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Hoover Institution archives yield fresh insights into modern Chinese history
By Wan Lixin |
September 2, 2009, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE financial crisis has had considerable impact on the Hoover Institution's finances, yet it remains committed to its traditional strength and a new focus on east Asia, according to Richard Sousa.
Sousa is senior associate director and research fellow for the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
He was in Shanghai recently to attend the "Symposium on T.V. Soong: His Life and Personal Papers," sponsored by Fudan University, the Hoover Institution, and the Shanghai Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling.
Hoover's unrivalled treasure of archives was started in the 1919 as the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, and first built its reputation on its European collection.
In recent years it has built a strong Asian collection, and within this, its collection of the papers of T.V. (Tse-ven) Soong, H.H. (Hsiang-hsi) Kung, Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo have generated intense interest.
Each year more than 3,000 researchers and visitors from all over the world visit the library and archives to make use of the materials on political, economic, and social changes in modern times.
Yang Tianshi, a researcher with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is one of the researchers whose studies have benefited greatly from the institution's China collection.
In a paper presented at the seminar, Yang said he had come upon some "startling" discoveries in investigating the papers of T.V. Soong, the diaries of Chiang Kai-shek and related documents.
For instance, documents dated April 1943 suggested that Chiang Kai-shek agreed to secretly provide fund to help topple the Nazi regime.
This discovery would shed new light on studies on relations between the Kuomintang government and the Nazi Germany during World War II.
Some researchers at the seminar challenged his views, however, and asked whether the funding was intended as pay for some intelligence, or to finance a coup.
New findings based on documents recently added to the archives also ascribe a more prominent role to T.V. Soong in the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident, which took place in Xi'an on December 12, 1936. Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng took Chiang Kai-shek hostage and demanded that he end the civil war and instead fight Japanese invaders in alliance with the Communist Party.
According to Yang Kuisong from East China Normal University, Soong's role in negotiating the incident was very significant, considering the differences between Chiang and Soong prior the incident, and the dangers confronting any mediator.
Soong's intelligence and diplomacy helped broker a settlement acceptable to all parties.
Notwithstanding Soong's pivotal role in the settlement, he failed to regain Chiang's favor and had to wait four more years before he was given any decision-making job in the Kuomintang government.
Researcher Wang Chaoguang explained this in terms of personality differences stemming partly from Chiang and Soong's different backgrounds.
In his diary entries in September 1933, Chiang accused Soong of being "young and overbearing," and remaining unaware of his shortcomings even after "his behavior had resulted in considerable damage to the Party and State."
In October Chiang accepted Soong's resignation from the post of financial minister.
After around 10 years, in 1942, Soong again became a key political figure after he was appointed foreign minister.
In his paper "The Sino-Soviet Negotiations: Trading Sovereignty for Survival," Elliot S. Feng from the University of Pennsylvania delved into the territorial issues between the Soviet Union and China in the last few months of the Pacific Theater of World War II.
Feng concluded that Chiang Kai-shek and T.V. Soong's decision to negotiate with the Soviet Union was based on "their fear of abandonment by the United States and their belief that through concessions and appeasement, Stalin could become an ally who had the unique ability to mitigate Chinese Communist hostility towards the Nationalist Government."
Sousa is senior associate director and research fellow for the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
He was in Shanghai recently to attend the "Symposium on T.V. Soong: His Life and Personal Papers," sponsored by Fudan University, the Hoover Institution, and the Shanghai Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling.
Hoover's unrivalled treasure of archives was started in the 1919 as the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, and first built its reputation on its European collection.
In recent years it has built a strong Asian collection, and within this, its collection of the papers of T.V. (Tse-ven) Soong, H.H. (Hsiang-hsi) Kung, Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo have generated intense interest.
Each year more than 3,000 researchers and visitors from all over the world visit the library and archives to make use of the materials on political, economic, and social changes in modern times.
Yang Tianshi, a researcher with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is one of the researchers whose studies have benefited greatly from the institution's China collection.
In a paper presented at the seminar, Yang said he had come upon some "startling" discoveries in investigating the papers of T.V. Soong, the diaries of Chiang Kai-shek and related documents.
For instance, documents dated April 1943 suggested that Chiang Kai-shek agreed to secretly provide fund to help topple the Nazi regime.
This discovery would shed new light on studies on relations between the Kuomintang government and the Nazi Germany during World War II.
Some researchers at the seminar challenged his views, however, and asked whether the funding was intended as pay for some intelligence, or to finance a coup.
New findings based on documents recently added to the archives also ascribe a more prominent role to T.V. Soong in the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident, which took place in Xi'an on December 12, 1936. Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng took Chiang Kai-shek hostage and demanded that he end the civil war and instead fight Japanese invaders in alliance with the Communist Party.
According to Yang Kuisong from East China Normal University, Soong's role in negotiating the incident was very significant, considering the differences between Chiang and Soong prior the incident, and the dangers confronting any mediator.
Soong's intelligence and diplomacy helped broker a settlement acceptable to all parties.
Notwithstanding Soong's pivotal role in the settlement, he failed to regain Chiang's favor and had to wait four more years before he was given any decision-making job in the Kuomintang government.
Researcher Wang Chaoguang explained this in terms of personality differences stemming partly from Chiang and Soong's different backgrounds.
In his diary entries in September 1933, Chiang accused Soong of being "young and overbearing," and remaining unaware of his shortcomings even after "his behavior had resulted in considerable damage to the Party and State."
In October Chiang accepted Soong's resignation from the post of financial minister.
After around 10 years, in 1942, Soong again became a key political figure after he was appointed foreign minister.
In his paper "The Sino-Soviet Negotiations: Trading Sovereignty for Survival," Elliot S. Feng from the University of Pennsylvania delved into the territorial issues between the Soviet Union and China in the last few months of the Pacific Theater of World War II.
Feng concluded that Chiang Kai-shek and T.V. Soong's decision to negotiate with the Soviet Union was based on "their fear of abandonment by the United States and their belief that through concessions and appeasement, Stalin could become an ally who had the unique ability to mitigate Chinese Communist hostility towards the Nationalist Government."
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