Columbia University's list of illustrious alumni includes many graduates from China whose achievements have been widely celebrated. Columbia alumnus Peng-chun “P.C.” Chang (1892-1957), the Vice-Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and one of the architects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has received relatively less recognition--until … [Read more...]
Howard W. French discusses his new book about the massive Chinese migration to Africa
Howard W. French, a professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, has spent years reporting about the massive migration of Chinese people to Africa. Alfred A. Knopf has just published the results of his work: China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants are Building a New Empire in China. French, who has served as the bureau chief in Japan, China, West and … [Read more...]
Columbia’s Gregory Pflugfelder on Godzilla’s Global History
Advertisements for the new "Godzilla" are ubiquitous this summer. Weatherhead East Asian Institute faculty member Gregory Pflugfelder is well acquainted with such images. Pflugfelder, a professor of Japanese history at Columbia University, has collected around five thousand posters and promotional materials for Godzilla films and other Japanese monster flicks. His archive of … [Read more...]
INTERACT fellow Shi-Yan Chao discusses upcoming April 25 event “Documenting Queer Histories in China and the U.S.”
Shi-Yan Chao, 2013 – 2014 INTERACT Postdoctoral Fellow at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, discusses the upcoming Friday, April 25, 2014 event "Documenting Queer Histories in China and the U.S.," which will feature the screenings of Cui Zi'en's "Queer China, 'Comrade' China" and Barbara Hammer's "Nitrate Kisses" followed by a discussion with both filmmakers. The event … [Read more...]
Columbia professor Lydia H. Liu on Phoenix and the art of Xu Bing
Now is the ideal time for those in New York to experience the work of Xu Bing (1955-), the world-renowned contemporary Chinese artist. Through January 2015, his monumental installation Phoenix, featuring two giant birds fabricated from construction debris, will be displayed inside the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan. Book from the Sky, the work that … [Read more...]
