Skyscraper Museum webinar. In 1998 the twin Petronas Towers in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur took the title of "world's tallest building" away from the United States for the first time. The towers’ developers, private investors working with the Malaysian government and Petronas, the national oil company, sought to create a headquarters and a […]

A year since China opened up its financial markets on paper, have foreign firms been able to grab a bigger slice of its $48 trillion financial sector businesses? What does China’s deepening of financial integration into the world mean for the country and U.S. institutions? How do U.S. financial sanctions impact China’s financial regulatory reform? […]

One of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–24) gained renown for constructing Beijing’s Forbidden City, directing ambitious naval expeditions, and creating the world’s largest encyclopedia. On May 6, art historian Aurelia Campbell will take us from the heart of Beijing, to a Daoist architectural complex on Mount Wudang, to […]

Learn and practice Mandarin, while engaging with Chinese literature, poetry, history and more with fellow enthusiasts. Participants will enjoy live, interactive learning sessions with our language and cultural experts from home. Each session will start with a read-aloud in Mandarin of a carefully selected poem which represents both a touchstone to Chinese culture as well […]

Anti-Asian racism is skyrocketing in the United States. Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon: for centuries, American views of China have oscillated between rapturous enchantment and angry disillusionment. In recent years, American public opinion toward China has plummeted, and the consequences have been profound. Even as American and Chinese interests have become inexorably intertwined, […]

Skyscraper Museum webinar. As the first in-depth book to explore the role of branding in the design of corporate modernism, Building Brands re-tells the stories of four corporate headquarters in the context of both business and architectural histories: the PSFS Building by Howe and Lescaze, the Johnson Wax Building by Frank Lloyd Wright, Lever House […]

Person Place Thing is an interview show based on this idea: people are particularly engaging when they speak not directly about themselves but about something they care about. Guests talk about one person, one place, and one thing that are important to them. The result? Surprising stories from great speakers. Host Randy Cohen will be […]

Exploring the 2021 theme, the healing power of storytelling, this panel will highlight the unique ability of film to project stories to places they might have never traveled before—bringing connection, understanding, and healing. Moderated by festival co-director Joshua Bell and Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center curator Kālewa Correa, a variety of directors will discuss the […]

Skyscraper Museum webinar. In her book The Black Skyscraper: Architecture and the Perception of Race (JHUP, 2019), Adrienne Brown examines works produced by writers, painters, architects, and laborers who grappled with the early skyscraper’s outsized and disorienting dimensions. She explores its effects on how race was seen, read, and sensed at the turn of the […]

During World War I and World War II, American Indians made a unique contribution to the U.S. Armed Forces by using their tribal languages in secret battle communications. Join us via zoom as author and anthropologist/historian William C. Meadows of Missouri State University reveals how these Native American “code talkers” played a key role in […]

After eight years of holding office, George Washington stepped down from the presidency. Embittered by partisan criticism and eager to return to his farm, Washington assumed a role for which there was no precedent at a time when the kings across the ocean often yielded their crowns only upon losing their heads. Horn discusses the […]

The Writers in Performance workshop is designed to give writers the opportunity to explore performing their written pieces. Whether they are playwrights, poets, monologists, writers of prose, or spoken word artists, this workshop gives the writers an opportunity to create a performance piece out of their writings. Workshop participants are chosen on the strength of […]

Sometimes referred to as “the 5th invention of China”, the civil service examination system in imperial China was designed to select candidates for the state bureaucracy. This system was in place between 650 CE and 1905, making it the world’s longest-lasting meritocracy. In the course of over 1200 years, the examination system helped shape China’s […]

Skyscraper Museum webinar. In her new book, Prof. Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis applies an archeological lens to the study of the New York buildings. Antiquity in Gotham explores how the language of ancient architecture communicated the political ideals of the young Republic through the adaptation of Greek and Roman architecture; how Egyptian temples conveyed the city's new […]

China has witnessed a bullish growth in biotech, with a plethora of labs and biopharmas churning out innovative healthcare solutions. In 2020, Chinese healthcare startups raised $29.3 billion, almost double the 2019 funds. What factors spur the growth of biotech in China? How can companies map a strategy for tapping into the country’s growth and […]

What’s in a wok? Stir frying, steaming, pan frying, deep frying, poaching, boiling, braising, searing, smoking, and stewing! And none of this would be possible without the brilliant design of this utensil which can evenly distribute such high heat. Celebrated cookbook writer Carolyn Phillips talks about the wok and what she learned about China when […]

Paul Schmelzing will discuss his groundbreaking research on real interest rate dynamics since the beginning of secondary debt markets, the topic of one of his PhD chapters. On the basis of visiting US and European archives over multiple years, he reconstructed global real interest rate series that cover 82% of advanced economy GDP over 700 […]