The current generational cohort of Chinese retirees have gotten a tough bargain in many ways. Because the one-child policy created an upside-down population pyramid, the customary practice of aging at home under the care of an adult child is becoming increasingly untenable. At the same time, the social welfare programs that the government promised in exchange for their reproductive sacrifices never materialized, leaving retirees to plan for old age on their own. Many older adults have respond...| fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
Rowan Flad lectures at the conference “Sanxingdui in Bronze Age Eurasia: Retrospect and Prospects after 90 Years” at Sichuan University in Chengdu, Sichuan. December 2024. The work done by archaeologists […]| Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
If you’ve ever strolled through a public square in a Chinese city, chances are you’ve encountered the vibrant, music-filled gatherings of the so-called “dancing grannies” (广场舞大妈). But what lies behind the synchronized steps and upbeat music? In her new book, Dancing for Their Lives: The Pursuit of Meaningful Aging in Urban China (Rutgers University Press, 2025), Claudia Huang, Assistant Professor of Human Development at California State University, takes us beyond the spec...| Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
Blog Post| fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
Fairbank Center experts weigh in: Ya-Wen Lei, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University; Rana Mitter, S.T. Lee Professor of U.S.-Asia Relations, Harvard University; Chia-hung Tsai, Research Fellow, Election Study Center and Professor, Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies, National Chengchi University; Shane Hsuan-Yu Lin, Assistant Professor, Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS); Kevin Luo, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota, Twin C...| Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
“‘Grand Unity,’ Qing Political Legitimacy, and the Chinese ‘Geo-body'”《略談「大一統」、清代正統和中國的「地緣機體」》 “‘Great Unity’ of What, Exactly?“《「大一統」，從何而起？》 “China’s Global Civilization Initiative: What Would Levenson Say?“《通過列文森看中國的全球文明倡議》 “The Greater Unity, or a Frog in a […]| Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
A Conversation between Hang Tu (National University of Singapore) and David Der-wei Wang (Harvard University). Hang Tu (Ph.D. ’21), Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore, recently joined […]| Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
This piece was originally published on the Harvard Film Archive‘s website. The HFA has upcoming screenings of each film in Wang Bing’s Youth trilogy: Youth (Homecoming) (April 25), Youth (Hard […]| Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
Ellen Widmer has been a Center Associate at the Fairbank Center since 1981 and a driving force behind the Center’s Gender Studies Workshop since 1999. This year’s workshop, The Beauty and the Book: Women, Knowledge, Literature, and Book Culture in Late Imperial China and Beyond—co-sponsored by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, Wellesley College, the Harvard University Asia Center, and the Fairbank Center—will take place on Friday, April 25. In June,...| Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
A Conversation with Robert Ashmore about the poetry of Li He.| Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
Steven M. Goldstein, longtime Associate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Director of the Taiwan Studies Workshop, died on Monday, February 10, 2025, at age 84. | Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
A Q+A with Anthropologist Philipp Demgenski| Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies