Distinguished Visitors

Stan Lai | March 2019

• Read our blog post about his visit
• Watch the video of his March 28, 2019 lecture

Playwright and director Stan Lai, touted as being “the best Chinese language playwright and director in the world” (BBC), will be a LRCCS Distinguished Visitor in March 2019.  Lai’s 35 original plays to date have greatly influenced theatre in the Chinese language theatre and have helped create a large base for young theatre audiences in China. Lai recently has been doing more work in the West, in English, including directing Dream of the Red Chamber for the San Francisco Opera (2016) in collaboration with LRCCS faculty associate, composer Bright Sheng, who wrote the music.  Dr. Lai holds a Ph.D in Dramatic Art from the University of California, Berkeley, and has taught extensively at the Taipei National University of the Arts, and at Berkeley and Stanford. His book on creative theory (Stan Lai on Creativity, in Chinese, 赖声川的创意学) is a best seller in China and Taiwan. An edition of 10 of his plays in English is to be published by Cambria Press in early 2019. While at University of Michigan in March 2019, Lai will give workshops and lectures to students, faculty and the broader U-M community.  Two that are open to the public are a Film Screening of "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land" An Lian Tao Hua Yuan 暗戀桃花源, and a lecture, Reconfiguring the Box — Stan Lai on Creativity.

David Dollar | December 2017

David Dollar is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. He is a leading expert on China's economy and US-China economic relations. From 2009 to 2013 he was the US Treasury's economic and financial emissary to China. Before his time at Treasury, Dollar worked at the World Bank for 20 years, and from 2004 to 2009 was country director for China and Mongolia. His other World Bank assignments primarily focused on Asian economies, including South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh and India. From 1995 to 2004, Dollar worked in the World Bank’s research department. Prior to his World Bank career, Dollar was an assistant professor of economics at UCLA, spending a semester in Beijing teaching at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Shi Wang | October 2017

Mr. Shi Wang (王石）founded one of the most successful real estate development companies in China (Vanke 万科), and helped establish the modern corporate governance system in China. Mr. Wang has engaged in numerous philanthropy activities and directed one of China's largest charitable organizations offering support for education, poverty alleviation, disaster relief, and reconstruction.  He has been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University and Harvard University and served as a member of the Global Council of New York University and Cornell University. Mr. Wang's athletic skills are as diverse as his academic and professional accomplishments--he was elected Chairman of Asian Rowing Federation and climbed Mt. Everest at age 52 in 2003. During his visit to Michigan, Mr. Wang will offer a public lecture at Ross School of Business which will cover, among other topics, his three “mountain climbing” life experiences – climbing Mt. Everest as the oldest Chinese climber, beginning his environment protection program after mounting Kilimanjaro, and beginning to study at Cambridge and Harvard at age 60 knowing very limited English (the highest “mountain” he ever climbed).

Wang Qingsong | Winter-Fall 2017

Wang Qingsong is an artist, photographer, educator and curator who represents a generation of Chinese cultural producers and creative intellectuals who continue to have a profound influence on contemporary art practices in the 21st century.  Over the past 20 years, Wang Qingsong's artistic works have played a pivotal role in the expansion of Chinese artists within the international art market, and more specifically in developing new roles for visual culture to flourish through his highly stylized photographic works.

In the upcoming year, Wang Qingsong will develop a large scale project that coincides with the University of Michigan Bicentennial, and celebrates the legacy of the U-M commitment to academic excellence through artistic exchange with China.

David Shambaugh / December 2016

Professor David Shambaugh is an internationally recognized authority and author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia. He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan. He is presently Professor of Political Science & International Affairs and Director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He was previously Reader in Chinese Politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), where he also served as Editor of The China Quarterly.  He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Asia-Pacific Council, and other public policy and scholarly organizations. A prolific author, Professor Shambaugh has published more than 30 books, including most recently China’s Future and The China Reader: Rising Power (both 2016).

Professor Shambaugh gave the inaugural LRCCS Distinguished Lecture Series presentation at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy on December 1, 2016. He spoke on “From America’s Presidential Election to China’s 19^th Party Congress: Where Do US-China Relations Go From Here?”

Justin Yifu Lin | October 2016

Dr. Lin is the director of the Center for New Structural Economics; dean of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development; and honorary dean, of the National School of Development at Peking University. He was the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, 2008-2012. Prior to this, Dr. Lin served for 15 years as Founding Director of the China Centre for Economic Research at Peking University. He is the author of 23 books including Against the Consensus: Reflections on the Great Recession, the Quest for Prosperity: How Developing Economies Can Take Off, Demystifying the Chinese Economy, and New Structural Economics: A Framework for Rethinking Development and Policy. He is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for Developing World.

Dr. Lin lectured at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy on "The Future of U.S.-China Economic Relations" and was the keynote speaker at the LRCCS annual conference "Industrial Upgrading and Economic Growth in China."

Alexa Lam | April 2015

Ms. Lam is the former Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).  Ms. Lam was the principal architect of increasing integration between the PRC and global (including Hong Kong) capital markets, oversaw the regulation of the Hong Kong retail investment products market, and managed the SFC’s policies on international engagement. Before joining the SFC, Ms. Lam practiced corporate and commercial law in New York, Chicago, and Hong Kong for over 20 years.

During Ms. Lam's two-week visit to the University of Michigan, she was a guest speaker in several classes at the Michigan Law School and Ross School of Business, and delivered a public lecture on "Asia's Role in Global Financial Reform."