The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University is a post-graduate research center promoting the study of modern and contemporary China from a social science perspective.
The entity was established as the Center for East Asian Research; and later, it was renamed the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research in honor of its founding director. From its beginnings in 1955, this institutional focus diverged from conventional Sinology, which had emphasized the study of texts from a humanistic perspective.
List of Directors of the Fairbank Center:
John K. Fairbank, 1955–73Ezra Vogel, 1973–75Dwight H. Perkins, 1975–76 (acting)Roy Hofheinz, Jr., 1975–79Philip A. Kuhn, 1980–86Benjamin Schwartz, 1983–84 (acting)Roderick MacFarquhar, 1986–92James L. Watson, 1992–95Ezra Vogel, 1995–99Elizabeth J. Perry, 1999–2002Wilt L. Idema, 2002–2005Roderick MacFarquhar, 2005–2006William C. Kirby, 2006–2013Martin King Whyte, 2007–2008 (acting)Mark Elliott, 2010–2011 (acting)Mark Elliott, 2013–2015Michael Szonyi, 2016–presentThe center's published output encompasses 60+ works in 70+ publications in 3 languages and 300+ library holdings. The Fairbank Center has published academic monographs since 1956.
Workshop on Contemporary Chinese Literature and the Performing Arts (1979)Introduction to Chʻing Documents (1986)China's New Revolution (1989)The Legacy of Islam in China: an International Symposium in Memory of Joseph F. Fletcher, Harvard University, 14–16 April 1989 (1989)Contemporary Chinese Fiction and its Literary Antecedents (1990)Jewish Diasporas in China: Comparative and Historical Perspectives (1992)Engendering China: Women, Culture and the State (1992)Directory of Individuals Interested in the Jews and the Jewish Communities of East, Southeast, and South Asia (1993)China's Mid-century Transitions: a Conference on Continuity and Change on the Mainland and Taiwan 1946-1955 (1994)台灣所藏中華民國經濟檔案 (1995)China and India : Different Roots, Differing Routes: Briefing Memorandum (1995), Jennifer B FreemanUnintended Social Consequences of Chinese Economic Reform (1997)从解冻走向建交: 中美关系正常化进程再探讨, 1969-1979 (2004)Princeton-Harvard China and the World Fellows Workshop: March 22, 2007 Harvard University (2007)하버드대학의동아시아연구 : 최근50년의발자취 (2008)The Fairbank Center also sponsors the Edwin O. Reischauer Lectures.
