China Encounters the World
Peter Perdue, Yale University
Sulmaan Khan, Tufts University
Arne Westad, Yale University
Rana Mitter, University of Oxford
Zaib Aziz, University of South Florida
EverScholar in Boston
November 2-5, 2023
Boston and Cambridge, MA
$2295 per person
In this course, we will discuss intensively cultural and political interactions beween China and the West in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. According to a recent estimate, only 350 Americans are now actively studying in China, compared to 15,000 a decade ago. The personal relations of Americans and Chinese have declined to unprecedented lows. International exchanges once seen as sources of mutual understanding now generate fears of security threats on both sides. The foreign policy of states is not made only by diplomats and political leaders; public perceptions always shape policy decisions. Without the “people to people” diplomacy which China and the U.S. used to endorse, serious crises can easily emerge.
In the first half of the twentieth century, by contrast, China and the West engaged in widespread cultural contact. In this period, neither China nor the U.S. held the dominant position in the world that they have today; arguably, this made both countries more open to learning from each other and more aware of global influences that they both shared. Many fascinating personalities sought to bridge the gap between East and West through their travels, writings, and personal influence. In this seminar, we will examine some of the important characters and events that affected Sino-Western relations, by looking at the writings of some of the most colorful personages of the period.
The course will connect current concerns about Chinese foreign relations with the most important underlying themes of modern China: empire, culture, nationalism and geopolitics. By exploring decisions of elites alongside popular conceptions of the identity of the Chinese nation, we expose longer trends that persist beneath day-to-day crises. Every session will use primary historical sources to address our understanding of current events.
Our faculty include specialists on the Qing dynasty, Chinese nationalism, global history, cold war history, and Chinese foreign policy in the Maoist and post-Maoist era. They will not give lectures, but instead ensure that all students participate actively in discussion. They aim to provide stimulating discussions for everyone who participates, and promise to challenge your understanding of how modern China works.
The seminars, with our faculty together in class and outside of class, bring together experts with your fellow EverScholars, a community of intellectually curious and energetic friends old and new. The discussions will go in unexpected directions as we dine together and share questions and insights throughout all the little corners of the days. And even after the course, the EverScholar discussions continue through our online discussion group, our local events, and at reunions organized from time to time. Please join us for this exciting intellectual adventure!
Our Lead Faculty:
Professor of History Emeritus
Yale University
Peter C. Perdue is Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University. He has taught courses on East Asian history and civilization, Chinese social and economic history, the Silk Road, and historical methodology. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of numerous books, including China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Harvard University Press, 2005). His current research focuses on Chinese frontiers, Chinese environmental history, and the history of tea. Most recently, he has published an introduction to environmental history in Chinese. Professor Perdue has taught several programs under the EverScholar model to great acclaim.
Denison Professor of International History and Chinese Foreign Relations
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Sulmaan Khan holds the Denison Chair in International History and Chinese Foreign Relations at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. He is the author of Haunted by Chaos: China’s Grand Strategy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping and Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy: China’s Cold War and the People of the Tibetan Borderlands. He has written for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The Economist. His new book on the triangular relationship between China, Taiwan, and the United States is forthcoming from Basic Books.
Our Guest Faculty:
Elihu Professor of History
Yale University
Odd Arne Westad teaches history and global affairs at Yale, where he also directs International Security Studies. Among his books are The Global Cold War and Decisive Encounters, a history of the Chinese civil war. He also co-edited a three-volume Cambridge History of the Cold War. His most recent books are Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750, which won the Asia Society’s book award, The Cold War: A World History, and Empire and Righteous Nation: 600 Years of China-Korea Relations.
Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, University of Oxford
ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations, Harvard Kennedy School
Rana Mitter OBE FBA is ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is the author of several books, including Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II (2013) which won the 2014 RUSI/Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature, and was named a Book of the Year in the Financial Times and Economist. His latest book is China’s Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New Nationalism (Harvard, 2020). His writing on contemporary China has appeared recently in Foreign Affairs, the Harvard Business Review, The Spectator, The Critic, and The Guardian. He has commented regularly on China in media and forums around the world, including at the World Economic Forum at Davos. His recent documentary on contemporary Chinese politics “Meanwhile in Beijing” is available on BBC Sounds. He is co-author, with Sophia Gaston, of the report “Conceptualizing a UK-China Engagement Strategy” (British Foreign Policy Group, 2020). He won the 2020 Medlicott Medal for Service to History, awarded by the UK Historical Association.
Assistant Professor in the History of the Modern British Empire
University of South Florida
Zaib un Nisa Aziz is a historian of global and imperial history with a focus on Modern South Asia and British History with particular interests in in histories of decolonization, labour, and internationalism. She is Assistant Professor in the History of the Modern British Empire the University of South Florida, Tampa. She received her PhD in Global History from Yale University in 2022. Her forthcoming book , Nations Ascendant: The Global Struggle Against Empire and The Making of our World, shows how an international community of colonial activists, thinkers and campaigners came to share ideas about universal decolonization and the end of empires in the aftermath of the First World War and Bolshevik Revolution. Her published work includes “Passages from India: Indian Anti Colonial Activism in Exile 1905-1920” Other forthcoming publications include a discussion of Asian, European, and Latin American figures in post-revolutionary Mexico City and a chapter on entangled history of the internationalist proletarian movement and the anti-colonial movement in British India for an edited volume published by Cambridge University Press. She taught in the EverScholar course “The Modern Axial Age” in early 2023 and returns by popular demand.
Readings
All EverScholar courses actually start months before our meeting. After registration, you will receive all books and scholarly articles for the course, and will immerse yourself in great works curated by our faculty. “China Encounters the World” is no exception, with works ranging from contemporaneous writings to great books written by your own EverScholar professors. Primary sources will mix with authoritative texts to produce night after night of joy as you prepare for your return to the life of the mind.
Special Events
One of EverScholar’s unique and most beloved features are our Special Events; sessions at a number of well-known (such as a museum or Art Gallery) or less-known centers of collection and learning. “China Encounters the World” continues this tradition.
Events for this program are anticipated at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, and the Harvard Art Museums, with experts guiding us.
Beyond the Classroom
Everything that happens during an EverScholar program is enhanced by the fact that it takes place in a learning-promoting environment.
This program takes place in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Discounted housing has been arranged at a fine Cambridge hotel.
Learn more about the experience!
The course begins with a reception and dinner at the home of Professor Perdue on Thursday…. and ends in late afternoon Sunday. The program cost is $2,295 per person. Deposit is $500 per person. Balance is due on October 1, 2023. Cancellation refund and COVID-19 refund policies are detailed on the registration page – so you can register without worries.
All EverScholar program attendees are required to be fully “up-to-date” on covid vaccination; we also require rapid testing on the day the course begins.
Looking forward to seeing you there!