Join the Department of Social Sciences for this Great Problems, Great Minds seminar series event featuring Yasheng Huang, Epoch Foundation professor of global economics and management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management at 12:40 p.m. on September 16.

Using a newly-created dataset on Chinese historical inventions, Huang argues that the turning point of Chinese technological development occurred much earlier than conventionally thought. Drawing from a chapter in a new book he is writing, The Rise of the East, Again?, Huang shows how stagnation began during the Sui Dynasty (580-618) rather than during the Ming Dynasty (1369-1644).

Huang is the author of 11 books in both English and Chinese and numerous academic papers and news commentaries. He is currently a co-PI in a large-scale cross disciplinary research project on food safety in China. His current book is on the rise and the fall of technologies in ancient and contemporary China.

“The Lonely Ideas: A History of Chinese Technology” event will take place on Google meet at this link.

The event is part of the Great Problems, Great Minds seminar series which explores the major problems facing humanity as we move into the heart of the 21st century. To see the full schedule and videos from previous events, visit the seminar series page. 

For more information, contact Assistant Professor of Social Sciences Hao Huang at hhuang48@iit.edu.