Displaced Chinese Scholars, American Cold War University, and the Discourse of Academic Objectivity

Qing Liu, University of Wiscosin-Madison

In the Cold War context, American diplomatic, educational and cultural leaders’ urgent need for knowledge and analysis of Communist China led them to put huge investment in the field of China Studies, which opened up the important spaces for a large number of displaced Chinese scholars to enter American academia in the 1950s. With their language skills and knowledge of Chinese culture and politics, Chinese scholars were taken as a rare asset and thus were integrated into “American Cold War University.” However, these scholars’ Chineseness not only brought them intellectual utility but also may link them to certain political and ideological associations. So in what ways did these Chinese scholars dodge the kind of racist hysteria that Japanese Americans faced a decade earlier? This paper contends that beyond the intellectual contributions of Chinese professionals and the prevailing Cold War liberalism, the principle of academic objectivity and disinterest—asserting that scholarly endeavors should be above political biases—played a critical role in facilitating the acceptance of Chinese scholars within American academic circles. Furthermore, it explores how these scholars adeptly utilized the flexibility of academic objectivity to adapt to their complex situations in the United States, thereby carving out a space for recognition and inclusion in the academic community.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 163. New Perspectives on Nativist Discourses