Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University

About the Fairbank Center

Programs

The Fairbank Center sponsors nine ongoing seminars on themes ranging from East Asian art history to Chinese current events, and organizes research projects and major international conferences on a wide variety of scholarly topics. It also provides a forum for regular dialogue between the academic and policy communities in China and the United States. It further supports research by offering hospitality to visiting scholars from all over the world, by awarding a limited but increasing number of postdoctoral fellowships, and by maintaining its own specialized library.

History

The Fairbank Center was founded in 1955 by Professor John King Fairbank, a leading scholar in modern and contemporary China studies. The Center was originally called the Center for East Asian Research. Under Professor Fairbank’s leadership, the Center took an active role in promoting the study of modern and contemporary China from a social science perspective. At the time, this focus marked a sharp departure from the field of Sinology, which had emphasized the study of texts from a humanistic perspective. The Center for East Asian Research was renamed as the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research following Professor Fairbank’s retirement, in honor of his signal contributions to China studies through his teaching and publications.

Symposium in Honor of Wang Ruoshui

Wang Ruoshui was an old friend of the Fairbank Center. He first visited in 1978, as a member of the first official journalist delegation from the PRC. He then spent three weeks at the Fairbank Center in the spring of 1989 and fifteen months here in 1993 to 1994 and then a bit of time toward the end of 1998 as well. This May 16, 2002 symposium was organized by Wang Ruoshui's many close friends at the Fairbank Center, particularly Merle Goldman, Nancy Hearst, and Rod MacFarquhar. (Symposium transcript.)

In Memoriam

Benjamin I. Schwartz (1916-1999) was Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science, Emeritus at Harvard University. Professor Schwartz was an active member of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research from its inception, and remained centrally involved in Fairbank Center events until his death. (web page.)

About John King Fairbank & Wilma Fairbank

John King Fairbank (1907-1991)

As he boarded ship for England in the Autumn of 1929 to take up a Rhodes Scholarship, there was little in John Fairbank's background to mark him as the future founder of modern Chinese studies in the United States. He was born in Huron, South Dakota, in 1907, the only child of Arthur Boyce Fairbank, an able, socially active lawyer, and Lorena King, a 1903 graduate of the University of Chicago. His education led him through Phillips Exeter Academy and the University of Wisconsin, to Harvard College, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1929.

At Harvard, Fairbank had learned that secret diplomatic papers of the Chinese government had just been published in Peiping (as Beijing was then called). Research on China's relations with the European powers could now contribute to the current historiographical task: uncovering the background of the Great War. Fairbank recalled later that "China appealed to me at age twenty-two as something interesting that no one else seemed to be doing." He began China research at Balliol and the Public Records Office. But for language training there was no substitute for Peiping, where he transferred in 1932.

Five years in China showed him that behind every specialized historical topic lay a broader challenge: understanding the immense differences between Chinese civilization and our own. That broader challenge would dominate his life. (Click here to read entire article.)

Wilma Fairbank (1909-2002)

A magna cum laude graduate of Radcliffe College in Art History, Wilma Cannon traveled to Beijing in 1932 to marry her fiancé, John King Fairbank. While in China, she painted water colors of the local scenery and developed a keen interest in Chinese archeology and architecture. Over the years, she authored numerous scholarly books in these areas. Wilma Fairbank was known not only for her art and scholarship, but also for her warm hospitality to the East Asian studies community. Every Thursday afternoon, she hosted open-house teas at which Harvard faculty and students as well as visitors from around the world were welcome. She passed away April 4, 2002 at the age of 92, and a memorial service was held for her at Harvard in June 2002. See also: Article about Wilma Fairbank (originally published in the Winter 1994 Fairbank Center Newsletter).