Date and Time
March 6, 2008
4:15 PM - 5:30 PM

Availability
Open to the public
No RSVP required

Speaker
Martin K. Whyte - Professor of Sociology at Harvard University

Due to an illness Dr. Whyte has had to cancel his visit to Stanford. We apologize for any inconvenience this cancellation may cause.

China's Harmonious Society colloquium series is co-sponsored by the Stanford China Program and the Center for East Asian Studies

Since 2006, the official doctrine of China's Communist Party calls for the creation of a "harmonious society" (HeXieSheHui). This policy, identified with the Hu Jintao leadership, acknowledges the new problems that have emerged as China continues its amazing economic growth. The economy is booming but so are tensions from rising inequality, environmental damage, health problems, diverse ethnicities, and attempts to break the "iron rice bowl." In this series of colloquia, leading authorities will discuss the causes of these tensions, their seriousness, and China's ability to solve these challenges.

Martin King Whyte graduated from Cornell University and received an MA in Russian Area Studies and a PhD in sociology at Harvard. He spent more than two decades teaching and doing research at the University of Michigan before moving on to George Washington University in 1993 and then, after 2000, back to Harvard, where he is currently Professor of Sociology and Acting Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. He has done research and written on a wide variety of aspects of social patterns and social change in the People's Republic of China, including rural life, city organization, Chinese family patterns, family planning, economic development patterns, and inequality. His current major research dealing with China is based upon a 2004 national survey of attitudes toward inequality and distributive justice issues that he directed. In addition, he teaches and writes in the areas of family sociology and the sociology of development.