A European Tracing the Steps of the First Americans in China

Gusu, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China. Free for use. © song songroov / Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. / Wikimedia Commons

Introduction

“What was it like to restart the Fulbright Program in China in 1979 and how do you feel about it being cancelled recently?” Expressing his hope to me that the program will be renewed is John Thomson, a man who not just witnessed but made history. Becoming fascinated by Mandarin as a marine during a landing exercise in Taiwan in the 1960s, he studied under Prof. John Fairbank before joining the U.S. Foreign Service. From June 1978 to February 1979, John was the First Secretary at the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing, the de facto U.S. Embassy at the time. Afterwards, he joined as Counselor of the Embassy until 1991. Here, John played a key role in the normalization of U.S.-China (academic) relations, especially through negotiations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 

Throughout the last two years, I’ve interviewed dozens of people like John who normalized U.S.-China academic relations, the first American students in China after 1978, and current leaders of Chinese and American think tanks. Examples include Prof. Da Wei of the Tsinghua University Center for International Security and Strategy (THU CISS) and Prof. Wang Huiyao of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG). I’ve also started filming China’s and America’s leading universities, think tanks, and conferences. These interviews and videos I publish on the ‘China Hands’ podcast, Substack, and Chinese and global social media. Recognizing the difficulty of accessing such places and people, especially for foreign scholars, I hope to share my guanxi to contribute to mutual understanding between China, the U.S., and the EU.

The reason I consider my access such a privilege is twofold. Firstly, Western students and scholars in China have dropped drastically: Focusing on American students in Mainland China, the total dropped from over 11,000 in 2018/19 to merely a few hundred during the pandemic and in the years after. Sources differ on the number in China right now, with some reporting a modest recovery to around 800 U.S. students in 2024, while I have heard estimates closer to 1,500. 

Secondly, there are various difficulties and complexities to conducting field research in China for those few still here. Foreign students are often concerned about how semi-formal engagements at Chinese institutions could be regarded negatively at home. As a result, many refrain from building the semi-formal relationships or guanxi needed to get anything done in China. How limited the engagement is of most young foreign experts is exemplified by the fact that I am often the only foreign member at several major Chinese think tanks such as Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security and Strategy’s Youth Organisation (THU CISS Youth).  

In this context, I regard oral and visual history preservation as an underestimated research methodology in China Studies. Especially for those in China with better access, we can actively support our colleagues by building freely, publicly, and virtually accessible databases that have the potential to become the backbone of future projects. Especially if access to China for study and field research tightens further, such oral and visual history preservation could become one of the few ways for foreign colleagues to understand what it is like to visit such places and engage with its experts. 

How does one preserve such an oral and visual history of U.S.-China relations in China, such as conducting interviews and filming key sites? This is only possible thanks to the support from my Chinese and American friends, who I have met as a European building guanxi with their leading universities, think tanks, and conferences. Throughout this article, I will share my experience, perspectives, and the practicalities of such preservation. 

Interviewing Henry Huiyao Wang, Co-Founder and President of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), with my friend Yipei Lu, a graduate student at Tsinghua University. Image courtesy of Author, used with explicit permission.

Preserving Oral History

Before coming to China, I made my first podcast on how technology is transforming our society. Here, I learned how a few introductions from a single individual or organization are often enough to get any project started. Such a methodology is often referred to as snowball sampling: a single snowball rolling down a hill can cause an avalanche by the time it has reached full speed. In the context of my research on the normalization of U.S.-China relations, my interest in the topic was sparked through a class at Peking University from one of the first eight Americans to study in China, Prof. Frank Hawke. 

When expressing my fascination with his stories and hope to interview him and his fellow students, Frank was so kind as to introduce me to them and many individuals who helped normalize U.S.-China academic relations. Especially critical was the introduction to John Thomson, whose support for the project has also been invaluable. This support — sharing news articles, biographical notes, and personal introductions — was indispensable.

For this method to work, however, the first few interviews you conduct must go extremely well. It is important to extensively research your interviewee’s background and related information, such as by watching as many interviews with them as you can find. If you have already conducted interviews before with their colleagues, you will often have access to information which is not available publicly yet critical for asking relevant questions. 

You – and often your interviewee as well – will be surprised at how detailed your questions can become if you do in-depth research before, enabling you to rapidly build a connection. For instance, from a video interview with People’s Daily, I was able to figure out the exact itinerary of one of my interviewees when they came to China in 1975 – she actually stopped me mid-sentence to ask how on earth I knew that. 

Similarly, when interviewing another senior expert about her early research, we discussed how the political climate of the 1960s and 1970s had impacted her personal beliefs and shaped the trajectory of her PhD research. She was impressed and surprised at my understanding of the period, particularly that I recalled a comment in the first volume she published where she discussed her perspectives. Such personal comments can transform an interview from good to great and result into your interviewees enthusiastically introducing you to their colleagues.

When preparing the questions, I would recommend to always start your list with a few more personal questions about the interviewees’ background. In my experience, it is best to open with a broad question about their experiences before following up with more detailed ones. Such a broad question allows them to tell you about the topic that they consider most important, while more in-depth personal questions show that you have taken a deep interest in their background and historical period. After a personal connection has been established, you can move towards more general questions about the work of your interviewee. 

Interviewing Prof. Da Wei, Director of the Tsinghua University Center of International Security and Strategy (THU CISS), with my friend Ziyi Guo, MA Student at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Images courtesy of Author, used with explicit permission.

Throughout my interviews, I try to set the ground by providing some guiding questions while trying as little as possible to interrupt beyond occasional affirmations and follow-up questions. Especially when discussing experiences from forty, fifty, or even sixty years ago, it is critical to follow chronological order with your interviewees instead of jumping from period to period. Write down your follow-up questions on paper to keep them in mind instead of interrupting. When faced with virtual interviews where you cannot control the microphone used by your interviewee, using AI software such as Podcastle can be particularly useful. 

The interviews I conduct typically last between one and a half to four hours, all of which I try to preserve on the ‘China Hands’ podcast. I split the interviews into episodes of forty to fifty minutes, often a ‘main’ episode where I feature the most unique content of the interview. For example, the main interview with Tom Gold covers his experience studying as the first American at Fudan University after normalization, while the remainder episode covers Tom’s experiences such as interpreting for U.S.-China delegations before 1978. 

Attending the 5th U.S.-China Hong Kong Forum together with other members of CISS Youth. Images courtesy of Author, used with explicit permission.

Switching to Virtual History

Throughout my travels in China, I have been privileged to have friends register me so I could visit their university campuses. Similarly, fellow researchers introduced me to their colleagues and teachers, allowing me to visit and build relations with their leading institutions, while many organizations selected me to attend leading conferences in China. Such visits taught me more about the country than any textbook or lecture ever could. I realized that I could share these experiences by filming the places I had established deep relationships with.

After filming a few episodes, I quickly understood that recording these sites was an even more unique contribution I could make than conducting interviews. Although many foreign scholars are producing wonderful podcasts, such as Jordan Schneider’s China Talk and Kaiser Kuo’s Sinica, there are few foreigners focused on filming such key historical and contemporary locations. I hope that I can be the eyes and ears of foreign colleagues while introducing them to leading institutions in China.

Particularly fascinating locations to film are the American and European missionary university buildings, which are often still utilized by leading Chinese universities today.Walking across the campus grounds and touching the walls, you are filled with a deep sense of history. These campuses and buildings were established in the early 1900s by missionaries as the foundations of their Christian colleges. They survived periods of instability and war, sometimes in name only, being repaired and rebuilt during more stable eras. After the nationalization of education in 1952, these buildings continued to be used by many of China’s leading universities like Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, and Soochow University. They are a magnificent testament to the strength and history of U.S.-China and EU-China people-to-people relations.

Filming American missionary buildings at current Soochow University, including the old mathematics building of Dongwu University (东吴大学). Image courtesy of Author, used with explicit permission.

Filming at such universities is complex, however. It first requires extensive research using English and Mandarin language scholarly databases and search engines. The contributions of my Chinese friends have been invaluable, especially when they introduce me to one of their friends studying at these universities. I’m grateful many of these new friends have supported my project by registering me to enter the university and even helping me film. 

It has been incredible for me to walk the grounds and see the buildings where the very first Americans who came to China landed, taught, and worked. Such an experience has added a layer to my understanding of U.S.-China people-to-people relations unobtainable without visiting such places. Through capturing such a visual history of critical sites, I hope my viewers gain an appreciation of the history of U.S.-China relations which cannot be gained from textbooks and lectures alone. 

Capturing footage of Chinese think tanks and conferences is often even more complex, only possible if you have a close connection with their leadership or researchers. Such a relationship is not built overnight but requires multiple months or even years. Throughout my engagements at Chinese universities, student organizations, and think tanks, I have made a start at building such connections. I am beyond grateful to my Chinese colleagues who have welcomed me into their communities, which has provided me with a profound understanding of China’s system. Such comprehension cannot be obtained in any other way, which is a testament to the importance of building guanxi in China.

Meeting at The Beijing Center (TBC) with its Executive Director Simon Koo and fellow Yenching Scholar Dario Cowdery. As featured on China Hands, TBC is the only Jesuit institution in the Mainland with an incredible research archive and library on the topic. Image courtesy of The Beijing Center, used with explicit permission. © Rachel Liu, June 12, 2024

Conclusion

The most important lesson I have drawn from conducting interviews and filming in China is the criticality for scholars of China Studies to have actual lived experiences and connections in the Mainland. Two of the main reasons why my Chinese colleagues are so supportive of my work is that they realize the criticality of building such databases yet the difficulty in attaining such information. The substantial decrease in the amount of foreign students and scholars in China will only continue to expand the already growing dearth of insightful, on-the-ground China analysis much needed in the West.  

Through preserving visual and oral history in publicly, freely, and virtually accessible databases, we can support our foreign colleagues and future research projects. The stories and sites preserved can provide key glimpses into life in China today or during key historical periods, such as that of the first American missionaries to China. Especially if access to China for foreign students and scholars further tightens, such databases will only increase in importance for documenting key sites and providing key insights for future research.

Especially those planning to come to China or already here, I hope reading the article inspires you to build lasting relationships with Chinese universities, think tanks, and student organizations. Furthermore, I hope it sparked your interest in using oral and visual history as a research method, especially for constructing databases through podcasts, social media, and Substack. The value of what we document today will only grow in significance for future scholars and can help to lay the groundwork for new forms of collaboration and understanding.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Koen Smeets (史凯恩) is a researcher and facilitator of U.S.-China people-to-people relations. As a Yenching, CUSEF, and Silk Road Scholar, he leads a team providing an inside view of China’s leading universities, think tanks, and conferences focused on U.S.-China relations through the 'China Hands' platform. He is the first foreign member of Tsinghua University's CISS Youth, a Nonresident Scholar at Grandview Institution, and previously a Young Ambassador at Carnegie China. Relatedly, he has initiated, hosted, and supported a variety of roundtables facilitating people-to-people exchange. He has interviewed over 60 leaders on U.S.-China relations and technology, including a Nobel Prize winner. Koen is from the Netherlands.

This article was edited by Douglas Brenton Anderson.