Job Opportunity

Administrative Assistant 

The George Washington University Confucius Institute

Application

Job Description Summary:

The George Washington University Confucius Institute (GWU C.I.) promotes the study of Chinese language and culture, supports Chinese teaching through instructional training and certification, and encourages increased research in the area of China studies. Named for the famed Chinese philosopher (551-479 B.C.), the Confucius Institute is one of 360 worldwide and the first in Washington, D.C. Additional information can be found at the following link: https://confucius.columbian.gwu.edu/.

The Global Initiatives Division, within the Confucius Institute of the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences (CCAS), is searching for a full-time Administrative Assistant. The Administrative Assistant position will provide the overall administrative support to the Executive Director of Global Initiatives.

Responsibilities include:

• Provides day-to-day administrative support to all personnel housed under the GWU C.I.

• Serves as the receptionist and the point of contact of the institute, schedules meetings, arranges for travels, orders supplies, pays invoices, and coordinates facilities maintenance for the program space, etc.

• Answers all general inquiries from the public and organizes visits and tours for parties who are interested in the program.

Drafts and conducts correspondences on behalf of the supervisor.

• Responsible for bookkeeping all revenues and expenses and creating and maintaining records as needed for events, confirming appointments, performing basic researches, and requesting reports from central development as needed.

• Works with the CCAS Technology and Marketing teams to develop and maintain the Confucius Institute website, designs and orders public information materials such as brochures, drafts press releases and any other materials to publicize all GWU C.I. activities within and outside of the University.

• Assists in troubleshooting and solving routine administrative or procedural problems with other departments, as assigned; helps with various publications.

• Aid in all general office-related tasks such as filing, typing, faxing, picking up and distributing mail, and ordering office supplies.

• Contact other University departments to request housekeeping and maintenance services; give or solicit operational information; arranges for meetings, conferences, and social events.

• Performs other related duties as assigned. The omission of specific duties does not preclude the supervisor from assigning duties that are logically related to the position.

Minimum Qualifications:

  High school diploma/GED, or equivalent combination of training and experience, is necessary plus 1.5 years of relevant experience.

Job Details:

Full-time/ 40hrs. per week 

Qianshi Hutong: the World's Narrowest Hutong

Most people who travel to Beijing make sure to see the highlights: the Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace. Few sojourners to the Northern Capital, however, experience the nooks and crannies of the city. On the afternoon of June 24th, I went on one such an adventure to one of the most tucked away tourist sites: Qianshi Hutong.

Located off Zhubao Street, which runs perpendicular to Dazhalan Commercial Street in the Qianmen neighborhood, Qianshi Hutong is easy to miss. That’s not surprising, as Qianshi Hutong has the distinction of being the world’s narrowest hutong. I went in search of Qianshi Hutong three times during my both my current and previous tenures in Beijing. The first time, I walked past it entirely and spent a good portion of the afternoon walking up and down Zhubao Avenue, finally returning home in defeat. I was able to locate it several weeks later with a travel companion, and the second pair of eyes was certainly helpful. Today, on my own once again, I walked all the way down Zhubao Street, recalling that the hutong would be on my left, but passing it by nonetheless. Given the increased tourist presence in the area and the market stalls selling silk scarves, cloisonné jewelry, and Old Beijing snacks, Qianshi Hutong has been practically swallowed up.

In Chinese, the name “Qianshi” means “Money Market.” It’s a fitting name, as Qing Dynasty moneychangers would go there to exchange currency. The hutong also boasted 26 mints that produced money for all the banks in Beijing. As it stands today, what is left of the hutong dates back to only the late Qing Dynasty, as a fire during the 1900 Boxer Revolution burnt much of the area to the ground. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the party-state reformed the monetary system entirely, thus rendering Qianshi Hutong obsolete.

Just how narrow is Qianshi Hutong? It’s 55 meters (180 feet) long, but just 70 centimeters (28 inches) at its widest. At one point, the alley narrows down to only 40 centimeters (16 inches). The alley isn’t wide enough for two people to pass by one another. Just this afternoon, I entered the hutong while another person was leaving. I turned to the side and backed up against the wall to allow her to pass—it would have been impossible for either of us to move otherwise. The reason for the extreme narrowness relates to the original purpose of the hutong. Were someone to have robbed the banks, the narrow passage would have made escape difficult, thus making it far more likely for the authorities to successfully apprehend the thief.

As I walked the length of the hutong this afternoon, there’s very little, with the exception of two plaques, that betrayed the alleyway’s original purpose. I glimpsed some faded white stone that might have been part of the façade of one of the mints or moneychanging houses, but it’s so worn that it’s impossible to tell. Rather, the hutong is primarily residential now, with wooden doors leading into small, intimate courtyards and laundry hanging in front of the windows.

The hutong first made its appearance in China during the Yuan Dynasty, a time during which the Mongols ruled. In fact, the origin of the word “hutong” is a Mongolian word meaning “water well.” These alleys used to be the lowest level of administrative division in Beijing. Parts of this Mongolian influence still survive today, although a number of hutongs have been demolished to make way for high-rise apartment buildings. Some of the alleys, including Qianshi Hutong, are protected, thus preserving just a bit of Old Beijing culture and history. 

Allison Quatrini, Ph.D. Political Science 2017

Sigur Center 2016 China Summer Research Fellow 

China’s “Northeast Phenomenon”

Here is my interpretation of China’s “dongbei xianxiang (northeast phenomenon).”  As a follow up to my previous post, Beijing is my favorite city in China, but the northeast is the most special.  I first studied Chinese in 2001 in Harbin, where the most standard Mandarin is spoken according to the language program I joined, and where I hoped to also deepen my understanding of my native Korean. 

While the changes in Beijing since then are immediately noticeable, things seem more or less the same up in the northeast.  More than ten years into China’s “Northeast Revitalization” plan, domestic debate has indeed centered on a new “northeast phenomenon” of economic stagnation after Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang ranked among the country’s slowest growing regions last year.  Although most people in Shenyang claim that the northeast development plan no longer exists, Xi Jinping was in Changchun and Shenyang this month to promote his own plans to re-revitalize the northeast. 

Northeast China bears the burdens of an “elder brother” that make it so special.  Named China’s “eldest son” and “old industrial base” from the socialist era, the northeast is first an “elder brother” to China’s other regions.  A consensus among northeast officials and businesses is that their economic problems are primarily structural, including the dominance of state-owned, heavy industry.  But this has been the northeast’s biggest excuse for the past three decades.  Most people especially outside the region see local conservatism as the primary source of the northeast’s stagnation.  Rather than policy constraints from Beijing, local governments are not willing to open up the economy.  Or as some northeasterners will admit, people are just lazy. 

Others will point to the northeast’s foreign neighbors.  Across the border from the northeast is China’s “little brother,” North Korea, who is too busy making nuclear weapons to cooperate.  Yet China’s northeast is one of the few places where North Korea and South Korea co-exist.  While the UNDP’s Tumen Development Programme in the 1990s marked one of the earliest official meetings between the two Koreas, North and South Korean businesses operate side by side in Xita, Shenyang’s Korea town.  But outside northeast China, even if local leaders wanted to open, there is no-one to open to. 

Perhaps for the above reasons, Beijing is just not interested in revitalizing the northeast anymore.  Xi Jinping seems preoccupied right now with promoting his “One Belt, One Road” elsewhere.  But the northeast is still stuck on the very problems that Hu Jintao sought to address in 2003, and remains a puzzling phenomenon worth studying.

In Xita, Shenyang

 

See-Won Byun, Ph.D. Political Science
Sigur Center 2015 Asian Field Research Fellow
Peking University, Beijing, and Liaoning University, Shenyang.

Seven Signs of Change in China Since 2001…Or At Least Beijing

I’m back in Beijing after spending two months in Shenyang researching the northeast part of my dissertation on the foreign economic strategies of China’s border regions.  Here are my first impressions on the changes over the past decade in China’s capital.  The last time I took the route between Beijing airport and Peking University was in 2003, when I left during the SARS scare.  There was no Olympics stadium, now a proud symbol of the past. 

First, more cars have replaced bicycles.  The only way I could identify my old apartment across campus was by the green bicycle stands.  But these are now covered by cars, mostly SUVs.  International students now drive scooters, or what they refer to as glorified bikes.  Rush hour traffic is still terrible, but instead of packed bicycles there are lines of people at the metro, where the number of metro lines has grown from 3 to 15.

Second, things are more expensive.  For a one hundred dollar bill, you now get 600 RMB instead of 800.  When I went to get my hair cut, they gave me a choice of 150, 200, 280, or 350 RMB.  I remembered the first time I cut my hair in China, when they asked, do you want the 8 or 4 RMB version?

Third, people approach each other with “nihao (hello)” and address women as “meinu (literally, beautiful woman).”  People only said nihao before in English when greeting foreigners.  Hello has now become a way of addressing each other.  I was flattered when I first heard “meinu” until I realized it’s just common expression.  Before it was either “xiaojie (miss)” or “xiao meimei (little sister).”  

Fourth, people stand in line.  You don’t see a triangle of crowds at counters anymore.  Now it’s more or less a straight line.  The good thing is there is less chaos; the bad thing is you can’t really cut in line when desperate.  

Fifth, people are obsessed with We Chat.  It’s amazing how widely We Chat is used in a country where the internet is so restricted, but perhaps not so surprising given the limited options.  I am hardly connected to social media outside of China, but had to get We Chat here to communicate with my landlord. 

Sixth, there are more foreigners.  Foreigners have increased not only in number but also diversity.  In the past you could tell where a classmate was from by the color of his/her dictionary: red for American, purple for Korean, orange for Japanese, blue for Russian.  It’s now harder to tell, because there are so many of them and because most are talking to each other in broken English rather than broken Chinese.

But these changes are less apparent a five-hour train ride away in Shenyang, the biggest city in China’s northeast.  You not only see bikes but the occasional donkey cart, and can have a full meal for less than 10 RMB.  People will look at you strangely if you say nihao, and it’s fine to cut in line.  Internet access is more limited.  Most foreigners are African exchange students, missionaries, or reportedly spies. 

But one obvious change even in the northeast is that college students don’t want to go to Hong Kong anymore after they graduate.  In 2001, most of my Chinese classmates in Harbin wanted to move to Hong Kong or somewhere south to work.  Most students now plan to move on to graduate school to study, or feel disenfranchised to see that the opportunities to get rich at home have already been taken. 

Passing the Forbidden City

See-Won Byun, Ph.D. Political Science

Sigur Center Summer 2015 Asian Field Research Fellow

Beijing and Shenyang, China

Further Afield: Hong Kong

Hi from Hong Kong! I’m enjoying a short stay here at the end of my month of research, taking in one of the most interesting cities in the world and still managing to get a little more work done.

The view from my 19th floor hotel window, looking north to the "mid-levels."

 I arrived in Hong Kong yesterday with one goal: talk to some of the people behind the Weiboscope project at Hong Kong University. As I mentioned in my earlier post, my own research deals with online public opinion, and Weiboscope is probably the biggest name out there for public research into the China’s Sina Weibo social media platform. I’ve been working with my own set of data from Sina Weibo, and today I was very pleased to be able to compare notes with one of the individuals responsible for working on Weiboscope. He was able to give me a number of useful tips as I consider how to analyze my own data and also had some information to share about the HKU team’s experience collecting this data across a number of years. It was a relatively short visit to HKU but definitely worth my time.

The original main building at HKU.

A lotus pond dedicated to Sun Yat-Sen, with a statue of the man himself at left.

Since I didn’t have any further work appointments today, I took the time to wander around the university and the city for a bit. This is my second trip to Hong Kong, but my first was a brief couple of days staying in Kowloon nearly ten years ago. This time I’m staying on and exploring Hong Kong Island itself, which is a very cool place to be if you enjoy cities. To me, Hong Kong feels like the vertical scale (and grit!) of Manhattan built on the street plan of London, populated mainly by Chinese and some other Asian nationalities (Korean, Vietnamese, Indian etc.) with a notable Western minority. It really is a unique mix. It also has an interesting geography in which the original city and downtown area, now called “Central” as in “Occupy Central,” is built on a thin strip of land and reclaimed harbor wedged between the water and the island’s mountain, Victoria Peak. This makes it easy to orient yourself – downhill is north, uphill is south! – but can also make it a bit of a hike to get around if you’re headed in the wrong direction. On the other hand, east-west transportation is ably served by the Hong Kong MTR Island Line, easily one of the finest subways in the world.

For my explorations, this meant simply walking east since I’m staying at the west end of the island. The sheer density is both entrancing and overwhelming. Countless tiny Chinese congee restaurants, noodle shops, electronics stores and pharmacies are packed in between Japanese fine dining, Indian lunch buffets, luxury outlets, and all the other trappings of globalization like 7-Eleven, Starbucks, etc. Looking down an alley between two buildings reveals lanes of stalls with every kind of knick-knack for sale, and crowds of people rush to catch double decker buses that drive on the left. An eclectic mix, to say the least. The fact that despite a decade of Mandarin Chinese study I can’t speak a word of Cantonese, the main language here, only adds to the experience. It simply doesn’t feel like anywhere else in the world, Chinese, British, or otherwise. And at night, it has what must be the greatest skyline on the globe.

A typical view looking up one of Hong Kong's narrow streets.

It's not all buildings and people: here's some natural beauty away from the city itself, on Lantau Island.

Anyway, you probably get the picture! It’s a city worth a visit.

I’m happy to be heading back to the US on Friday. Overall, this has been an extremely successful research trip with nearly 25 interviews conducted in 30 days across three different cities, along with getting a lot of great feedback on a research paper presented in Shanghai with Prof. Dickson. Thanks again to the Sigur Center for the invaluable support!

Research on the Mainland: Beijing and Shanghai

Hello from Shanghai! My name is Jackson Woods and I’m a Ph.D. student in political science, conducting summer field research for my dissertation with the help of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies.

My research deals with Chinese public opinion online, especially around foreign policy issues. In the midst of my fourth week here in China, I look back and find myself amazed at how much I’ve learned in such a short period of time. My first twenty-two days were spent in Beijing, and during that time I got to conduct nearly twenty-five interviews with experts ranging from professors at big-name universities to founders of well-known media publications to notable independent voices who’ve found themselves challenging the state. As important as all the other data is for my research – news articles and reports, millions of social media postings, and more – there’s nothing like hearing about these issues straight from those involved in China’s domestic foreign policy debates.

Getting to do this research involved a lot of different pieces that have to fall into place and not a little bit of luck. Mostly, it’s a story of using connections to make connections. For example, a friend who I met on a previous trip to Beijing with my committee chair introduced me to a professor in his department at Tsinghua University on my second day here. In the middle of our conversation, that professor sent me the WeChat contact information for a researcher at the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences. (Note that WeChat is an absolutely essential smartphone app in China which everybody uses to the complete exclusion of texting, phone, etc.) After accepting my friend request on WeChat, that researcher in turn talked to her institute head, which meant that two weeks later I found myself at lunch with the research institute staff and a visiting scholar from Taiwan, talking with another expert who’s written multiple books about online opinion in China! Flexibility and follow-up are the key phrases for this kind of work.

Renmin University - site of a few interviews during my stay in Beijing

More broadly, it's great to be back in China. I've lived in Beijing for two years (2008-2009 and 2013-2014) and, while it will never really feel "like home," it's certainly familiar. Between hitting all of my culinary favorites and catching up with friends working in the city, I got to enjoy an unprecedentedly beautiful couple of weeks. Anyone who has read about China probably knows about the terrible air pollution, but with a few exceptions we had nearly three weeks of blue skies during my visit. The city felt entirely different, as residents walked down the street pointing their camera phones at the sky and fluffy blue clouds floated over familiar buildings that I'm more used to seeing shrouded in grayish-brown haze. I don't know if this was the result of policy or just a string of great luck, but I'm not complaining either way.

The view from my window in the Liudaokou neighborhood.

A more typical view on a previous visit to Beijing.

After keeping busy in Beijing, I’m now in Shanghai attending a conference at Shanghai Jiaotong University with scholars from both the US and China presenting their latest research, and next week I’ll be heading to Hong Kong. Already I've made a lot of useful connections with professors on both sides of the Pacific, which is nearly as valuable as the interviews. I also enjoy the contrast between Beijing and Shanghai quite a bit – where Beijing carries the weight of hundreds of years as China’s capital under a modern veneer, Shanghai feels like a true “world city.” I like them both in their own way, and I had a great time in Beijing, but it's cool to see the "leading edge" of the PRC. Of course, there’ve been a lot of cool experiences besides just work and nice weather, but those will have to wait for the next post(s). Until then!

Myself, my adviser Prof. Bruce Dickson, and Chunhua Chen, another GWU political science Ph.D. student who's currently doing field research in Beijing for the entire year. On the campus of Peking University.

Student Organization: US-China Dialogue

US-China Dialogue, an emerging GWU student initiative for US-China relations, is hosting an info session this Friday. The U.S.-China Dialogue will serve as a model student simulation of bilateral negotiations (such as Strategic and Economic Dialogue), and is open to students from all disciplines.

Please come to the information session today! 

When: Friday February 28, 2014— 4:30 p.m.                                              Where: Marvin Center

IMUSE Summer Conference in China

IMUSE (Initiating Mutual Understanding through Student Exchange), founded in 2008, is a collaboration between Harvard University, Peking University, and Tsinghua University. The project’s aims are to foster mutual curiosity, respect, and understanding between people in China, Europe, and the United States. The summer conference provides top college and graduate students with an intimate forum for discussion and personal reflection about key issues affecting China, and the world today. What makes IMUSE different from other conferences is its small size of 30 participants selected through a rigorous application process in which the brightest university students are chosen from the US, China, and around the world.

The IMUSE Beijing-Hong Kong Summer Conference Program will bring the outstanding students from Chinese, American, and European colleges and graduate schools together in late August to share their opinions, experience Chinese culture, and learn from one another. During the fellowship, Chinese and American delegates will participate alongside one another in a variety of activities designed to be both academically and personally enriching. Delegates will participate in panel discussion events with a student audience where they will discuss the pertinent issues facing Chinese-American relations today.

For more information, please visit: http://www.projectimuse.org/

EU Funded Doctoral Fellowship on Rising Powers

Applications are invited for 3 Early Stage Researcher (ESR) positions in the Marie Curie Initial Training Network PRIMO – Power and Region in a Multipolar Order.

PRIMO is a European Commission funded doctoral training network that involves universities in Germany, the UK, Turkey, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Russia, and Portugal, as well as non-academic institutional participants. It develops innovative research training in the field of International Relations, in particular with respect to the growing importance of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in international politics and the global economy. The programme combines theoretical approaches, a rigorous mixed research methodology, practical training, and the acquisition of substantial empirical expertise on regional and emerging powers, with career opportunities in academia or the private sector.

3 open PhD positions are soon closing:

German Institute for Global and Area Studies, Hamburg (Deadline: February 28)

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Deadline: March 11)

University of Hamburg, Hamburg (Deadline: March 11)

All PhD positions include:

·         Generous salary (country specific) according to the EU Marie Curie framework for Early Stage Researchers (ESRs)

·         Attractive secondment opportunities to other partners in the network

·         State of the art training in methods and transferable skills.

For more information & application instructions, please visit:

http://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/projekte/primo/start/

Chinese Embassy Visit--This Thursday

When: Thursday 2/27 2:30pm-4:00pm

This Thursday, February 27th, 2:30pm-4:00pm, Professor Dawn Murphy has arranged an opportunity for GW students to visit the Chinese Embassy in DC. The visit will last about 90 minutes (30 minute tour of the Embassy, followed by a 60 minute presentation and Q&A focused on China-US relations delivered by the Political section of the Embassy). The Embassy is very close to the Van Ness metro station.

If you are interested in participating, please sign-up online ASAP.

Link to register:

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-george-washington-university-student-tour-to-chinese-embassy-tickets-10608469217

Password: DawnMurphyclass

Sign-up for tickets labeled as “Reserved Ticket for Prof. Dawn Murphy's Class.”

There are only 8 tickets left! 

Registration must be completed by midnight, Monday 2/24.

Scholarships for Summer Intensive Chinese and Japanese Study

Scholarships available to study intensive Chinese or Japanese at Washington University in St. Louis this summer with the ALLEX Foundation.

The WUSTL-ALLEX Intensive Chinese and Japanese Institutes will offer intensive beginning level classes in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, at Washington University in St. Louis, for seven weeks this Summer 2014.

Each class meets for 2 hours per day, 5 days a week, for 7 weeks.

The course is intensive and requires 3-5 hours of mandatory, self-managed, study per day.

This program is designed to train students to speak and listen to Chinese or Japanese, and to introduce students to reading and writing the language. At the end of the course students will be expected to perform in all four skills—speaking, listening, reading and writing—at a basic level of proficiency. Students will not only learn to speak the language; they will also develop an understanding of Chinese or Japanese interpersonal behavior. The ultimate goal is to teach students not just to speak Chinese or Japanese, but to function successfully in Chinese or Japanese culture—to present yourself as an intelligent person in the culture using the language. Students will learn to speak and perform correctly in a variety of social situations.

A limited number of scholarships are available to qualified students.

For more information please visit:
http://www.allex.org/summer-chinese-or-japanese/ or call 607.218.2130.

International Studies Graduate Programs: Master of Arts in International Studies

Master of Arts in International Studies

You're a college graduate compelled by the idea of life and work overseas. China's ingenuity, opportunities, and progress in business and education appeals to you, and you're seeking a Master’s Degree to help you realize your professional aspirations. But your time is limited. You can't afford to be stuck in a classroom in the United States for two years. When you choose an international studies graduate program, it not only needs to be academically rigorous, but it needs to be accelerated and grounded in real world experiences.

You may be the perfect candidate for Concordia University's Master of Arts in International Studies (MAIS) graduate program.

Founded in 2005, the MAIS program is an extraordinary program that cultivates academic, cultural research and language skills alongside a practical work experience in China. The program encourages students to engage in, and experience, life and work in China. After a summer of intensive courses at the Irvine campus, you head overseas and immediately start living, working, and studying in China, perhaps in some of the ways you've always imagined.

Each year, about sixty-five qualified students are sent to teach in K-12 and university partners.

The deadline to apply for the June, 2014 cohort ends on March 1 (application completion extension will be considered if applications are started before March 1).

Open to students interested in teaching in China with a salary, while living, studying and conducting empirical research for their Master’s degree with a fully accredited US institution.

You can learn more about the program at: www.cui.edu/MAIS

Application instructions and other details can also be located on our website.

You may also contact Dr. Schuler via email at: yi.schuler@cui.edu or call us at: 949-214-3376.

New Scholarship for US-China Student Summit

$100K Towards 100K Strong The 100,000 Strong mission aims to spark interest in Chinese study across a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds. It’s for that reason that we are so pleased to announce that we have secured $100,000 in need-based scholarships for students attending the U.S.-China Student Summit. This money is distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to qualified students, so please don’t wait to share this information! To get more details, call 1-855-868-5493. Early Registration Discount – before January 24! In addition, we’re pleased to share that every student who registers for this exciting China travel experience with deposit paid by January 24 will automatically receive a $100 discount on the program. Still waiting to learn more about the U.S.-China Student Summit? Our deadlines are approaching soon. Call 1-855-868-5493 and get your delegation started before these special savings run out. With the early registration discount and so many new scholarships available, we know that the vision of recruiting a full, diverse delegation of students from your school is achievable. And, with your participation, we know that the 100,000 Strong goal is within reach. See you in Beijing! Sincerely, The U.S.-China Student Summit Team www.chinastudentsummit.org

Upcoming Event: Teach for China Information Session

Established in 2008, Teach For China is a non-profit organization that takes a unique approach to eliminating educational inequity in China by enlisting the US and China’s most promising future leaders in the effort. Teach For China trains Fellows, places them in teams at schools with demonstrated need, and provides continuous support so that Fellows have a solid platform on which to bring significant gains to their students.

Jessica Shyu, Teach For China's Director of National Teaching Excellence and Leadership, and former Fellows will gather to discuss their experiences working and teaching in China. From challenges and successes in the classroom to our ongoing training and support program, this panel discussion will cover a wide range of topics from a variety of perspectives.

Please join us on Friday, September 27 at 12:30 pm at Georgetown's Career Education Center (Seminar Room 1).

Website: http://www.tfchina.org

But, what about Taiwan?

For anyone interested in China, it is difficult not to be fascinated by Taiwan. A ‘country’ whose existence is defined by the struggle to uphold its identity as a separate, sovereign, state. It has been warding off attempts to be integrated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for over six decades now, but the struggle doesn't seem to have gotten any easier. Being in Taiwan, however, it is difficult to notice that. 

Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world between 2004 and 2010 flanked by other buildings

An evening out in Taipei

Evening traffic in Taipei

The bustling, colorful cities with busy streets where young people seem to take their fashion cues from the latest western trends and carry the latest gizmos, make you wonder about the existential question that has defined the Republic of China (ROC) – What about Taiwan? Will it exist as a separate state? Will it eventually be reintegrated? Does young people in Taiwan even care?  This is the question that kept coming back to me throughout my stay; it is the question I asked as many people as I could. I am not sure I have a definitive answer; I am not even sure there IS an answer. But what I have are some very curious perspectives, that no doubt, lend a peek into the way today’s ROC thinks, and perhaps the way tomorrow’s Taiwan will act.

What is their greatest concern?

Taiwan has benefited from industrialization and liberalization that started early. The economy doubled several times between the 1960s and 1980s. In the last few years, GDP has consistently grown annually between 4% and 6%, and in 2012 per capita GDP stood at over $20,000 in nominal terms, while that in the PRC was at  little above $6000. But Taiwan's problems are of a different kind. As a result of jobs moving to the mainland, salaries in the island have stayed stagnant for almost two decades, pinching the middle class the hardest. High house prices that refuse to come down mean the dream of owning a home will remain just that for most. The high cost of living has invariably led to a low birth-rate, which, despite a recent spike, remains one of the lowest in the world, pointing to a future with fewer workers to spurt either consumption or add to the workforce. 

Fewer young people to join the workforce every year

As a recent study found, the greatest worry for Taiwanese students, therefore, is selecting a career with a future, and finding a job that pays enough. Perhaps that is why in my conversation with young Taiwanese - those finishing school or those who have just begin college, the question of PRC-ROC relations usually elicited vague responses. They know about the issue for sure, but seemed to have other priorities. Some of the older people, those in their thirties and beyond, had more interesting observations. Many believe an eventual reintegration is unavoidable - few look forward to it, some are resigned to it. Some point at the economic cooperation and claim even if it happened, the cooperation would ensure it wasn’t a bloody one. I must add here, these responses mostly came about in the course of casual conversations, and I did not follow the methods required for a scientific survey. 

As I met more people, one trait stood out - people love their freedom and their right to voice their opinion, either in support or against policies of the government. Protests are organized near the presidential office almost every weekend; sometimes against use of nuclear energy, sometimes against trade agreements with the the PRC. 

Anti government demonstration in Taipei

Protesting against trade pact with the PRC - demanding ouster of the government

Street play in anti government demonstration in Taipei

Anti government demonstration in Taipei - protesting against a trade pact with China

What struck me about the protests against policies building closer economic ties to the PRC was the composition of the crowd - save the students that put up a street play on the issue, most in the crowd looked like retired people. Those who I spoke to, asking about the importance of the issue to young people - seemed divided; some lamented that the young simply did not care. Others however, had a more important explanation – they believed that the reason young people didn't spend much time on the issue of ROC-PRC relations, is because they were born and brought up in a Taiwan that had built a completely separate identity for itself. Raised in the time of peace, in a democratic set-up, they were so conscious of their political rights and freedom, being a part of the PRC was not even something they could comprehend.

The full import of this belief struck home yesterday - as thousands of students descended in central Taipei to protest the suspicious death of an army corporal. They were unhappy with the government's assurances, and wanted speedy action against the guilty. I could not visit the protest site as I was out of Taipei for most of the day. But late at night I saw astonishing pictures flash across tv screens - the young people of Taipei described variously as elusive and self-centered, out in the street, standing for a cause they could identify with - one of personal freedom and possible human rights violation.

Image courtesy: Taipei Times

Image courtesy: Taipei Times

Thousands - sitting in protest barely 100 yards away from the presidential office, raising slogans, demanding answers even while a large police force kept a tight watch, but did nothing to stop the peaceful demonstration. As I sat fascinated at the live pictures - it was suddenly clear to me what it meant to be a young Taiwanese. And why a young man/woman in the Republic of China could not see himself/herself as a part of the People's Republic of China. At least, not yet.

Deep Pal, M.A. in International Affairs, 2014

Sigur Center 2013 Summer Language Fellow

National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Wrapping Up Research in China

It's true what they say--time really does fly when you are having fun. It is hard to believe that my research trip to China is almost already over. After having spent two and half weeks in Shanghai and about one week in Beijing, I've accomplished a lot, even more than I expected. I had several successful forays into archives here in which I collected dozens of documents from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and have had a handful of extremely fruitful meetings and reunions with Chinese professors and old friends. But I still can't help but feel like I have more questions than answers, that there still more people I would like to meet, and that there more archives I wish I could explore. I simply need more time!

Though disappointed I have to leave China so soon, I am delighted with how this trip has turned out. In the remainder of the post I offer some initial thoughts on my research--what I learned and what remains to be done.

When I applied for funding from the Sigur Center my idea was to conduct research on China's relations with the Soviet Union inside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Located in the far northwest and situated along the Sino-Soviet border, Xinjiang was both an area for cooperation in the 1950s and then a sticking point in the 1960s between Beijing and Moscow. During a previous research trip to Beijing I discovered hundreds of documents on Sino-Soviet relations in Xinjiang at the Foreign Ministry Archive, and so my research plan for this summer was to really dig into those materials.

But as fate would have it, the Foreign Ministry Archive is no longer as accessible as it once was. So instead of Beijing, I came here to Shanghai to get a lay of the land in terms of the local archives. I couldn't be happier with what I discovered here. I found hundreds of documents--many more than I could possibly process in just a few short weeks--on the connections between Shanghai and Xinjiang in general and on the dispatch of perhaps 100,000 Chinese youth from Shanghai to the far northwest in the 1960s in particular.

Shanghai youth in Xinjiang. Image via SHZQ.org

This is a subject which I admittedly knew little about prior to my forays into the archives here, but I have become absolutely fascinated by this topic. I  am eager to continue studying the relocation of the Shanghai youth to Xinjiang both as a political movement and as a human experience, but in the mean time here are some preliminary thoughts:

Most of the documents I've obtained were produced by and for political leaders and deal with the mobilization of Shanghai's educated youth to take part in Xinjiang's economic development in the 1960s. The impetus for the mass mobilization seems to be two-fold, both pragmatic and yet strongly ideological.

Many of the documents, for example, refer to the growing urban population and the increasing shortage of jobs for middle school and high school graduates. Xinjiang, it is often noted, however, has precisely the opposite problem: not enough people for a land of great economic promise and opportunity. So Shanghai's leaders believed there was a convergence of interests and needs between the two regions and thus began the campaign to send youth to the northwest.

A handful of documents from the Huangpu District Archives

At the same time, many of the documents also feature Chinese political leaders emphasizing that Shanghai's youth had grown too comfortable living in urban environments and had come to despise agricultural labor, look down upon factory workers, and in general lacked the revolutionary vigor of the older generations. Wanting to correct these ideological imbalances and ensure that socialism in China would continue to develop unhindered, Chinese leaders believed that it would be a valuable experience for Chinese youth to take part in hard labor in rugged Xinjiang.

In future research I will need to continue to tease out both the origins of the movement to send Shanghai's educated youth to Xinjiang as well the evolution of the movement as it unfolded from 1963 onward. Significantly, however, I also need to understand the human component of this story. These were real people sent to Xinjiang--some of them enthusiastically went to the northwest (I found one document describing how a teenager wrote a letter demanding he be allowed to go to Xinjiang using not a pen, but his own blood), while many of them were forced to move faraway from families and friends to a strange and hostile environment. Though additional documents from Shanghai's archives will help reveal the personal stories of this experience, oral history could be a better method to capture and understand this history. Many of the youth petitioned the government for permission to return to Shanghai in the 1980s, and those that are still alive today should be in their 60s and 70s. It can only be hoped that some of them will be willing to open up to an interested stranger.

Charles Kraus, Ph.D. Student, Department of History
Sigur Center 2013 Research Fellow
Shanghai, China