Tu Weiming

Tu Weiming, "Harvard-Yenching Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy and of Confucian Studies at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, was born in February 1940 in Kunming, China. He grew up in Taiwan and obtained a B.A. in Chinese Studies at Tunghai University (1961). He received his M.A. (1963) and Ph.D. (1968) both at Harvard. He taught Chinese intellectual history, philosophies of China, and Confucian studies at Princeton University (1967-71) and University of California at Berkeley (1971-81). He also taught at Peking University, Taiwan University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Ecole des Haute E’tuies.

"He has been on the Harvard faculty since 1981. He holds honorary professorships from Zhejing and Renming Universities and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and has been awarded honorary degrees by Lehigh, Michigan State (Grand Valley), and Shandong Universities. He is on the board of the Chinese Heritage Center in Singapore, an international advisor of Rahman University in Malaysia, a member of the “Group of Eminent Persons” appointed by Kofi Annan to facilitate the Dialogue among Civilizations, a participant of the World Economic Forum, a moderator of the Aspen Institute, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has published six books in English five in Chinese, and more than a hundred articles primarily focusing on the modern transformation of Confucian humanism. A five-volume anthology of his works was published in Chinese in 2001.

"He is on the editorial boards of the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Asian Thought and Society, Philosophy East and West, Chinese Cultural Quarterly, The Twenty-First Century and Cultural China. He has served as chair of the Committee on the study of Religion and chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University.

"He is currently chair of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the International Confucian Association in Beijing, co-moderator of the Aspen Seminar on the Chinese in the Global Community, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and president of Contemporary, an intellectual journal published in Taiwan."

• Steering Committee, Forum on Religion and Ecology
• Global Council on Spiritual Politics & Global Citizenship, World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality
• Advisory Board, Center for the Study of World Religions
• Member, World Wisdom Council