2018-19 LRCCS Event Videos

The program includes two panels and two roundtable discussions that will focus on the contributions of museums, exhibitions, collections and criticism to expand our understanding contemporary Chinese art practice.

Panelists include noted leaders such as Melissa Chiu (Hirshhorn Museum), Daisy Yiyou Wang (Peabody Essex Museum), Vivian Li (Worcester Art Museum), Christopher Phillips (curator and critic), Richard Vine (managing editor of Art-in-America), Anthony Japour (collector and filmmaker), and Charles Jin (collector of 20th-century photography), as well as students, faculty, and scholars from U-M and beyond.

Complete event details, as well as the panel and roundtable schedule and speaker details are here.

Supported by the International Institute, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the U-M Confucius Institute, and the Department of the History of Art.

The studio is an enclosed site specifically used for reading, writing and art creation. During the Song dynasty (960–1279), the studio became a significant cultural space for literati. This talk will analyze the attributes of this cultural space by going beyond the studio, in terms of its relationship with its natural surroundings. In Song literary and pictorial representations, this interplay between the studio and its surrounding scenery is represented as the "mise-en-abyme," through which nature and culture are continuously framed, transformed, and intertwined. 

Yunshuang Zhang is currently a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Wayne State University. She received her Ph.D. in classical Chinese literature and culture from the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA in 2017. She obtained her M.A. and B.A. in Chinese Literature from Peking University, China. Her research interests center on the literature and literati culture during Middle Period China (800–1400). She is now working on her book project, entitled “Porous Privacy: The Literati Studio and Spatiality in Song China.” This project examines the privacy of the studio space and the way by which it works as a medium for the reproduction of literati culture. 

Playwright and Director Stan Lai 賴聲川, Distinguished Visitor, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studie

“…the best Chinese language playwright and director in the world” (BBC)

Stan Lai is one of the most acclaimed playwrights/directors in Asia whose works include over 30 original plays as well feature films and operas.  His theories on creativity are considered groundbreaking in the field and through his invention of bold new genres and innovative staging has sparked new interest for theatre audiences in China.

Among the many legacies of World War I (1914–1918) was the rise of the United States as a cultural superpower as seen in the international race to collect and study Chinese art in the early 20th century. The war disrupted many of the institutions that Europeans had built and the social networks they had cultivated over the previous century. Drawing on sources from across both the Atlantic and the Pacific, this talk shows how American collectors and curators took advantage of openings to make uncontested acquisitions and to launch new scholarly projects. Their successes depended in turn on art dealers in China, who saw and seized their own opportunities to build thriving international businesses in the midst of the Great War. 

Ian Shin is Assistant Professor of History and American Culture at the University of Michigan, where his teaching and research focus on the history of the U.S. in the world and Asian American history between 1850 and 1950. He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled “Imperfect Knowledge: Chinese Art and American Power in the Transpacific Progressive Era,” which examines the geopolitics of Chinese art collecting and scholarship in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. His publications have appeared in the Journal of American-East Asian Relations and the Connecticut History Review. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. 

Marta Hanson is an Associate Professor of the history of East Asian medicine in the Department of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University (2004-present). Her book is titled "Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine: Disease and the Geographic Imagination in Late Imperial China" (Routledge, 2011). She is currently writing a book titled: “‘Heaven and Earth are Within One’s Grasp’ (Qian Kun zaiwo 乾坤在握): The Healer’s Body-as-Technology in Classical Chinese Medicine.” This book uses evidence from the seventh to seventeenth century to illustrate how Chinese healers instrumentalized their bodies as mnemonic aids, time-keeping devices, calculating devices, and medical instruments before instruments became considered to be external to physicians’ bodies, calculators substituted for our brains, and computers became surrogates for our memory in the modern period.

She was senior co-editor of the journal "Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity" for five years (2011-16). She currently is President of the International Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (ISHEASTM, 2015-2019), is on the Advisory Board of the Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung IKGF (International Consortium for Research in the Humanities), project on “Fate, Freedom, and Prognostication,” at Friedrich-Alexander-University (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg (2016-20), and on the Council Member of the American Association of the History of Medicine (AAHM, 2017-19). Her publications are available via academia.edu and other information about her is on her department website.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/martahanson/research/publications.htm

https://www.hopkinshistoryofmedicine.org/content/marta-hanson

Performance and face painting by LI Yang

Featuring David Rolston, Joseph Lam, and Anne Rebull

Visual Spectacle and Vocal Virtuosity - Beijing Opera performer LI Yang specializes in the painted face "jing" role and brought to this residency an appreciation and understanding of the visual aesthetics of the colors on the face together with his unique talents as a specialist in vocal song and declamation.

This talk will examine the current state of US-China relations since the start of the Trump Presidency and the second term of Xi Jinping in China.

Mary E. Gallagher is the Amy and Alan Lowenstein Professor of Democracy, Democratization, and Human Rights Professor at the University of Michigan where she is also the director of the Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. Professor Gallagher received her Ph.D. in politics in 2001 from Princeton University and her B.A. from Smith College in 1991. She was a foreign student in China in 1989 at Nanjing University. She also taught at the Foreign Affairs College in Beijing from 1996-1997. She was a Fulbright Research Scholar from 2003 to 2004 at East China University of Politics and Law in Shanghai, China. In 2012-2013, she was a visiting professor at the Koguan School of Law at Shanghai Jiaotong University. Her most recent book is "Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers and the State," published by Cambridge University Press in 2017. She is also the author or editor of several other books, including "Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China" (Princeton 2005), "Chinese Justice: Civil Dispute Resolution in Contemporary China" (Cambridge 2011), "From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China" (Cornell 2011), and "Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies" (Cambridge 2010).

The "Tārīkh-i Ḥamīdī of Mullah Mūsa Sayrāmī" (1836-1917) is celebrated as a monument of Uyghur literature and the preeminent Muslim history of nineteenth-century Xinjiang (East Turkestan). Sayrāmī's work is also layered, polyvocal text, and one that best recontextualization and rereading through different analytical approaches. This talk will explore the Tārīkh-i Ḥamīdī both in terms of its interaction with other Muslim and Chinese sources and as a colonial, transcultural text that advances insightful observations of Chinese power and new theories about its workings. 

Eric Schluessel as an assistant professor at the University of Montana and current Mellon Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He is the author of several articles, a new textbook for the Chaghatay language, and a forthcoming monograph titled “Land of Strangers: The Civilizing Project in Qing Central Asia.” 

This talk will attempt to bring premodern Chinese song-drama out of the straightjacket of Western terminology, that is, comedy vs. tragedy, opera vs. drama, role type vs. character, music vs. voice, etc. Instead, it will seek to map new ways to think through traditional Chinese theatrical practices (playwrighting, acting, musicking, staging, audience participation, etc.) in an effort to both historicize and globalize the modern scholarly discourse on Chinese theater. 

Patricia Sieber is an Associate Professor of Chinese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Ohio State University, where she teaches courses on premodern Chinese drama and fiction, the history of the book, and translation studies. She is the author of "Theaters of Desire: Authors, Readers, and the Reproduction of Early Chinese Song-Drama, 1300-2000" and is currently the lead editor of "How to Read Chinese Drama." She has given talks in the US, Europe, Russia, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan and her work has appeared in journals, books, and encyclopedias in English, Chinese, and German. 

Although China is a global manufacturing titan, the "made in China" model has begun to wane. Starting in the 2000s, China shifted from attracting foreign investment to promoting domestic firms. This shift led city bureaucrats to compete for funding and tax breaks to benefit their business clients. While bureaucrats in some cities successfully motivated local businesses to upgrade, others deprived businesses of their developmental space. With 18 months of in-depth interviews, original surveys, and quantitative data, Professor Chen argues that this regional variation is rooted in how foreign firms strengthened or weakened vested interest coalitions and the historical patterns of local capitalism. She advances a new theory to explain the implementation of economic policies in China and other emerging economies that comprise the new "globalized" generation. 

Ling Chen is Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Previously, she was a Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University and Rajawali Fellow at the Ash Center of the Harvard Kennedy School. Her research interests lie in comparative politics and political economy, especially the political origins of economic policies and government-business relations in China. Her works have appeared in multiple peer-reviewed journals. She is the author of "Manipulating Globalization: The Influence of Bureaucrats on Business in China" (Stanford University Press, 2018). Chen was recognized as the Diversity Scholar by the University of Michigan. Her research has received support from institutions such as the Social Science Research Council, Andrew Mellon Foundation, Institute for Humane Studies and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. 

Full conference details are avaiable here.

Martin J. Powers, Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan has always been a towering beacon in the field, trailblazing fresh methodologies and breaking down academic stereotypes on Chinese culture. In celebration of his well-deserved retirement from teaching, Prof. Powers’ graduate advisees and colleagues from around the world will convene an international conference on Chinese art and history on November 9 and 10, 2018 at the University of Michigan. This academic gathering will reflect upon ways the field of sinology has changed over the course of Prof. Powers’ long academic career and the new directions it is developing, or should develop, in the future.

Jennifer Lin, Former Beijing Correspondent, "The Philadelphia Inquirer"

A former Beijing correspondent for "The Philadelphia Inquirer," Jennifer Lin chronicles 150 years of family history in "Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian Family" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), described by author Orville Schell as “a beautifully written elegy.” The book includes a compelling cast: the first convert who went to work for missionaries as a cook; a doctor who treated opium addicts; a Penn-educated Anglican pastor; and the influential independent religious leader Watchman Nee, vilified after 1949 as a “counterrevolutionary.” Lin will discuss how her family story personifies the evolution of Christianity from a Chinese perspective, as well as how she used journalistic tools to construct a multi-generational narrative.

Jennifer Lin worked for "The Philadelphia Inquirer" for 31 years, including postings as a financial correspondent in New York; a national reporter in the Washington bureau of Knight Ridder Newspapers; and the Asia correspondent for "The Inquirer" and the 30-paper Knight Ridder chain. Lin left daily journalism in 2014 to complete her family memoir, and to start work on a documentary, “Beethoven in Beijing,” which captures the flourishing of classical music in China through the history and ongoing engagement of the Philadelphia Orchestra. A graduate of Duquesne University, Lin lives in Doylestown, Pa. with her husband, Bill Stieg, a Wolverine and former sports editor of "The Michigan Daily." 

William Overholt, Senior Research Fellow, Harvard University

China’s success has made its economy and polity so complex that continued success requires transformation. China is struggling with the needed transition. Western views of this process are frequently both strong and wrong.

William Overholt has been Senior Research Fellow at Harvard since 2008. From 2013-2015 he was also President of the Fung Global Institute in Hong Kong. From 2002-2008 he was Distinguished Chair and Director of the RAND Corporation’s Center for Asia Pacific Policy. He served as Asia regional Head of Strategy and Economics for Nomura from 1998 to 2001. Before that, he was Managing Director and regional Head of Research at Bank Boston Singapore. During 18 years at Bankers Trust, he managed a country risk team in New York from 1980 to 1984 and then served as regional strategist in Hong Kong. At Hudson Institute, 1971-1979, he directed planning studies for the U.S. Department of State, National Security Council, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Council on International Economic Policy. 

Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series

Internationally renowned artist and film director Xu Bing is one of the most well-known contemporary artists in China, recognized for his representations of artistic sophistication, political conscience, and far-reaching imagination. His artworks have been exhibited at many prestigious venues, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan. He has been included in the Venice Biennale three times and honored with a MacArthur Fellowship, a lifetime achievement award from the Southern Graphics Council, the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize, the Wales International Visual Art Prize, and a US Department of State Medal of Arts. For this special Speaker Series event, Xu will talk about his signature works and his new film, Dragonfly Eyes (2017).

Jeff Snyder-Reinke, Professor of Chinese History, The College of Idaho

In the nineteenth century, foreigners in China wrote prolifically about so-called "baby towers"—structures that were erected outside cities to house the remains of dead children. In the minds of many foreigners, baby towers came to embody both a peculiar rendering of Chinese death practices, as well as a growing animus toward certain aspects of Chinese social life. This talk will attempt to contextualize these structures, by describing and mapping the history of campaigns to bury children in the late imperial period.

Jeff Snyder-Reinke is a professor of Chinese history at The College of Idaho. He earned his PhD in modern Chinese history from the University of Michigan in 2006. He conducted dissertation research at the Institute for Qing History in Beijing while on a Fulbright fellowship. Out of this research came his first book, "Dry Spells: State Rainmaking and Local Governance in Late Imperial China," which was published by the Harvard University Asia Center in 2009. He is currently working on a book-length study of infant burial in the Qing dynasty. In what little spare time he has, he serves as the CEO of a company that manufactures fruit tea. 

A Panel Discussion in Honor of Professor Michel Oksenberg (1938-2001)

This panel discussion honors the legacy of Professor Michel Oksenberg, who taught at the University of Michigan from 1973 to 1991, and served as a key member of the National Security Council when the US normalized relations with China. He consistently urged that the United States engage with Asia in a more deliberate manner. The panel discussion will focus on the broader picture of economic development in China, especially rural China.

The panel discussion also marks the publication of a new volume by Stanford University Press on one of the key research sites of Professor Oksenberg, Zouping County. Two of the panelists, Professors Steven M. Goldstein and Jean Oi, edited this new volume, "Zouping Revisited: Adaptive Governance in a Chinese County."