Event Description

The East Asia National Resource Center and the Sigur Center for Asian Studies welcome you to join us for the book launch of Professor Ezra F. Vogel’s new book, China and Japan: Facing History, recently published by Harvard University Press. He will examine the following historical phases in relations between China and Japan: 

·     Japan Learning from China (600-838)

·     Changing Places #1 (1895 when Japan defeats China) 

·     China Learning from Japan (1895-1937)

·     China Learning from Japan (1978-1992)

·     Changing Places #2 (2008-2012 when China passes Japan)

This panoramic perspective will help us better understand the context and challenges of contemporary Sino-Japanese relations.

Professor Ezra F. Vogel received his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1958 in Sociology in the Department of Social Relations and was professor at Harvard from 1967-2000. In 1973, he succeeded John Fairbank to become the second Director of Harvard’s East Asian Research Center. He served as director of the US-Japan Program, director of the Fairbank Center, and as the founding director of the Asia Center. He was the director of the undergraduate concentration in East Asian Studies from its inception in 1972 until 1991. He taught courses on Chinese society, Japanese society, and industrial East Asia. From fall 1993 to fall 1995, Vogel took a two-year leave of absence from Harvard to serve as the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council in Washington. In 1996, he chaired the American Assembly on China and edited the resulting volume, Living With China. Among his publications are: Japan As Number One, 1979, which in Japanese translation became a best seller in Japan, and Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, 2011, which in Chinese translation became a best seller in China. He lectures frequently in Asia, in both Chinese and Japanese. He has received numerous honors, including eleven honorary degrees.