Lecture

When God Became White

Type: 
Thursday, April 10, 2025 - 17:00 to 19:00
Event Location: 
William Pitt Union Dining Room A

Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim is Professor of Theology at Earlham College. She has written or edited two dozen books, many of which converge on the themes of race, gender, and religion. Some of her most recent books include When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity; lntersectional Theology: An Introductory Guide (with Susan Shaw); and Invisible: Theology and the Experience of Asian American Women. 

China’s “Second Generation Ethnic Policies” in Historical and Comparative Contexts, LIVE Podcast Recording

Type: 
Friday, April 18, 2025 - 12:00 to 14:00
Event Location: 
252 Cathedral of Learning

A weekly podcast about current affairs in China, hosted by Kaiser Kuo and featuring in-depth conversations about books, ideas, new research, intellectual currents, and cultural trends that can help us better understand what’s happening in China. A conversation between Sinica Podcast host and co-founder Kaiser Kuo and Professor Benno Weiner.

The “DeepSeek Moment:” China and the Crisis of American Confidence with Kaiser Kuo

Type: 
Thursday, April 17, 2025 - 17:30 to 19:30
Event Location: 
Carnegie Mellon Campus Baker Hall A53, Steinberg Auditorium

China's recent achievements in artificial intelligence, exemplified by DeepSeek's breakthrough LLM, represent more than just technological advancement - they signal a fundamental shift in global innovation dynamics. While Chinese companies have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in areas from EVs to social media to AI, U.S. responses continue to follow a predictable pattern: disbelief, anger, accusations of theft, and blame.

CANCELED Mascots, Cryptids, and UFOs: Civic Monsters in Contemporary Japan

Type: 
Thursday, April 10, 2025 - 18:30 to 20:30
Event Location: 
Barco Law Building Alcoa Room

Why are cute and creepy mascots so ubiquitous among Japan’s cities and regions? Is there a Japanese Bigfoot? Have extraterrestrials ever landed in Japan? This lecture traces the history of Japanese mascots, cryptids, and UFOs, exploring how invented, imagined, and unexplained creatures have been deployed in tourism campaigns, the creation of regional identity, and local commercial boosterism.

Telling the Multiple Histories of Taiwan

Type: 
Friday, March 28, 2025 - 15:30 to 17:00
Event Location: 
Hill Library Archives & Special Collections Instruction Room, 3rd Floor

A presentation by Dr. Lung-chih Chang, Director of National Museum of Taiwan History, that will focus on the exhibitions and publications of the National Taiwan Museum of History as key examples, exploring contemporary Taiwan's collective memory and public discourse.

CANCELED Contested Environmentalism: Trees and the Making of Modern China

Type: 
Friday, April 4, 2025 - 13:30 to 14:30
Event Location: 
Posvar Hall 3610

For decades, tree planting has been at the heart of Chinese environmental endeavors, and forestry is pivotal to its environmentalism and green image more generally. During the Mao era, while forests were razed to fuel rapid increases in industrial production, the "Greening the Motherland" campaign also promoted conservationist tree-planting nationwide.

Philippines-China Relations: Reflections on Threats and Resilience

Type: 
Wednesday, March 12, 2025 - 13:30 to 14:30
Event Location: 
Posvar Hall 3911

Tina S. Clemente is Professor at the Asian Center, University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman. She earned her Ph.D. at the School of Economics at the same university. Her research interests include China Studies, Philippines–China economic relations, economic history, and development. Dr. Clemente is a former president of the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies and the first editor-in-chief of the Chinese Studies Journal. In 2022, Dr.

Standardization and Nationalization in Wartime Japan

Type: 
Tuesday, March 11, 2025 - 16:30 to 18:00
Event Location: 
Cathedral of Learning 149

In the 1990s, two joint studies by Japanese and U.S. researchers were published: Total War and “Modernization” and Deconstructing Nationality. The continuity between the prewar and postwar periods and the constructability of the concept of nation, as these two studies argue, is already becoming common knowledge. However, the specific constructiveness of the concept of nation in wartime Japan has not been fully explored.

A Historical Overview of Cultural Interactions between Japan and Muslims in China

Type: 
Wednesday, March 12, 2025 - 15:30 to 17:30
Event Location: 
Posvar Hall 4130

Noriko Unno, PhD, is an assistant professor at Osaka University. This talk traces the history of cultural interactions between Japan and the Hui people (Sinophone Muslims), an ethnic minority group in the People's Republic of China said to be descended from foreign Muslims who migrated to China from today’s Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia from the seventh to fourteenth century.

China Studies in the Philippines: Perceptions and Practice

Type: 
Monday, March 10, 2025 - 15:00 to 17:00
Event Location: 
Posvar Hall 4130

Tina S. Clemente is Professor at the Asian Center, University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman. She earned her Ph.D. at the School of Economics at the same university. Her research interests include China Studies, Philippines–China economic relations, economic history, and development.