Evening Presentation
Drinks Reception 6:30pm 
Presentation 7:00pm
Close 8:00pm

In only a few decades, the world’s most populous country has moved from relative isolation to center stage. In The China Questions, 30 of the world’s leading China experts answer key questions about where this new superpower is headed, and what makes its people and their leaders tick. They distill a lifetime of cutting-edge scholarship into short, accessible essays about Chinese identity, culture, environment, society, history or policy. Some of the essays address issues of importance to China internally, revolving around the Communist Party’s legitimacy, the end of the one-child policy, and ethnic tensions. Others focus on China’s relationship with other nations, particularly the United States. The China Questions is a work celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Fairbank Center. Co-editors, Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi, take us behind media images and popular perceptions to provide insight on fundamental issues.

Jennifer Rudolph is Associate Professor of modern Chinese political history at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. While her first book dissects institutional change in late imperial China, her second explores identity politics in the Taiwan Strait. Prof. Rudolph incorporates her research into her teaching to help students recognize historical accounts as part of ongoing debates about national identity, regionalism and politics. Her teaching interests are broad and include the political, social, environmental, and cultural history of China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. Prof. Rudolph received her AB from the University of Chicago, and her MA and PhD from the University of Washington.

Michael Szonyi is Professor of Chinese History and Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. He is a social historian of late imperial and modern China. His research focuses on the local history of southeast China, from the Ming dynasty to the 21st century. His books include The Art of Being Governed: Everyday Politics in Late Imperial China and A Companion to Chinese History. Prof. Szonyi previously taught at McGill University and University of Toronto. He graduated from the University of Toronto and received his doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.