public talk
Now one of Asia's best-known financiers, Weijian Shan was born and raised in Beijing and witness to Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution and one of the most tumultuous eras in China's history. Exiled to the Gobi Desert at age 15 and denied schooling for 10 years, he endured untold hardships without ever giving up his dream for an education. Shan's improbable journey, from the Gobi to the "People's Republic of Berkeley" and far beyond, is a uniquely American success story.
The USC U.S.-China Institute presents a book talk with journalist and author Matt Sheehan. His new book chronicles the deep and interdependent socioeconomic exchanges between China and California.
Please join us for a panel discussion on how the current trade conflict between the United States and China affects Washington State and how things will evolve and what are the likely outcomes. What will the impact be on Washington State in 36 months?
As the two largest economies globally, the state of affairs between the United States and China is arguably the most crucial bilateral relationship in our world today. In Prof. Lawrence J. Lau’s book, “The China-US Trade War and Future Economic Relations,” he provides a brilliant analysis on the economic impacts of the 2018 trade war between China and the U.S. The long-term forces that underlie the economic relationship between the two countries beyond this ongoing trade war are examined in detail. His research offers hope that balancing trade between the two superpowers and strengthening their economic interdependence is both possible and mutually beneficial. In this luncheon dialogue moderated by Mr. Ronnie C. Chan, Prof. Lau will share his deep insights on China-U.S. economic collaboration and trade competition.
Artist Xiaoze Xie talks about the inspiration behind his most recent body of work included in Xiaoze Xie: Objects of Evidence with the exhibition curator Michelle Yun, Asia Society Museum Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.
The exhibition Xiaoze Xie: Objects of Evidence opens to the public on September 10, 2019.
Books have the power to galvanize. As repositories of memory, history, and ideology, books have inspired social revolutions and been banned by regimes threatened by their contents. Born on the cusp of the Cultural Revolution, Xiaoze Xie has experienced the profound power of books firsthand. “Xiaoze Xie: Objects of Evidence” explores the subjectivity of censorship in relation to the shifting nature of sociopolitical and religious ideologies. Through painting, installation, photography, and video, the artist traces the history of banned books in China, providing a means to chart changes in cultural standards and their influence on shaping modern Chinese society.
Xiaoze Xie will discuss his research into the history of censorship in China that inspired the current exhibition Xiaoze Xie: Objects of Evidence. The artist will be joined by noted experts on the subject of censorship in a panel led by Michelle Yun, Asia Society Museum Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. The program is organized in conjunction with Banned Books Week.
The USC U.S.-China Institutes presents a book talk with Klaus Mühlhahn. Making China Modern provides a panoramic survey of China's rise and resilience through war and rebellion, disease and famine. At this event Professor Mühlhahn will focus on the lessons from history that provide insight into China's evolving international position and how the United States and others should respond.
Many commentators claim that China's ongoing global rise reflects a restoration of its earlier international prominence, while others highlight that China's emergence reflects distinctive characteristics of the country's current political leadership. In his new book, Making China Modern, Klaus Mühlhahn of the Free University of Berlin provides a panoramic survey of China's rise and resilience through war and rebellion, disease and famine.
Is the process of state building a unilateral, national venture, or is it something more collaborative, taking place in the interstices between adjoining countries? To answer this question, this book takes a comparative look at the state building process along China, Myanmar, and Thailand's common borderland area. It shows that the variations in state building among these neighboring countries are the result of an interactive process that occurs across national boundaries. Departing from existing approaches that look at such processes from the angle of singular, bounded territorial states, the book argues that a more fruitful method is to examine how state and nation building in one country can influence, and be influenced by, the same processes across borders. It argues that the success or failure of one country's state building is a process that extends beyond domestic factors such as war preparation, political institutions, and geographic and demographic variables. Rather, it shows that we should conceptualize state building as an interactive process heavily influenced by a "neighborhood effect." Furthermore, the book moves beyond the academic boundaries that divide arbitrarily China studies and Southeast Asian studies by providing an analysis that ties the state and nation building processes in China with those of Southeast Asia.
Rosemary Foot
St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, UK
International Relations Series
Rosemary Foot was elected to an Emeritus Fellowship of St Antony's College in October 2014. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Department of Politics and International Relations and a Research Associate at the Oxford China Centre.In 1996, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.