Objects of Addiction: A Conversation about Opium and Anti-Chinese Immigration Laws in the United States (Online)

This online event requires registration; see further details below.

Award-winning author and Harvard history professor Erika Lee will be in conversation with students Jolin Chan ’25 and Madison Stein ’24 about the role of opium in the restrictions on Chinese immigration in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.

This lecture is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade (September 15, 2023–January 14, 2024), which explores the entwined histories of the opium trade and the Chinese art market between the late 18th and early 20th centuries. These two commodities—acquired through both legal and illicit means—had profound effects on the global economy, public health, immigration law, education, and the arts that are reverberating still today.

Speakers:
Erika Lee, Bae Family Professor of History, Harvard University
Jolin Chan ’25, Harvard University; Student Board Member, Harvard Art Museums
Madison Stein ’24, Harvard University

This talk will take place online via Zoom. The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. To register, please complete this online form.

Please read these instructions on how to join a meeting on Zoom. For general questions about online events, email am_register@harvard.edu.

This program is presented in partnership with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Support for Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade is provided by the Alexander S., Robert L., and Bruce A. Beal Exhibition Fund; the Robert H. Ellsworth Bequest to the Harvard Art Museums; the Harvard Art Museums’ Leopold (Harvard M.B.A. ’64) and Jane Swergold Asian Art Exhibitions and Publications Fund and an additional gift from Leopold and Jane Swergold; the José Soriano Fund; the Anthony and Celeste Meier Exhibitions Fund; the Gurel Student Exhibition Fund; the Asian Art Discretionary Fund; the Chinese Art Discretionary Fund; and the Rabb Family Exhibitions Fund. Related programming is supported by the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund. Additional support for this project is provided by the Dunhuang Foundation.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance.