Conference to celebrate Fairbank Center’s 50th anniversary

The Fairbank Center for East Asian Research will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a three-day conference at the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS), South Building (1730 Cambridge St.), Dec. 9-11. The conference, titled “Studying Modern China: Past, Present, and Future,” will feature distinguished scholars from Harvard and other institutions in academic panels and roundtable discussions on topics ranging from the evolution of the field of Chinese studies, to China’s economy, literature, and philosophy.

The conference will kick off Friday (Dec. 9) at 1:30 p.m. in the Tsai Lecure Room SO10 of CGIS. Roderick MacFarquhar, director of the Fairbank Center, will deliver the introduction, followed by talks on “Modern Chinese Studies from an Historical Perspective” with Jonathan Spence of Yale University; Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and of East Asian Languages and Civilizations Philip Kuhn, Harvard; and Paul Cohen, Wellesley College. A roundtable discussion covering “The Future and Funding of Modern Chinese Studies” will follow.

Some featured panels on Saturday (Dec. 10) include “Chinese Domestic Politics” and “Contemporary Chinese Society.” The conference will conclude with two panels on Sunday (Dec. 11): “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature” and “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Philosophy.”

The Dec. 9 session will be followed by a reception on the concourse of the South Building. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call the Fairbank Center at (617) 495-4046, or visit http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~fairbank.