Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars vol 1 Issue 1

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CONTENTS

Vol. 1, No. 1: May 1968

Leigh Kagan - A Statement of Directions

Jim Peck - Reflections on the Implications of the Vietnam Caucus

Summary of Philadelphia Vietnam Caucus Poll and Resolution Vote

Leigh Kagan - Proposals

Tom Engelhardt - Letter to the Committee on Fellowships

Jon Livingston - Prospects for Graduate-Level Asian Studies in

Canada

Canada Questionnaire Mark Selden - A Call for Professional Soul-Searching

National News Briefs

The Editors - A Note on Messy Details

BCAS/Critical Asian Studies

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CCAS Statement of Purpose

Critical Asian Studies continues to be inspired by the statement of purpose

formulated in 1969 by its parent organization, the Committee of ConcernedAsian Scholars (CCAS). CCAS ceased to exist as an organization in 1979,

but the BCAS board decided in 1993 that the CCAS Statement of Purpose

should be published in our journal at least once a year.

We first came together in opposition to the brutal aggression of

the United States in Vietnam and to the complicity or silence of

our profession with regard to that policy. Those in the field of

Asian studies bear responsibility for the consequences of their

research and the political posture of their profession. We are

concerned about the present unwillingness of specialists to speak

out against the implications of an Asian policy committed to en-

suring American domination of much of Asia. We reject the le-

gitimacy of this aim, and attempt to change this policy. We

recognize that the present structure of the profession has often

perverted scholarship and alienated many people in the field.

The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars seeks to develop a

humane and knowledgeable understanding of Asian societies

and their efforts to maintain cultural integrity and to confrontsuch problems as poverty, oppression, and imperialism. We real-

ize that to be students of other peoples, we must first understand

our relations to them.

CCAS wishes to create alternatives to the prevailing trends in

scholarship on Asia, which too often spring from a parochial

cultural perspective and serve selfish interests and expansion-

ism. Our organization is designed to function as a catalyst, a

communications network for both Asian and Western scholars, aprovider of central resources for local chapters, and a commu-

nity for the development of anti-imperialist research.

Passed, 2830 March 1969

Boston, Massachusetts


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C.C.A.S.NEWSLETTERNO. 1MAY 1968

CONTENTS:A S t ~ t e m e n t of Directions - Leigh KaganReflections on the Imolications of theVietn[l.m C[!.ucus - Jim PeckSummary of Philadelohia V i e t n [ ! ~ CaucusPoll pnd Resolution VoteP r o p o 5 ~ l s - L8igh K a ~ a nLetter to the Committee on Fellowships- Tom EngelhardtProsnects for Gradue.te-Level Asie.n Studiesin Canada - Jon LivingstonCpnad[l QuestionnaireA Call fo r Professional Soul-Searching- Kark Selden

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14Nptionpl News BriefsA No te on I-ressy Detai Is - The Editors

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THE EDITORS:Leigh KaganJon Livingston.ALL CORRESnONDENCE TO:CCAS, c/o K[lgan96 Ellery Stree tCambridge, lJ!r s s.02138

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At a t ime when stu 'dents r ,erceive t h a t v i r t u a l l y a l l i n s t i tu t ions ' in: ' America are f a i l i r ' l . ~ them: .by commitments to p o l i t i c a l and so c i a l p!-lilo'sophies manifes t ly . l r r :e l :evant to cur ren tproblems o f American soc ie ty , a"d t";\us to s tud ie r i t s themselves - it i s ~ a r d l y s u rp r i s ing t ~ a t t ~ e y l e v e l t h i s c h a r ~ e d i rec t l ya ~ a i n s t the ed .ucat io"al i o s t i tu t iof ls i ~ whic,", they fiflo thelJ1s e lv e s . Je hea r the o u tc r i e s o f d i s i l l u s ione d and f rus t ra tedundergradua tes , afld now by the s imple s t e p of matr icu la t ioni n to g r a ~ u a t e s c ~ . o o l s and th e h.appy . - # ....... .; acc iden t o fe lec t ing Asian Stud ies , s tuden t s a re b r i " g i ~ ~ to t,is profe ss ion ,i t s t e ache rs and its s tuden ts , t h e i r f ~ " d a m e . , t a l and t o t a l i s t i c

c o n c ~ r n s . T ~ e f i e l d o f Asian S t u d i e s , neit l - ter as a scapegoatnor as a pr i e s thood , bu t as p a r t anrl p a r ce l ' o f American soc ie tyand po l i t i c s and of our ind iv idua l l i v e s , i s due fo r a s e l f consc ious , ' prob ing , and uncompromising re -examina t ion .

Two major and i n t e r r e l a t e d approaches to t h i s re-examinat ionemerge: scho ia r ly and p o l i t i c a l . The sc h o l a r l y fa c e t embraces,in its f u l l e s t , s en s e , tb e c o ~ c e p t o f educa t ion . It asksques t ions such a s : to what ex ten t profes so r s shou ld be concernedwith i s sues p o l i t i c a l l y and persona l ly r e l e v a n t to t h e i r s tuden ts ;should gradua te s c ~ o o l be only a p ro fe s s i o n a l t r a in ing periodor ought it not a l so be an i n t e l l e c t u a l community in w ' 1 . i c ~ hewareas and. perspec t ives in sc'i:tolars!1.ip a re pursued; what i s theac tua l r e l a t i on o f our educa t iona l i n s t i t u t i o n s to the government , and i s t h i s r e l a t i o n s ~ i p compat ib le with the idda l s afldgoals o f educa t ion .

P o l i t i c a l l y , we submit t h a t Asian scho la r s a r e , in f a c t ,involved in p o l i t i c s , t h a t we aCknowledge t h i s , and t ha t weaddress o 'urselves to th e i s sue o f now we are ~ o i n g to be p o ~ i t i c a 1 .This e n t a i l s a wil l ine:ness to t ransform the ' e ru d i t e r e s u l t s o four seminars and '1.i:sf. , . : level cOr'lferences i n to s ta tements . i n t e l l i g i b l e to the America"} pub l ic ; it i nvo lves the necessary s imp l i f i ca t i on o f scho la r ly arp,;uments i n to more s t r a igh t fo rwardpos i t ions on admi t t ed ly complex i s s u e s , and the in t roduc t ion o fr e levan t human perspec t ives i n to over ly a b s t r a c t and ~ s c i e n t i f i c "ana lys i s .

Though genera ted in its i n i t i a l s tages by s tuden ts and youngf n cu l t y , t ~ e c a l l fo r a re -assessment o f the r a t i ona l e o f ourprofes s ion , our s ch o l a r s h ip , and our p o l i t i c a l ro le can be pursuedonly by b r i n ~ i n g these mat te rs to t ~ e c o n sc i o u s ' l e v e l o f everymember of the profes s ion . This n e w s l e t t e r w i l l serve as a forumfo r the d iscuss ion and communication o f these and o th e r re l a t edissued. .

Leigh ~ \ a ~ a n- 1
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.. " .REFLECTIONS ON THE IMPliCATIONS OF THE VIETNAM

CAUCUSIt revealing that a Vietnam Caucus held in March 1968 s'hould

end its meeting by beginning an eva'iuation of the professional t tconsdence"of Asian scholars . That i t took this war to raise the latent problemsin the profession is i tself 'a depressing commentary on the state of thefield. But the desire on the par t of some individuals to create a nationwide inter-universi ty student-faculty Committee of Concerned AsianScholars to pose and then seek to resolve these problems fulfills oneof the organizers ' hopes.

U the efforts at Philadelphia to provide a forum for Asian scholarsto speak out en masse o ~ the w ar was the immediate p r e o c c u ~ a t i o n ,,the possible long range resul ts a re more important . For as attentionbecame focused on the multiple facets of the relationship between "Asianexpertise" and the war, there was evident uneasiness about the financialstructures that support and influence the profession, concern over thechanneling of r esearch to fill government needs, and uncertainty over therelevance of expertise and of the scholar ..intellectual to public affairs.U the caucus obtained an a ll but unanimous condemnation of Americanpolicy in Vietnam, i t did not reach wide agreement over the nature ofthe profession's i l ls . Perhaps, however , this very lack of clari ty indicates the number of i ssues needing investigation and the paucity of thoughtexpended on them by those who have dominated the field up to now.

What st ruck me part icularly, not least because of i ts present lack ofconceptualization, was a growing frustration among graduate studentsover current educational pract ices and methods. It was not just a concernover government finanCing or 'the channeling of talent. ,These, of course ,were mentioned often, but they tended to be only the surface manifestationsof an immensely complex problem. U only a vocal minority should feelthat Asian studies in universit ies is something to be endured, not enjoyed;i f only a few were moved to an exasperated outcry against the much lauded"objectivity" in histor ica l m ~ t h ' o d that, they felt, car r ied with i t a hostof unexamined assumptions; i f only a minority pleaded for a fundamentalre-evaluation of the role of a scholar in Asian studies as a cit izen: thisnonetheless should give pause to the majority. For i t indicates an effortto grapple with problems that many sti l l claim do not e x i s t ~

, True, there was a widespread and vague agreement that the univer sity shoUld not be jus t an employmen t agency, an adjunct of corporat ions ,or an instrument of the government. H senior faculty members , nonetheless, were cri t icized with an excess of imagination and of moral passionby their younger colleagues and students, this seemed a pleasant changefrom the absence of ei ther in their elders. In fact , wasn' t there a reasonfor passion and outrage? Why, only now, should financing reyeal i tself assuch a problem? \ hy. too, did those adminis t ra tors and leaders in thefielci, those most informed about the mechanics of financing. of cooperationwith CIA projects and government grants , need to be pushed a t al l? vi hat.

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,,.. in ::;hcrt, had b'.:en h2.p>::::ninc ov.::.r a ll t110:::;8 y::arz'? \ , ;'1Y had l e a U ~ r sin the field not ra ised questions a ll along about the political postureof their profession? Perhaps , as some of the juniors frequentlysuggested, b.acause th3Y s imply didn ' t reccgniz3 Glom as prob lems .

Those in positions of authori ty are viewed by students as avoidingmora l and political isst:cG by taking refuge in quest ions of conduct ,manners , and exper t i se . There w ere : honest differences of opinion'or "you have a point , but I s trongly disapprove of the manner inwhich you say i t and your actions to cor rec t i t . It T i m ~ and again ,! youth' was reminded of i ts lack of that t ra ining and experiencewhich he.d made thei r elders such models of moderation and r eason ,such paragons of pol i t ical effect iveness and neutra l i ty . I t was pre -cisely on the i s sue of poli t ica l neutral i ty that d i s a g r ~ e m e n t s weres t ronges t . No, " came the reply. "your neutral i ty i s a l ready apoli t ica l and mora l s tance , a l ready a posture that s;;:ems to m e toacquiesce to a policy and a situation. Even your teaching methods ,your demand for monographic studies that ignore the ro le of presup -positions in analys i s . help to make the field what it is today. '

l ..n example .night make some of the different opinions c lea re r :the debat(! on the draf t . While overwhelming Dupport was given inthe Vietnam caucus to individuals who refused cooperat ion with theSelective Service sys t em, thiz strongsupport hides, ra the r thanclar if ies , the i ssue . What, af ter all , did sllpport mean? When thesubject was brought up in meeting, there was invariably a conspicuoussi lence. "Well , yes, there is the draf t , but let 's re turn to re levantissue::; , ' i . e . the set t ing up of another commit tee. The core of thequestion, however , remained: was one real ly "politically objective 'in aiding the government and aCGuming an "objective!. methodologicalstance, while offering only platitudes of "support lf for individualsconfronting the draf t , as though the problem was in another worldfrom .8ast Asian s tudies?

The conflicting ro les of the cr i t ic , the in te l lec tual , and theexper t as a cit izen were called into question. I t i s i ronic that s tudentshave turned to the leaders in the fielei and charged 'Chern for the i r3ilence. F o r , in an effor t to re ta in their poli t ica l "ef:ect iveness , I IBast .f:'::;ian exper t s have daintily danced around the complex in ter -relat ionships of mora ls and poli t ics while U. S. sena tors in Washington subordinated poli t ica l tact to mora l . political, and often scholar lycondemnation of Ame'!."ica I s Vietnam policy!

I But, real ly, what has the draft to do with a l l t h i s? ' Thatquestion ref lects , as well as any can, the spl i t in opinion at Ph i la-delphia. ; The exper t can analyze . yes , but finally he can ' t in tercedebetween the individual and hiD real t ionship to the s tate . That isnot his taok or problem. 'We l l , ' came the reply of the draft-agegraduate s tudent, . you and I l ive in different worlcls. F or me JohnLocke iD al ready a few centuries out of date. I 'd ra ther s ta r t withthe assumption that when your analys i s of the Vietnam w ar a ll but

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defines an objectively exi:Jting situation that is immora l . your re t rea tinto I objectivity is la rd to D w a ~ l o w . I don't, x p ~ c t you to agre:; with m y answer . can',t you at leas t see the validity of thequestion? Can't - you cee that your ':objective l i analysis alltoo often has meant a passive support of policy? I f th edraftable indiviciua.1 cannot, avoid responsibi l i ty for his conductby placing responsibi l i ty on the governm.::nt, how can you?Can' t you see how interwoven m or a l and polit ical questionsreally are , how mora l assumptions are a par t of any politicalanalysis? You m ay think the draft question is not an importantone. All right, that is perfect ly plausible. But can' t you seethat the i s sues it ra ises are s imi lar to the ones that exist inyour relat ionship to society, your wor" your l i fe? And ifyou can't , how can a meaningful re-evaluation of the fieldtake place? ' So the argument went.

Given the division of opinion, agreement over the natureand direct ion of the new inter-university organizat ion wasimpos sible. But even without such unity there remained ades i re to re-evaluate the profession, i ts concepts of objeciti ts influence and the influences that act upon i t . That thiswould be a thorough examination was doubtful to Elorne. Butat leas t we could leave Philadelphia with a fe w hcpes toaccompany the clr.;pre:n;ion that brought us to that city in thef i r s t place.

J im Peck

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SF " OF VI ~ ' ~ ~ ' , i i C TJCUS feLL ,:"1' : } ~ L r v T.::. , 23. l


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: : ! 3 S 0 L l J T I o ! ~ BALLOTAbsolute vo.t-es Total votes

I . Individ.ual Vote- ::!:xpress your opinion on each of the resolutionsResolution Funber 1Support 70 261Do not Support 15 51Abstain 15 51 363Hesolution Number 2Support 1: 6 ~ Do Not Support .. Z-SS Abstain 12 ~ 4 ~ ' l i Hesolution I ~ U J j l b e r 3Sup:-:ort 61 216Do No:t Support 26 96Abstain 13 48 360Hesolution liunber 4Sup;)ort 77 281Do HotI' Support 13 49Abstain 10 37 367

II. Preferent ial Vote- Of the four resoluti::ms, checl: the nU;lber ofthe one , , , ! ~ _ i c 1: ,-,'ost nearly expressea your O.pi!lion.Resolution Nuaber 1 19 65Resolution NUi;:;'er 2 14 50*:-


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PROI'O:';,l.LSIn"A ~ t , t F' n t 01 ;onr(. i ,n: fo r (:h. P o : l ~ f f i o n , ' / '1, ' \ l11 up by r,-r (u tc f t u . r . t r of ;ou i t t ~ ~ 0:: A r i ' n Stur ' i : . r t h . rh i n r ; te n U;iv,.r: : : i ty ( S t . Louie) ,-nt" } J 1 0 [ ~ n t u < ' to t L ~ . Vi . tn.m C;"1ULU:::: in Phi lc:.t- .. lphi . J . t h ~ ; . cLipli'ci ty of Ar: i, f (;hol'"r[' ~ I i t t i ng o runi t t i n g , in US }Jolicy in Ar. i i f ' ,! [(;rtc:d. 11'.:0:1:'_ .tur;::! of th " f L l ( ~ f ' ~ T I ' t O LOlJtrihut to tl1fcl t t ! :C0 : tho . ; i n : ~ n c i n g of th )rcf : :fJ ' ion cn(l th . n tUTo of it:: ' m ~ t h o 0 0 1 0 g y . To GOrr8ct thir- COI!:;-:TOl i r i n g ~ l o E i t i on 0. cOl!m'i tm. n t to th", n(Jccl fo r I'l.vo

l u t i c ' n . ~ r y ngc in , ' : ; . ( ' i . . : ~ n l:lV"E' i f urg,-,('i ) ~ n { ; ''':1 COnCOll'll i t t ~ n t r e -o rLn t . - . t i on o f th..: [ c h o L u ~ r . h i p ~ n ( l t, . ch ing in th" fi..;l(, . ,.... ' .-: . To pursu .... th0fC t 1. [k8) th;.,; fo l lovl ing concr-.;tc [ 'ugguf:t iont h,1VGb8cn m ~ ~ ~ ;1) . the influ..::nc\! of governm",nt f i n .ncing; if, ~ ' . . : : : ' : h ' ~ ' bOlm : ~ l l c ~ g

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April 24, 1 9 ~ 8Dear Dean Phelp'':::&

On the morning of April 3, a t the Boston Common, I turnedin my draf t card. I f e l t this to be a reply to three dif ferenttypes of "channeling" which I saw as affecting my own l i fe .Firs t of a l l , i t was a reply to General Hershey's statement thatmanpower channeling i s the American or indirect way of achievinfIwhat is done by direction in fore1gn countries where choice is notpermitted." I disasscciated myself from the draf t system whichwas f lagrant ly attempting to m ~ k e me l1ve a l i fe without freedom;But I and my fr iends had been "channeled" long before Genera.lHershey ever got to us. We had been taught for years, implic i t lyand explici\,tly, tha t we had no ch'::Jic;.e but to l ive as we were l ivingi f \-;(8 W ~ l " e to avoid an unthinkable va;riety of horro'rs I tha t weshould not think for ourselves, sign any statements, speak as webelieved, or appear c o n s p ~ c u o u s to others. My reply on April 3then, was to choose what I f e l t to be a sane, moral, integral ,and a v a i l a b l e ~ a l t e r n a t i v e to the l i fe I had been l iv ing.Finally, I entered into resistance against an American government which was, with the help of the men provided by the draf t ,attempting the most serious type of "channeling" outs1de our owncountry. This is especially obvious in Vietnam where it deniesthe people of South Vietnam the opportunity to consider viablealternatives to the i r present government. Moreover, as tha t a t-tempt a t "channeling" (or,as i t is called, "'."1nning the hearts andminds of the Vietnamese people") met opposition, the Americangovernment, through i t s armed forces, commited acts of such unbelievable horror as to be unbearable to a thinking person.On the afternoon of April 3, on re turningtowy apartment,found a l e t t e r from Harvard University offering me a NationalDefense Fellowship to study Chinese language and history, a tHarvard"";- : in the"national in teres t" for a government which hasfor years been f lagrant ly working against tha t in teres t . Themistake in a sense had been mine. I had applied for the grant,thoughtlessly, and fo r th.'\;t I apologize. Nonetheless, arr ivingas i t d1d, a t the moment it d1d, it seemed l ike ~ bribe (eveni f obviously an unconscious one). "You made your s i l ly gesturei t said, now forget i t , and take th is money." "There are no strings-'attached," said my fr iends and perhaps not.My fr iends, in fac t , offered me several ra ther cogent reasonsfor accepting the money. Some said, "Why not take i t? The government's not monoltthic. Why oppose a l l the government as i f i twere one, when you can actually accept th is and go on with youract iv i t ies against those parts of the government you don ' t like?1fAnd I had to agree. No, the government's not m o ~ l i t h i c . But a l lI can suggest is some of the doubts I qonetheless heIdi Firs t ,while there are expl ic i t laws which prevent federal employeesfrom speaking up on pol i t ica l matters, there are also, i t seems tome, implicit emotional laws which often bind those federal e m p l o y ~ees called teachers who spend thei r time on government funds.Sometimes too eas i ly we convince ourselves that there wil l be nostr1ngs attached to what we badly want or badly need. Yet i t se8&Gto me clear that the massive government funding of the Chinesef i e ~ impelled by the concept of China as a mortal enemy of the

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.I : .Uni ted States , "has hade.' etrong' effeot on, everY,thing our field h ~ sproduoed. I t i s hard enough to keep a olear mind and an i n d e ~ ~ d q e nstand in suoh an atmosphere without the pressures of o o n t i n u e ~ u n ding, of the t;raining of C.I.A. agents in our department,f, of theblandishments o'f the Defense Department whioh wil l buy our -iooksi f onlythey"ca.n be olassif ied beyond our view for ten years, ofthe offere Ito' show those ohosen ones of us seoret information fromChina whioh i s , of oourse, to be used only seleotively. FinallyI suppose,everyone must piok his own way of protest ing what offendshim and .. ISiJl}ply would repeat tha t i t oan be a more diff ioul t feat /

e m o t i o ~ l l y , to protest against a government from whioh you havejus t re.oei:ved finanoial support.Others of my'friends l].ave said, "Tom, don' t be an ut te r fool ,take the ~ o n e y and use it o subvert the purpose of t h e ~ g o v e r n m e n tin givin'3 it to you." But I 1m afraid lim not tempel'nl;.:;nt Aallysuited to this method. I t i s hard enough, in this oountry, towrenoh oneself out. of apathetio fear and the onoe-every-fourthyear sat isfaotion ,of oasting a vote, without taking an immediatestep b ~ o k into tha t "si tuation. Even were th is path appealing tome, as is so often the' oase, i t would surely fall"by the waysideof "good sense" and a desire fo r ocntinued"seourity", i . e . forrenewal of the money.And s t i l l others have said,"Dontt give i t up, Tom, take i t ,but oarve out your Ollm autonomous sphere and forget the government.A few perhaps oan t ruly do th is , but most of us f a l l a way sooneror l a te r into feelings of obligation, into a sense of oomplioity,into weakness, and our "sphere" dissolves before us.Others have even said, "But Tom, oompared to other f ie lds,the Asian f ie ld is not so bad a t a l l . This is just t h e : ~ a y thingsare a l l ove r and you might as well faoe faots. What you're real lyta lking about is a transformation of the eduoational system.1tThat I reply is no exouse for what goes on in our own f ie ldl and,as a matter of faot, a transformation of the'eduoational system sothat the government did not so bla tant ly seduoe, undermine, andexploi t soholars would not bother me in the least . "But oertainlyl o an not expeot something of others i f I am not willing to takea f i r s t , minor and somewhat hes i tant step towards i t myself.Final ly , what about the NDFL? I t i s , I have been todd, in noouous, fa ir ly administered, and helpful to the promotion oflearning. I won't bother to dis .pute th is . But l ike so manyf i r s t steps, so many deals we enter where we are assured thereare"no str ings," we are la te r surprised to find ourselves trapped.I look a t this f i r s t step and it seems so harr:nbss. in faot soinvi t ing, but Ilook a t the resul ts in the f ield of modern Chinesestudies and I say I'no," I wil l take my ohanoes another way wi thfew regrets .

Yours sinoerely,Thomas M. Engelhardt

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, . PROS PECTS FOR GRA DUAT E-LEVE L AsIAN

.STUDIES IN CANADA ..

Reactions to the Vietnam war and the draf t on the par t of" Americanstudents have taken numberous forms--wil l ing acquiescence, erilistmentin the army, unhappy but si lent disapproval , mil i tant anti-war activitie's,and (more recent ly) induction refusal and Resistance. One .option opento students that is rare ly discussed is emigrat ion to Canada to avoidconscription. The following is an investigative swing through EasternCanada by two graduate students a t Harvard who surveyed graduateprograms in Asian s tudies at the major universit ies in the belief-sad but increasingly borne out-- that such events as the PhiladelphiaVietnam , ~ a u c u s ' and e l e c t o r a ~ politics, would have l i t t le influence overour fate ..at. the hands of the Selective Service. Indeed. recent eventsseem to confirm many of our fears . Even i f peace talks ever do breakout. the war will probably drag on for some t ime , the draft will continue,and la test es t imates by Gen. Hershey all for l a rge r draft cal ls in f iscal1969. not a reduction.

The situation has, therefore, changed l i t t le or not at a l l sinceLyndon Johnson's dramat ic , but less than convincing. statement ofMarch 31. Our brief survey- -including mate r i a l received from Brit ishColumbia schools--should be valuable for any students who find themselvesconsidering emigrat ion to Canada.

A point of information: Canada is not a carbon-copy of the UnitedStates. As a modern industr ia l society i t does share many character is t icfeatures of American Civi l izat ion--gas sta t ions, bi l lboards, housingdevelopments-- but i t is also subtl y different in interc::ting ways. Themilitary is not ubiquitous but insignificant; i ts minori ty problem is one oflanguage ra ther than race , though equally cr i t ica l ; and Queen Elizabethsti l l reigns over the Dominion.

Best of al l , there is a remarkable sense of freedom in Canada.The Vietnam war is mere ly a bad dream bothering someone else , andthere is very l i t t le of the frant ic sense of impending disaster so common(and grimly real) here . On the other side of the l e d g ~ r , there is aparallel feeling of isolation; many expatria ted Americans a re troubledby homesickness , and students find money more difficult to come by.I f one is capable of making the psychologically difficult step of breakingcompletely with the United States, he will find Canada a pleasant placequite unlike the "Rose Marie ll image. Anyv/ay, for many it is not a matterof choice.

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t,

Canada lags behind the United States in Asian Studies and is onlybeginning to expand and div crsify i ts academic programs to catch upwith American efforts . This is perhaps the most ser ious 'problem facingAmerican Asian scholars in C a n a < h ~ and students should be aware thatCanadian schools are general ly poorer in facilities, staff and financialresources. Only one school--Brit ish Columbia--has an adequate l ibrary,though others a re at tempting to build up their collections. Likewise, itis impos sible to find the "regional studies I I approach, Brit ish tradit ionssti l l being predominant , so that the only route is through the dis cip.ine s ,languages and l i terature , history, etc. Given these handicaps, however ,Canadian schools sti l l have a great deal to offer in Asian Studies, withthe following three universit ies in the forefront.

The University of Toronto offers courses in the Indiari, Chinese,and Japanese areas , including advanced language study in each. Atpresent a Ph. D is available only in Indian languages and l i terature;Chinese and Japanese a re l imited to M. A. and M. Phi l . , but the facultyis substantial in both. Staff is also good in other fields, especiallyJapanese history, but st i l l quite young. They a re scat tered and studentsmus t apply to the appropriate department . Toronto cannot handle a largenum ber of new s tudents , but the profes sors we talked to indicated theirsympathy and promised to help. An additional spur is the practice inOntario of grant ing a ll graduate students smal l fellowships. (Thesewould not be available until next year . )

McGill is jus t beginning to set up a program, with only Chinese taughtnow. Japanese is planned for the near future , and Near Eastern languagesare available in Montreal . McGil l ' s strongest side is Modern China,particular ly in economic, politics, and sociology. Graduate studentsentering McGill would, in effect, be getting in on the ground floor andwould be involved in building up a growing program.

Brit ish Columbia is the most balanced of the Canadian universit iesin t e rms of faculty, program, and facilities. The Asian l ibrary is adequate for advanced graduate study, and languages are taught a t alllevels . The major problem, natural ly, is money--the provincial legislature is a notorious skinflint . However, this is universal in Canada,and U. B. C. is generally the best bet, perhaps really the only choice forstudents with any advanced work already under their belts .

At least two schools provide a reasonable program for studentsat an elementary level of language training and in teres ted in graduatework in the disciplines: Sir George Williams University in Montrealand Simon Fras e r University in Vancouver. Both offer little in Asianstudies , but have intriguing and vaguely leftish graduate programs,with possibil i t ies for teaching. They a re also close to schools with Asianprograms, and m ay establish their own departments .

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"

Obviously a' e c i s i o ~ , to emigrate to Canada i s not,to be ,made lightlyor naively. One should be aware of the legal and psychological ,:reSUltsthat such a decision 'will 'mean--for example, the likelihood that ,onecan never re turn to the United States.

Canada will be glad to have you, but it would be childish to viewemigrat ion as a pleasant and temporary excurs ion. I f one does makethe decision, information should be obtained from one of the anti-draf tgoups in Canada about the technicalities of becoming a landed immigrant .And one should be extremely cautious in arranging the move; reliable

r e p o r t ~ from Canada te l l of CIA and FBI agents harassing ex-Americans ,and the author experienced Border Pat ro l surveillance in NorthernVermont . Even secrecy--melodramat ic or not-- i s advised.

The idea of becoming an exile is hardly an attractive one. Giventhe present circumstances, however , it m ay be a very reasonable"alternative" indeed.

J on Livingston


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CANADA UESTICNNAIRE

Fo r the benefit of graduate students consider ing emigrat ion toCanada to continue graduate studies there and for those Canadian graduate schools which will be attempting to abzorb the new wave of prospective students af ter June, a commit tee has been f o r m ~ d to determinethe size of thiD group and how best to in tergra te these students intocomparable Canadian programs . Application for admisGion must be madeto the indiviciual universi ty as soon as poscible to be certain of a place.June or July is usually the deadline for most of these schools.

A copy of this que stion nair e should be sent for each student in thiscategory o:

Jon Livingston14 Sumner RoadCambr idge , M a ~ a . 02138

1. NameAddress

2. Which Canadian universi t ies are you ser iously considering applyingto?

3. Educational background:Undergraduate B. A. in Special

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ - - - - - -emphasis in Asian s tu d b s? Date and collegea t which issued

Graduate degrees DisciplineLate and university a t which issued_____________

4. Curre nt ztatus (gra4uate year) Gchoo1Discipline

5. Language t raining: Language{s)Years studied

6. Career goal: Tcaching'--___ ; college__ ; high school___e th e r

7. Draft status now af ter June Age_

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- . -Crig ina l ly a l e t t e r to ? ro f . John ' Jatt.)! am w r i t i n g to pursue the poss i b i l i t y o f t a k i n ~ concre tes teps to f u r t h ~ r ~ ~ e aiffis o f t ~ e newly formed Committee o f

Concerned P.sian Scho la r s . The CCAS e m e r ~ e d from th.e ~ T i e t n a mCaucus a t t ~ e r ecen t meeting o f the Assoc ia t ion fo r Asian Studieson t h e . b a s ~ s o f graduate s tu d en t demands t ~ a t t he p ro fe ss ion a c tmore independen t ly and e f fec t i ve l y in br inging its exper t i se tobear in the realm of p o l i t i c s and publ ic educa t ion , If CCAS wasborn o f a f e e l i n ~ of c r i s i s g r o w i n ~ ou t o f the Vietnam war, andif much o f the a c t i v i t y w!:1ich it has subsequen t ly genera ted i sd i rec ted toward the immediate problem o f Vietnam, t he re weremany who sensed t ' l e importance o f longer range profess iona lcons idera t ions fo r Asian s c ~ o l a r s .

I f e e l t ~ a t th e fo l lowing proposa l would go a long waytoward l e g i t imi zing and forwardin.g t"'le concer'1S embodied in th eforma tio'"! o f th e Cmomi t t e e . I s u g ~ e s t t h a t t h i s summer we f inanceh a l f a dozen graduate s tuden ts (a'"!cl p ~ . r h a p s one profes so r ) toi n i t i a t e ful l - t i l1le r esea rch i n to t ~ e . ' fundamenta l i s su e s cor.cern ing t ~ e Asian s tud ies p r o f e s s i o n s ' i t s v a lu e s , m e t ~ o d o l o g y ,goa ls , f i '1ancing, and its r e l a t i ons h ip , a c t u a l and i d e a l , toAmerican fore ign po l i c y - - tha t i s , t ~ e concerns a r t i cu l a t ed in th es tuden t i;3atement of Conscience fo r tT".e Frofession. . n I .el1vi.sionthe pa r t i c ipa n t s in the pro j e c t , drawn from ce . , te rs t ' 1 . r o u ~ h o u tthe count ry , \ y o r T ~ i n ~ in the Cambridge a rea where they could provida nucleus fo r tbe w o r ~ o f th e CCA3 and i t s newsle t t e r and a t theconc lus ion o f t ~ e pro jec t re tu rn ~ ~ t he i r un i ve r s i t i e s to stirfu r t h e r i n t e r e s t in th e work o f the ' organ iza t ion . The r e su l t s o ft h e i r r esea rch mi:gltt a l so be u t i l i zed in one o r more pal1els a tthe next AAS meeting o r our own meet ine p r i o r to it. The part ic . ipants in the pro jec t m i g ~ t meet on a regu la r b a s i s among themselvand perhaps , a t t ~ e i r i n v i t a t i o n , with facul ty shar ing commoni n t e r e s t s ~ / h o are in th.e Cambridge area next summer. ( I fo r onewould hope to par t i c i pa t e in the p ro j e c t in t h i s f a sh i o n . )

These p r o p o s ~ l s grow out o f sugges t ions made to me byI\.hoads hurp'J:ley \'fM.O env is ioned . ' ~ r a d u a t e s tuden ts o r y o u l 1 ~ e rscho la r s devoti '1g a yea r o r two to such long range concerl1s. Tobe s u r e , a sUl'nmer prov ides t ime to do I i t t l e more than to i n i t i a tesuch a pro jec t s bu t it i s ~ o p e d t ha t t'"1e pa r t i c ipa n t s would cont inue t" le i r worlc subsequent ly on t ~ e i r own ca!.npuses, supportedby t h e i r own c e n t e r s .

'?iow ,.. ,ould suc"t a p ro j e c t be f inanced a"ld a t what cos t? Is"tould th ink t h a t the modest sum o f four o r f ive thousand do l l a r swould cover a l l expenses fo r h a l f a doze" grad.uate s tuden t sduring a t ~ r e e month period o f research . ~ . e source o f f inanCingi s a more complex and t i c k l i s h problem, i n p a r t because our- 14


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Asian cen te rs a re , if I may. say s o , little used to cooperat ingwi th each o t h e r . hy hope w'ould be' t ha t the major cente rsi n t e re s t ed in such a pro j e c t - -hope fu l ly , a t t ~ e very l e a s t ,h ich igan , 3er!celey, C h i c a ~ o , Ya:le, Pennsylvania , Corne l l ,Columbia and : ' -arvard--would con: t r ibute funds s pe c i f i c a l l y fo rt h i s p ro j e c t through tne CCAS. A l e s s ' s a t i s f ac t o ry poss i b i l i t ymight be fo r each cen te r to f inance one.. o f its own graduates tuden t s to par t i c i pa t e in the pro j ec t .3ecause t i ce i s so sh o r t if we are to ac t t h i s summer Iam tak ing the l i be r ty o f r e q u e s t i n ~ t ~ a t Professors Fairbankand liurphey, who ~ a v e i nd ica ted s t r o n ~ i n t e r e s t in these ques t ioni nve s t i ga t e poss ib le avenues fo r organiz ing and f inanc ing th i sp ro j e c t - - i f they deem it s i ~ n i f i c a n t .Assuming t ha t no "angel 1 o r s ing l e benef 'ac tor appears to

f inance t ~ e en t i r e p ro j ec t , I would t en t a t i ve l y sugges t t h a t those major cen te rs i n t e re s t ed in the pro j e c t be prepared tocon t r ibu te . )500-700 toward i t s r e a l i z a t i o n , and smal le r cen te r s~ 2 0 0 (1 a ~ today submi t t ing a formal r eques t fo r the l a t t e rsum to the Asia.n Stud ies Committee, dashing-ton Uni v e r s i t y ) .A committee with representa t ives o f sponsor ing i n s t i t u t i onsmight then review r esea rch proposa ls and s e l e c t the rec ip ien tso f our s u ~ ~ e r gran t . I w i l l be prepared to serve as sec re ta ryand c lea r ing house fo r such proposals u n t i l such t ime t ha t arespons ib le committee can be c ons t i t u t e d .(Copies o f t h i s l e t t e r were sen t to numerous i nd iv idua l s , ande f f o r t s are under way to im.plemer-.t t h i s sugges t ion . )

~ l a r k Selden.rasnin.gton !Ini ve r s i tyst. Louis

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...

NATIONAL NEWS BRIEFSUn:l.ve,rsi ty of Arizona (from a l e t t e r to Prof. Watt)

:...After receiving your lettf?r, a. fel'l of us on the faculty of theOriental Studies Departm'ent 'organized a meeting of graduate students aand scholars of Asia.n studies. Our meeting coincided '!.vi th the t ravelplans of Prof. Fairbank, who gave a ta lk on China to approximately sixhundred people a t the University and then came to our smaller meeting.We were surprised a t the turnout for our local CCAS. We hadtwenty-three people attending, including f ive faculty members, twoteaching assis tants , and the re s t graduate students. We seem to havenumber of 'persons eager to do something, but we B,re not exactly certaiwhat we should do.Prof. Fairbank suggested educational programs on the communitylevel, and we \'1111 be contacting such groups as the Kiwanis Club and tLeague of Women Voters, asking them i f they would l ike to have a speaktalk to thei r group about the "China problem" or some such subject related to Asia. We may also meet in study groups to prepare policy s taments, which we can then submit to your proposed newsletter.

Right now we should l ike to hear from you aga,in concerning morespecific ways in which we ca.n be useful. Needless to say we welcomereceiving any information you are disseminating. I might add tha t thematerial you sent me on March 29th came a t a decisive moment: those ofus who ha.d attended the Vietnam Ceucus in Philadelphia were trying todecide what to do next when your l e t te r arrived. I t gave us the pushwe needed to organize our f i r s t meeting. Gail BernsteinCornell University

A student-faculty committee, including undergreduates, was formedat Cornell on April 14th 1968. The committee has already made substania l progress in ful f i l l ing our aims of offering some special ized knowledge of Asian affa i rs to the campus body in part icular and to thecommunity a t large.Lectures were given by our President during the recent weeks atteach-ins a t both E l m i r ~ J College and Potsdam State College, arrangedthrough a process of l ia ison which has been established with theTompkins County Peace Association.In the l imited time available to us before the end of the semestea series of tra.ining seminars are being offered by faculty members andgraduate stUdents specializing in Southea.st Asia. a.nd China. Tentativetopics include China-SEA rela.tions, SEA Communism, e,nd the NLF. Someseventy students he,ve signed up for these specia.l sessions, and it i shoped that they will in turn pass on the i r knowledge a t ta lks to the i rlocal community groups during the summer vacation. Annotated biblio-graphies and other supplementary materials will be ma.de aVaila.ble toconcerned students, a l l of whom, it should be mentioned, have hadsome experience in Asian stUdies.

We ere in the process of a.rranging, in conjunction ",i th theInter-Fraternity Council, a symposium on Vietnam given entirely byVietnpmese na.tionals studying a t Harvard, Ya.le, Western Ontario andCornell. The symposium will be held on l1:ay 12 and 13, the f i r s tevening being devoted to nresenting the Vietnamese world View, and wilinclude poetry-reading and music, while the second evening will featura Vietnamese notion of current events in that country. Dr. George Kah
http:///reader/full/Southea.sthttp:///reader/full/Southea.st


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'. ../"Director of Cornell 's SE Asia Program, will act as modera.tor.

We would be pleased to offer research assistance to readers of tnewsletter. Copies of the annota.ted bibliographies.plus research maer ia ls may be obtained on recuest. During the coming summer we hopeto continue the work of treining sessions for summer school studentsmany of whom will be high school teachers. Interested Committee members on other campusBs who may be in the Ithaca area are invi ted tocontect xs. Christ ine Pelzer \Vhite, 413 Dryden Road, Ithaca, NY 1485Ohio s ta te University (from a l e t t e r to Prof. Fairbank)

I have followed with in teres t the proceedings of the Vietnam Caat the Philadelphia meeting. There i s a time - and this i s it - foragita.tion, and the more forceful e. statement the bet ter . But membersof the AAS are primarily educators, e.nd in the long run it will be inthe.t c a p ~ " c i ty thet thei r influence i s greatest . The crying need as Isee it i s to get Vietnam out of the free universi t ies and to the regula r curricUlum. We have done that at O.S.U., and I wonder whetherour experience might not be of in te res t to others.The obvious dilemme i s that there ere so few Southeast Asia snecia . l is ts . The res t of us ere inclined to be modest about our competenin VietnElm. Two factors offset our presumed inadequC'cy. Firs t , thif'i s a very large degree of ce.rryover from Chine. or Japen to Vietnam; Ihave been surprised a t how large it i s . Second, lectures are only onpar t of a course, e.nd there i s no shorte..8e of excellent rendings fromhighly aUalified experts. Vietnam courses need bot be restricted toschools with Southeast Asia programs.Another obstacle i s time: few of us have the le isure to workUn new courses. But i f the load is sp read, the labor i s reducedgree.tly, and the Clue.li ty of the product improved.The O.S. U. departments h(1.ve an open course number at an advancedleve l for "special group studies, I t p.nd it i s under this t i t l e that wereceived approve.l only in January. Even with so l i t t l e advance noticour enrolment i s clos6 to 300. (Our ' r ice naddies' course usuallydral's 4 0 ~ 5 0 . ) I think Vietnrun courses wil l sprout up a l love r i fthe proper e n c o u r e ~ e m e n t i s offered.- -a copy of the syllC'.bus ce.n be obtained by '''lri t ing: Richard }flineeDept. of History, 216 North OVal Drive, Columbus, Ohio 43210.Xa,le University (from a l e t t e r to Prof. Watt)

Two weeks ago we held an organizationE1l meeting to establ ish theYa.le CCAS. In attendance were about twenty grevdue.te students and onefaCUlty member. We are hoping to increEl.se the membership over the nmonth. We discussed several poss ib i l i t ies for a c t i ~ n :(l)monthly seminars on topics relat ing to contemporary Asia and USpolicy to be conducted by various fElcUlty members and graduate stUdewith expert ise in such fieldS. These seminf.lrs w ill be open to mem-bers of the Yale CCAS and the New Haven community . The f i r s t of thesseminars will be held in ee,rly May - - the speaker wil l be Sam Popkinof the Economics Dept. on the tonic of "Vietnamese Villages."(2) invitat ions to three or four speakers per yee..r from otheruniversi t ies , government service, etc. to deliver open lectures con-cerning the same sort of topics.(3) providing spee.kers to civic and rel igious o r g e n i u ~ . t i o n s in theNew He.ven area on problems relat ing to American foreign policy towardthe Far East. We he.ve had p group a t Yele called the Ee..st Asia Infomation Project which has performed this function over the past academyee.r. EAIP will now be merged wi th the Ya.le COASt
http:///reader/full/grevdue.tehttp:///reader/full/increEl.sehttp:///reader/full/grevdue.tehttp:///reader/full/increEl.se


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rf'.~ ) f ~ r m p t i o n of policy groups among graduate students and facultyhere ~ t Yple. I t is ant ic ipated tha t these wil l be informal groupsof people in relpted f ie lds who wil l consider auest lons direct lyrelated to the i r a r e ~ s of specipl izat ion. Any r e s d ~ u t i o n s that arcdeveloped in th is m[lnner will be sent on to you for"dis tr ibut ionin the newslet ter.(5) c o n t ~ " c t i n g Connecticut congressmen pnd new media to informthem of our existence and our will ingness to provide any informationor Cldvice p,t our disDosPl. The Ne\,T Haven papers have elready been

notif ied about the CtAS ~ n d hpve given us generous coveraEe.Robert B. Oxnam and John Whitmore

A NOTE ON l ~ S S Y DETA ILSThis ne\ ' lsletter is the f i r s t concrete re su l t of the Philadelphia.Vietnam Cpucus. I t i s intended to be a ",Tide-open forum for debp.teand discussion of A B i ~ n (-lffa,irs fo r which there i s presently noeffect ive means of expression. We expect it to be controvers ia l ; i f

it i s not, we will be disppnointed. This f i r s t issue i n d i c ~ t e s thetYPe of issues vrhi ch seem of immediete urgency. The number p,nd lengthwil l vary ~ c c o r d i n g to whpt we receive as a r t i c l e s . All readers both fFcul ty members pnd stu{ents - are urged to submit er t ic les on"rclev2nt" issues or f'nything bugging them about thE f ie ld .Our pddresr, unt i l fur ther notice, wil l be CCAS, c/o Kagan,96 Ellery Street , Cembridgc, Mpss. 02138.We decided to charge, since our enternrise requires money l ikeany bUsiness, the eminently r e r s o n ~ b l e sum'of $5.00 for a year ' ssubscript ion. For your money you wil l receive a tente.tive s ixissues. \oTe hope to nr in t lone,er css['ys and c r i t iques, and a l l "profi twill be Dlowed b ~ c k into the newslet ter .I f '.nyonE: cpn think UD e. more sui tpble nC',me fo r e i the r theCommittee o ~ the nesle t ter , please le t us know. We wil l adopt anyt ruly i r res is tpble s u s ~ c s t i o n s .''Ie wil l for\,l['rd Unon reauest copies of the s t . Louis "Statementof Conscience fo r the Profession" p,nd the Vietnpm Caucus resolutions Icomplete t ext as long as they hold out . The Editors

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Documents

Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars vol 1 Issue 1