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H-ASIA April 4, 2007 Chinese scholars and Chinese history-a view from South Asia ********************************************************************** From: Frank Conlon <conlon@u.washington.edu> I am interested in the post suggesting that there is evidence which can be read as suggesting an exclusion of scholars who are Chinese from panels at the recent AAS and a lack of Chinese scholars who teach Chinese history in "the West." I know that Albert Einstein said that we had to have invented time so that everything didn't happen at once, and that, of course, is what is needed in this discussion--a 'snapshot' of a single AAS conference program has shown to Yang Bin and Thomas Dubois that there are fewer Chinse names among penelists than Yang and Dubois think there should have been. I don't know who it was that said "there is no such thing as a misperception" but who ever it was, had it spot on. As we discuss this subject the final arrangements are being made for a conference in Los Angeles of the "South Asia Studies Alliance" which was launched with the claim that the Association for Asian Studies ignored and otherwise discriminated against South Asianists (which includes a good number of people with South Asian names--many from South Asia). There is always a means to "cherry pick" evidence to make a point, but I can state from personal observation, that the AAS has been extraordinarily proactive in encouraging South Asian participation in the annual conference--whereas my impression is that the program selectors have to be much more selective in other areas, particularly China, where there are far more submissions. So, perhaps, perceptions have to do, figuratively (and maybe literally) with where you are coming from. There are perceptions of elitism, cronyism, old-boy and girlism at work, of distinctions and rewards based on class, gender, race, ideology or sexual orientation, and coming soon--obesity. The slicing and dicing of participation profiles may yield a lot of interesting and differing conclusions depending on the question being asked. Without for a moment dismissing the concern raised by Yang and Dubois and Dubois's graduate students, I would suggest that examination of a larger sample of conference participation, or of holding of academic appointments is necessary before that concern become reified. Speaking personally, I have found that a surname does not tell me much at all about the nature, quality or character of an individual--I won't push this too far, but I have personal knowledge of instances when, in search processes in the United States, some faculty--whether motivated by a concern for social justice, guilt, a committment to diversity, or an unfamiliarity with the field of a candidate, do default to a view that a candidate of the ethnicity or nationality of the area to be taught, is likely the best person, if only because she or he is "authentic." Many many years ago, during one of my times as Director of our South Asian Center, the issue of an appointment of a young Indian scholar came up--and my dean at the time expressed pleasure that we would be getting a very good scholar (which that person was) and then the dean ruined it for me by saying "and it's going to count as affirmative action." That was in a time when I was still a naive idealist... On Ian Welch's requiem for conferences, I have just returned from two--the AAS in Boston and the BASAS in Cambridge. In both instances the face to face meetings, the shared tea breaks, meals and drinks, as well as the formal events, all contributed to community building--scarcely depersonalization to use Ian's term. Of course, some people weren't there. Ironically among the missing were the elite world-class boys and girls who had, in the words of Dick Cheney "other priorities." When Leibo and I started H-ASIA thirteen years ago last Sunday (yes, April 1, 1994), we saw H-ASIA as not a substitute for conferences, but as a ground-leveling vehicle to give more scholars in more places a chance to participate in the conversation. I think that H-ASIA has accomplished this to some degree, but if you think that the conference is going to its latter days, let me just note that a lot of the big-thought types in internet communication say that e-mail discussion lists such as ours, are going the way of the dinosaurs because they are old-fashioned. Technology, like revolutions, devours its young (or in our case, its middle-aged). I am just full of quotes this morning. Remember the Rollings Stone's hit "you can't always get what you want"--to which I would add the coda, "but often when you do get it, it turns out not be what you thought you wanted afterall." I look forward to continued thoughtful discussion of this thread and thank colleagues Yang and Dubois for raising the matter. Frank Frank F. Conlon Professor Emeritus University of Washington Co-editor, H-ASIA ****************************************************************** 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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