China's First Railway topic of China Forum lecture on April 29

11:07 a.m., April 28, 2014--The Confucius Institute at the University of Delaware will host David Pong, UD professor emeritus of East Asian history, as the next speaker in its China Forum lecture series on Tuesday, April 29.

Pong will speak on “China’s First Railway: A Lesson in International Relations and China’s Modernization.” The lecture will be held in 204 Kirkbride Hall from 4:45-5:45 p.m. A reception will follow from 6-6:30 p.m.

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Pong specializes in Late Imperial China, from the 1840s to 1912, with a special interest in issues of tradition, reform and modernization, public finance, provincial politics, defense industries, technology transfer, the modern navy and labor relations. 

He received his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the University of London.

Pong’s publications include Encyclopedia of Modern China (2009), Resisting Japan: Mobilizing for War in Modern China, 1935–1945 (2008), Shen Baozhen pingzhuan: Zhongguo jindaihua de changshi (A Critical Biography of Shen Baozhen: China’s Venture in Modernization, 2000), Shen Pao-chen and China's Modernization in the Nineteenth Century (1994), and Ideal and Reality: Social and Political Change in Modern China, 1860–1949 (1988). 

He also directs the Winter Session study abroad program in China.