United States respond to these changes? Our three panelists will discuss the impact of advances in cyber technology, the implications of the new Chinese ICBM sites, and the overall context in which these and other security issues should be viewed.

Speakers

Danny Stoian, Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State and Visiting Fellow with the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Cornell University

Herb Lin, Senior Research Scholar for cyber policy and security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and Hank J. Holland Fellow in Cyber Policy and Security at the Hoover Institution, both at Stanford University

Gregory Kulacki, Senior Analyst and China Project Manager for the Global Security Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists

Moderator

Judith Reppy, Professor Emerita in science & technology studies (STS) and Acting Director, Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies

Shelley Rigger, Professor, Davidson University

Is China Part of Taiwan?

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.

In the Cornell Contemporary China Initiative’s (CCCI) seventh year, our guest speakers and host Allen Carlson critically examine, the question “What is China?”

This topic is explored in the series through utilizing an inter-disciplinary perspective and making use of both historical and contemporary lenses thereby touching upon some of the most pressing and significant political and social issues now facing “China” and the rest of the world. In this context particular attention will be paid to contested places, with special consideration of how they are placed within (or without) what is considered to be China. In so doing it will shed light on the impact such practices and processes have had on those living in these regions.

Hosted by Allen Carlson, Director of CAPS and Michael J. Zak Chair, Cornell University | Director of CCCI for Fall 2021

Cosponsored by the East Asia Program and The Levinson China and Asia-Pacific Studies (CAPS) Program.

The lecture series complements Professor Carlson’s course of the same name:

CAPS 3967 / ASIAN 3395 / GOVT 3967

James Millward, Professor of Inter-societal History, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Decolonizing Chinese Historiography—with special attention to Xinjiang

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.

In the Cornell Contemporary China Initiative’s seventh year, our guest speakers and host Allen Carlson critically examine the question “What is China?”

This topic is explored in the series through utilizing an inter-disciplinary perspective and making use of both historical and contemporary lenses. In so doing it will touch upon some of the most pressing and significant political and social issues now facing “China” and the rest of the world. In this context particular attention will be paid to contested places, with special consideration of how they are placed within (or without) what is considered to be China. And will shed light on the impact such practices and processes have had on those living in these regions.

Hosted by Allen Carlson, CCCI and CAPS Director, and Michael J. Zak, Chair, Cornell University

Cosponsored by the East Asia Program and The Levinson China and Asia-Pacific Studies (CAPS) Program.

The lecture series complements Professor Carlson’s course of the same name:

CAPS 3967 / ASIAN 3395 / GOVT 3967

At the Edge of China—life in a Tibetan town is the focus of this talk by our guest speaker Barbara Demick, journalist, and author (Eat the Buddha, Penguin Random House, 2021). Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party has exhibited zero tolerance for any slippage at the edges of the empire. The mass incarceration of the Muslim population of Xinjiang and the rollback of Hong Kong’s autonomy have grabbed the most attention. Tibet is experiencing the same erosion of its identity, even if the Party is proceeding more carefully.

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.

In the Cornell Contemporary China Initiative’s seventh year, our guest speakers and host Allen Carlson critically examine, the question “What is China?”

This topic is explored in the series through utilizing an inter-disciplinary perspective and making use of both historical and contemporary lenses. In so doing it will touch upon some of the most pressing and significant political and social issues now facing “China” and the rest of the world. In this context, particular attention will be paid to contested places, with special consideration of how they are placed within (or without) what is considered to be China. And will shed light on the impact such practices and processes have had on those living in these regions.

Hosted by Allen Carlson, CAPS Director, and Michael J. Zak, Chair, Cornell University | CCCI Director for Fall 2021

Cosponsored by the East Asia Program and The Levinson China and Asia-Pacific Studies (CAPS) Program.

The lecture series complements Professor Carlson’s course of the same name:

CAPS 3967 / ASIAN 3395 / GOVT 3967

The Issues in African Development Seminar Series examines critical development issues in contemporary Africa using a different theme each semester. The seminars provide a forum for participants to explore alternative perspectives and exchange ideas and serves as a forum for students and faculty interested in African development. In addition, it will prepare students for higher level courses on African economic, social and political development.

This program is designed for students who are interested in African development, Africa’s place in global studies as well as those who want to know about the African people, cultures and societies. and explore development theories with their alternative viewpoints. Presentations will offer multidisciplinary and critical perspectives addressing a series of questions related to obstacles and enabling factors of growth and development in Africa.

On the 25th of April 2015, during the Gorkha Earthquake, a massive glacier-rock avalanche destroyed the village of Langtang, killing over 300 people and causing unthinkable destruction and loss. My work examines the afterlives of this unthinkable event and the ways in which the people of Langtang have worked to rebuild and revitalize their communities, drawing from over five years of ethnographic research and post-disaster volunteer work, as well as my own firsthand experience of this tragedy. In this lecture, based on a chapter of my forthcoming dissertation, I analyze the ways in which the April 2015 disaster articulates with diverse ways of knowing and living with avalanches in the Langtang Valley, as the people of Langtang and climate scientist work to anticipate increasingly volatile hazard regimes and reckon uncertain climate futures.

The Langtang Valley is one of the most important sites for glaciological and climatological research in the Himalayan region – though relations and dialogue between scientific teams and the Langtang community were both uneven and limited prior to the 2015 disaster. In what ways have these situated patterns of knowledge production changed in the wake of the 2015 event, and in relation to disaster recovery and disaster risk reduction efforts? How do attempts to know cryosphere hazards and climate futures in Langtang draw together concerns about climate justice, epistemological pluralism, political ontology, and moral ecologies in the Himalayan region (cf. Sherpa 2014; Butcher 2017; Gagne 2018)? In what ways do differently positioned Langtangpas experience and conceptualize these vital uncertainties?

Austin Lord is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell. Austin's dissertation research, titled “Inhabiting Impermanence: Disaster, Afterlives, and Vital Uncertainties in the Nepal Himalaya” focuses on the ways the people of Nepal’s Langtang Valley organize time, meaning, and uncertainty as they navigate intersecting disasters – a massive glacier avalanche, an earthquake, a pandemic, and climate change. This work is based on over five years of ethnographic research and volunteer work with Langtang communities. His broader research agenda focuses on post-disaster recovery and disaster risk reduction, hydropower development and water resource management, infrastructural politics, and the making of environmental knowledges in the Himalayan region. His scholarship has been published in journals and forums such Economic Anthropology; Cultural Anthropology; Political Geography; WIREs Water; Modern Asian Studies; Environment and Planning D: Society and Space; Himalaya: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies; Eurasian Geography and Economics; The Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW), and Limn, as well as a handful of edited volumes. For more information and links to his academic work see here.