American Student Movement Research

Author: Zhang Tao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: The book before us is a specialized work on American studies in China, and also the second monograph by my student, Dr. Zhang Tao. In the preface to his previous monograph, Research on the Post-War "Harmony" Thought in America (People's Publishing House, 2002), I mentioned that Zhang Tao originally majored in foreign languages and had not received formal training in history. When he applied for my Ph.D. program in 1997, I reviewed his theses and articles. I remember the article he sent was about American studies, and I felt he had a solid foundation in the field and wrote with elegance, so I accepted him as my student. His doctoral dissertation, although focused on historiographical schools, did not stray outside the realm of American studies, as the theme of "harmony" historiography discusses one of the core values of America and the role these values have played in shaping the American nation and its character. Therefore, he did not abandon or stop his focus on American studies while writing his doctoral dissertation, Research on the Post-War "Harmony" Thought in America. This prepared the ground for him to quickly engage in research on the American studies movement after completing his Ph.D. Although I specialize in American history and American studies is not my field, I have always maintained a strong interest in it. During my visiting research at the University of Maryland in the United States from 1988 to 1989, I had the opportunity to meet a Taiwanese student studying American studies at the university. I obtained a teaching syllabus and a detailed bibliography on American studies, and we discussed related issues multiple times. This allowed me to gather some materials and information about American studies more conveniently while conducting my own research. This experience made me realize that American studies and our American studies are quite different. Even in the United States, it remains an emerging discipline with undefined research objects and content, and its research themes continue to evolve over time. This provides broad space and room for exploration for American studies researchers. For this reason, I always encouraged Zhang Tao not to forget American studies while writing his doctoral dissertation and to discuss related issues with him whenever possible. What moved me was that after graduating from Peking University and returning to his alma mater in Chongqing, he continued his research on American studies and produced this substantial and well-researched monograph in just three years. As mentioned above, even in the United States, American studies remains an emerging and immature discipline, which has brought both great challenges and unprecedented opportunities to Dr. Zhang Tao's research. The task he faced was to collect and access a large amount of primary materials and information on American studies, organize and analyze them, and identify the basic threads of the rise and development of the American studies movement to lay a solid foundation for this book. However, he was not satisfied with this foundational research and devoted more passion and energy to studying the fundamental categories and theories of American studies. For this purpose, in Chapter 2 of this book, he conducts an in-depth exploration of the three main manifestations of the core theme of American studies—the social and cultural consciousness of Americans)—namely, national character, regional consciousness, and group consciousness. This exploration reveals the core and essence of American studies and distinguishes it from related historical, literary, or historical-cultural studies of America, which holds great reference significance for our American studies in China. While the later chapters of the book focus on separately exploring and researching the three stages of the development of the American studies movement, or the three shifts in the research themes of American studies, they never deviate from the core topic of American studies revealed in Chapter 2. Based on a large amount of primary materials, this book thoroughly explores the connections and distinctions between American studies and American studies, examines the academic and social backgrounds of the rise of the American studies movement, and discusses the three shifts in the research themes of American studies and their content. Combining historical analysis with theoretical discussion, it clearly describes the internal logic of the rise and development of the American studies movement, truly making it a significant work in American studies in China. I believe that readers will benefit greatly from this book, just as I have. I look forward to Dr. Zhang Tao continuing his work in the field of American studies and producing more profound and professional works.