A Study On The East Asian Order In American Academic Circles In The 20th Century

In the early 20 th century,with the origin of American professional Sinology,the study of East Asian order in the United States started.William W.Rockhill was an important figure who initiated the study of Chinese traditional diplomacy.In the 1920 s,studies of East Asian order in America began to professionalize,and Friedrich Hirth’s study of Chinese traditional diplomacy and Hosea Ballou Morse’s study of sino-foreign relations history were good beginnings.By the 1930 s,the professionalization of Chinese studies in the United States had been preliminarily completed,and these studies had gained a lot in promoting the study of East Asian order.In the 1940 s,East Asian studies in the United States began to emerge.Owen Lattimore,John King Fairbank and other scholars continued to put forward new important achievements,which making the study of East Asian traditional order a leading and representative research direction of American Sinology.In 1950,Mc Carthyism prevailed,and the studies of East Asian order in the United States suffered a shock.The 1950 s and 1960 s were the peak time for the study of the history of East Asian order in the United States,and East Asian order was the center of sinology studies in the American academia.Most studies of East Asian order in this period upheld the Western-center approach.In the late 1960 s,a new generation of scholars began to deconstruct the original Western-center approach,starting with the imperialist model which challenging the impact and Chinese response model.This orientation reached its peak in the 1980 s,when Cohen deconstructed the existing model by his “China-center approach”.After the 1990 s,under the influence of the global historical view,the global perspective began to appear in the American studies on East Asian order.Later on,the New Qing History rose in the United States,which upended the studies of old East Asian order and frontiers of China.American studies on the history of East Asian order reached another climax in the late 1960 s,especially after the1980 s.American scholars paid attention to the construction of theories and research models in the study of East Asian order.In the whole 20 th century,American studies on East Asian order also experienced the transformation of research mode and concerns.In the early 20 th century,the researchers of East Asian order in the United States,represented by Rockhill and Morse,didn’t establish research theories or summarize research models,but they took the perspective of American center or Western center in their studies unconsciously.In the 1930 s and 1940 s,Lattimore put forward the theory of“Inventory Land” and the historical view of the Great Wall in his research on the inner Asian frontiers,while Fairbank put forward the theory of "Impact and Response",which became an important model for the study of modern China.In the late 1960 s,a new generation of American scholars represented by James Peck put forward the theory of imperialism,which criticizing the “Impact and Response” model and the “Tradition and Modern” theory.Cohen put forward the “China-center approach” in the 1980 s,which completely overturned the Western-center approach.Thomas Barfield put forward the“Nomadic Empire-centric” theory on the basis of Lattimore’s research.After the 1990 s,a global perspective appeared in the study of East Asian order in the United States.Scholars studied the modern history of China in a way that was neither "Western-center approach" nor "China-center approach",and they also refuted the western view that traditional Chinese civilization is isolated and closed,and revealed the extroverted and opening of China.With the rise of global vision,the New Qing History hoped to evaluate the changes of Chinese history from a global perspective with a vision beyond nationstate historiography,and it challenged the "Chinese world order" and emphasize ethnic theory.American studies on the history of East Asian order focused on three issues: first,the relationship between China and its neighboring countries,initiated by Fairbank;second,the relationship between China’s frontiers and its neighboring nations,initiated by Lattimore,which agreed by the New Qing History;third,the study of the relationship between modern Western countries and the East Asian order.The representative model was the “impact and response” model,which stood for the transformation from tributary system to treaty system.The study of East Asian order in the United States not only had a far-reaching influence on American academia,but also had a long-term influence on relevant studies in Asian academia,and also had a great influence on Chinese academia.In terms of its influence on American academia,it laid the foundation and led American Far East studies in terms of research methods,research objects,researchers’ academic status and research organizations.In terms of its influence in Asian countries,Asian scholars’ studies on East Asian order have been greatly influenced by American scholars.Up to now,the theory of“impact and response” by Fairbank and the theory of world order of China are still popular in Asian academia.However,some scholars have also engaged in communication and criticism.At present,American studies on East Asian order have the following two trends: one is to continue to study East Asian order from a global perspective and world consciousness;the other is to continue to pay attention to the introduction of interdisciplinary studies,which will become an inevitable trend in future studies.