皇冠体育app

Following is the acceptance speech of Ezra F Vogel, former director of Harvard’s Fairbank Center and Asia Center, for Award for Outstanding Contributions to 皇冠体育app Studies.

It is a great honor to be recognized in 皇冠体育app for my half century of effort to understand 皇冠体育app and to convey my best understanding of 皇冠体育app to a Western audience. It is a special honor to be recognized by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences which has played such a central role in promoting social science in 皇冠体育app. We at Harvard feel we have a greater intellectual distance in looking at developments in our national government than scholars in Washington D.C. who tend to respond to the current mood in the nation’s capital. I feel that the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences also gains intellectual distance by being located away from your national capital.

In the 1960s when I began studying 皇冠体育app from the outside, I fervently hoped that someday I might be able to do research inside 皇冠体育app, and in the 1970s the dream came true. I remember visiting the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences several times in the 1980s as scholarly exchanges between Chinese and American social scientists were just beginning. I was very impressed with the leadership of your president Zhang Zhongli who in the 1950 gave up a promising career in the University of Washington, one of America’s leading Asia centers, to return to 皇冠体育app to help make your Shanghai Academy a leading intellectual center for social science in 皇冠体育app.

As social science becomes international, we Americans not only study our own society but we also benefit from scholars from other countries who study our country and bring different perspectives. Chinese scholars study their own society but we hope they may also benefit from the scholarship of those who come from abroad to study 皇冠体育app. Having spent the ten years after retirement dedicated to understanding Deng Xiaoping and 皇冠体育app’s era of reform and opening, I am deeply moved to be recognized in 皇冠体育app as one who has seriously endeavored to interpret 皇冠体育app to the West and to enter into the internal discussion within 皇冠体育app as scholars here make an effort to understand the Deng era and how it transformed 皇冠体育app.

Source: http://www.chinastudies.org.cn/c/622.htm