Vera Schwarcz, Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies & History: Historian and poet, Chen Yinke has been riveting the attention of Chinese intellectuals for the past two decades. In fact, his life and vast corpus of scholarly and literary output have become part of the heated debates centering upon the role of culture in Chinese history as well as the role of Western ideas, ideals and methodologies for the study of East Asian civilization. Fiercely non-political, Chen has become a politically contested cultural icon in the Chinese-speaking world. He remains relatively unknown in the West. This lecture explores the process through which a diminutive and blind man emerged as a visionary after his tragic death during the Cultural Revolution. After four decades of writing about modern intellectuals, Schwarcz is now exploring the poetry of Chen Yinke as a paradigm for the historian's conscience in China, and beyond.