Professor Xu Guoqi has been awarded the Prestigious Shigemitsu Fellowship by the Japan Society of Boston in recognition of his outstanding scholarship in the field of international affairs. The award will be officially announced at a ceremony in Boston on March 27, 2015.

Professor Xu is one of the first recipients of the Shigemitsu Fellowship, which was recently established by the Global Culture Center of the Japan Society of Boston with an endowment by Dr Yutaka Shigemitsu in commemoration of his uncle, Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu (1887-1957).  The purpose of the Fellowship program is to encourage new research and scholarship in the field of international affairs.

Professor Xu Guoqi is professor of History at the University of Hong Kong and is one of the world’s most prominent scholars in the fields of modern Chinese and international history. He is the author of a trilogy on the history of China's internationalisation: China and the Great War (Cambridge University Press, 2005 and 2011, Chinese editions from Shanghai Sanlian Shudian, 2008 and 2013); Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008 (Harvard University Press, 2008); and Strangers on the Western Front: Chinese Workers in the Great War (Harvard University Press, 2011, Chinese edition by Shanghai People's Press, 2014).

Professor Xu is currently working on a shared history trilogy: Chinese and Americans: A Shared History (Harvard University Press, 2014, Chinese edition by Guangxi Normal University Press, forthcoming); Asia and the Great War: A Shared Experience and Journey (under contract for Oxford University Press); and Ideas of China: A Shared and Imagined History (in progress).

Professor Xu will deliver a History in the Making Public Lecture, “Chinese and Americans: A Shared History”, on April 16, 2015, in Rayson Huang Theatre, HKU. For details, please visit:

http://www.history.hku.hk/news/2015-xu.html

Professor Xu has often been interviewed and quoted by the international press. Links to recent articles in the Washington Post, Wen Wei Po, Deutsche Presse-Agentur and EFE (Spainish News Agency) are included below:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-soccer-is-terrible-and-now-xi-jinping-has-officials-jumping-to-fix-it/2015/02/21/68f24c42-a6fc-11e4-a162-121d06ca77f1_story.html

http://www.whb.cn/xueren/20133.htm

http://www.dpa-international.com/news/sports2/beijing-ramps-up-winter-olympics-bid-campaign-amid-human-rights-objections-a-44679446.html

http://www.elconfidencial.com/ultima-hora-en-vivo/2015-04-05/el-olvidado-papel-de-los-chinos-en-la-i-guerra-mundial_541072/

For media enquiries, please contact Mr Cyrus Chan, Events Coordinator, Faculty of Arts (tel: 3917 4984 email: cyrusc@hku.hk).

About the Japan Society of Boston

The Japan Society of Boston is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote cultural and economic ties and active interchange between Japanese and Americans for mutual understanding, benefit and enjoyment. The first Japan Society in the United States, founded in 1904, it serves as a bridge and programming nexus for a network of individuals, cultural and academic institutions, and business and financial firms, linked together by a strong interest in Japan and a shared recognition of the importance of the U.S.-Japan relationship.