Wang Xi

Wang Xi invited to give a speech at the Wharton School of the Unviersity of Pennsylvania

Wang Xi (1920- ), a noted Chinese histo­rian, graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Penn­sylvania in 1947. He has served as deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University and deputy president of the History of Sino-U.S. Relations Research Council. At present, he is an academic adviser of the Center for American Studies at Fudan Uni­versity and an editorial board member of Amer­ican Studies Quarterly.

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Any discussion of the world situa­tion and international relations is incomplete without an examination of Sino-U.S. relations. The present status of relations between China and the United States remains somewhere along the continuum of conflicts and cooperation. In 2011, the overtures that the United States made toward recalibrating its strat­egy in the Asia-Pacific region meant that the United States will attempt to contain China’s regional impact. However, lots of realistic issues are bound to not trigger massive con­flicts between China and the United States. Recently, CSST’s reporter interviewed Wang Xi, a scholar of Sino-U.S. relations history.

 

CSST: With regard to the study of Sino-U.S. relations, your peers in academia have assessed that your new achievements based on international academic frontiers have made a great contribution to the advancement of studies on the history of Sino-U.S. relations and the history of international rela­tions in general. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, you were the first to publish an article — Brief Review on Some Issues of the History of Sino-U.S. Relations — attracting the attention of aca­demia and exerting a significant influence. Could you give a brief introduction about your studies on the history of Sino-U.S. relations?

 

Wang Xi: In my view, the study of Sino-U.S. relations should not only focus on China but also pay atten­tion to the United States. It should not only find out the impact of the United States on China but also dis­cover the influence of China on the United States, which I have talked about in Way of Seeking. We need to study the mutual influence between the two countries and the origin of the influence as well. Also, we need to find out the results of the influ­ence.

 

In the past, we studied issues on how America has “invaded” us, how we resisted, why America “in­vaded” us, what were the results of this “invasion”, and what difference exists between America’s “inva­sion” and that of other countries. But generally American scholars do not think in terms of America’s “invasion” of China, and their focus is mainly on the influence of West­ern civilizations on modern China’s development and socioeconomic transitions.

 

They theorize that the pattern of China’s modernization is the result of Western culture shock. This perspective is known as John King Fairbank’s “impact-reaction” pat­tern. However, Fairbank’s student Paul A. Cohen has a different argu­ment. Cohen indicated that China’s economic development is an in­ternal affair in China and internal factors of Chinese society should be studied, which is “Sinocentrism”. With regard to these two different research approaches, there are pros and cons. I proposed that internal and external factors should be com­bined to avoid a one-sided study.

 

CSST: How can we combine the study of Sino-U.S. relations and the study of contemporary interna­tional relations together?

 

Wang Xi: The importance of this question has become more and more prominent. The national pow­er of China was formerly relatively weak, but at present, China is a rising great power, and discussions on the world situation and interna­tional relations cannot neglect the study of Sino-U.S. relations.

 

America’s views on China are very prudent and the United States wants to understand China’s stra­tegic intentions. Recently, Chuck Hagel, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, visited China in an attempt to find out China’s strategic intentions and at the same time, Sino-Japanese relations have become a significant consideration in Sino-U.S. relations.

 

CSST: At college, you majored in economics and chose history as your minor. Your later research orientation has covered both economics and history, which are completely distinguished disci­plines, but you did a good job of combining them. Today, academia has realized the importance of interdisciplinary studies. As a pioneer, what do you propose to improve interdisciplinary studies on the basis of your relevant expe­rience?

 

Wang Xi: Based on my own experi­ences, interdisciplinary studies came from practice. I studied economics at Sichuan University and then studied in the U.S. What I learned in the U.S. was relatively diverse and compli­cated. I learned economic theories at the University of Chicago and took courses of economic history at sum­mer school of Cornell University. At Wharton, I studied economic history, international economics and busi­ness cycle theory.

 

At college, although what I learned had no direct relation­ship to interdisciplinary studies, my supervisor always mentioned something about interdisciplinary studies in his lectures. After each class, I always communicated with my teachers. They would ask some general questions, some of which contained interdisciplinary re­search approaches. But at that time, my teachers didn’t tell me that and I only gradually came to understand concepts of interdisciplinary stud­ies. When I was a student, I didn’t have an intuition for interdiscipli­nary studies. It wasn’t until I began to teach that I started to realize the meaning of interdisciplinary studies step by step.

 

At the time, overseas students believed that their mission was to serve China and were determined to go home when they completed their education abroad. When I returned to China, teachers taught state-owned economy at college, and what I learned about bourgeois economics, including business administration and insurance, was completely useless, so I had to study economic history at Shanghai Acad­emy of Social Sciences.

 

Afterward, when I taught at Fudan University, I opened many interdisciplinary courses, including international trade theory, Sino-American economic relationships and history of Sino-U.S. relations. There are many interdisciplinary details in my lecture notes, so my teaching approach has gradually affected my students and a tradi­tion of interdisciplinary studies naturally came into being. There­fore, I never insist that the concept of interdisciplinary studies come first and then considered about interdisciplinary studies. Instead, interdisciplinary approaches are mastered without being explicitly emphasized throughout the course of the research.

 

CSST: You published theses in Historical Research very early, and then published several articles, i.e. On the Nature and Function of Westernization Group’s Govern­ment-Supervised and Merchant-Managed Firms, and Studies on the Orientation of Modern History of China – External Cause, Internal Cause or the Combination of Inter­nal and External Causes. So would you please share your experience of writing papers with us?

 

Wang Xi: Before I came to Fudan University I wrote my first thesis. Traced back to the year 1959, I worked at Shanghai Academy of So­cial Sciences and I wrote this thesis in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great Rebellion in India. The thesis was published on No. 8 Issue of Historical Research in 1959. When I finished writing, I sent it to Professor Chen Hansheng, and he praised it.

 

On Government-Supervised and Merchant-Managed Organization in the Late Qing Dynasty has won the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Sciences Excellent Paper Award between 1979 and 1985. On this basis, I published On the Nature and Function of Westernization Group’s Government-Supervised and Merchant-Managed Firms on Historical Research in 1983. My papers are mainly published on two journals: one is Historical Research and the other is Fudan Journal. World History also published some of my papers.

 

CSST: What are your expecta­tions for and what advice can you give to today’s young scholars?

 

Wang Xi: I hope that young schol­ars don’t seek something other than their profession when they conduct studies. Young scholars should bear the cold shoulder and truly concentrate on studies. If they think too much, it is impossible for young scholars to engage in scholarship. Writing academic articles should avoid empty words in order to make each word based on real facts. Certainly, I also hope that modern society could provide much more support to young scholars and make their living conditions much better.

 

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 638, August. 25, 2014

                                                                                                                          Translated by Zhang Mengying

The Chinese link:

http://sscp.cssn.cn/zdtj/201408/t20140825_1302315.html