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H-ASIA April 15, 2007 A possible new direction of discussion: evaluating the Republican period in modern Chinese history (comment on China Scholars and Cold War) ************************************************************************ From: Thomas Bartlett <tcbartlett@optusnet.com.au> Andrew Field's webblog (to which he directed H-ASIA readers in his post of April 12 is most eloquent in its expression of his own perspectives about intramural politics at Columbia, where he studied. He evidently approves of younger scholars with whom he worked, like Robert Hymes, but he expresses particular resentment of the older eminence, Wm. T.De Bary, a strong minded man who dominated Columbia's China studies for many years. As such, De Bary was not an uncontroversial figure. Does exposition of the claim, that post-opening Chinese are seriously under-represented in the higher realms of US academe, really merit the photo of De Bary which visually dominates Field's blog, and identifies him by the absurdly misconceived question: "China Luminary or Cold War Warrior"? De Bary's contribution to broadly conceived humanistic study of China is simply monumental. I find the tone of Dr. Field's blog is so flavored by his own recollections of his encounter with De Bary as to undermine confidence in his other expressed opinions. These days there is an ongoing chorus of historians of modern China that denigrates the Republican era and glorifies the post-1949 period. It may be that the PRC wants to erase the Republican period from the ongoing saga of Chinese history--seeing itself as the inheritor of the glory days of the Qing dynasty, thus relegating the ROC to a trivial, secondary role. This is interesting becuase a very large large proportion of the first generation of intellectuals who got the new PRC state functioning in the 1950s were educated under ROC auspices. So when Mao had got what he wanted from them, he purged them, if he couldn't own their minds. Students in western countries deserve a more critical viewpoint than one which simply caters to what is taught in China these days. It has been noted in this thread that post-opening arrivals from China are found in the US receiving high level academic appointments in social science fields, but not in history. Actually, it's the social science disciplines, more than history, which are valued by people in power. Some of those social science specialists, like Huang Jing, and Pei Minxin, et al., are even very influential in high profile think tanks in Washington DC. The notion that being trained in the "rigors of Marxism" (sic) could be construed as dangerous to those holding Cold War attitudes in US academe is just a non-starter. No one takes Marxism that seriously in the US or in China anymore. Ross Terrill is an outstanding Australian researcher in modern Chinese history; his celebrated book, titled something like "800 Million: the Real China", was very influential in the 1970s in turning the US public toward a more attentive awareness of contemporary China. But since the late 1980s, Terrill has become a very trenchant critic of post-Maoist China, emphasizing his disillusionment that the Leninist core of the CCP has shown no signs of being reformed. The webblog uses the term, "West Coast Ivies", which I never heard during the half century I lived in the USA. But I've been away for a decade; is it current usage now? I wonder whether it reflects an appropriately nuanced understanding of American academic realities. I wonder what scholars at UCLA or the University of Washington think about the label--or, come to that, the University of British Columbia. Thomas Bartlett Melbourne ****************************************************************** 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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