Rediscovering Historical China:
A Reflection on the Work and Mentorship of Professor Daniel H. Bays (1942-2019)

Friday, December 4, 2020
4:00-5:15 PM Eastern Time

On May 9, 2019, Professor Daniel H. Bays (1942-2019), B.A. Stanford 1964, M.A. Michigan 1967, and Ph.D. Michigan 1971, passed away. The fields of modern Chinese history, Christianity in China, and the history of U.S.-China relations lost a wonderful thinker, leader, and helper.

At this moment, as U.S.-China relations are at their lowest point in the four decades since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979, it is of particular importance to reflect on the deep roots and human dimensions of those relations so eminently represented in the study of Christianity in China, which Dr. Daniel H. Bays pioneered together with John K. Fairbank at Harvard University. The remembrance of Dr. Bays at this memorial roundtable aims to give human substance, perspective, and hope to future academic scholarship on China. Paying due respect to Dr. Bays’ life’s work and extraordinary mentorship is more than retrospection: it is of true strategic significance for our field.

You are cordially invited to this AAS Digital Dialogue. On this occasion, three generations of scholars will follow the chronological sequence of Professor Daniel Bays’ publications to address two questions: How did Dr. Bays help us to rediscover the complexity and variety of historical China that came with the new historiography of the 1970s and the concurrent end of Mao’s era? What are the new perspectives, research topics, and findings that have emerged as a result of his impact?

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Roundtable Participants

Ryan Dunch
Professor of History, University of Alberta

Jinhee Lee
Associate Professor of History, Eastern Illinois University

Xi Lian
Professor of World Christianity, Duke University

Steve Pieragastini
Lecturer in Global Studies, University of California at Riverside

Grant Wacker
Professor Emeritus, Duke University

Dong Wang
Distinguished University Professor of History, Shanghai University