CCS/CI Chinese Studies Research Seminar

February 5, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Mānoa Campus, Tokioka Room (Moore Hall 319) Add to Calendar

Announcing the following public talk, part of the Center for Chinese Studies and Confucius Institute at UHM's Chinese Studies Research Seminars series:

Wednesday, Feb 5, 12:00 noon

Tokioka Room (Moore Hall 319)

“The Urgency of Partnership: What Can China and Japan Do to Start Anew?”

Paula Harrell, Georgetown University

(cosponsored with the Center for Japanese Studies)

The Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute dominates China-Japan news these days—and with good reason. Escalation of tensions into an outright military clash between the world’s second and third largest economies would have disastrous global consequences. And yet, the media’s near-exclusive focus on the conflict side of the story has left an important dimension seriously underreported: the extent to which collaborative projects and joint ventures are already embedded in the relationship. They are endorsed at the highest levels of both governments; they involve research institutes, universities, think tanks and businesses. In other words, nationalist rhetoric aside, critical pragmatic considerations related to investment, trade, and technology transfer offer compelling reason for future cooperation. Paula Harrell will argue the case for partnership moving forward at the same time as reflecting on the history of missed opportunities in this regard, the subject of Harrell’s recent book, Asia for the Asians: China in the Lives of Five Meiji Japanese.

Paula S. Harrell (PhD, Columbia University) is a China-Japan historian specializing in 19th-20th century history and contemporary economic development. In addition to research and university teaching (modern China and modern Japan), she worked for a decade as a management specialist in the World Bank’s China Department on projects in education and agriculture. In 2008 Harrell joined the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University where she offers courses on 21st century China in historical perspective, including, currently, a new course called, “China and the Internet: Challenging America in Cyberspace.” Her most recent publication is Asia for the Asians: China in the Lives of Five Meiji Japanese (MerwinAsia/Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, 2012), a companion volume to her earlier study, Sowing the Seeds of Change: Chinese Students, Japanese Teachers, 1895-1905 (Stanford University Press, 1992).


Event Sponsor
Center for Chinese Studies and Confucius Institute at UHM; and Center for Japanese Studies, Mānoa Campus

More Information
808-956-8891, china@hawaii.edu

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