How Should We Understand China: States, Markets, and the International Order
The Whitehall Lectures | Royal Institution of Great Britain
The Lecture
Lecturer: Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, and Director of the Asia Center, Harvard University
Introduced by: The Rt. Hon. the Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chancellor, University of Cambridge
“There is no more exciting time to be enabling research and intellectual discourse on Asia… The region is facing both unprecedented growth and unprecedented political, economic, environmental, and humanitarian challenges.” — Michael Puett, Harvard University Asia Center, 6 August 2024
Professor Puett has lectured widely at the world’s leading universities. His course in Chinese philosophy is among the most popular at Harvard, and in 2013 he was awarded a Harvard College Professorship for excellence in undergraduate teaching. He is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost experts on China.
His interests focus on the inter-relations between philosophy, anthropology, history, and religion, with the aim of bringing the study of China into larger historical and comparative frameworks. He is the author of The Ambivalence of Creation: Debates Concerning Innovation and Artifice in Early China and To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China, and co-author, with Adam Seligman, Robert Weller, and Bennett Simon, of Ritual and its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity.
Registration from 6.00pm. The lecture will begin promptly at 6.30pm, followed by a drinks reception in the library and adjoining reception rooms of the Royal Institution.
When booking, please include your company or business title in the boxes provided so it can be included in the printed guest list.
Panel Discussion
Following the lecture, a distinguished panel discussion will feature leading experts on China, international relations, defence, history, and political activism.
Moderator
Quentin Peel — Former Foreign Editor, Financial Times
Panellists
Professor Michael Puett – Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, Harvard University
Professor Roel Sterckx FBA – Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science and Civilisation, University of Cambridge; Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge
Professor Sterckx is a Flemish-British sinologist and anthropologist whose latest book is Chinese Thought: From Confucius to Cook Ding. He studied at the University of Leuven and pursued further studies in Taiwan, Beijing, and Cambridge. His work explores the enduring reinvention of Chinese traditions in the modern age.
Finn Lau – Political Activist; Founder and Leader, Hong Kong Liberty Movement
Finn Lau is a Hong Kong political activist known for popularising the protest strategy known as “Lam Chau”. He was arrested during the 2020 New Year’s Day March protests in Hong Kong. Following his release, he returned to London where he worked as a surveyor. In 2023, the Hong Kong government issued a HK$1 million bounty for his capture.
Charles Parton OBE – Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and a Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Geostrategy.
A career diplomat for 37 years, Parton spent over two decades specialising in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, including service as First Counsellor at the EU Delegation in Beijing, where he advised on Chinese politics and internal developments.
In 2017 Parton was appointed Special Adviser to the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee for its China inquiry. He later returned to Beijing as Adviser to the British Embassy during the 19th Communist Party Congress.
The Whitehall Lectures
The Whitehall Lecture series was founded by the Whitehall Group forum, part of the Cambridge University Land Society. Formed over 60 years ago, it is the largest departmental alumni society at the University of Cambridge, with over 1,200 members.
The Whitehall Group is a high-level policy discussion forum of well-connected Cambridge alumni, operating through a series of focused lunches and dinners for up to 25 attendees. It also runs the distinguished Whitehall Lectures series, inaugurated by Professor Sir Malcolm Grant CBE at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 2014. The lectures have been attended by over 3,000 people in person and online across 12 countries, and are widely published, with many available on YouTube.
