PLEASE NOTE: In preparation for a significant construction and renovation project that will prepare the Hoover Institution for its second century of activities, the Library & Archives reading rooms will be closed to researchers from December 24, 2018, to the early months of 2020. During this period, our collections and our public services will be unavailable, but our collecting, exhibition program, and other activities will continue. Further information will be available on our website during the fall of 2018. Please email bronweyn [at] stanford.edu with your fellowship inquiries.

Pierre Asselin discusses Sino-Vietnamese relations at the 2016 Workshop on Modern China

Inaugurated in 2013, Hoover’s Workshop on Modern China yearly brings an international roster of leading scholars in Asian studies to Hoover Library & Archives on Stanford University campus to discuss the rise of China as an international power. Organized by Hoover fellow and co-curator of East Asian Collections Hsiao-ting Lin, Hoover’s annual China workshop invites both junior and senior researchers to utilize Hoover’s archival treasures and share their research findings with a diverse audience. The workshop opens Hoover’s Chinese and East Asian collections to worldwide scholarly attention across a variety of disciplines. By using collections such as the Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Bulei diaries, and the T.V. Soong and Nym Wales papers, scholars seek to understand the complicated history of China and its relationships with the United States and its Asian neighbors. In the past decade, Hoover’s China collection has undergone extraordinary development. With the acquisition of unique collections in the greater China area, including Nationalist and Communist Chinese as well as Hong Kong and Taiwanese materials, Hoover has built the world’s leading hub for modern and contemporary Chinese research, attracting hundreds of visitors annually from all over the world.

During the week-long workshop participants research in the Hoover Library & Archives reading rooms, present lunchtime talks on their scholarly projects, attend lectures, and meet with their colleagues informally at dinners and events. The topics past speakers have addressed relate to political leadership, war and revolution, and social, military, and economic transformation in the greater China area. Past speakers include book-award winners Hans Van de Ven (Cambridge), Rana Mitter (Oxford), Joseph Esherick (UCSD), Klaus Mühlhahn (Free University of Berlin), Pierre Asselin (Hawaii), and many other leading experts from Britain, Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States.     

Currently, participation in the Workshop on Modern China is by invitation only. For more information concerning the workshop, please contact the organizer, Hoover co-curator of East Asian collections Hsiao-ting Lin: htlin [at] stanford.edu.