Hu Shi's Autobiography

Author: Hu Shih (dictated) with annotations by Tang Degang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Most people's understanding of oral autobiographies begins with Tang Degang's Autobiography of Hu Shih. This is a comprehensive translation by Tang Degang, based on the English transcripts of sixteen official recorded oral recollections of Hu Shih published by the Oral History Department of the Chinese Studies program at Columbia University in the United States, as well as the incomplete drafts preserved by Tang Degang and revised by Hu Shih himself. It is also a remarkable oral history project completed by Tang Degang during his personal interactions with Hu Shih at Columbia University, where he carried a recording device. In this work, Hu Shih focuses on summarizing and evaluating his academic life, and this evaluation reflects that there is almost no difference between his late-life thoughts and his mid-adolescent thoughts. The annotations and comments by Tang Degang on the English oral recollections translated into Chinese are excellent and essential reading. The text and annotations of this book have become an inseparable whole, and in terms of academic and historical value, the weight of the annotations may even surpass that of the main text. In the 1970s, the overseas historical academia highly praised this book: "First read Tang Degang, then read Hu Shih." Most people's understanding of oral autobiographies begins with Tang Degang's Autobiography of Hu Shih. This is a comprehensive translation by Tang Degang, based on the English transcripts of sixteen official recorded oral recollections of Hu Shih published by the Oral History Department of the Chinese Studies program at Columbia University in the United States, as well as the incomplete drafts preserved by Tang Degang and revised by Hu Shih himself. It is also a remarkable oral history project completed by Tang Degang during his personal interactions with Hu Shih at Columbia University, where he carried a recording device. In this work, Hu Shih focuses on summarizing and evaluating his academic life, and this evaluation reflects that there is almost no difference between his late-life thoughts and his mid-adolescent thoughts. The annotations and comments by Tang Degang on the English oral recollections translated into Chinese are excellent and essential reading. The text and annotations of this book have become an inseparable whole, and in terms of academic and historical value, the weight of the annotations may even surpass that of the main text. In the 1970s, the overseas historical academia highly praised this book: "First read Tang Degang, then read Hu Shih."