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Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 19:30

Shanghai Fashion and the Origins of the Qipao

Antonia Finnane

Professor of History,
University of Melbourne, Australia

The qipao is sometimes referred to in English by its Cantonese name, cheongsam (in Mandarin, changshan). It is the closest thing to national costume that Chinese women have at their disposal – unless, of course, they are minority women, in which case they will wear something quite different on national day. How did this rather modern-looking garment – close-fitting, tailored, often worn at knee-length – come to play the role of “traditional” dress in China? A foray into the world of fashion in early twentieth century Shanghai provides a partial answer. ...
Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 19:30

The Himalayan Consensus: An Alternative Development Paradigm

Laurence Brahm

Global Activist and Author

Laurence Brahm is a global activist, international mediator, political columnist and author. He is the leading advocate of a fresh development paradigm – The Himalayan Consensus – which emphasizes empowering people with local pragmatism in place of broad sweeping globalized ideology and theory. The Himalayan Consensus evolved from Brahm's years embedded on the Himalayan Plateau seeking alternative economic experiences relevant to rural poverty alleviation and environmental protection. Since 2002, Brahm has developed an extensive program of heritage building restoration, micro-equity...
Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 19:30

You Say Swine Flu, I Say H1N1: China and the Pandemic

Melinda Liu, Newsweek;

Jorge Guajardo, Ambassador of Mexico;

Dr. Lisa Cairns, World Health Organization

Jaime FlorCruz, CNN

School closings, quarantines, face masks and temperature checks: Has reaction to the swine flu pandemic been overblown or is the worst yet to come? Is the vaccine safe? Is it necessary? Why has this particular flu virus warranted such extensive media coverage? Is China prepared to cope? What lessons can be gleaned from H1N1 and what can we expect from future pandemics? Our panel of distinguished guests will discuss these and other issues related to the swine flu outbreak and China's response. The panelists are Jorge Guajardo, Ambassador of Mexico; Dr. Lisa Cairns, World...
Thursday, November 5, 2009 - 19:30

The Great Wall: A Tale Told by Two Williams

William Lindesay, O.B.E.

This is a tale of two Williams, their lives separated by more than a century, but whose destinies are intertwined through their abiding fascination with one of the pinnacles of human achievement, the Great Wall of China. Our speaker, William Lindesay, is one of the world's leading authorities on the Great Wall. William Geil (1865-1925) was the first man to travel along the Great Wall from one end to the other. This talk will feature how William Lindesay has sought to realize the legacy of William Geil through his carefully re-photographed traverse of the Great Wall,...
Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 19:30

Luo Ping's Eccentric Worlds

Freda Murck, Ph.D.

Consultant and Researcher on Painting and Calligraphy,

Palace Museum

Luo Ping (1733–1799) was one of the most versatile, original and celebrated artists in eighteenth-century China. Contemporaries and later critics characterized him as a Confucian scholar of great moral integrity, a loving and devoted husband, a cultural arriviste, an anti-Manchu dissident, an “eccentric” who saw spirits and a Buddhist monk. Freda Murck will present Luo Ping's multifaceted work and her recent collaboration on the exhibition Eccentric Visions: The Worlds of Luo Ping which is now on view at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 17. From...
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 19:30

The Forbidden City Dusts Off: Restoring an Emperor's Private Retreat

Henry Tzu Ng, Executive Vice President,

World Monuments Fund

and

Nancy Berliner, Ph.D., Curator of Chinese Art,

Peabody Essex Museum

Since 2002, the World Monuments Fund (WMF), a private international historic preservation organization based in New York City has been working in partnership with the Palace Museum to conserve the Qianlong Garden in the Forbidden City. The garden and its buildings were built for the Qianlong Emperor in 1771-1776 as part of an eventual retirement complex and have never been fully opened to the public. Juanqinzhai, or The Studio of Exhaustion from Diligent Service, was the first of its 27 buildings to be restored in November 2008, and is noted for its unique trompe l'oeil theatre and...
Thursday, September 24, 2009 - 19:30

Dam It! River Conservation and Public Participation

Wang Yongchen

Senior Reporter,

China National Radio (CNR);

Founder and Director,

Green Earth Volunteers

The state of China's freshwater environment is a global concern. To boost local economies and to meet an almost insatiable need for electricity, China's freshwater systems are being interrupted by dams bigger and more numerous than ever before. Wang Yongchen, a veteran environmental journalist and activist, will discuss the state of rivers in the country and present concepts for sustainable economic development and river conservation. She will also showcase stories in which the influence of media and public participation can be effective in raising alarms and halting controversial...
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 - 19:30

Rural Land Reform: Unleashing the Power of 800 Million Farmers

Roy Prosterman

Founder & Chair Emeritus,

Rural Development Institute (RDI)

Seattle, WA, USA

Providing secure land rights to rural population who depend on the land for their livelihoods has played a major role in past Asian success stories. Today, land tenure reform could play a vital role in bridging China's rural-urban income gap by providing farmers with the incentive to invest in their land to increase production. In turn, this would increase rural income, wealth, social stability, and consumption patterns for China's 800 million rural poor. The Seattle-based Rural Development Institute (RDI) have been working on these issues in rural China since 1987, and will...
Thursday, June 4, 2009 - 19:30

China and the Global Economic Crisis

David Dollar, Ph.D.

Country Director for China and Mongolia, World Bank

The global economic crisis is the most serious since World War II. It has had a sharp effect on China through the decline in the country's exports. The government estimates that more than 20 million workers have lost their jobs. The government responded to the crisis with large stimulus through easier monetary policy and a big increase in public spending, especially on infrastructure. How effective has been the government response? What are the prospects for the economy in 2009 and beyond? What policies are needed to sustain China's growth? How has China's role in the world and in global...
Thursday, May 21, 2009 - 19:30

An Emerging Power: Is China Ready?

James Fallows

National Correspondent,

The Atlantic Monthly

American journalist James Fallows is nearing the end of a three-year stint traveling through and reporting on China along with his wife, Deborah. He has published some of his findings in his new book Postcards from Tomorrow Square, and is at work on another. He will discuss with us the various aspects of China's emergence as an international power – economic, diplomatic, cultural, and perhaps military – and whether this development should be welcomed, feared, or both. James Fallows is National Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. He has worked for the magazine...
Thursday, May 14, 2009 - 19:30

How Europe Learned of China: Important Maps and Books from 1585 to 1841

Ron Anton, SJ

Director, The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies

In 1585, the Augustinian monk Juan González de Mendoza published the first history of contemporary China in a European language. Commissioned by the Pope himself and containing the first illustration of Chinese characters to be printed in Europe, it became an immediate “best seller” and the most influential and detailed work on China prepared in the 16th century. It was not until 30 years later, that another work on China took the European literary world by storm: the publication of the diary of pioneer sinologist and Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci, edited and enlarged by his fellow...
Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 19:30

China Trade Porcelain

Björn Gremner

Owner and Director,

AntikWest

In the 16th century, Portuguese traders began importing late Ming dynasty blue and white porcelain to Europe, resulting in the growth of trade in Kraak porcelain (named after the Portuguese ships called carracks) or what we now call Chinese export porcelain. Mr. Björn Gremner, a frequent lecturer on Chinese porcelain in Scandinavia and guest on the popular Swedish television program "Antikrundan" -- the Swedish version of the English "Antiques Roadshow" – will speak on the extensive shipments of porcelain to reach the European market via the East India trade, and the history...
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 10:00

Tea with Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester

Author, The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom

Few people will be familiar with the story of the Cambridge don whose study of China's scientific history helped to change the West's appraisal of a civilization once thought hopelessly backward. In The Man Who Loved China, bestselling author Simon Winchester brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who explored the great question that he made his life's work: Why, in the middle of the 15th century, did China's scientific innovation suddenly cease its spectacular progress?
Saturday, April 18, 2009 - 10:30

China: Through the Lens of John Thomson 1868 - 1872

William Schupach

Librarian, Prints Photographs Paintings and Drawings,

Wellcome Library, London

The Beijing World Art Museum presents the first ever exhibition devoted to the China images of 19th century Scottish photographer John Thomson. The exhibition comes from the world renowned Wellcome Collection in London and will tour four venues in China. China: Through the Lens of John Thomson 1868 - 1872 is an historic photographic exhibition including one hundred and fifty images taken in China between 1868 and 1872. The exhibition includes a wide variety of images, themes and locations in China from Beijing to Fujian to Guangdong including landscapes, people,...
Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 19:30

A New History of the Silk Road

Valerie Hansen

Professor of History,

Yale University;

Visiting Professor,

Beijing University

Whenever a European-looking object surfaces in China, many of us assume that sometime in the distant past a merchant on his way from Rome to China must have dropped it. Somewhere in the back of our minds floats an image of a lone figure riding on a camel carrying silk along the Silk Road. New evidence from the Silk Road, however, suggests that a merchant engaged in private trade is the least likely explanation for how this plate arrived in China. More probably, a ruler dispatched an envoy to present it as a gift to another ruler. If not, then a local craftsman made a copy of...
Thursday, March 26, 2009 - 19:30

Mental Health and Suicide in China: Progress, Challenges and Trends

Michael R. Phillips, MD, MA, MPH

Executive Director,

WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention,

Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center,

Beijing Hui Long Guan Hospital

This talk will discuss the political, social and economic factors that have influenced the prevalence of mental disorders in China, the evolution of mental health services and the unique pattern and trajectory of suicides in the country. Mental illnesses and suicide account for over 20% of the total burden of illness in China, so their effect on the social and economic development of the country is much greater than that due to infectious diseases, cancer or heart disease. But as of 2001, only 2.35% of the government health budget was spent on mental health and less than 15% of the...
Thursday, March 5, 2009 - 19:30

Urban Life in China: Is Civil Society Needed for World Cities?

Prof. Philip Chmielewski

Chair, Engineering Ethics, Seaver College of Science and Engineering,

Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

The fast-emerging discipline of engineering ethics is especially pertinent to China today. Engineering ethics guides professionals in the shaping of artifacts and systems in order to benefit the public's safety, health and welfare. Professor Philip Chmielewski, coordinator and visiting lecturer in Engineering Ethics at The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, will present the possible significance of "civil society" in today's China and how civil society is shaped through structures -- constructions achieved on the basis of engineering know-how. Using contemporary buildings and urban...
Thursday, February 12, 2009 - 19:30

On the Frontlines of Mammal Conservation in China: Tales from the Wild

Matthew Durnin, Ph.D.

Regional Science Director,

Asia-Pacific/North-Asia,

The Nature Conservancy

China has some of the highest plant and animal biodiversity on the planet and one of the most charismatic mammals of all, the giant panda, is found only in China. Yet with all that is known of its plant and animal life, there are still areas that have not been explored and questions on the ecology of the giant panda still unanswered. Matthew Durnin, Ph.D. has been researching pandas and mammal diversity in some of the remotest regions of China for over 16 years. In this talk, he will share some of his adventures and misadventures and provide his thoughts on the status of wildlife and what...
Thursday, February 5, 2009 - 19:30

Great Expectations: How 2008 Turned Out for China and What 2009 May Bring

Melinda Liu, Newsweek

Andrew Browne, The Wall Street Journal

James Miles, The Economist

Jonathan Watts, The Guardian

BIS is pleased to present a panel of prominent Beijing-based foreign correspondents who will discuss the extraordinary news events of 2008 – and what to expect in 2009. The panelists are Wall Street Journal Bureau Chief, Andrew Browne; Economist Bureau Chief, James Miles; and the Guardian's Jonathan Watts who is also President of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC). The panel will be moderated by Newsweek Beijing Bureau Chief, Melinda Liu. The 2008 Beijing Olympics virtually guaranteed 2008 would be a watershed year, bringing sky-high expectations. But few expected the...
Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 07:30

A Year in Tibet

Sun Shuyun

Documentary Film Maker and Author

BIS welcomes back Sun Shuyun, who in April 2006 challenged myths about the Long March, and now returns to speak about her experiences in Tibet. From June 2006 to July 2007, she spent a year in Gyantse, Tibet's third largest town, recording the life of eight ordinary Tibetans. The result is a five-part TV series and a book of the same title: A Year in Tibet, which came out just as the demonstrations erupted in Lhasa a year ago. There has been much coverage of Tibet since then, mostly by journalists and commentators who have never been there. What is Tibetan culture as it is...