Chinese Collaborators Research Articles

State of the Field Report XV: Contemporary Chinese Studies of the Scholastic-Aristotelian Soul in Late-Ming and Early-Qing China

AbstractThe Jesuit China mission coincided with a sophisticated attempt to place Chinese and Western concepts of human nature in dialogue with Confucianism. The Jesuits believed that they could facilitate evangelization by drawing upon Confucian concepts to explain the soul. In so doing, they and their Chinese collaborators also pioneered a genre of hybrid philosophical texts, which used Aristotelian conceptions of the soul to critique and supplement autochthonous Chinese conceptions of human nature. These texts are not just of significance for Chinese Christian theology, but also anthropology, psychology, and even medicine, given the role played by the soul in both Chinese and Western conceptions of human physiology at the time. Until recently these texts have been little studied except by missiologists who were more interested in their relevance for mission history than for comparative philosophy. Scholarship has perhaps also been hampered by the immense linguistic demands of studying texts that sit between the Chinese and Western intellectual traditions. Recently, however, a number of Chinese scholars have turned their attention to these texts, intrigued by novel philosophical ideas contained therein and their complex relationship to both the Western and Chinese intellectual and religious traditions. Since many of these Chinese-language contributions are published in volumes which are not easily accessible outside of China, they have not enjoyed great visibility in Western-language scholarship. This article will review the major developments in Chinese scholarship and will conclude with suggestions for future research.

Simultaneously ‘national medicine’ and ‘East Asian medicine’: A cross-boundary network of medical exchange in wartime East Asia

Abstract This article examines a transnational network of advocates for Kampō (traditional) medicine in Japan, occupied China, and Manchukuo during the Sino-Japanese War (1931–1945), shedding new light on collaborationism, Asianism, and the modernization of traditional medicine in East Asia. In the 1930s, despite deteriorating Sino-Japanese relations, the Kampō revival movement in Japan joined forces with the struggle to preserve traditional medicine in China. In 1938, the Association of East Asian Medicine was founded in Japan, gathering together Chinese, Korean, and Japanese advocates under the banner of ‘East Asian medicine’. This article delineates the evolution of what I call ‘medical Asianism’ and how it was institutionalized in different parts of the Japanese empire. Participants in this network differed in their priorities and ideological commitments, yet they tactfully utilized the Japanese imperial infrastructure and wartime circumstances to promote traditional medicine. Their work laid important intellectual and institutional foundations for the postwar development of traditional medicine across East Asia. This study also contributes to a more nuanced understandings of collaborationism. The type of collaboration examined in this article was preceded by a long history of intellectual exchange, based on a shared body of knowledge and morals, motivated by mutual empathy, and for a cause that was much valued in postwar Asia. As a result, unlike most Chinese collaborators who were prosecuted as ‘traitors’, protagonists in this study continued to prosper professionally and became valuable assets in the postwar rebuilding of Sino-Japanese relations.

Teaching Chinese Politics in the “New Cold War”: A Survey of Faculty

The past decade has been a difficult time to be a scholar of Chinese politics. After Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, opportunities for international collaboration began disappearing, and local interlocutors became increasingly nervous about speaking with foreign researchers. Since 2016, these problems have been compounded by the increasingly tense US–China relationship. Changing attitudes and policies in both countries have hindered those who conduct research on China, work with Chinese collaborators, and recruit Chinese students. The Fulbright Program in China and Hong Kong was closed; National Institutes of Health investigations into foreign influence in US science have caused US-based scientists’ research productivity to decline; and visa restrictions have hindered efforts to recruit Chinese graduate students (Jia et al. 2023). Legal changes in China, including the 2021 Personal Information Protection Law and the 2023 revised Counter-Espionage Law, could be used to target foreign scholars who conduct research in China (Lewis 2023; McCarthy and Gan 2023). The COVID-19 pandemic compounded these challenges in several ways: it caused a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States and created severe pedagogical challenges for those teaching Chinese politics and other courses containing “sensitive” material that could put students—some now physically located in China—at risk (Gueorguiev et al. 2020).

The initial period of the sino-japanese war 1937-1939

The article provides political assessments of the attitude of German military specialists to the processes of the initial period of the Sino-Japanese War. The authors are based on previously little-known documents from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, some of these documents are put into circulation for the first time. The article reflects the struggle of ideologies on the territory of China during its military clash with Japan. The authors, based on German documents, show the harsh anti-communist nature of Japanese policy in the occupied Chinese territories, and also address the problem of Japanese chauvinism in the late 1930s. The complexity of relations between the Japanese military and representatives of the political and economic elites of China at the initial stage of the Sino-Japanese War led to the support of the Chinese bourgeoisie for the Kuomintang regime, which weakened the position of Chinese collaborators. The article shows the failure of the strategy of the Japanese occupation authorities aimed at splitting the Chinese society. The article reflects the role of Alexander von Falkenhausen at the initial stage of the Sino-Japanese War. The authors highlight the issues of strategic miscalculations of the Japanese high command and shortcomings in the strategy of Chiang Kai-shek.

The Way Athanasius Kircher Illustrated China in His “China Illustrata” (1667)

The paper seeks to further research the long-forgotten compilation work of the German Jesuit encyclopedist of the 17th century Athanasius Kircher “China Illustrata ...”, which has acquired relevance since the beginning of the 21st century not only in the context of the European Sinology history, but also in historical, imagological and philosophical-missiological context. The publication aims to integrate this hitherto little-known and underestimated work of the German erudite and “the last Renaissance man, who knew everything” into several lines of information transmission: From the preachers collecting facts and carrying out initial systematization in China to the creator of “China Illustrata”, and further from the author of this first “Encyclopedia of China” to subsequent philosophers of the Enlightenment and first professional European Sinologists. The paper provides a brief description and history of the “Encyclopedia of China” creation, identifies some important Jesuit informants and colleagues of the scientist (including his Chinese collaborators), whose data Kircher used while compiling his work. The author comes to the conclusion that the long present in history of science claims made to Kircher for factual errors, dissemination of mythologized information and the construction of several false hypotheses (such, e.g., as the genesis and structure of Chinese symbols, the origin of which Athanasius Kircher deduced from Egyptian hieroglyphics) are not entirely fair, since the German scientist conscientiously worked out the information field outlined for the book by himself, and his inevitable mistakes largely served as a guarantee that they were not made by researchers following in his footsteps.

Protestant Publishing in Chinese at the Anglo-Chinese College, Malacca, 1818–1843

Established in Malacca in 1818 by Robert Morrison, the Anglo-Chinese College ( Yinghua shuyuan 英華書院) became an important centre for translation and publishing of Protestant books and tracts in Chinese in the formative decades before the Opium War (1839–42). The extant publications in Chinese from the Anglo-Chinese College in this period shed light on the process of experimentation followed by missionaries and their Chinese collaborators, about how to make books that would appeal to Chinese readers – a necessary prelude to making converts to Christianity. This article traces that process of experimentation through an examination of the publications in Chinese from the Anglo-Chinese College press over the twenty-five years of the College’s operation there, prior to its relocation to Hong Kong in 1843. After an overview of the publications, the article discusses the books as physical objects and then considers the content and language within them. These examples suggest common ground between Chinese and Protestant print cultures: both saw close connections between reading, education and virtue, and both employed selective appropriation of excerpts from longer canonical texts as a reading practice.1

China Before China: Johan Gunnar Andersson, Ding Wenjiang, and the Discovery of China’s Prehistory/Zhongguo zhi qian de Zhongguo: Antesheng, Ding Wenjiang he Zhongguo shiqianshi de faxian by Magnus Fiskesjo and Chen Xingcan, and: Kina före Kina by Eva Myrdal (review)

Reviewed by: China Before China: Johan Gunnar Andersson, Ding Wenjiang, and the Discovery of China’s Prehistory/Zhongguo zhi qian de Zhongguo: Antesheng, Ding Wenjiang he Zhongguo shiqianshi de faxian by Magnus Fiskesjo and Chen Xingcan, and: Kina före Kina by Eva Myrdal Minna Franck China Before China: Johan Gunnar Andersson, Ding Wenjiang, and the Discovery of China’s Prehistory/Zhongguo zhi qian de Zhongguo: Antesheng, Ding Wenjiang he Zhongguo shiqianshi de faxian. Magnus Fiskesjo and Chen Xingcan. Stockholm, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Ostasiatiska Museet), 2004. MFEA Monograph 15. 159pp. Bilingual in English and Chinese. ISBN 91-970616-3-8. Kina före Kina. Eva Myrdal. Stockholm, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Ostasiatiska Museet), 2004. MFEA Exhibition catalogue No. 57. 181pp. ISBN 91-970616-1-1. These two books relate to the Kina före Kina (China before China) exhibit at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (hereafter MFEA) in Stockholm, Sweden, which opened in September 2004. The Neolithic objects on display were collected by Johan Gunnar Andersson and his team in Central and Western China in the 1920s. Andersson’s discoveries depended not only on his personal interests, but also on the interest of others and on the political and economic realities in Europe and Asia at the time. The first book discussed here is the exhibit companion volume, which tells the history of these discoveries with a special emphasis on the context of the events described. The book is a joint project by Magnus Fiskesjö, a former director of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, and Chen Xingcan, a prominent Chinese archaeologist. The authors did not mean this to be the ultimate study on Andersson and MFEA, but rather to provide a starting point for a more extensive investigation into the early years of archaeology in China as it relates to Andersson and the Museum. The second chapter provides a chronological description of Johan Gunnar Andersson’s career, his discovery of Chinese Neolithic finds, and the birth of MFEA’s collections. It develops Andersson’s story in tandem with that of Ding Wenjiang, Andersson’s employer, collaborator, and friend. This joint treatment highlights the crucial role Ding Wenjiang played in Andersson’s discoveries, a role that is often left unmentioned. The chapter is packed with information and it is by far the most interesting part of the book. Nearly every sentence hints at additional avenues of research, although they are here left unexplored. Among the most important revelations this chapter provides is that Andersson’s Neolithic discoveries were the result of purposeful inquiry into China’s past fueled by nationalistic sentiments back in Sweden. According to the authors, the endorsement of another Swedish archaeologist, Oscar Montelius, partly accounts for the support Andersson received from the Swedish government and from the Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf. Interesting also is the description of the agreement between the Swedish and Chinese collaborators over the division of the collections and publication of the findings. This chapter also reveals connections between Andersson and the geographer Sven Hedin, and touches upon the history of MFEA’s bronze collections. The chapter ends with Andersson’s last trip to China when the location of the returned half of the collection was last documented, and with MFEA’s history since Andersson’s death. In the third chapter, Chen examines Andersson’s changing fame within China since the start of his archaeological work until the present day. Chen notes that these changes are a reflection of the history of modern Chinese archaeology as the attitudes toward Andersson have changed according to the political climate of any given period. This same political climate determined how and why archaeology was supposed to be practiced. Chen divides his treatment of the subject into three periods: the first covering the years between 1921 and 1949, the second 1950–1985, and the third covering the post-1985 [End Page 333] era. According to Chen, during the first period Andersson’s work faced normal scholarly criticism focusing on his field methods and dating of archaeological cultures. During the second period, Andersson was treated as an accomplice of Western colonialism and imperialism mainly due to his initial hypothesis that Chinese Neolithic painted...

Mars collaborates to sequence Africa's neglected food crops

A scientist at Mars pledged to work with American and Chinese collaborators to make the genomic data of almost 100 of Africa’s orphan crops publicly available on the internet. Howard-Yana Shapiro, chief agricultural officer at the confectionery and animal food company Mars in McLean, Virginia, made this statement at the G-8 International Conference in Washington in June. Shapiro led a partnership that sequenced, assembled and annotated the cacao (cocoa) genome in 2010 and made the data freely available to all researchers. The $40-million African Orphan Crop Consortium (AOCC), which includes the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), Life Technologies, the World Wildlife Fund, the University of California, Davis (UCD), Mars and others, was set up in 2011 at the Clinton Global Initiatives conference.

Race, Culture, and the Anglo-American Powers: The Views of Chinese Collaborators

This article examines the views of Chinese collaborators on Pan-Asianism, race, and culture during 1939—1945. It depicts the changing attitudes of Chinese collaborators toward the Anglo-American nations, and discusses how the Pacific War led to the revival of the concept of Pan-Asianism and the appearance of a racial and cultural discourse among Chinese collaborators. Also, it analyzes the nature of collaborators’ discourse on race and culture. This is an uncommon episode in twentieth-century Chinese history in which Chinese propaganda gave vent to racial sentiments.

‘If Shanxi's Coal is Lost, then Shanxi is Lost!’: Shanxi's Coal and an Emerging National Movement in Provincial China, 1898–1908

AbstractThe land-locked north China province of Shanxi, identified in 1870 by the geologist Baron Richthofen as ‘one of the most remarkable coal and iron regions in the world’, was the site of a provincially‑defined national movement far removed from the better‑studied treaty ports and their articulate and prolific nationalists. This late-Qing provincialism may be read as a mediating symbol of an emerging national consciousness.Social tensions were exacerbated by external challenges brought by foreign agents, and their Chinese collaborators, of cultural and economic imperialism. Opposition to missionaries and Chinese Christians had begun as early as the 1860s. In 1898 the British Pekin Syndicate and its extra-provincial Chinese associates, with the backing of the central government, secured rights to Shanxi's rich coal and iron resources. These rights were ceded back ten years later after a successful ‘rights-recovery’ movement that possesses similarities to (but also significant differences from) the well-studied oppositional movements in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, and Shandong in the period 1905–1911. The duration of Shanxi's struggle, along with its extra-bureaucratic elite activism, popular mobilization, and cooperation with Beijing, makes its rights-recovery movement distinctive. The rhetoric and practices of the movement, which began before the Boxer Uprising of 1900 and reflects the rhetorical influence of these earlier protests, contributed to a strong regional solidarity that was backed by central state authority. There were various patterns of protest, one indigenous and provincial, one extra-provincial and nationalist, that interacted in the period 1902–1908. Provincial activists, including merchants, peasants, students, degree-holders, and officials, insisted that Shanxi's coal was for the use of the community, the province, and the nation on terms established by and for the people of Shanxi. In their victory, localism, provincialism, and the national project, had come together.

Hong Kong undercover: an approach to ‘collaborative colonialism’

Early Hong Kong colonial history offers a distinct angle for understanding the exceptional circumstances in which a place was colonized by both the British and their Chinese collaborators. The term ‘collaborative colonialism’ characterizes a political‐cultural formation where descriptions of flows and trajectories of forces may be more helpful than history in illuminating the colony’s murky pasts. Full of treacheries, conspiracies, betrayals and mistrust, such pasts can also help to explain the popularity of ‘undercover’ figures in Hong Kong’s movies. At risk of losing his true identity, the undercover figure was received as a social victim in the early 1980s’ ‘new wave’ that followed the legacy of social realism. To feed the appetite for gang heroism, this ‘victim’ soon transformed into a tragic hero agonized by moral anxieties. Yet the frame imposed by the police‐gangster genre did not stop it from being used as a vehicle to reflect on Hong Kong’s geo‐political situation: a place located in‐between different political projects beyond the locals’ control, and gripped by the relentless march of policed‐managerial modern order. A twist in the 1990s gave the undercover figure a cynicist and comedic turn. Postmodern celebrations of witty betrayal can be read as rewriting the undercover story to reinscribe Hong Kong’s fate: released from narcissistic heroism, new undercover images responding to the 1997 transition took identity less as a matter of authenticity than of performance. Unravelling this historically‐embedded structure of feelings shows how the way had long been paved for the success of the award‐winning series Infernal Affairs, extending a deeper reach into the local politics of memory and time.

Chinese midwives’ views on a proposed midwife-led normal birth unit

Objective to investigate and assess Chinese midwives’ views of their roles and ability to practice in a proposed midwife-led normal birth unit (MNBU). Design a self-completed questionnaire supplemented with semi-structured telephone interviews. Memos, diaries, correspondence and comments of Chinese collaborators were also accessed. Setting six hospitals in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. Participants 143 midwives were contacted and completed the questionnaire survey. Three midwives were subsequently interviewed. Findings the response rate was 100%; 86% of midwives supported the development of an MNBU, and 94.4% expressed confidence that they would be able to practice in an MNBU. The study shed new light on: (1) the meaning of an MNBU in the Chinese context; (2) the need for development of an MNBU; (3) role conflicts among midwives, doulas, nurses and obstetricians; (4) professional expertise and tension; and (5) the low status of Chinese midwives. Conclusion the proposed MNBU is welcomed by Chinese midwives. Their consensus and confidence show that there is enthusiasm for this project to proceed. However, the Chinese have never thought of MNBU services before. There is a need to develop well-structured philosophy, policy, procedures and outcome measures. Implications for practice the findings highlight the importance of an MNBU to re-establish Chinese midwives’ support of physiological childbirth. The extent to which Chinese midwives understand an MNBU could be further explored. The result may provide a possible route to the continuity of midwifery care and support.

Mathematics in Context: A Case in Early Nineteenth-Century Korea

ArgumentThis paper aims to show how a nineteenth-century Korean scholar's mathematical study reflects the Korean intellectual environment of his time by focusing on the rule of false double position and the method of root extraction. There were two major trends in Korean mathematics of the early nineteenth century: the first was “Tongsan,” literally “Eastern Mathematics,” which largely depended on Chinese mathematics of the Song and Yuan period adopting counting rod calculation; the second trend was Western mathematics, which was transmitted by the Jesuits and their Chinese collaborators from the late sixteenth century. There was also an intellectual transition in late eighteenth-century Korea when mathematics, which had been of only minor interest for Confucian scholars, became an important part of Confucian pursuits. We can gain an insight into the history of mathematics in Korea by examining and understanding Hong Kil-chu's (1786–1841) mathematical studies and the context of the academic world of his time.

Wartime collaboration in question: an examination of the postwar trials of the Chinese collaborators

This paper examines the political aspects of the postwar trials of the Chinese collaborators and their arguments, at the trials, against the charges of treason. Against the dominant scholarship on their collaboration with Japan, it argues that the Chinese collaborators had a different version of nationalism, which emphasized the different roles and functions of the state during the anti‐Japanese war, and that wartime collaboration was, in part, a product of their reflections on the Guomindang’s history and its political culture since 1927. The fates of the major collaborators, as the trial cases of Zhou Fohai and Chen Gongbo show, were determined, this paper argues, not by legal crimes they committed but rather mainly by their former political affiliations in the intraparty politics, which revealed the political character of the trials. The political aspects seemed to serve to disclose further the innate problems and inability of the party and its Nationalist Government, which were the main reasons for its ‘failure’ in 1949.

China and the Global Business Revolution (review)

Reviewed by: China and the Global Business Revolution N. T. Wang (bio) Peter Nolan . China and the Global Business Revolution. New York: Palgrave, 2001. xxix, 1,092 pp. Hardcover $100.00, ISBN 0-333-80119-9. After a dozen volumes on business and the economy in China, Peter Nolan, Sinyi Professor of Chinese Management at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, Cambridge University, has produced another weighty study on China. The very existence of the chair in Chinese Management reflects the vision of this institution and the expertise of the chair's occupant. The present study evidently benefited from the author's cumulative knowledge and well-placed Chinese collaborators. Although the title of the study is China and the Global Business Revolution, the focus is actually on a number of case studies of large enterprises in China and the policies of the Chinese government concerning these enterprises in the context of changing world business paradigms and practices. Thus, the title is probably more a reflection of the marketing concerns of the publisher than an accurate description of the book's contents. The bulk of the study is devoted to example cases of enterprises in the areas of aerospace, pharmaceuticals, power equipment, oil and petrochemicals, autos and auto components, steel, and coal. The degree of detail found in these example cases is uneven, apparently reflecting the difficulty in obtaining pertinent and accurate information from the target organizations. Although the author has used very good Chinese researchers and has excellent Chinese connections with senior government officials, there is little disclosure of the precise methodology used in the fieldwork. For instance, it is revealed that the author and his collaborators "lived in Shougang's 'hotel' for seven days" (p. xxi) while conducting interviews. However, no information is given about the kind of businesses in which the people interviewed were involved, whether the questions asked were predetermined or open, and, in particular, what kind of internal documents were made available to the researchers. Judging from my own research experience, it is likely that the interviews were mostly with senior-level employees and that contact with lower-level workers was, at best, occasional, probably occurring when the interviewers were taken on guided plant tours. Sometimes, certain internal documents are passed on informally to "friends," but the question of access to company books is rarely brought up since this could have raised legal questions about the passing of "state secrets" to foreigners. There have, indeed, been a number of embarrassing situations involving foreign researchers whose zeal for exploring gold mines of information has put them in compromising positions concerning Chinese law, which may or may not be strictly enforced. The fact that "state secrets" are actually voluntarily offered does not absolve either the foreigner or the Chinese collaborator from possible legal [End Page 507] entanglements. The author's silence on such an issue may, therefore, be prudent, but it nevertheless raises the question of adequacy of information. The limitations of the case studies are somewhat compensated for by a general survey of industry in China and the rest of the world, about which information is more readily available. The seven case studies are accompanied by a survey of China's financial-services industry by Wu Qing, of the Judge Institute. This chapter does not rely on specific case or field studies. The enterprise and industry case studies are preceded by three introductory chapters on, respectively, large firms and economic development, the challenges of the global business revolution, and policies to build national champions—China's "national team" of enterprise groups. The third chapter is contributed by Dylan Sutherland, also of the Judge Institute. The study concludes with two chapters, one on the response to the challenges of the global business revolution and the other on the long-term outlook, especially in view of China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). The main theme of the volume is clearly stated in the first chapter: making the choice between the neoclassic view of atomistic firms in pure competition and the predominance of large and even larger firms. This "ideal type" dichotomy is based on theoretical constructs useful for classroom expositions, but it is also a heroic...

The Changing Nature of Sino-Foreign Business Relationships, 1842-1941

During the second half of the nineteenth century, foreign business enterprises relied considerably upon the service of compradors to extend their economic interests in the Chinese economy. Utilised initially to overcome the barriers presented by language difficulties, compradors were employed by western firms to undertake a variety of tasks covering both supervisory and co-ordination functions. With the growth of industrial interest by foreign businesses during the twentieth century, however, the comprador system fell into disrepute and during the 1930s was largely abandoned.This paper employs research based on primary source materials to trace this institutional transition for two specific cases. The Kailan Mining Administration (KMA), whose origins are to be found as an Anglo-Belgian free-standing company, took control of both the Kaiping and Lanchow coal mines in 1912. In order to expand its sales, the company employed the services of the comprador Liu Hongsheng who successfully built up the company’s market around Shanghai. In doing so, however, Liu became an important force in coal distribution in his own right, leading to tensions that were resolved through the creation of a joint venture operation called the Kailan Sales Administration (KSA) in 1925.British-American Tobacco (BAT) was set up in 1902 to administer the foreign markets of the American Tobacco Company and Britain’s Imperial Tobacco Company. In China, a distribution system was created using many Chinese collaborators of whom two were of particular importance. Wu Ting Seng, a member of the Chinese gentry, played a crucial intermediating role for the western company in a variety of its dealings with the Chinese. Cheang Park Chew, on the other hand, was an influential Cantonese merchant whom BAT used to distribute its goods throughout the Shanghai region. In both cases, BAT chose to alter the institutional arrangements with these collaborators from the contractual form to joint venture partnerships, unsuccessfully in the case of Wu, but with phenomenal success in the case of Cheang’s mercantile enterprise, the Wing Tai Vo Tobacco Corporation.

Collaborators and Capitalists: The Politics of "Material Control" in Wartime Shanghai

From November 1937 to August 1945, during nearly the entire period of the Second Sino-Japanese the Chinese City (huajie) of Shanghai was under Japanese occupation. After December 1941 the International Settlement and the French Concession also fell into the hands of the Japanese, ending the Sino-Western condominium of the city that had existed for nearly a century. In Shanghai, as everywhere else in occupied China, the Japanese enlisted the help of Chinese collaborators. Their dependence on that help, however, was greater in the city than in most other places. It was impossible for the limited number of Japanese troops to maintain peace and order in a metropolis of more than five million people.1 More important, mobilizing through the city the economic resources of Lower Yangtze for support of the China War, a major objective of the Japanese occupation in Shanghai, created a special need for obtaining cooperation and assistance from the city's business elite.