Event Details

WHAT: An online talk by Valerie Hansen on "The Age of Exploration Before Columbus and Da Gama: When Asia Dominated the Sea," moderated by Jeremiah Jenne



WHEN: 8-9PM, Wednesday 8th May on Zoom



ABOUT THE EVENT: After Da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached the Indian Ocean port of Sofala in modern-day Mozambique in January 1498, he connected with a sea route that had already been in use for some 700 years. Professor Hansen, author of The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began, will delve into a trading system that existed centuries before European explorers first took sail.

Stretching some 7000 miles (11000 km) this route linked the Islamic world, with its center at Baghdad in modern Iraq, with the southeast Chinese ports of Quanzhou and Guangzhou (Canton). Subsidiary routes connected Baghdad with East Africa and China with the Philippines. The sophisticated trading system is rarely referenced in the West. For one, most records are in Arabic and Chinese. And the unnamed Asian sailors who braved storms and survived shipwrecks to venture into new waters did so without the sponsorship of monarchs — quite different from Europe's first explorers.



ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Valerie Hansen teaches premodern Chinese and world history at Yale, since 2017 as Stanley Woodward Professor of History. After receiving her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1987, she joined Yale University in 1988 as an assistant professor. Hansen spent a year in Shanghai on a Fulbright grant, taught at Yale's joint undergraduate program with Peking University and at Yale-NUS college in Singapore. Hansen published Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1279 in 1990. Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China, 600-1400, came out in 1995. In 2000, she published The Open Empire, arguing that contrary to the widespread view that no outsiders influenced traditional China, Indian Buddhists and northern nomads shaped traditional China throughout its long history. In 2012, Hansen published The Silk Road: A New History, in which she argued that Silk Road trade was small-scale and usually involved local goods. Her most recent book, The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began (Scribner, 2020) has been translated into fifteen languages so far.



HOW MUCH: Free for members of RASBJ and invitees of Yale Center Beijing; 50 RMB for members of RAS branches in London, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul; 100 RMB for non-members. If you experience difficulty paying via Wechat, please try Alipay instead. You can also pay by credit card. Interested in becoming an RASBJ member? Please sign up at https://rasbj.org/membership​



HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: RASBJ members and invitees of Yale should click "Register" or "I will attend" and follow the instructions. After successful registration you'll receive a confirmation email with a link to join the event online. If you seem not to have received it, please check your spam folder.

Members of partner RAS Branches: Please register 72 hours in advance to allow time for membership verification. You'll receive three emails from us: the first confirming receipt of your registration request, the second requesting payment, and the third confirming receipt of your payment. Please check your spam folder to ensure you see all RASBJ emails.



REFUND POLICY: If the event is cancelled, registrants will be refunded in full.

Speakers

  • Valerie Hansen (Speaker)

    Valerie Hansen

    Speaker

    Professor Valerie Hansen teaches premodern Chinese and world history at Yale, since 2017 as Stanley Woodward Professor of History. In 2000, she published The Open Empire, arguing that contrary to the widespread view that no outsiders influenced traditional China, Indian Buddhists and northern nomads shaped traditional China throughout its long history. In 2012, Hansen published The Silk Road: A New History, in which she argued that Silk Road trade was small-scale and usually involved local goods. Her most recent book, The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began (Scribner, 2020) has been translated into fifteen languages so far.

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  • Jeremiah Jenne (Moderator)

    Jeremiah Jenne

    Moderator

    https://jeremiahjenne.com

    Dr. Jeremiah Jenne has been based in Beijing for more than twenty years. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and taught Late Imperial and Modern Chinese History for over 15 years while also leading educational and research trips to every part of China. His essays and articles have appeared in "The Economist", "South China Morning Post", and numerous other publications. Jeremiah is the proprietor of Beijing by Foot, a division of The Hutong, which organizes historic walking tours of Beijing's most famous sites and less-traveled byways and leads workshops on history, culture, and cultural adaptation for students, embassies, companies, and community groups. Along with David Moser, Jeremiah is also the co-host of the podcast "Barbarians at the Gate."

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