Ford Foundation and American Sinology

Author: Han Tie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: The China-U.S. Studies Association is a national, non-profit, and independent academic organization established in December 1988, the 10th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. Its purpose is to connect and unite scholars from all over the country who study the United States, to coordinate the work of various professional organizations and institutions dedicated to U.S. studies, to develop U.S. studies in China, to enhance the Chinese people's understanding of the United States, and to promote research and teaching on the United States, as well as exchanges between domestic and international scholars. The Association serves the modernization of China and the peace and development of the world. The Association is funded by the Ford Foundation, which has established the Ford Foundation Publication Subsidy Fund for U.S. Studies and organized the publication of the China-U.S. Studies Series. The Secretariat of the Association is currently located at the Institute of U.S. Studies, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Cold War policies and the arbitrary excesses of McCarthyism made American Sinology a highly politicized academic field, bringing it to the brink of collapse. At this time, the Ford Foundation decided to defy the tide and rescue American Sinology. This book provides a comprehensive review of the history of the Ford Foundation's funding and development of Sinology in the United States and other countries, pointing out that the Ford Foundation's guiding ideology is "culture-led," meaning it seeks to control the "leadership of ideas and morality." This ideology transcends the narrowness of Cold War thinking, such as "national security" and "academic enclosure," and serves the long-term and fundamental interests of the U.S. and the global capitalist system.