| isolated freak |
Posted
on 25-Feb-03 12:45 AM
Boring cha, dry cha.. won't be of any use to those not into Chinese history.
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Prof. John King Fairbank was Francis Lee Higginson Prof of History at Harvard until his death in 1991. Born in 1907, he attended the University of Chicago, Wisconsin University and Harvard College where he graduated summa cum laude in 1929 . He was one of the leading authorities on China and Chinese History, and even today, many Sinologists in the US and elsewhere believe that no one understood China and Chinese History better than Fairbank.
In his long and impressive teaching career, Fairbnank wrote many books that are still considered milestones on Chinese affairs and history—The United States and China, China: Old and New and China Watch just to name a few. The fact that the Harvard-Belknap Press is still reprinting these books tells that the US academia still relies heavily on his books to understand China—the State, the people and the History.
Fairbank had a leftist/Socialist tilt. He was one of the staunch opponents of the American policy towards China in the Cold-War period. He opposed the idea of the US supporting the rebel government of Chiang Kai-Shek in Taiwan. In “The US and China” he wrote, “One billion people can’t be wrong and the US should recognize the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China. The US is on the wrong side of the history.” During the height of Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1970), he wrote that its probably the best thing to happen to China, however, after the disastrous result of the Cultural Revolution, in his subsequent books, he admitted that he was wrong due to some shortcomings in his analysis of the revolution. Needless to say, his critique of the American Foreign Policy and his openly leftist tilt were enough to make him a victim of domestic McArthicism. He writes “…In Washington I was ‘identified’ as a communist (by L. Budenz) and as part of a ‘hard inner-core’ of an alleged pro-Communist conspiracy”. Many China Specialists/Sinologists suffered because of the mass Hysteria, promoted/created by the State. However, interestingly enough, Fairbank escaped the plight of Owen Lattimore, another brilliant Sinologist except that the State decided to impose a ban on the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) which was engaged in research on China and of which Fairbank was one of the trustees.
When President Nixon—after putting an end to the domestic McArthicism—decided that he would go to China for a strategic partnership to contain the USSR in East and Central Asia and to bring the Vietnam War to an end, Prof. Fairbank was called upon for “advise” on dealing with China. James Mann in his book “About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship with China, From Nixon to Clinton” writes that when Fairbank was called in the White House for advise on dealing with the Chinese, he gave an one-line reply, “never appear too hostile, never appear too friendly”, which instantly became the backbone of the American Policy on China. Even today, the American Policy on China has been to avoid the both extremes— affability and hostility—in it’s dealings with China.
Fairbank, was a researcher and more of a student than a Professor of China/Chinese History. He was also an activist who along with others in the academia struggled to introduce and establish Chinese Studies as a discipline. He made the study of Chinese history simple and enjoyable to the students. According to the web-site of Fairbank Research Center, “as he boarded ship for England in the Autumn of 1929 to take up a Rhodes Scholarship, there was little in John Fairbank's background to mark him as the future founder of modern Chinese studies in the United States.” To encourage the study and research on China in particular and East Asia in General, he established The Center for East Asian Research at Harvard in 1955, which was later renamed The Fairbank Center for East Asian Research.
Being a Chinese Studies major, I had to read and re-read his books when I was in college and most of my knowledge on China comes from Fairbank’s books. Although all his books are great, I recommend his last book, China: A New History to anyone interested in China and Chinese History because this book is an assimilation of his long career as a Prof, Researcher and a student of Chinese history. What else one can ask for when one gets 4000 years of Chinese history—plus a whole chapter on the Paleolithic age China—in one 500 pages easy read!
References:
China: A New History and The United States and China by Prof. John K Fairbank
About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, From Nixon to Clinton by James Mann
The Great Wall and The Empty Fortress by Andrew Nathan and Robert Ross
and the web-site of Fairbank Research Center
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