*This event is sold out*

Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750 by Odd Arne Westad, was named winner of the 2013 Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award for its outstanding contribution to advancing the understanding of contemporary Asia.

Since the height of the Qing Empire in the 18th century, China’s interactions and confrontations with foreign powers have caused its worldview to fluctuate wildly between extremes of dominance and subjugation, emulation and defiance. From the invasion of Myanmar in the 1760s, to the Boxer Rebellion in the early 20th century, to the 2001 standoff over a downed U.S. spy plane, many of these encounters have left China with a lingering sense of humiliation and resentment, and inflamed their notions of justice, hierarchy, and centrality in world affairs. Recently, China’s rising influence on the world stage has shown what the country stands to gain from international cooperation and openness. In his timely book, Prof. Westad presents a history of China’s relationship with the rest of the world over the last 250 years, identifying the forces that will determine the country’s path in the decades ahead. His study shows that the nation’s success will ultimately hinge on its ability to engage with potential partners while simultaneously safeguarding its own strength and stability. (Basic Books)

Please join us for a special luncheon presented by the Asia Society Policy Institute and the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations, honoring Prof. Westad, with remarks from the author, a discussion moderated by Orville Schell, and a book signing.

Speakers:

Odd Arne Westad is a professor of international history at The London School of Economics and Political Science. His previous book, The Global Cold War, won the Bancroft Prize, the Harrington Award of the American Political Science Association, and the Akira Iriye International History Award. In 2000, he was awarded the Bernath Lecture Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2011.

Orville Schell (moderator) is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society. He is a former professor and Dean at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and the author of fifteen books, with over half of them about China. He is also a fellow at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University.

Registration: 12:00–12:30 pm
Remarks and Discussion: 12:30–2:00 pm
Book Signing: 2:00–2:30 pm

Can’t make it to this program? Tune in to AsiaSociety.org/Live at 12:30 pm ET for a free, live video webcast. Viewers are encouraged to submit questions to [email protected].