East Asia Hub

Ya-Wen Lei, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, joined WPI on Thursday, April 6th, 2023, to share her presentation ‘The Gilded Cage. Over the 20th and into the 21st century, China has grown to become a prominent global power, which has encouraged analysts to compare their transformation to the United States’ “Gilded Age”.

However, Ya-Wen Lei points out that the Chinese government’s ties to tech companies have fueled the development of a unique ideology: One that fuses nationalism with modernism, technology, and meritocracy; creating a “Gilded Cage” of rising inequality and unique forms of social exclusion.

On November 26th, 2022, the East Asia Hub hosted its regular China Town Hall. This time, we featured speaker David Y. Yang.

Yang, an Associate Professor of Economics at Harvard, invited us to explore the relationship between cutting-edge AI technology and state power in China. Most notably, Yang revealed how facial recognition used in suppression of unrest reinforces regime stability, and how the regime’s further investment in Ai for political control stimulates technological innovation.

Following the presentation, attendees were encouraged to watch John M. Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Singapore, and China, discussed his experiences in a nationally-televised, interactive event.

On December 7th, 2022, Dr. Quint Oga-Baldwin, a Professor of Education and Integration Arts and Sciences at Waseda University, hosted a brown-bag talk at WPI about gamifying the process of language learning.

An emerging strand of research in language education, gamification incorporates using game elements to facilitate motivation, attention, and engagement. During his talk, Dr. Oga-Baldwin provided an overview of the theory and practice of gamification, including ongoing research efforts to educate language-learners in Japan.

Following his Brown Bag talk, Dr. Quint Oga-Baldwin delivered another presentation. This time, he detailed this experiences after moving to Japan in 2003. These experiences spurred him on to pursue multiple martial arts styles including karate, judo, traditional jujutsu, tai chi, and training with traditional Japanese and Okinawan weapons. 

Dr. Oga-Baldwin also recounted some of the myths, realities, and common pitfalls he encountered while living in Japan, and used the lens of martial arts training as a window into perceiving a country’s broader culture.

On January 19th, 2023, WPI was visited by Dr. Scott Moore, the Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s also a political scientist, and a former policy-maker who focuses on China, sustainability, and emerging technology.

 In his presentation “China’s Next Act”, Dr. Moore discussed the pivotal role China plays in providing global public goods, while also addressing global challenges such as growing economic, geopolitical, and ideological rivalries.

Ya-Wen Lei, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, joined WPI on Thursday, April 6th, 2023, to share her presentation ‘The Gilded Cage. Over the 20th and into the 21st century, China has grown to become a prominent global power, which has encouraged analysts to compare their transformation to the United States’ “Gilded Age”.

However, Ya-Wen Lei points out that the Chinese government’s ties to tech companies have fueled the development of a unique ideology: One that fuses nationalism with modernism, technology, and meritocracy; creating a “Gilded Cage” of rising inequality and unique forms of social exclusion.