Academic And Political Situation: Observations Centered On The Kangzang Research Monthly

Kangzang Research Monthly,studying on Kangzang problems, is an academic journal. Through detailed study on the set-up background of journal, internal operations, sources of funding, issue and sales, content and authors group, this paper aims to explore its characteristics and significance to make a consideration on the relationship between academic and political situation, and between the mission and the concern for realities of intellectuals.ChapterⅠattempts to clarify the set-up background of Kangzang Research Monthly from a viewpoint of changing situation. After recognizing the importance of status of Kangzang region in history and the gap in Tibetan studies between China and foreign countries, Ren Naiqiang and others established the journal with a large number of westward experts, scholars and academic institutions at the time of many other journals concerned with Tibet and Border Area emerging continuously.ChapterⅡattempts to study the establishment, funding, and publication of the journal. From 30th Oct. 1946 for the first publication to 30th Sep. 1949 for the last publication, it published 29 terms totally. Lacking strong financial support and mainly depending on donation of personages, the journal could not be published with large quantities; and has some issues deferred or interrupted, as well as some errors and deficiency.ChapterⅢattempts to make a statistics and analysis on the authors group and their related papers to reveal the characteristics and concerns of this group. Most of the 15 authors gathering around the journal belong to the Han nationality being born in Sichuan. They pay attention to field trips, with a heavy flavor of institute and local color. The journal publishes a large number of excellent research achievements, covering the politic, religion, history, geography, ethnic minority, culture, linguistics, social customs, economy, and books of Kangzang, deeply reflects reality concerns of colleagues of the Kangzang Research Monthly.ChapterⅣattempts to discover the magazine's characteristics and significance based on the previous three chapters. It shows deep concern for practical realities and academic studies, and records a lot about the history, culture, religion, social customs and language of Kangzang. To a certain extent, it preserves and spreads Kangzang culture, contributes a lot for the communication between Tibet and Han culture, and more importantly, provides advantages for solving the Kangzang problems.Politics influences academics while academics picturizes politics. On one hand, the border crisis in modern times catalyzed the birth of Kangzang Research Monthly. And on the other hand, the academic community involved, being inspired with the modern ideastream"struggle for the survival of China"and the traditional Confucian ideality"pursue the happiness of all living creatures", devoted them to the research on Kangzang affairs. Their works contributed a lot for removing the estrangement between major ethnic group and Tibetans and improving the mutual understanding with priceless academic value and rich practical wealth.