Events

20 Mar 2014

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Lecture TheatreG/F, Hong Kong Central Library66 Causeway RoadCauseway Bay, Hong Kong

Prof. ZI ZhongyunHonorary AcademicianFormer Director, Institute of American StudiesChinese Academy of Social Sciences

ZI Zhongyun is the academician emeritus of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS); senior fellow and former director of CASS. She was born in 1930, graduated from the Department Western Languages and Literature, Tsinghua University in 1951. After graduation from university in the 1950s, she worked as a practitioner in people-to-people diplomacy and had a chance to travel widely in foreign countries at a time when China was relatively closed. She started her active scholarly career in the early 1980s right after the “opening and reform” of China and served as Deputy Director and Director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) from 1985-1992. Together with Li Shenzhi, Vice-president of CASS, she founded the All China Association for American Studies in 1988. In 1993, she founded the Society for Chinese Scholars of Sino-American Relations and served as its first President (1993-1998). Being one of the first Chinese exchange scholars to the US in the early 1980s, she was a visiting fellow at the Center of International Studies, Princeton University (1982-83) and a fellow at Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, D.C. (1992). She has been a guest professor of Nanjing University-Johns Hopkins University Center for Chinese and American Studies and Co-Chair (with David Lampton on the American side) of the Research Council of Institute of International studies of the Nanjing Center (2000-2005); she is considered a trail-blazer in the field of Chinese study of history of U.S.-China Relations, an outstanding scholar in international studies and an early contributor to China’s international scholarly exchanges with the western world. After retirement, she has published profusely in columns of news papers and magazines on a wide range of subjects and become a well-known essayist, especially a prominent figure in the Chinese intellectual circles for her writings of incisive social critique. She has also translated classic works from French and English languages into Chinese. She has published numerous books, including The Origin and Evolution of U.S. Policy Towards China, 1945-1950; A History of Postwar U.S. Foreign Relations, from Truman to Reagan; 20th Century America (one of the four books of a series entitled Looking at the World with an Cold Eye: Revelations of the Ups and Downs over a Hundred Years, co-edited by Zi Zhongyun and Chen Lemin); Collected Articles of Zi Zhongyun; A Good Way to Distribute Wealth: An Interpretive Study of American Philanthropic Foundations; The Destiny of Wealth. Collected essays published in several books, of which the most recent series entitled Self-selected Essays of Zi Zhongyun in five volumns; Ideas Cannot be Bought by Money, (selected essays published by Tian Di Press Inc., Hongkong, 2012); Ten Lectures on the United States of America; Plain Talks (Collection of lectures on various subjects), 2013. Translations of literary works by authors, including Honore Balzac (from French); Willa Cather, Issac Singer, and Allan de Botton (from English). Her interest is piano playing.

Admission is free. Seat reservation is required. To reserve a seat, please
– register online at http://www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/Event/2014_HBC/
– call at (852) 3943 7119 / (852) 3943 8541

(852) 3943 7119 / (852) 3943 8541

For details, please visit http://www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/internal/events/2014_HBC/outlines.htm

For more information, please visit http://www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/Event/2014_HBC/
http://hkpl.gov.hk