Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University is a post-graduate research center promoting the study of modern and contemporary China from a social science perspective. The center hosts and organizes academic activities, provides research funds for faculty and students, and helps policy-makers and news media to understand modern China. The center sponsors the Edwin O. Reischauer Lectures.

History
The center was established in the 1955 as the Center for East Asian Research. and on the retirement of its founding director, John K. Fairbank. The center was renamed the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research. From its beginnings in 1955, its focus was on modern and contemporary China, diverging from classic sinology, which emphasized the study of texts from a humanistic perspective.

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, the center organized a symposium discussing the changes in the landscape of Chinese studies and the changing role of the center.

Directors
List of directors of the Fairbank Center:
 * John K. Fairbank, 1955–73
 * Ezra Vogel, 1973–75
 * Dwight H. Perkins, 1975–76 (acting)
 * Roy Hofheinz Jr., 1975–79
 * Philip A. Kuhn, 1980–86
 * Benjamin Schwartz, 1983–84 (acting)
 * Roderick MacFarquhar, 1986–92
 * James L. Watson, 1992–95
 * Ezra Vogel, 1995–99
 * Elizabeth J. Perry, 1999–2002
 * Wilt L. Idema, 2002–2005
 * Roderick MacFarquhar, 2005–2006
 * William C. Kirby, 2006–2007
 * Martin King Whyte, 2007–2008
 * William C. Kirby, 2008–2010
 * Mark Elliott, 2010–2011
 * William C. Kirby, 2011–2013
 * Mark Elliott, 2013–2015
 * Michael Szonyi, 2016–present