Chinese Encounters with America (2025) tells the stories of 12 women and men whose American experiences transformed their lives and influenced China’s trajectory. Their professions range from diplomacy, business, and science to sports, education, civil society, and the arts.
Editors Deborah Davis and Terry Lautz joined contributors David M. Lampton and Emily Wilcox, for a discussion moderated by Denise Ho on how personal connections, educational exchange, and mutual understanding are essential to U.S.-China relations, both in the recent past and in our present day.
This event was co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues and Asian Studies Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.
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Deborah Davis is professor emerita of sociology at Yale University. Since 2016 she has been a distinguished visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai and on faculty of the Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University.
Terry Lautz is a fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He graduated from Harvard College (magna cum laude) and holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, where he was a Whiting Fellow in the Humanities.
David M. Lampton is professor emeritus and former Hyman Professor and director of SAIS-China and China Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he is currently a senior research fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University.
Emily Wilcox is Margaret Hamilton Professor of Modern Languages & Literatures/Chinese Studies at William & Mary and a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow in Dance Studies. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, her M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Denise Ho (moderator) is an associate professor in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she teaches modern Chinese history. She received her B.A. in history from Yale College and an A.M. and Ph.D. in history from Harvard University.