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Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 19:30

Icons, Irony and Nostalgia: Remembering the Cultural Revolution through Film

Professor Paul Clark

Professor of Chinese

University of Auckland,

New Zealand

Most accounts of the Cultural Revolution emphasize the destruction and suffering in those years. Films also figure prominently in the ten years and also in our memories of that era. Who can forget the Bermuda shorts on the "Red Detachment of Women"? This talk will assess the importance of film in shaping the experience and our recollections of the Cultural Revolution. It will include two recent works by the actor-director Jiang Wen, who has a distinctive take on those years. Paul Clark pioneered the study of Chinese film in the West. He arranged the first overseas trip for Zhang...
Thursday, November 20, 2008 - 19:30

Breaking with Tradition: The Challenges of Parenting in China

Ms. Yanhong Wheeler

Parenting Specialist

Breast milk or formula? Diapers or split pants? Obedience or individuality? While these questions provoke impassioned debate anywhere in the world, they're particularly poignant in China, where the government's one-child policy creates immense pressure on mothers and fathers who will never get a second chance to be a better parent. In this environment, one parenting specialist is causing a stir—and becoming a fixture on bestseller lists. She is Xiao Wu, the “Wee Witch” – the nom de plume for Ms. Yanhong Wheeler. Yanhong Wheeler challenges traditional Chinese child-rearing methods...
Thursday, November 13, 2008 - 19:30

Yin Yu Tang, the Many Lives of a Chinese House

Dr. Nancy Berliner

Curator of Chinese Art,

Peabody Essex Museum

Yin Yu Tang, merchant's house from a small village in the mountainous region of southern Anhui Province, embraces within its walls layers of lives and decorations from two centuries: strikingly designed and carved 18th century windows, 19th century chairs and beds, early 20th century kerosene lamps and Cultural Revolution posters. Today the house stands at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, where visitors can explore the architecture, decor and stories of the family who inhabited this home for eight generations. The project of dismantling, researching, conserving, and re-...
Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 19:30

Tibetan Textiles: Reviving Traditional Skills

Mr. Chris Buckley

Tibetan Specialist

Throughout its history, Tibet has been largely pastoral, with its herds of yaks, sheep and other animals providing the material for producing a variety of textile products, including blankets, tents, clothing and, of course, carpets. However, in recent years many of the traditional skills have been lost. Chris Buckley, working together with the Tibet Artisan Initiative in Lhasa, has spent the past three years working to recover some of the traditional Tibetan natural dyeing methods. He will talk about Tibet's rich history of textile manufacture (whether in small-scale cottage...
Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 19:30

Beijing's CCTV Tower

Mr. Ole Scheeren

Partner, Office for Metropolitan Architecture

and

Mr. Rory McGowan

Director, Ove Arup and Partners

We have all watched with fascination the rise of CCTV Tower at the edge of the East Third Ring Road, especially the connection in December 2007 of the seemingly gravity-defying overhang. BIS is delighted to present a special evening with two people key to the conception and realization of this massive and unique building: Ole Scheeren who runs the Office for Metropolitan Architecture practice in Beijing and is the partner in charge of CCTV Tower; and Rory McGowan who is a Director of Arup, the internationally renowned engineering and design consultancy, and has led the structural...
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - 19:30

Crossroads: The United States and the Contradictory Character of Globalisation

Professor Peter Nolan

Chair of Development Studies Committee, University of Cambridge

Professor Peter Nolan has researched, written and taught on a wide range of issues in economic development, globalisation and the transition of former planned economies. His current research focuses on the interaction between Chinese and the global firms in the epoch of the Global Business Revolution, and the contradictory character of capitalist globalisation. Although the zenith of American power has passed, the United States sits at the centre of the global political economy. The global free market policies that lie beneath the comprehensive global system crisis are the child of...
Thursday, September 18, 2008 - 19:30

From the Boxer Rebellion to Boxing the Olympics: The Troubles with Foreign Correspondents

Linda Jaivin

Author

The great Australian overlander, medical doctor, adventurer and China correspondent George Ernest Morrison believed journalism the 'noblest' of all the professions. In 1897, at the age of 35, he arrived in Peking to become the correspondent for The Times of London, the first full-time foreign correspondent in China. 'Chinese' Morrison fought the Boxers during the 1900 Siege of the Legations, took part in the looting of the Palace that followed, mooted a plot to assassinate the Empress Dowager, and helped start the Russo-Japanese War, barracking for the Japanese. Despite living in...
Thursday, June 5, 2008 - 19:30

Common Sense Talk About an Uncommon Country

Mr. James McGregor

Journalist-turned-businessman

Journalist-turned-businessman James McGregor views China as being both simultaneously the world's largest startup and the world's largest turnaround. His book, One Billion Customers, combines the saga of China's rise as a business power with practical lessons on how to do business in China. In this presentation, McGregor will walk us into the middle of the Chinese business world while sharing his insider's perspective on the politics, the people, and China's changing place in the world order. James McGregor has spent nearly two decades working as a journalist and...
Thursday, May 29, 2008 - 19:30

China Revolutions and My Family History

Mr. Adam Williams

Businessman and Author

BIS is delighted to welcome back writer, speaker, businessman and novelist Adam Williams, the author of three acclaimed historical novels: The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure, The Emperor's Bones and The Dragon's Tail. His novels weave together historical fact and family history. Williams, who has spent twenty years as a businessman and a banker in Beijing, is the fourth generation of his family to be living and working in China. In his presentation, which will be illustrated by more than 100 contemporary photographs and illustrations, he will talk about China's...
Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 19:30

Through a Diplomat's Lens: An Engaging Look at Beijing in the early 1970s

Ambassador Nicholas Platt, Retired Diplomat and

Mrs. Sheila Platt

Ambassador Nicholas Platt is uniquely qualified to comment on Beijing in the early 1970’s. In 1972 he accompanied President Nixon on the historic trip to Beijing that signaled the resumption of relations between the United States and China, and he was one of the first members of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing when the United States established a mission there in 1973. His presentation will be illustrated with a DVD of videos and photos of that period. Ambassador Nicholas Platt has spent most of his life working on relations between the US and Asia, beginning as a student of the...
Saturday, May 17, 2008 - 08:30

Outing: Tour of the New Legation Quarter

Mr. Handel Lee

Developer and Lawyer

Handel Lee, who brought style and life to the Bund in Shanghai with elegant shops and restaurants housed in Three-On-The-Bund, is about to open a classy development in the Legation Quarter, in the long neglected buildings of the entire old American Legation. The original five historical buildings, enhanced by contemporary structures, will accommodate five major restaurants, a Patek Phillippe store, a large Contemporary Art Center, and a repertory theater. Handel will personally welcome the BIS group to the nascent development where the beautiful landscaping has been completed.
Thursday, May 8, 2008 - 19:30

The Search for a Vanishing Beijing

Mr. Michael Aldrich

Partner, Lovells, Beijing and Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Edinburgh

Michael Aldrich will lecture on the remarkable history and the present of Beijing. In his talk, he will explain how Beijing is unique among the world's capitals as it was designed to illustrate ancient Chinese cosmological concepts in stone and brick. The ancient visage of Beijing endured from the early 15th century until the 1950s before succumbing to the twin assault of ideological purity and urban redevelopment. While Beijing's classical appearance is vanishing quickly, traces of its original design can still be found, provided that a visitor knows where to look for them. During...
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 19:30

Searching for Traces of the Tang Dynasty in Today's China: Following the Diary of Japanese Monk Ennin on his 9th c. Journey

Mrs. Ginny Anami

Historian

BIS is delighted to welcome back our old friend Ginny Anami, who has kindly made available a Tuesday evening during her brief visit to Beijing, to talk to us about her recently published book on the Diary of Monk Ennin. Ennin's Diary is one of the world's great travelogues and is invaluable for learning about the situation of common people in Tang Dynasty China and for a deep insight into Buddhist persecutions around the year 845. Ginny's book is the culmination of her 25 years of research and explorations following in the footsteps of Ennin's 9-year sojourn in China. Last year she...
Thursday, April 17, 2008 - 19:30

China & Africa

Mr. Adrian Davis

Country Director

DFID North and East Asia

Department for International Development, UK

Is China's growing involvement good or bad for Africa's development prospects? In November 2006, 48 Africa Heads of State attended the China-Africa Summit in Beijing. Eighteen months on from the Summit, what has been the impact of this intensive engagement with Africa? Is China only interested in African resources and not African development? Adrian Davis is Head of the UK development assistance office in Beijing covering North and East Asia (Cambodia, China, DPRK, Indonesia and Vietnam). He has been tracking China's engagement in Africa since early 2005 when Tony Blair invited...
Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 19:03

The Chinese Judiciary in Transition: Reforms and Prospects

Mrs. Stephanie Balme

Senior Research Scholar

We have the great opportunity to learn about reforms to the Chinese legal system presented by Stéphanie Balme, a Chinese law expert who is teaching at Tsinghua University. Stéphanie will introduce us to the different stages of modernization of the Chinese Judiciary and explain how increasing number of individuals are contributing to the construction and definition of a legal system in PRC. As Senior Research Fellow at CERI, the Center for International Research and Studies, Sciences Po (Paris) and visiting scholar at the Tsinghua University Law School (Beijing), Stéphanie Balme runs...
Thursday, March 13, 2008 - 19:30

The Miao Minority: Everything You Wanted to Know

Françoise Grenot-Wang

Sinologist;

Founder of the Couleurs de Chine

The Miao people from the Great Miao Mountains have lived through a history of fleeing from oppression and struggling to maintain their cultural identity. Based on an economy of rice growing on the terraced slopes of limited land, the harvest is insufficient to provide food for the entire year. Occasional hunting helps little to alleviate their food shortage and income. Due to their low income, the Miao peasants struggle to educate their children but most cannot afford to educate more than one child. Thus, their priority goes to educating boys who will follow tradition of looking...
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 19:30

China at the Crossroads, Author's Roundtable

Mr. Rob Gifford

Journalist

BIS is pleased to invite you to a very special evening with Rob Gifford. A buffet dinner starting at 6:30pm will be hosted by the New Zealand Embassy, followed by a round table discussion about his road journey and China's prospects for becoming the great power to which it aspires. Please come prepared with your questions and comments. Seating is limited and RSVP is essential; Darlene Wang will take reservations on Monday, 03 March between 4 and 6pm. There will be a fee of RMB 100 per person. After six years as Beijing Correspondent of US National Public Radio, Rob Gifford set off...
Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 19:30

China's Top Ten Most Unwanted Materials

Adam Robarts

Architect (Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects)

In his presentation, Adam Robarts will discuss materials that regularly contribute to the failure of Indoor Air Quality tests in China. In addition to describing what these materials are and where to find them, he will address substitutions and solutions useful for interior projects. Some prevalent myths about materials will also be dispelled. Get ready for a clean up! By special request, and as a healthy antidote to the state of our polluted environment, Adam will also share with us a preview of his latest project for a “zero-energy house” just commencing construction in Beijing....
Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 19:03

The Hermit in his Kingdom: Welcome to North Korea

Nick Bonner

Documentary and film producer;
North Korea tour operator

Nicholas Bonner has visited North Korea almost every month since 1993. He will talk about his experience in the hermit kingdom - illustrated with clips from his documentaries. He has produced three award-winning documentaries, BBC radio shows, and various photographic books on the country. His Beijing-based company, Koryo Tours, has seen the number of western tourists visiting North Korea rise from 300 to over 2000 per year. Nicholas’ most recent documentary is Crossing the Line about US soldiers who defected to North Korea in the 1960’s, one of whom still lives in...
Thursday, January 24, 2008 - 19:30

The Jesuit Presence in China: A Generation of Giants, a Story Worth Telling

Eugenio Clini

Honorary Permanent Guest Professor,

International Political Economy,

Renmin University

By the 16th century, Europe had effectively divided the known world into spheres of influence in an unholy alliance of the sword and the cross. Eugenio Clini will discuss the response that this prompted amongst certain missionaries concerned at the lack of regard for indigenous peoples and native cultures and will focus on the rise of the Jesuit movement and its presence in China. Not necessarily welcomed by the European powers, the Jesuit's teachings and analysis of the cultures they came in contact with proved to be not only amazingly effective but also revolutionary, arousing...
Thursday, January 17, 2008 - 19:30

Olympics: Ready or Not?

Gilbert Van Kerckhove
Senior Advisor for the Olympic Economy,
Beijing Municipal Government

Since 1980, Gilbert Van Kerckhove has been working with China, where he spent over 20 years. Previously with the Alcatel Alstom Group, he set up his consultancy in 2000 and also started advising Beijing in the areas of economic studies and foreign investment promotion. Since January 2002 he has been deeply involved in the preparation for the 2008 Olympics, assisting the City in the tendering process and economic planning. In September 2005, he received the Friendship Award from Vice Premier Wu Yi, the highest award for foreigners. A 30 min documentary about him will be broadcasted...
Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 19:30

Beijing Traffic- Solutions to the Headache

Duan Liren

Professor, Tsinghua University

Professor Duan Liren retired last year from the Public Security Traffic Department after 40 years of service. He is now an advisor to China's Traffic Control and Security Association and continues his teaching role at Tsinghua. Professor Duan introduced the traffic light system to China 25 years ago. He has published and traveled widely in regards to his expertise. He will focus on Beijing's current traffic problems and solutions, which will be applied during the Olympics. Professor Duan has promised to be forthright and attempt to answer your many questions, suggestions and concerns.