Hong Kong Focus
“China Elections and Governance: HK Focus” is a blog by Suzanne Pepper produced for the “China Elections and Governance” Website of the Carter Center China Project. The Website provides Chinese officials at all levels a robust resource for governance and election affairs, and gives scholars worldwide the opportunity to study Chinese politics and offer reform measures. A long-time Hong Kong resident, Suzanne Pepper has been an attentive observer of debates there on the future of democracy under Chinese rule. Hong Kong’s first decade since reversion to Chinese administration is analyzed in her book, Keeping Democracy at Bay: Hong Kong and the Challenge of Chinese Political Reform (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007). Since 2007, however, pressures to wean Hong Kong from its commitment to Western-style democratic values have intensified and arguments about the superiority of Beijing’s unified one-party rule have grown more insistent. Pepper’s blog focuses on the Hong Kong democracy movement’s struggles to maintain its coherence amid the growing pressures for full integration within the Chinese political system.
Notes from Nanjing
“Notes from Nanjing” is a blog by David Arase, Resident Professor of International Politics at the SAIS Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies (HNC) in Nanjing, China. HNC seeks to be a “one-of-a-kind educational collaboration” that educates future leaders in “the only China-based international program with spaces for genuinely free and open academic exploration.” (HNC website) After spending a year there as a visiting professor in 2011-2012, David decided to stay indefinitely and help Chinese and international students who aspire to become future leaders earn postgraduate degrees and certificates. Prior to this he was Professor of Politics at Pomona College specializing in East Asian politics, political economy, and international relations with a special focus on Japan. He has written many journal articles and commentaries, and has produced four books, of which the last, The US-Japan Alliance: Balancing Soft and Hard Power (The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series), co-edited with Tsuneo Akaha, won the 2011 Ohira Foundation Special Prize for work advancing the idea of Pacific Community.
JPRI in the Field
“JPRI in the Field” was a blog by Dustin Wright, who spent 2013 in Japan as a Fulbright- Hays Dissertation Fellow to conduct research on the histories of Japanese communities around U.S. military bases. Wright completed his Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is now an assistant professor of Japanese Culture and Language at CSU Monterey Bay.
Strait Talk Peace Project
From 2011 to 2014 JPRI co-sponsored the Berkeley Bay Area Strait Talk Peace Symposium in partnership with the Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. Strait Talk is a student-centered non-partisan dialogue program that seeks to transform cross-Strait and broader Asia-Pacific relations by connecting young people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait as well as from the United States—and by empowering them to become a new generation of peacebuilders.
JPRI Japan Earthquake and
Tsunami Relief Fund
In response to the earthquake and tsunami that struck the northern coast of Japan on March 11th, 2011, we established the JPRI Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund in partnership with Give2Asia. We raised over $ 40,000 to assist with emergency response and long-term recovery efforts.
Divided Lenses:
Film and War Memories in the Pacific Rim
JPRI engaged in a multi-year research project on "Divided Memories and Reconciliation" in the Pacific Rim, in cooperation with the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) at Stanford University.
During the 2008-2009 academic year, JPRI co-sponsored a film series entitled "Divided Lenses: Film and War Memories in the Asia Pacific" and a corresponding academic conference that analyzed representations of twentieth-century war and colonialism in the films of China, Japan, the two Koreas, Taiwan, and the United States. The film series culminated with a public event with director Clint Eastwood, who discussed his innovative war films Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of our Fathers, and the conference, which brought together scholars from various countries of the Pacific Rim.
JPRI director, Dr. Chiho Sawada, and Dr. Michael Berry edited the conference proceedings for publication in book form.
Pacific Rim Service Learning Initiative
In 2009, JPRI helped support Heather Heistand’s work with Panango, a non-profit organization that "strives to facilitate development in Papua New Guinea through education and cultural exchange."
