New Yorker Staff Writer to Discuss China in the Age of Obama
Evan Osnos, a staff writer for The New Yorker based in Beijing, will discuss “China in the Age of Obama: Democrats, Identity, and Style” on Monday, April 27 at Yale.
This lecture, sponsored by The Council on East Asian Studies and the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale is free and open to the public and will take place at 4 p.m. in Rm. 203 of the MacMillan Center, Henry R. Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT.
Obama’s victory altered America’s self-image and China’s image of America, says Osnos, but it should also focus our attention on recent changes in China’s self-image. Young, ethnically diverse Americans donated money online and cast ballots to elect the first African-American president. This historical event, notes the writer, has resonated widely in China at a time during which foreigners are settling in Chinese cities, a rising generation of film directors are capturing life on the margins of China’s rise, and the Internet is offering vital new channels for expression.
Before joining the staff of The New Yorker magazine, Osnos was the Beijing bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, where he co-authored an investigation of unsafe products that won a 2008 Pulitzer Prize. Among other awards, he has received the Asia Society’s Osborn Elliott Prize for coverage of Asia, the Overseas Press Club award for writing on the environment, and the Livingston Award for foreign reporting. In China, he has worked as a correspondent for the PBS program “FRONTLINE/World.” Before China, he spent two years as a Chicago Tribune correspondent in the Middle East, reporting mostly from Iraq. He is a 1998 graduate of Harvard University.
The Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University (CEAS) was founded in 1961 and continues a long tradition of East Asian Studies at Yale. CEAS provides a forum for academic exploration and support related to the study of China, Japan, and Korea. For over 40 years, it has promoted education about East Asia, both in the college curricula and through lectures and workshops, conferences, cultural events, and educational activities open to faculty, students and the general public. CEAS has been designated a National Resource Center for the study of East Asian languages and cultures by the United States Department of Education.
The Poynter Fellowship plays a unique role in the educational life of Yale University. Nelson Poynter (Yale, M.A. 1927) established the program to bring to the Yale campus distinguished reporters, editors and others who have made important contributions to the media. By sponsoring symposiums and conferences on issues of broad public concern and by bringing to the University some of the most outstanding journalists from the United States and abroad, the Poynter Fellowship aims to give Yale students and faculty special insight into the media and its role in contemporary culture.
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