CHUS #9. Zhou Enlai: His Life, Thought, and Legacies (Rountdatble)
Sunday, January 5, 2025: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM
New York Hilton, East Room
Session Organizer: Patrick Fuliang Shan, Grand Valley State University
Chair(s):
Patrick Fuliang Shan, Grand Valley State University
Panel:
Mark Selden, Cornell University
Hanchao Lu, Georgia Institute of Technology
Xiaobing Li, University of Central Oklahoma
Dan Du, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Patrick Fuliang Shan, Grand Valley State University
Session Description
The publication of Chen Jian’s Zhou Enlai: A Life (Harvard University, 2024) offers an opportunity for scholarly reflections on Zhou Enlai’s (1898-1976) life and thought as well as the role he played in shaping the Chinese Communist Revolution and the early history of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). A prominent historical figure of modern China, Zhou was a key leader of the Chinese Communist Party and, after the founding of the PRC, served as its premier for twenty-seven years. In a number of ways, he could be regarded as an architect of China’s administrative apparatus and a designer of China’s relationship to the world. He was praised by President Nixon as “the greatest statesman of our era.” Nevertheless, not a single comprehensive biography of Zhou Enlai has ever been published in English until now. Chen Jian, Professor emeritus of Cornell University and author of The China challenge in the twenty-first century: implications for U.S. foreign policy (United States Institute of Peace, 1998), China’s road to the Korean War: the making of the Sino-American confrontation (Columbia University Press, 1994), and Mao’s China and the Cold War (UNC Chapel-Hill, 2001), among his other works, presents in this biography a nuanced portrait of Zhou as a revolutionary, a diplomat, and a political leader by utilizing archival sources inside and outside China.
This biography, in a sense, monitors the history of twentieth century China. When young, Zhou received a classical education and spent his time in Japan and France. Being driven by his aspiration for China’s modernization, he embraced communism as a tool of national salvation. After 1949, Zhou assisted Mao Zedong to govern China. As Chen demonstrates, Zhou was not a totally committed Maoist. Zhou’s exceptional political moves, bureaucratic skills, and centrist approaches enabled him to diminish the damage caused by Mao’s extreme policies. Without a doubt, this book helps us understand the historical evolution of modern China. This roundtable will centrally engage Chen’s biography of Zhou, as each panelist will offer his/her comments on the book — its features, its scope, and its scholarly contributions –and take it as a new point of departure to explore Zhou’s work, thought, and legacies from a particular angle. The speakers will then invite questions and comments from the audience.
Speakers’ Abstracts
Mark Selden, Cornell University
Mark Selden, the author of The Yenan Way in Revolutionary China (Harvard, 1971), has studied the Chinese Revolution for decades. For this roundtable, he will focus on the tie between Zhou Enlai and the Chinese Revolution by using Chen Jian’s book and other sources. In particular, he will assess Zhou Enlai’s significant role in modern China, especially the revolution throughout the 20th century.
Hanchao Lu, Georgia Institute of Technology
Hanchao Lu is the author of many books on Shanghai, the largest city of China. For this roundtable, he will use Chen Jian’s book and other sources to discuss Zhou Enlai’s relationship with Shanghai. He will show unique episodes of Zhou Enlai’s tie with Shanghai, intending to highlight the relationship between this important historical figure and a major Chinese city.
Xiaobing Li, University of Central Oklahoma
Xiaobing Li authored many books on China’s army and navy. For this roundtable, he will utilize Chen Jian’s book as a new point of departure to demonstrate the deep tie between Zhou Enlai as one of the national leaders and China’s military establishment. He will also interpret Zhou’s role in the development of Chinese fighting forces and China’s military modernization during the Maoist era.
Dan Du, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Dan Du is a specialist on the history of US-China trade relations. For this roundtable, she will demonstrate Zhou Enlai’s promotion of the bilateral ties between the United States and China. She will use Chen Jian’s book and other sources to unveil the indispensable role of Zhou Enlai in the normalization of US-China relations through mutual understanding between the two peoples, although the diplomatic tie was finally established in 1979, roughly three years after Zhou Enlai passed away.
Patrick Fuliang Shan, Grand Valley State University
Zhou Enlai has been acclaimed as “a great modern Confucian.” Yet, he was a loyal member of the Communist Party and served as a prominent communist leader. This naturally raises a serious question about Zhou’s faith in communism and his tie with traditional Chinese culture. By utilizing Chen Jian’s book, Shan will discuss the tie between Zhou Enlai and Chinese culture, as well as his relationship with the communist ideology.