EVENT DETAILS

Philanthropy in Chinese History

Philanthropy and charitable giving have a long history in China. Join the Long US-China Institute as historians Xia Shi (New College of Florida) and Dong Wang (Shanghai University) explore Chinese contributions to societal welfare in the early twentieth century. 

Professor Xia Shi will discuss the intersections between charity, gender, and modern womanhood in China. Author of At Home in the World: Women and Charity in Late Qing and Early Republican China (Columbia University Press, 2018), Professor Shi's research shows how married nonprofessional women moved from the domestic sphere to a more public one through charitable and philanthropic work.

Professor Dong Wang will focus on how higher education – by way of Christian universities and colleges – drew overseas Chinese philanthropic involvement. Her talk will highlight how transnational charitable networks enabled higher education to be repackaged as a symbol of opportunity, modernity, progressiveness, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism depending on the specific donor base.

Light refreshments will be served. Free but please register here.