Council

Vice President and Chair of Council, Philosophy Club Convenor
James Miller

James Miller is professor of humanities and associate dean at Duke Kunshan University. He is known worldwide as a scholar of Daoism, China’s organized, indigenous religion. He first came to China in 1987, and had lived here permanently since 2018.

Treasurer
Jenny Yang

Jenny Yang is a strategic thinker and a highly innovative professional with a user-centric approach to problem-solving.

Over the course of my 18-year work experience in the consulting, art, and education industries, I have come to believe in the power of co-creation, collaboration, and communities and endeavour to make a meaningful connection to social good through my experience.

Membership Director, Film Club Convenor
Katherine Song

Katherine is a seasoned management consultant specializing in Program Management and Leadership Development. She was born and raised in China and has worked and lived in Hong Kong, Canada, and the USA before relocating to Shanghai in 2006. Throughout an extensive and successful career in Aviation & Aerospace Katherine led international teams in Customer & Product Support, Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing, and Finance. Her consultancy customers include esteemed brands such as HSBC, BMW, Bosch, Morgan Stanley and McKinsey. Katherine served as President of the Expatriate Professional Women’s Society in 2007 - 2008. In 2019 she joined the RAS China Council as the Film Club Convener, and in 2023 she also took on the role of Membership Director.

Journal Editor
Melinda Liu

Melinda Liu is editor of the Royal Asiatic Society China Journal. She opened Newsweek’s first Beijing bureau in 1980, and has lived and worked in mainland China for nearly three decades as a U.S. foreign correspondent. In addition to reporting on China’s post-Mao modernization, she has covered conflicts and military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Somalia and Haiti. Liu won the 2006 Shorenstein Journalism Award in recognition of her reporting on Asia, and in 2017 co-directed the documentary film, “Doolittle Raiders: A China Story”

Art Focus Group Convenor
Julie Chun

Julie Chun is an independent Art Historian and Art Critic based in Shanghai since 2011. Since 2013, she serves as the Art Focus Convener of the Royal Asiatic Society in China, curating museum talks, panel discussions, artist and curator talks, and art historical sessions to broaden the public’s understanding of artistic objects, past and present. For over a decade, she has served the RAS China in various positions as the Vice President, Journal Editor, and Library Committee Chair. She lectures for diverse foreign associations in Shanghai, including the foreign Consulate General offices and has taught East Asian art history as an Adjunct Professor at global programs in Shanghai at the Institute for Study Abroad at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, IES at Donghua University and CIEE at East China Normal University. She is a writer and critic for Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art and her art reviews and criticisms have been published in academic art journals and international art publications, including LEAP, Randian, ArtReview Asia, Art Forum China, OVER Photography Journal, Shanghai Daily as well as the Journal of the RAS.

Convenor of "Stories of Things"
Robert Martin
 
Robert Martin is a former banker who has lived in Asia over 40 years. With an academic background that incudes Asian studies, he has immersed himself in the arts and culture of the region. Robert conceived the Stories of Things convener group in 2018, and has led it since that time.