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Bureaucracy and the Arts of Rulership in Historical Asia and the Modern World

Commentaries on Alexander Woodside’s "Lost Modernities: China, Vietnam, Korea, and the Hazards of World History," in Conversation with the Author.

The China in Asia Workshop Series is a four-year collaborative project between the UCLA Asia Institute and the University of Washington East Asia Center to examine the economic, political, and cultural relationship of China and its neighbors from both historical and contemporary perspectives.

The First Annual Workshop will be held May 19, 2007, 10383 Bunche Hall on the UCLA campus.

Title VI grants from the U.S. Department of Education to the UCLA/USC  Joint East Asian Studies Center (JEASC), and to the University of Washington East Asia Center help to support this workshop series.

This brief book based on four Reischauer Lectures delivered at Harvard University in 2001 offers a lively and learned study of bureaucratic principles and policies that represent important and distinctive traits of states in late imperial China, Korea and Vietnam.  Alexander Woodside, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Brithish Columbia and a specialist of both China and Vietnam, extends his range to include Korea where bureaucratic rule was based on the same repertoire of ideas and institutions available in China and Vietnam.  He invites us to consider connections among these three cases of bureaucratic government that develop their capacities and priorities separate from those that would later characterize the more familiar Euro-American developments of bureaucratic administration. 

During the morning session, specialists from the three countries considered in the book will offer perspectives on the features of bureaucratic and state development in local and historical context. During the afternoon session, scholars will offer additional theoretical insights from the broader Asian and world historical contexts. There will be ample time for discussion during the sessions, with responses by Professor Woodside. By viewing his contribution from both regional and more global perspectives we are challenged to consider how his arguments and evidence can affect the kinds of research that specialists pursue and the ways in which we teach the histories of China, Korea and Vietnam.

RSVP is requested to kanara@international.ucla.edu. Lunch will be provided for those who respond by May 11.

Program Schedule

10383 Bunche Hall

9:15-12:00

Lost Modernities: Perspectives from China, Vietnam, and Korea

Opening Remarks – R. Bin Wong, History & Asia Institute, UCLA

Introductory Presentation – Alexander Woodside, History, University of British Columbia, Emeritus

Response from China – R. Kent Guy, History, University of Washington

Response from Vietnam – Charles Wheeler, History, UC Irvine

Response from Korea – John Duncan, Asian Languages & Cultures, UCLA

Discussion

12:00-1:30

Lunch   10367 Bunche Hall

1:30-4:30

Perspectives from World History

Japan – Luke Roberts, History, UC Santa Barbara

India – Sanjay Subrahmanyam, History, UCLA

Comparative Social History – Daniel Chirot, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Response from Alexander Woodside

Discussion

4:30-5:30 Reception

For more info please contact:
UCLA Asia Institute
(310) 825-0007
asia@international.ucla.edu