Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

The chop of the Fairbank Center is its institutional logo. (Chinese :哈佛大學費正清中國研究中心; pinyin :Hāfó dàxué Fèi Zhèngqīng zhōngguó yánjiū zhōngxīn; lit.'Harvard University Fairbank China Research Center')

The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University is a post-graduate research center promoting the study of modern and contemporary China from a social science perspective. The center hosts and organizes academic activities, provides research funds for faculty and students, and helps policy-makers and news media to understand modern China. ^[1] The center sponsors the Edwin O. Reischauer Lectures.

History

The center was established in 1955 as the Center for East Asian Research, and on the retirement of its founding director, John K. Fairbank, was renamed the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research. From its beginnings in 1955, its focus was on modern and contemporary China, diverging from classic sinology, which emphasized the study of texts from a humanistic perspective. ^[1]

To mark its 60th anniversary, the center hosted a symposium exploring the evolving landscape of Chinese studies and the center’s shifting role within it. ^[2]

Directors

List of directors of the Fairbank Center: ^[1]

• John K. Fairbank, 1955–73 ^[3]
• Ezra Vogel, 1973–75 ^[4]
• Dwight H. Perkins, 1975–76 (acting) ^[5]
• Roy Hofheinz Jr., 1975–79 ^[6]
• Philip A. Kuhn, 1980–86 ^[7]
• Benjamin Schwartz, 1983–84 (acting) ^[8]
• Roderick MacFarquhar, 1986–92 ^[9]
• James L. Watson, 1992–95
• Ezra Vogel, 1995–99 ^[10]
• Elizabeth J. Perry, 1999–2002
• Wilt L. Idema, 2002–2005
• Roderick MacFarquhar, 2005–2006
• William C. Kirby, 2006–2007
• Martin King Whyte, 2007–2008
• William C. Kirby, 2008–2010
• Mark Elliott, 2010–2011
• William C. Kirby, 2011–2013
• Mark Elliott, 2013–2015
• Michael Szonyi, 2016–present

Notes

1. "About the Fairbank Center". Fairbank Center. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
2. 60th Anniversary Symposium
3. Suleski, pp. 11-44.
4. Suleski, pp. 45-58.
5. Suleski, p. 54.
6. Suleski, p. 59.
7. Suleski, p. 75.
8. Suleski, p. 76.
9. Suleski, p. 77.
10. Suleski, p. 99.

References

• Suleski, Ronald Stanley. (2005). The Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University: a Fifty Year History, 1955-2005. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN   9780976798002; OCLC 64140358

External links

• Official website
• Facebook, Fairbank Center
• Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies ISSUU Fairbank Center Annual Reports 2016–17 to 2021.
• Professor Xu Zhangrun’s Letter to the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University , China Heritage, Wairopa Academy for New Sinology (n.d.)

42°22′30″N71°06′47″W / 42.375°N 71.113°W / 42.375; -71.113