2025
Upcoming
Past
Explaining Zhuangzian Cultivation
Location: Webster Library LB-362, Pavillion J.W. McConnell Bldg, 1400 Maisonneuve Blvd W, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8
Date: Thursday, April 24th, 2025, 3:00-5:00 pm
Registration: Not Required
Karyn Lai (University of New South Wales)
Abstract: The Zhuangzi, a 4th Century BCE Chinese text,contains stories of figures who perform daily undertakings inmagnificent ways. These figures excel in activities such asswimming, butchering, or woodcarving, because they are thoroughly responsive to the circumstances in which their activities are embedded. In this light, some recent scholarship on the Zhuangzi’s epistemology has framed it in in terms of embodied knowledge.
In this talk, drawing on debates on embodied knowledge, I reflect on how we can better understand what the Zhuangzi is attempting to convey through these figures. I focus on the phenomenon of cultivation, whereby they hone their skills for undertaking activities in the excellent ways they do.
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY SPEAKER SERIES LECTURE
Bridging Trade Opportunities: Growing and Diversifying Quebec’s Exports through China International Import Expo (CIIE)
Location: Fasken, 800 Rue du Square-Victoria Suite 3500 Montréal, QC H3C 0B4
Date: Wednesday, April 16th, 2025, 3:30 - 6:30 pm
Registration: Free https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/bridging-trade-opportunities-tickets-1313146168539?aff=oddtdtcreator
Abstract: As global trade landscapes shift due to geopolitical tensions and evolving tariff policies, Canadian and Quebec exporters face increasing pressure to diversify their markets. China remains a vital economic partner and a key destination for high-quality Canadian products, from agri-food and consumer goods to technology and advanced manufacturing. The China International Import Expo (CIIE) offers an unparalleled opportunity for Quebec businesses to access this market, connect with buyers, and forge lasting trade partnerships. Join us on April 16 in Montreal to hear Mr. DAI Yuming, Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Montreal, share insights on trade between Canada and China. Dr. DENG Jun, President and CEO of Bank of China (Canada), will then discuss the upcoming CIIE in Shanghai, setting the stage for an engaging panel discussion on winning strategies for Quebec businesses at CIIE. A panel discussion on winning strategies for Quebec businesses in the China market will feature Charles Lavoie, Vice President of Marketing, WPIC Marketing + Technologies; Stéphane Fallecker, Director of Exports – Asia-Pacific and Middle East Markets, Investissement Québec International; and Lory Wang, President, Arctica Food. This event will provide practical insights, success stories, and strategic guidance to help Quebec companies better understand the latest trends in the Chinese consumer market, maximize their participation in CIIE, and expand their presence in China.
For more information: https://ccbc.com/event/bridging-trade-opportunities-growing-and-diversifying-quebecs-exports-through-china-international-import-expo-ciie/
CANADA CHINESE BUSINESS COUNCIL (CCBC)
China in 2025: Economic Shifts, Political Strategy, and What It Means for Canada-China Business Relations
Location: Borden Ladner Gervais LLP 1000 De La Gauchetière Street West, Suite 900, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 5H4
Date: Wednesday, March 26th, 2025, 4:30-7:00 pm
Registration:
CCBC Members: Free; Non-Members: $100 + tax
Abstract: Join us for an thought-provoking discussion on China’s economic and political outlook for 2025 and its impact on Canada-China business relations. As global dynamics continue to evolve, understanding China’s changing economic landscape and political trajectory is essential for businesses and policymakers navigating the shifting Canada-China relationship. Moderated by Bijan Ahmadi, CCBC Executive Director and COO, with welcome remarks from Miles Pittman, Partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) and CCBC Board Director, this panel discussion features top experts: Graham Shantz, President, CCBC; Chucheng FENG, Founding Partner, Hutong Research; and Ari Van Assche, Ph.D., Professor, Department of International Business, Co-Director of the International Institute for Economic Diplomacy, HEC Montréal, and Editor-in-Chief, Journal of International Business Policy. This exclusive session will examine Beijing’s strategic approach to Trump administration and its long-term economic and political direction. As China finalizes its new five-year plan, our panelists will provide critical insights into the country’s evolving policies, key geopolitical shifts, and their direct impact on Canadian businesses, trade relations, and investment opportunities in the year ahead.
For more information: https://ccbc.com/event/china-in-2025-economic-shifts-political-strategy-canada-china-business-relations/
CANADA CHINESE BUSINESS COUNCIL (CCBC)
The Authoritarian Commons: Neighborhood Democratization in Urban China
Location: New Chancellor Day Hall Room 102, 3644 Peel Street, McGill University
Date: Thursday, March 20th, 2025, 1:00-2:30 pm
Registration: Not Required
Shitong Qiao (Duke University)
Abstract: Based on six-year fieldwork across China including over 200 in-depth interviews, this book provides an ethnographic account of how hundreds of millions of Chinese homeowners practice democracy in and beyond their condominium complexes. Using interviews, survey data, and a comprehensive examination of laws, policies, and judicial decisions, this book also examines how the party-state in China responds to the risks and benefits brought by neighborhood democratization. Moreover, this book provides a framework to analyze different approaches to the authoritarian dilemma facing neighborhood democratization, which may increase the regime's legitimacy and expose it to the challenge of independent organizations at the same time. Lastly, this book identifies conditions under which neighborhood democratization can succeed.
Asia's Democratic Promise
Location: Leacock Building, Room 429, 855 Sherbrooke St W
Date: Tuesday, March 11th, 2025, 4:00-5:30 pm
Registration: Not Required
Joe Wong (University of Toronto)
Abstract: Democracy has emerged in Asia in some of the most unlikely places, specifically those places in which strong, autocratic incumbent regimes conceded democracy from a position of strength, rather than weakness. Contrary to expectations that democracy tends to emerge from the ashes of collapsed autocracies (the Arab Spring, the Color Revolutions, etc.), Joseph Wong argues the modal pathway of stable democratic transitions in Asia is one in which autocratic regimes were strong, and even legitimate in the eyes of many, when incumbent elites chose to democratize. Simply put, they democratized not on the brink or in the wake of collapse, but rather through strength. Drawing on his most recent book, From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia (co-authored with Dan Slater, Princeton University Press), Wong contends that democracy, counterintuitively, can be “incentive compatible” with the interests of authoritarian parties, including in some of the world’s most steadfast democratic resisters, notably China and Singapore.
McGILL SOUTHEAST ASIA LECTURES SERIES AND MONTREAL CHINA FORUM
Living with Digital Surveillance in China. Citizens Narratives on Technology, Privacy and Governance
Location: Armstrong 155A, 3420 McTavish Street, McGill University
Date: Friday, February 14th, 2025, 10:30-12:00 pm
Registration: Not Required
Ariane Ollier-Malaterre (UQAM)
Abstract: Digital surveillance is a daily and all-encompassing reality of life in China. This book explores how Chinese citizens make sense of digital surveillance and live with it. It investigates their imaginaries about surveillance and privacy from within the Chinese socio-political system. Based on in-depth qualitative research interviews, detailed diary notes, and extensive documentation, Ariane Ollier-Malaterre strives to ‘de-Westernize’ the internet and surveillance literature. She shows how the research participants weave a cohesive system of anguishing narratives on China’s moral shortcomings and redeeming narratives on the government and technology as civilizing forces. Although many participants cast digital surveillance as indispensable in China, their misgivings, objections, and the mental tactics they employ to dissociate themselves from surveillance convey the mental and emotional weight associated with such surveillance exposure. The author also reflects on fieldwork in China as a foreign researcher. She discusses the choices she has made to reduce her Eurocentric biases and what she has learned about interviewing in a context of political censorship.
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AREA RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES
The Prospect for Equitable Green Transitions in Rapidly Industralizing Countries
RESEARCH GROUP ON GLOBAL JUSTICE SPEAKER SERIES
Location: Peterson Hall 116, 3460 McTavish Street, McGill University
Date: Friday, January 17th, 2025, 2:30-4:00 pm
Registration: Not Required
Denise van der Kamp (University of Oxford)
Abstract: Countries in the global south are often presumed to follow a “grow now, clean later” philosophy. In fact, governments of major industrialising countries (such as China, India, Vietnam, and the Philippines) are already undertaking serious measures to reduce emissions, such as shuttering entire polluting industries. These measures, while effective, can seem draconian, disproportionately affectingmarginalised groups. In China, mass industrial shutdowns are concentrated on poorer cities anddisenfranchised workers, compounding the costs of an economic slowdown. Are more equitable green transitions possible in rapidly industrializing countries?
Focusing on the case of China, I show that even in societies where public participation is highly circumscribed, civil society actors can (and do) pressure the government into addressing some of these injustices. Political leaders—recognising the long-term ineffectiveness of draconian shutdowns—can (and do) invest in more transparent, proportionate methods to reduce emissions, seen in the regulatory reforms accompanying China’s new environmental law. My data shows that industrial firms respond positively to these measures, not only by polluting less but by investing more, raising hopes that jobs can be retained, and the socioeconomic costs of a green transition can be mitigated. And yet, the Chinese government continues to fall back on drastic anti-pollution campaigns, undermining these steps towards a more stable and equitable emissions reduction policy. This talk examines why the Chinese state struggles to abandon its “blunt force” approach to pollution reduction, and what China’s experience reveals about the prospect for green and equitable growth in rapidly industrializing countries.
