The origins of sinology in America can be traced back to the early years of the nation's independence. In fact, Thomas Jefferson mentioned that he was curious about China's ideographic script in a letter he wrote in 1818. But despite his curiosity, not a single Westerner could be found in the entire United States at the time who could speak or write Chinese!

In the same way that sinology developed in Europe, the foundation for China studies in the U.S. was aided by missionaries, who began arriving in China in 1830. In hoping to understand the mysterious Oriental country to which they had been posted, their chief task was compiling a Chinese-English dictionary, in addition to translating the Chinese classics.

The complexities of the Chinese script, combined with the country's numerous dialects, posed a vexing problem to the missionaries, but the Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, which gave the Cantonese, Amoy and Shanghai pronunciations of each character along with the standard Pekingese, proved a veritable godsend. And Samuel Wells Williams, who worked on the dictionary for more than a decade and studied Chinese culture for over forty years, became America's first professor of Chinese, at Yale University.

Like other disciplines, sinology in 19th-century America was basically an offshoot of European academics, but by the early 20th century it had begun to break away from its raw and uncouth image, helped by a steady stream of visiting European scholars.

Nonetheless, sinology remained a peripheral field of study, in Europe as well as America. East was East and West was West, and the study of China was of little concern to all but a handful of rare enthusiasts.

When did that attitude start to change? Chang P'eng-yuan, a researcher in the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica, indicates that China's rise in importance on the world stage this century exactly mirrors the gradual transformation of Old World sinology into American-style China studies, which focuses on the political, economic and social development of modern China.

During the period between the First and Second World Wars, a number of academic organizations appeared in the U.S. that put up the money and manpower to systematically cultivate scholars, collect reference materials and publish periodicals, thereby making an indelible contribution in laying the foundation for China studies in America. Chief among them were the American Institute of Pacific Relations, founded in 1925; the China Institute in America, founded in 1926; the Committee for the Promotion of Far Eastern Studies, (the predecessor of the Far Eastern Association) founded in 1928; and the Harvard-Yenching Institute (also 1928).

Equally important were well-heeled foundations like the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation of New York, which began funding China studies with large sums of money beginning inthe 1930s. In the short twelve years from 1958 to 1970, the foundations allocated nearly US$26 million on Far Eastern research in the U.S., while the federal government put up nearly US$15 million at the same time. With that kind of backing, the outstanding achievements made in China studies in the U.S. are hardly to be wondered at.

On the other hand, despite having broken through the bottleneck of traditional sinology, China studies were limited in a different respect. As Chang Hao, professor of history at Ohio State University points out, just because the United States considered itself the leader of the Free World after World War Ⅱ, research in what were called "area studies" was centered on politics and economics, and scholars were rather too eager to achieve "instant results" that could be applied in formulating foreign, defense and economic policy.

As a result, American China studies, aimed at modern China, have a rather narrow perspective and are prone to making arbitrary assertions. Several of the most popular areas of research, such as the encroachment of Western imperialism on China, Christianity in China, Chinese political philosophy and the spread of education were all aimed at gaining a quick understanding of modern China, and areas not related to contemporary China were neglected.

The modernization theory of John K. Fairbank of Harvard University was undoubtedly the most influential. But because of flaws in the theory itself and discrepancies produced by forcing it, Procrustean-like, to fit the complexities of China, the result in many respects was less than satisfactory.

Chang Hao has a penetrating analysis in that regard. Modernization theories, he points out, have their origin in the 18th-century Enlightenment. Their argument is simple: "modernization"--meaning industrialization, capitalism, the rise of a middle class, democracy and freedom of thought--is good and the sole criterion of value used to measure a country's "progress." And evidenced by the "backward" countries of the "non-Western world," modernization and tradition are often antithetical. In other words, they believe that tradition is a stumbling block that prevents countries from modernizing.

With modernization as the be-all and end-all, scholars measured China with a Western yardstick. Fashionable topics were "Why didn't China develop capitalism and a middle class?" "Japan's reforms succeeded, why didn't China's?" and "Why did Chinese science stagnate?" Since they considered China a failure at modernization, they explored the root causes for its "diseases" and overlooked the country's strong points.

Influenced by this theory, "liberal" scholars, led by Fairbank, were left-leaning in the KMT-CCP struggles of the 1940s. Communism was unthinkable for an "advanced" country like the U.S., but for a country as stagnant and backward as China it was a force for "progress."

Based on his years of teaching in the U.S. and his contacts with scholars there, Chang Hao points out that American "China experts" have a "complex about Communism."

"No matter how many illusions they harbor about Marxist thinking, the Communist system in their minds is still a monster and a disease that can't exist in civilized Western societies," he says with feeling. "So if a country is captivated by this monster and catches this disease, there can only be one reason: there must have been something wrong with the country to begin with. Otherwise, just look--Communism has been active in Western Europe for so many years and those countries are still all right!"

This Communism complex fits right in with the modernization theory. At the same time, "no matter how much China experts may profess their love of China or how objectively they may analyze it, contempt and prejudice are deep down in their bones and very, very difficult to avoid."

Fortunately, a cheering development is that more and more American scholars realize one fact: they can never hope to understand modern China without respecting and understanding traditional China.

Some people think that China studies in the West are nothing more than blind men describing an elephant, so why should anyone care? But Chang Hao points out that the willingness of Western countries to invest economic and technological capital in Asia directly depends on whether the conclusions of these research reports are optimistic or not. And to avoid sinking into a vicious cycle increasing backwardness and neglect, the trends of development of China studies in the West are well worth our concern.

In the final analysis, whether from a purely academic perspective or one of practical self-interest, U.S. China studies have a profound and far-reaching affect on us in China. These studies, in the analogy of one Chinese scholar, may often resemble nothing so much as crazy mirrors in a fun house, but they are the only way that Westerners can see China, and the distorted images they produce, it cannot be denied, do more or less afford a glimpse of reality!

[Picture Caption]

The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., houses the largest collection of Chinese books in the West. It is especially rich in local gazetteers and historical materials from the Ch'ing dynasty. (photo by Vincent Chang)

The research interests of Western sinologists are broad yet in-depth, ev en extending to oranges. (photo from Sinorama files)

Sidney L. Tai, librarian of the rare books collection in the Harvard-Yenching Library, carefully displays some of the library's treasures.

This rare volume is adorned with an imitation of the painting Waiting to be Ferried Across a River in Autumn by the Ming artist Ch'iu Ying. The perfect proportions and vivid atmosphere are stunning.

Dr. Wu Wen-chin has made outstanding contributions to the Harvard-Yenching Library during his 25 years as director. He has especially striven to collect materials related to modern China.

(Left) The Harvard-Yenching Institute has played an important role in academic exchanges between China and the U.S. since 1928.

The ancient scientific achievements on display at the Peking Observatory have long made Western scholars wonder, "Why did Chinese science and technology stagnate?"

An ancient "cheat sheet"--silk underwear with passages from the classics written on it in a minute hand--is one of the prized holdings of the Gest Oriental Library at Princeton.

John King Fairbank, a professor of East Asian studies at Harvard University for thirty years, is the dean of American China experts.

As China entered the global system and began to interact with the West after the First World War, sinology gradually evolved into China studies. (photo from Sinorama files)

The Hoover Library at Stanford University, which contains a plethora of materials on the struggle between the Nationalists and the Communists, is another stronghold for the study of modern Chinese history.

The research interests of Western sinologists are broad yet in-depth, ev en extending to oranges. （photo from Sinorama files）

Sidney L. Tai, librarian of the rare books collection in the Harvard-Yenching Library, carefully displays some of the library's treasures.

This rare volume is adorned with an imitation of the painting Waiting to be Ferried Across a River in Autumn by the Ming artist Ch'iu Ying. The perfect proportions and vivid atmosphere are stunning.

（Left） The Harvard-Yenching Institute has played an important role in academic exchanges between China and the U.S. since 1928.

Dr. Wu Wen-chin has made outstanding contributions to the Harvard-Yenching Library during his 25 years as director. He has especially striven to collect materials related to modern China.

The ancient scientific achievements on display at the Peking Observatory have long made Western scholars wonder, "Why did Chinese science and technology stagnate?".

An ancient "cheat sheet"--silk underwear with passages from the classics written on it in a minute hand--is one of the prized holdings of the Gest Oriental Library at Princeton.

John King Fairbank, a professor of East Asian studies at Harvard University for thirty years, is the dean of American China experts.

As China entered the global system and began to interact with the West after the First World War, sinology gradually evolved into China studies. （photo from Sinorama files）

The Hoover Library at Stanford University, which contains a plethora of materials on the struggle between the Nationalists and the Communists, is another stronghold for the study of modern Chinese history.