China News Service, Beijing, February 23 (Xinhua) -- Pei Yili, the female head of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and her "unpopular" school.
Written by Tian Jing.
Located in the elegant Divinity Street of Harvard University in the United States, there is a typical red brick building, the floor is not high but very imposing, a pair of white marble stone lions in front of the door, which is full of Chinese culture, and this is the location of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. Elizabeth J. Pei was born in Shanghai in 1948Perry, the current head of the society, has been its president since 2008 and has been instrumental in building bridges between East and West as one of the oldest research institutes in the United States.
In a recent interview with China News Service's East-West Question, Pei Yili admitted that without the opportunity to conduct meaningful research in China and the guidance of her knowledgeable and generous Chinese colleagues, she would not have been able to write these books and articles over the past 40 years.
丨The only female head of the Harvard-Yenching Institute.
The Harvard-Yenching Institute is an independent society that had offices at both Harvard University and Yenching University in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century, with a special focus on traditional sinological studies. Pei Yili became the only female head of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, which is inseparable from her research direction and academic achievements. The presidents of the society have come from different disciplines such as sinology, history, anthropology, and literature, but their research topics are mainly East Asia.
The 90th anniversary of the founding of the Harvard-Yenching Institute was held in Shanghai. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Pei Yili was no exception, but her research topic was relatively "unpopular" at the time. Her research discipline is comparative politics, and "contemporary Chinese politics reflects both China's own political and cultural traditions and, in some places, the influence of the Soviet Union and other countries, and it is of particular interest to me to evaluate the changes in these different influences." She said.
The 90th anniversary of the founding of the Harvard-Yenching Institute was held in Shanghai. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
The American Historical Review described her as "a social scientist's love of order and a historian's eye for a great story."
丨Under the influence of his parents, he was engaged in Chinese studies.
Pei's relationship with China began long before she began her research on China. Pei's parents were missionaries of the Episcopal Church in the United States, and in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century, her father Pan Xuesi (Chinese) was a professor at St. John's University in Shanghai, during which time she met his wife Kong Kaili. Pei Yili was born in Shanghai in 1948. Soon after she was born, the family moved to Japan and returned to the United States.
After graduating, Pei Yili went to Taiwan to study Chinese at Taiwan Normal University, where she began her research on modern China. During her graduate studies, she began studying Chinese politics, earning a master's degree in political science from the University of Washington in 1971 and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan in 1978.
In 1979, the first year of the resumption of academic exchanges between China and the United States, Pei Yili revisited Chinese mainland as a young assistant professor at the University of Washington with a delegation of U.S. mayors, but the visit was too short. So, three months later, she applied to come to the mainland to do research for a whole year. This year, as a visiting scholar, she met professors Cai Shaoqing and Mao Jiaqi, who had a great influence on her, and worked with them on the field of "the relationship between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and secret societies".
From 1979 to 2019, Pei visited Chinese mainland an average of two or three times a year, and on several occasions stayed for a year. Her research focuses on the history of the Chinese Revolution and its ongoing impact on contemporary China. She said that access to Chinese research materials and the opportunity to conduct field trips were crucial to her research. Among them, the book "Shanghai Strike: A Study of Chinese Workers' Politics" won the "Fairbank Prize" of the American Historical Association. The book is based on documents from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the Shanghai Municipal Archives, and the Shanghai Municipal Library, as well as interviews with older workers and discussions with labor historians. Another of her books, Anyuan: Unearthing the Traditions of the Chinese Revolution, draws on material from the Anyuan Road Miners' Movement Memorial Hall, as well as interviews with elderly workers, and discussions with local historians and other Chinese scholars, notably Professor Yu Jianrong of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as interviews in Beijing, Nanjing, and elsewhere. It is reported that since 1979, Pei Yili's main research has been done using or based on data from Chinese mainland.
Without the opportunity to conduct meaningful research in China, and with the guidance of my knowledgeable and generous Chinese colleagues, I would not have been able to write these books and articles over the past 40 years. Pei Yili told reporters.
Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China (1845-1945), published in 1980. This monograph is regarded as a representative work of the third generation of overseas Chinese studies scholars, and it is also Pei Yili's famous work. She gave the book to her parents, "Without them, I wouldn't be doing China studies." ”
Pei's parents have lived in China for nearly 20 years, and they have always had a deep affection for China. In the '80s and '90s, Pei met her parents' former students in Shanghai and was invited to visit the homes of these friends. Even after many years, Pei Yili still remembers the scene when they got together.
While doing her research, she also found a 1948 interview with her father at St. John's University in the Shanghai Archives. Through that newspaper, she seemed to have a conversation with her father in time and space, and learned the story of her birth.
In the spring of 2019, she visited Shanghai again, where she spent several months at Fudan University, where she conducted historical research and sought advice from sociologists, political scientists, and historians. "I'm always happy to be back in the city where I was born and I find this to be an unusual place, one that's both cosmopolitan and welcoming. I can see why my parents loved living in Shanghai, and I myself love exploring the old neighborhoods, eating xiao long bao, and talking to friends and colleagues. ”
丨Academic cooperation is crucial to China-US relations.
Talking about academic exchanges between different countries, Pei Yili said that John Leighton Stuart, president of Yenching University, and Francis Hawkes Pott, president of St. John's University in Shanghai, have emphasized that they should be good citizens of their own country and the world. As president of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, she agrees.
From its founding in 1928 to the present, the Harvard-Yenching Institute has sought to encourage the broader study of Chinese culture in China and Asia. As president, he also established a scholarship for PhDs and postdocs who are conducting Chinese cultural studies in India. At the same time, they encouraged China to conduct research in this area. They invited visiting scholars and visiting fellows from many different countries in Asia to examine the comparative work of their national experiences in an international context while studying different topics from a range of different disciplinary perspectives.
In an interview, Pei said that strong academic cooperation, including student exchanges and collaborative research efforts, is critical to the healthy development of U.S.-China relations. "I very much hope that the dynamic exchange of talent and ideas that so many of us have worked so hard to foster over the past half-century will continue to be supported. This kind of communication and cooperation is essential to address the serious threats we face to survive on this planet – issues such as climate change, pandemic control, etc. (ENDS).
Interviewee Profile:
Elizabeth JPerry is currently a professor of political science at Harvard University and president of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. Since 1972, he has taught at the University of Arizona, the University of Washington, the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University. Since 1997, he has been a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at Harvard University, where he has served as Director of the Fairbank Center and President of the Association for Asian Studies. Her research interests include the peasant question in modern China, the Chinese workers' movement, and Chinese society and politics. His major works include Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China (1845-1945), The Shanghai Strike: A Study of Chinese Workers' Politics, and An Yuan: Unearthing the Traditions of the Chinese Revolution.