MCLC: Nathan rebuts Bell (2)

[MCLC LIST]

MCLC LIST
Nathan rebuts Bell (2)
Princeton was once home to the Princeton China Initiative, providing a haven for scholars fleeing persecution and political violence in the aftermath of 1989.
I have been surprised that the press now hosts a series celebrating the state as a meritocracy inheriting "unique" Confucian values that conveniently (albeit falsely) re-cast a repressive and unaccountable state as uniquely and eternally "Chinese." The times they are a-changin'.
Kevin Carrico <kjc83 at cornell.edu>
Source: NYT (6/30/93)
Campus Journal; Dissidents From China Find Haven: Princeton
PRINCETON, N.J.— Su Wei, a critic and writer, set sail for Hong Kong on June 15, 1989, leaving China just 11 days after the People's Army killed hundreds of students and other pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. His name was on the Government's "most wanted" list, and a warrant was out for his arrest.
"During that time I thought the Government was crazy, that they would use the gunshot for everybody," he recalled recently. "When I heard that, I decided to leave China. I didn't care how."
Mr. Su, 40, is now a member of the Princeton China Initiative, widely acknowledged as the world's largest group of Chinese dissidents and scholars outside China. Unable to return home because of fear of reprisal, the members of the China Initiative research issues pertaining to modern China and search for a path to democracy for China.
"We are working to rebuild the Chinese cultural value system, the true Chinese tradition," Mr. Su said. "The Communists have broken the value system."
The China Initiative has urged President Clinton to insert conditions into the United States trade pact with China to influence the fates of 2,000 to 3,000 political prisoners.
Begun as a university-affiliated group with a $1 million grant from John Elliott, a Princeton alumnus and venture capitalist with an interest in Chinese culture, the China Initiative is now an independent organization financed by various foundations in the United States and Taiwan.
The Chinese Government only sporadically acknowledges the existence of the dissidents overseas.
"When they talk about dissidents abroad, they say either that we're starving here or that we have repented and want to return," said Zhu Hong, the secretary at the China Initiative who was an editor and publisher in China. She is married to Liu Binyan, a trustee of the group, who was once China's most influential journalist.
The intellectuals connected with the China Initiative say they feel fortunate that they no longer live and work under a hostile government -- "My life is beautiful and wonderful here," one said -- but adapting to a foreign country has not been easy.
"The first year I lived here I couldn't drive, I couldn't speak English," said Su Siaokang, a writer and television producer who is not related to Su Wei. "You feel like a child. With everything, you need help."
Mr. Su, also on the "most wanted" list, was the producer of "River Elegy," a 1988 film series that questioned China's politics. After the Beijing massacre, he spent 100 days hiding in the South China countryside and on islands off the coast before he was able to leave through a modern-day underground railroad. He now edits Democratic China, a magazine focusing on the politics of East Asia.
Another dissident, Chen Kuide, just barely made it in time. A leading Shanghai intellectual, Mr. Chen had been scheduled to depart for a visit to the United States on June 5, 1989, for months.
"If I had ordered my plane ticket for one or two days later, I would not have been allowed to leave," he said. "Documents had been sent to my university from Beijing forbidding me to go abroad."
The dissidents at the China Initiative say that while they would love to return home immediately they do not feel safe returning under the current political conditions.
"China is our motherland; I miss it very much," said Fang Rennian, a professor in China for almost 30 years before leaving in 1989. "But if the political situation doesn't change, I cannot go back. I cannot forgive what the Government and the Communist Party did, and I cannot forget."
by denton.2 at osu.edu on October 27, 2015
You are subscribed to email updates from MCLC Resource Center  
To stop receiving these emails, click here.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/mclc/attachments/20151027/46a6e3df/attachment.html>