The Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies was established in 1955. It was founded by John King Fairbank, the forefather of Chinese studies in the United States, with funding from Harvard University and the Ford Foundation. It was first called the Center for East Asian Sudies. Fairbank served as the director of the center until 1973. When Fairbank retired in 1977, the center changed its name to its current name. As a pioneer of modern Chinese studies and a senior China expert in the Western world, Fairbank influenced one or even several generations of American experts on China issues, and also had a profound impact on the United States' China policy. The Fairbank Center conducts in-depth research on the politics, economics, history, and society of East Asia. Since Harvard has successively established the Asia Center and the North Korea Institute, the main research areas of the Fairbank Center are concentrated on China. In addition to the center director, assistant director and several auxiliary staff, there are currently 5 tenured researchers, more than 100 short-term part-time researchers, 19 visiting scholars, and 5 people engaged in postdoctoral research. Its current team of China research experts claims to be the most powerful in the United States. Research on China covers almost all aspects of social science: not only the study of China's politics, economy, diplomacy, history, and general social direction, but also cross-strait relations, China's diplomatic history, ethnic minority issues, overseas immigration, and Chinese culture. Conduct in-depth and detailed research on heritage, etc. Taking 2001-2002 as an example, there were more than 100 scholars from various American universities working as part-time researchers at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies and studying China issues, including more than 20 scholars who studied Chinese diplomacy alone.
The Fairbank Center has its own library, which has a history of more than 20 years. There are currently more than 20,000 books in the collection, half of which are Chinese books. There is a wide range of books on contemporary China, and many new books just published in China can be found in the library. Another feature of the library is its collection of unpublished documents, statistical data, etc. Books in the library cannot be borrowed, and can only be read in the library.
The Fairbank Center is funded by the federal government, foundations, societies and private funds. Its funds, along with those of the Asia Center and North Korea Institute, are managed by an office under which Susan McHone is the director and two assistants, Eileen Dono-van and Karen Christopher.