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H-ASIA May 3, 2006 Comment on Jing Wang's letter regarding the MIT controversy ********************************************************************** From: Jonathan Dresner <dresner@hawaii.edu> Jing Wang, in his open letter, wrote: > Let us resist the temptation of reducing this > complex controversy into a simplified issue about Chinese nationalism vs. > American academic freedom. I myself, being a veteran academic, support > the principle of academic freedom. But with freedom comes responsibility, > and in this case, responsibility for being sensitive to potentially > offensive materials published on the MIT Homepage. The very fact that my > colleagues Dower and Miyagawa took pains of revising their site indicates > that they take such responsibilities seriously This is quite disingenuous, most obviously in the claim that Dower and Miyagawa voluntarily initiated the revision merely on being shown the error of their ways. There are, of course, multiple ways to "frame" the controversy, but: a) there is no offense to be given if there is no nationalism among Chinese, and b) there is no solution except in the compromise of academic freedom. Therefore I don't see any fallacy in summarizing the issue as Prof. Wang has stated it. The Dower/Miyagawa website was very carefully written and well-managed, a responsible and authoritative product. If an image was taken out of context, why should the entire educational project be obliterated, even temporarily? Jonathan Dresner http://froginawell.net/japan University of Hawai'i ****************************************************************** To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: <H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu> For holidays or short absences send post to: <listserv@h-net.msu.edu> with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/
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