Each year, the CSCC invites leading experts to Penn to present their research and share their knowledge about contemporary China. Typically scheduled for Wednesday afternoons 4:30-6 pm, speakers will deliver their remarks and then entertain questions from the audience. Attendance is open to the entire Penn community. Announcements about upcoming talks will be posted on the CSCC website and disseminated via the Center’s listserv. To be added to the listserv, please visit our signup page https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/cscc-announce.
Upcoming Speaker Series
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the Sino-Russian Partnership
Elizabeth Wishnick, Senior Research Scholar, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Past Speaker Series
Guanchang Meixue: Heart Distress and Aesthetic Attunement in China’s Bureaucracy
Jie Yang, Professor of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University
The “aesthetic turn” in both political thought and mental health care centers around Western aesthetics and Euro-American psychology. This paper attempts to indigenize both by focusing on “bureaucratic aesthetics” in…
The Future of the South China Sea Dispute: Perspectives from the Philippines
Justice Antonio Carpio, Supreme Court of the Philippines
Co-sponsored by Perry World House.
The South China Sea and the West Philippine Sea remain geopolitically fraught locations. The People’s Republic of China has successfully militarized the region…
A Case for Dualism in the Chinese Legal System
Hualing Fu, Professor of Law, Warren Chan Professor in Human Rights and Responsibilities, University of Hong Kong
The Chinese legal system embodies a unique duality under a constitutional trinity: the Communist Party's leadership, responsiveness to popular demand, and legality. The Party's dominance is central, and its…
China and Climate Change: Transnational Science, Politics, and Policy in Historical Perspectives
Zuoyue Wang, Professor of History, California State Polytechnic University
In the burgeoning field of historical studies of climate change, few studies exist that focus on Chinese policy making and US-China scientific interactions in the early years. In this talk I review Chinese public…
David Nelson Rowe, China, and How the History of IR’s New Right Was Lost
Robert Vitalis, Professor of Political Science Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
“Simply put, China was an integral part of what made the “New Right” new. –Joyce Mao
“Twenty years is about the length of time it takes a group of academics to storm the ramparts, take the…
Americans in Chinese Courts
Yanbai Andrea Wang, Assistant Professor of Law, Penn Carey Law
The U.S.‑China relationship has come to be defined by geopolitical rivalry. The siren is loud and everywhere, even engulfing civil litigation. This talk examines the U.S.-China relationship from a quieter, more…
The Authoritarian Commons: Neighborhood Democratization in Urban China
Shitong Qiao, Professor of Law, Duke University
Based on six-year fieldwork across China including over 200 in-depth interviews, Qiao’s new book The…
Pensions and the Politics of Retirement Age Reform in China
Mark Frazier, Professor of Politics, New School for Social Research
Raising legal retirement ages, also known as retirement age reform, is politically contentious worldwide, but it should be more easily pursued in non-democratic regimes that can effectively deter opponents from…
The Judicial System of China
Xin He, Professor of Law, The University of Hong Kong
How to understand the operation of Chinese courts and legal systems more generally after Xi Jinping took power and thoroughly reformed its judiciary? Different from the existing theories on Chinese law, this book…
Negotiating Legality: Chinese Companies in the US Legal System
Book Talk
Ji Li, John S. & Marilyn Long Chair of US-China Business and Law, UC Irvine
Despite escalating geopolitical rivalry, the US and China continue to be economically intertwined. Numerous Chinese companies have made substantial investments in the US and are reluctant to exit this strategically…
