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Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 19:30

Beijing: Preparing for 2008

Charles Hutzler
Correspondent
Associated Press

The signs of Beijing's physical preparations for the Olympics are everywhere around us. Did you ever wonder about the less visible aspects? Charles Hutzler has recently re-joined The Associated Press specifically to work on coverage for the 2008 Olympics. He will provide a snapshot of Beijing's preparations in all their scope and complexity, from the Olympic venues themselves to ancillary services such as transport and accommodation. The Games are much more than a sporting event that offers opportunities for business and for the Chinese leadership which hopes to use the Olympics as...
Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 19:30

Contemporary Chinese Brush Painting

Jia Yuntao
Head of Chinese Fine Contemporary Paintings
China Guardian Auction

Jia Yuntao will explain the technique of contemporary Chinese paintings and will clarify the difference between Chinese paintings and western oil paintings. Mr. Jia will explain how far the Chinese art market has developed and will give us an outlook on its chances of going international in the near future. Mr. Jia graduated from Tianjin Nankai University in 1995 with an art degree and soon after took a job as an appraiser in the antique painting department for Rong Bao Zhai art shop at Liulichang. In 1997 he received a degree from the National Auctioneer Institute as a qualified...
Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 19:30

The Ming Great Wall: Political Discussion and Construction Projects

David Spindler
Historian

This lecture takes a closer look at several issues David Spindler raised in a previous talk to Beijing audiences entitled "A Quick History of the Beijing-area Great Wall." In this lecture, he will use case studies to talk about political discussions behind the construction of wall-towers, how Ming wall-builders decided where to build walls, and specific wall construction projects. David Spindler is an American historian of the Great Wall who lives in Beijing and makes his living speaking to travel and academic groups about this subject. He received training in history in an M.A....
Saturday, October 29, 2005 - 09:00

Outing: Guided Exploration of Temple Sites in Shijingshan District

Ginny Anami

Historian

The focus of this trip will be two places in particular, Cihansi, known affectionately as “The Mummy Temple” situated on top of Tiantai Hill, and ruins of Shuangquansi, or “Temple of Twin Springs” in a nearby valley. Ginny Anami will talk on the bus about the temples of Beijing in general and why these two sites have interesting histories and legends. The Temple of the Twin Springs also has one of the most picturesque bridges in the city and you will find out why the Jin emperors chose this place as a campsite 800 years ago. Mr. Tao Jun of the Cihansi will lead us around that large...
Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 19:30

Quanzhou: the Starting Point of the Silk Road on the Sea

Johan Nilsson

Architect

Quanzhou, in the south-eastern province of Fujian located straight across from Taiwan, was once a flourishing port rivaled only by Alexandria in Egypt. The multicultural background and openness to the outside world have made an impact on past and present architecture, urban construction, heritage development and awareness of historic preservation Johan Nilsson is a Swedish architect now working and living in Beijing. After traveling extensively through China since the mid -1980´s, he took a PhD in urban planning at Beijing's Tsinghua University in 2000. His dissertation was on “...
Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 19:30

The Blood of China

Pierre Haski

Journalist

At the beginning of the 1990’s, health authorities in Henan province urged the poorest peasants to sell their blood and gain a supplementary income. The blood collection was badly organized and in poor conditions. By 1995, the HIV virus had been discovered in the network and Beijing authorities stopped this method of collecting blood. However, by then, thousands of peasants had been contaminated. In May 2001, journalist Pierre Haski went to Henan province to interview the peasants and report their stories. This year, he published a book about his findings and the course of this epidemic in...
Thursday, September 15, 2005 - 19:30

China of the Warlords and the First Communist Revolution 1917-1928

Adam Williams

Author

Adam Williams, the author of The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure, will present the historical background of his latest novel, The Emperor's Bones, illustrated by contemporary photos and film. Adam will take us through the civil wars between the various colourful warlords who divided China amongst themselves after the 1911 Revolution, explaining how they were challenged by the Nationalists and Communists (then united under the shadowy guidance of Stalin's agent, Borodin) and how it all culminated in the Northern Expedition of 1926 when Chiang Kai-shek marched from...
Monday, June 27, 2005 - 19:30

Film Premier of "Manhole" (JINGGAI)

Chen Daming

Director

Young and promising Director Chen Daming, a graduate of the prestigious Beijing Film Academy, turns from acting to directing in “MANHOLE”, his first feature film. MANHOLE displays an acute observation of China's society today. On June 9th, all BIS members are cordially invited to the premier of the film “MANHOLE” in China. The membership desk will open earlier at 6:30 pm, so please come and celebrate the season finale with a glass of wine and meet Director Chen Daming and Assistant Producer Alex Jia, who will join us for the premier of their movie in China. National release of this...
Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 19:30

Secret Towers of the Himalayas

Frederique Darragon

Explorer and Photographer

In 1998, Frederique Darragon departed New York City and headed for the hinterlands of western China and Tibet, in pursuit of endangered snow leopard. Along her journey she encountered some of the 200 star-shaped ancient stone towers, some soaring over 100 feet. Astonished by the grandeur and uniqueness of these archaic skyscrapers, and by the mystery surrounding their origin, Frederique switched her research to these remarkable creations. Since her accidental discovery, Frederique has devoted her full energy to uncovering the origin of these towers. Her film on these ancient towers...
Thursday, May 19, 2005 - 19:30

Escape from the Empire of the Sun: The Rescue of Chinese Orphans during the Japanese Occupation

Colette Plum

Historian, Anthropologist

War orphans in China between 1936-1941: Who can forget Oliver Stone's image of a British boy in wartime Shanghai eating out of tin cans and cycling inside his chandeliered home, perilously alone? No heroic adult arrives, but the Japanese do, and the child remains lost until the end of the film. The Chinese have their own story of lost children during the war: a story in which young Chinese, mostly women, entered occupied territories and evacuated groups of war orphans, raised them in children's homes, and imbued them with both self-pride and nationalism....
Thursday, May 12, 2005 - 19:30

Palace or Prison? The Public & Private Faces of the Forbidden City

May Holdsworth

Author

Twenty-four emperors lived in the Forbidden City over a period of 500 years. We visit the abandoned halls today and wonder how it was possible for so vast a country as China to be ruled by an emperor who spent most of his time cloistered in such splendid isolation. We also wonder what happened in the Inner Court, where the emperor – the only adult male -- lived his private life with his concubines, children, maidservants and eunuchs. May Holdsworth, who has written two books about the Forbidden City and is engaged on a third, will share her wild and unhistorical...
Thursday, April 21, 2005 - 19:30

Scoundrels or Scholars? Sir Aurel Stein and early Silk Road Exploration

Dr. Susan Whitfield

Founder and Director,

International Dunhuang Project,

British Library

Over a century ago manuscripts in unknown languages, scripts and formats started being offered for sale to the British and Russian consuls in Kashgar in Chinese Central Asia. These whetted the intellectual appetite of scholars worldwide, each eager to make some new great discovery which would ensure their scholarly reputation. While some stayed in their studies at home deciphering unknown texts, others set out to explore the ancient sites where they were found. In the first two decades of the twentieth century alone there were over ten major expeditions to Chinese Central Asia and numerous...
Saturday, April 16, 2005 - 09:00

Outing: Prince Chun's Palace and other interesting sites

Michael Crook

Tour Leader

On this Saturday outing, we will visit Chun Qinwang Fu, Prince Chun's Palace. Prince Chun was the father of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China. Pu Yi was born in the Palace and lived there until he was taken to the Forbidden City where he later ascended the dragon throne to rule as Emperor Xuantong (1909-1911). Although sold to commoners in Republican times, this palace is probably the best preserved of all Beijing's princely mansions. With Michael Crook as our excellent guide, we shall be visiting the formal portion of the Palace, which is now a government unit, not open to the...
Thursday, April 14, 2005 - 19:30

Rehabilitation of Old Beijing's residential area around the Drum Tower

Yutaka Hirako

Tibetan Heritage Fund

Tibetan Heritage Fund (THF) is an international NGO engaged in historic city conservation and upgrading. Its work is guided by the principles of full community participation in planning, keeping the present residents in their homes after rehabilitation, and revival of ancient construction techniques. Currently, THF has heritage conservation and training projects in Sichuan, Qinghai, the Indian Himalayan territory of Ladakh and Mongolia. Special attention is focused on Beijing, a city that has undergone dramatic changes, particularly over the past decade. In 2000, THF began to map...
Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - 19:30

The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China

Karen Smith

Chinese contemporary art expert

Karen Smith, a respected Chinese contemporary art expert, moved from Hong Kong to Beijing in 1992 on the trail of China's “new art”. Twelve years later, and with many experiences under her belt as a result of having a first-hand, ringside seat to the developments and events of more than a decade, her devotion has paid off. Her soon-to-be-published book, Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China, follows the life stories of nine of the leading Chinese artists who pioneered the avant-garde movement through the 1980s. Today they remain some of its most influential and...
Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 19:30

The Cultural Revolution in Beijing and its Legacy

Jasper Becker

Author and Journalist

Jasper Becker will be speaking to BIS about what happened to Beijing during the Cultural Revolution. He has researched what happened during ‘Bloody August’ of 1966, the 100 Days War at Qinghua University in 1968 and the careers of the Red Guard leaders, of whom about forty are members of the Central Committee. In his most recent book The Chinese, Jasper Becker, one of China's premier resident western correspondents, strips the country of its myths and captures the Chinese as they really live. For nearly two decades Becker has lived in China, and reported from areas where...
Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 19:30

"Searching for Shangri-la", an Alternative Philosophy Travelogue

Laurence Brahm

Linguist, author, lawyer, economist and filmmaker, Laurence Brahm has spent his professional life negotiating joint-venture deals in China for multinational companies and writing more than 20 books on business and economics. He has led a parallel existence restoring courtyard houses in Beijing. One day, Brahm, a 41 year old New Yorker, left his law tomes and spreadsheets to spend ten weeks traipsing around Western China, becoming acquainted with and filming writers, dancers and musicians. The result is Searching For Shangri-la, a series of six, 30-minute television programs. We will...
Thursday, March 3, 2005 - 19:30

The Enormous Demographic Challenges of China - Myths and Realities

Siri Tellier

Demographer and UN Population Fund Representative in Beijing

China has not only the biggest, but also one of the fastest changing populations in the world. The challenges that these pose for China's development are equally enormous. What are some of these challenges? What are some of the current debates? Is China's one child policy working? Not only is population growth a concern, but mortality, gender imbalance, ageing and migration are problems for the country. Siri Tellier is a public health demographer from Harvard University. She has worked with international public health programs for 35 years in the private sector, with the Red Cross...
Thursday, February 24, 2005 - 19:30

Great Wall: Adventure, Research and Conservation

William Lindesay

William Lindesay will lecture to BIS on the love of his life, the Great Wild Wall of China. Fascinated with the Great Wall since his childhood days in England, Lindesay studied Geography and Geology at Liverpool University before coming to China. In 1987, he made what China's Xinhua News Agency described as “the most successful foreign exploration of the Great Wall”. He recounted his 2,470 km solo adventure in "Alone on the Great Wall" published in the UK, USA and Germany. Lindesay has spent at least 1000 days researching, cherishing and introducing others to the Wall in its...
Thursday, February 3, 2005 - 19:30

China's Biodiversity Crisis: How the Legacy of the Early Plant Collectors is Helping to Save China's Depleted Plant Species

Dr. Steve Blackmore

Regius Keeper

Royal Botanic Gardens

Edinburgh

Steve Blackmore, the Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, has been passionate about nature and wild places since his early childhood and in the course of his travels has seen the damage caused to the environment by human activities around the world. This has made him increasingly concerned to find solutions to the challenges facing our own species, challenges where wise responses will ensure the best possible world for future generations and where inaction is not an option. For more than a century, staff from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have been studying the...
Thursday, January 27, 2005 - 19:30

Tibetan Art Styles

Chris Buckley

Tibetan Specialist

Tibet is sometimes viewed as a remote and isolated region, but its rich artistic heritage tells a different story. Tibetan art preserves the echoes of ancient lost cultures from the surrounding regions, including Kashmir, North India, Nepal and the Silk Road oases. In his presentation, Chris Buckley will introduce some of the varied styles of Tibetan art, illustrated with photographs of important sites taken during his travels in Tibet and with Tibetan objects from private collections in Beijing. He will also discuss the present-day status of traditional painting in Tibet. ...
Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 19:30

Constitutional Law in a Rapidly Changing Society

Professor Wang Chenguang
Dean of Law School, Tsinghua University

Rapid social changes in China have raised tough challenges for Chinese Constitutional Law. Professor Wang Chenguang, dean of Tsinghua University's Law School, will talk about Chinese constitutional law. Prof. Wang will cover its brief history, its role and function in Chinese society, governmental structure and responsibilities. He will also cover recent changes in constitutional law brought along by some cases such as those involving educational rights, police detention and protection of human rights. Since almost every legal issue eventually becomes a constitutional issue, Prof. Wang...