Founder and Convener, 1977-2020
China Seminar
The China Seminar provides an informal venue where China experts and the community can gather to listen to scholars, diplomats, journalists, researchers, doctors, attorneys, artists, and other professionals share their thoughts and expertise on China. The China Seminar was established in 1977 by Daniel W. Y. Kwok. In his own words,
. . . the informal inception of the China Seminar was in the academic year of 1976-77, the first year of my return from a sabbatical in Hong Kong. We tried a number of lunches and dinner meetings, finally settling on the luncheon format of talk before food. The Seminar was formally launched in 1978 with the occasion of the conference involving Dennis Bloodworth, Keyes Beech, and Richard Halloran.
Over the forty plus years, there have been more than 350 talks with over 250 speakers on a wide range of topics — history, culture, politics, economics, art, theater, music, food, technology, intellectual property, law, medicine, and much more. In 2009 the China Seminar became a forum of the Friends of the East-West Center.
The Maple Garden Restaurant has been home of the monthly luncheon since the inception of the seminar, first with the original owner, Robert Hsu, and subsequently with Richard Lam in 2008. The seminars are held the second Thursday of each month (except during the summer) at 909 Isenberg Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96826.
In August 2020 Daniel announced that he was stepping down from involvement in the China Seminar and suggested, given the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be the perfect time for the East-West Center to re-frame the offerings as a set of online seminars. Richard Vuylsteke, President of EWC; Gerald Kato, member of the Board of the FEWC; and Richard Hornik, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the EWC, all long-time colleagues and China Seminar members, transformed and re-launched the China Seminar online on December 10, 2020. The new format, using the Zoom platform, allows the Seminar to attract presenters and attendees from all over the globe. Please see Friends of the East West Center for the current program of speakers and topics.
