Few students of modern China would dispute that the Hundred Days Reform of1898 ushered in a major nation-building effort that, despite false starts and setbacks, has continued to this day. Thus, history and policyconverged when its centenary in 1998 was widely commemorated—20 yearsafter reform was again proclaimed China's national agenda (1978). Beida,or Peking University, which traces its founding to the establishment of theImperial College (Jingshi daxuetang) in 1898, celebrated not only thehistorical event but also its own evolution over the past century to becomeChina's leading institution of higher learning. The Palace Museum,which stands on the grounds of the former Forbidden City, where much of the1898 drama unfolded, commemorated with an exhibition of archival materialsand historical artifacts. It lasted from June 11 to September 21, theoriginal dates of the Hundred Days. Historians did not lag behind. In anoutpour of publications, they explored the multifarious facets of the famousepisode. China scholars elsewhere also took note of the centenary. Twopanels at the 1998 meetings of the Association for Asian Studies inWashington, D.C., for example, presented papers that dealt with, if notexactly what transpired a century ago, issues somehow related to it.