Opinion | When Americans fear China, what are they really afraid of?

Chi Wang says American paranoia about China is shaped by China hawks’ narrow views. It is unfortunate that the average American has learnt to be suspicious of the Chinese government, but has no awareness of the average Chinese

Reading Time:4 minutes

Published: 3:00am, 19 Dec 2018Updated: 3:39am, 19 Dec 2018

Today, it appears that US-China relations are at their lowest point in decades, and that perception on both sides is clouded by misunderstanding and paranoia. In such an environment, how young Americans are taught Chinese history and culture is incredibly important.

I have lived in the United States for 70 years, and taught history at Georgetown University for more than 60 years before retiring in 2016. When I taught, I was careful in selecting books from both Western and Chinese scholars for my students, in the hope that they would be able to form their own opinions about China.

Today, students of China studies in America are taught with a narrowing list of largely American-authored textbooks. In the US, it is becoming more difficult for China experts to voice opinions about China that contradict the government’s and media’s anti-China perceptions. All this may have dire implications for US-China policy for decades to come.

Across the US, a new generation is being introduced to Chinese history through American-authored texts like Jonathan D. Spence’s The Search for Modern China , while important works by Chinese historians of the 20th century, such as Immanuel C.Y. Hsu’s The Rise of Modern China, Ray Huang’s China: A Macro History and Li Dun Jen’s The Ageless Chinese: A History (1970) are largely ignored. The overreliance on American scholarship gives students a one-sided understanding of China. This is why in Chinese universities, students of American history are taught with both Chinese and American textbooks.

There are other dangers in overreliance on any one text. If a generation of American China scholars learns Chinese history from the same book, there is sure to be a certain degree of monotony in ideas about China. For a book as innocuous as The Search for Modern China, this may not be an issue.

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