Chinese Studies Public Lecture

February 20, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Mānoa Campus, Tokioka Room (Moore Hall 319) Add to Calendar

Friday, February 20, 12:00 noon

Tokioka Room (Moore Hall 319)

“China-Japan Relations Post-APEC: Working toward Constructive Management of Differences”

Paula Harrell, Georgetown University

(cosponsored with the Center for Japanese Studies)

This could be a good year for China-Japan relations. President Xi and Prime Minister Abe may have posed grim-faced for their much publicized handshake at APEC last November, but the outcome of their meeting was positive: a pledge to take steps to improve bilateral ties. In the words of the official joint statement concluded on the eve of APEC, the two sides agreed to “continue to develop a mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests.” Evidence thus far suggests that progress is being made, that with the support of business groups and political moderates momentum is shifting back to the clear-eyed pragmatism characteristic of China-Japan relations for the bulk of the postwar period. A big challenge for 2015, the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific—and Europe—is finding ways to soften the sharply divergent views of history and memory that are an obstacle to detente. The notably successful Franco-German model of apology, bridge-building, and joint economic activity provides an excellent starting point for serious discussion.

Paula S. Harrell (Ph.D., 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, Mānoa Campus

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

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