The Paper's reporter Zhong Yuan
On May 7-8, the 8th Young Scholars Seminar on the History of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (hereinafter referred to as the "Youth Association of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression") was held at Peking University, which was hosted by the Department of History of Peking University, the Literature data platform on Sino-Japanese Relations in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and Modern Times, and the Editorial Department of "Anti-Japanese War Studies", and attended by 36 young scholars from Peking University, Fudan University, Nanjing University, Nankai University, university of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other institutions. The two-day conference had a large amount of content and large capacity, and the young scholars attending the conference fully interacted benignly and gained a lot of gains.
Group photo of the meeting
Founded in 2013, the Anti-Japanese War Youth Association has become a "brand" conference in the field of Anti-Japanese War research, and its purpose of "thesis is everything, discussion is everything" and the way of "thorough discussion" are often used by other academic conferences.
A total of 208 papers were submitted by the Anti-Japanese Youth Association, and 36 papers were anonymously reviewed by 20 experts. The selected papers are divided into 8 topics, and each session discusses 4-5 papers. The conference does not set a paper reading time, directly into the review, each session by the group of paper authors to review the same group of other articles, and then invite two experts to review, and then into the free discussion session, the participants can speak, and finally the author of the paper to defend and solve their doubts.
Professor Xu Yong, Professor Huang Daoxuan and Professor Zang Yunhu of the Department of History of Peking University were specially invited, Professor Zhang Hao of the School of History of Beijing Normal University, Professor Jin Yilin, Researcher Zhang Junyi, Bian Xiuyue, And Luo Min of the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Jiang Pei and Associate Professor He Jiangfeng of the School of History of Nankai University, Professor Li Lifeng of the School of Government and Management of Nanjing University, Professor Li Gongzhong of the School of History of Nanjing University, Professor Hu Yingze of the Research Center for Social History of Shanxi University, Professor Zhang Kan and Assistant Professor Liu Shigu of the Institute of History of Xiamen University. Professor Fu Haiyan of the Institute of Modern Chinese History of Central China Normal University, Wu Zhijun, deputy editor of the Study of the History of the Communist Party of China, and many other scholars and editors held dialogues with young scholars in the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
In the free discussion, the senior scholars gave a lot of pertinent comments and suggestions. Researcher Gao Shihua pointed out that some articles appear to be new on the surface, but if you look carefully at every word and sentence, you can't help but scrutinize it. Articles require deeper thought to "stand up". In addition, in addition to Chinese and Japanese, he would like to see more materials in languages such as Russian, French and Italian. Professor Hu Yingze believes that many papers are "big topics and small works", the field of research is not equal to "problem awareness", to do a detailed academic history combing, to find out the positioning of their own research. He also pointed out that some papers lack a delicate sense of layering, do not break the material and then "restructure" the process, and are led by the material.
Meeting site
In addition to the formal meeting, the organizer specially arranged a free discussion of one and a half hours, where senior scholars and young scholars shared their research experiences and exchanged research experiences.
Researcher Jin Yilin pointed out that in the study of the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the story of the CPC's anti-Japanese base areas has not been fully and deeply told. The anti-Japanese base areas can do extremely rich things, such as ammunition and weapons, the training of doctors and nurses, the treatment of the wounded, and the pensions of disabled soldiers, etc., but these studies are far from enough. In addition, he believes that young scholars today have no problem with using materials, but they still need to "jump out", pay attention to what should be and what they should be, and realize that many "should" problems are "impossible" to achieve in historical reality.
Professor Wang Qisheng pointed out that from the articles of the two YMCA, the abundance of information is already the "starting price", and the language ability of young scholars is getting better and better, and many articles have the use of materials in two or even three languages. However, there are few macro articles, and the topics are written smaller and smaller, and the pursuit of "no water leaks" is too much. He believes that this tendency should not unilaterally "harshly criticize" young scholars, but also related to the orientation of conferences and publications. Articles "written big" inevitably have loopholes, publications pursue rigor, so they can only "write smaller and smaller", academic seminars can not be discussed, it is difficult to form a real academic confrontation. To reverse this situation, Wang Qisheng suggested that in the future, the meeting can not require the submission of a complete paper, only submit the outline, and exchange more perspectives and problem awareness at the meeting to form more academic dialogues.
In addition, Professor Wang Qisheng also shared his writing experience in particular. First of all, the text should be read aloud, feel its rhythm and rhythm; secondly, do not write a long Sentence of western style, when the sentence is not smooth, try to draw the subject of the sentence, if it cannot be crossed, it is likely to have a language disease; again, the article is "written out", but also "changed out", when 70-80% of the data is mastered, you can write, the writing process is constantly organized, logical, academic views and text expressions, but also in the process of repeated revision of continuous refinement and improvement.
The site of the exchange meeting
Professor Li Lifeng pointed out several problems for young scholars from the perspective of paper writing. First, there are too many things you want to solve in one article, resulting in scattered topics and unable to explain each problem thoroughly. The center of each article should be single, and the topic should be focused. Second, the concepts and viewpoints used in some archival materials are directly used as concepts and viewpoints of the article. These concepts and viewpoints reflect the subjective judgments and emotions of the producers of historical materials, which have their own production processes and should be interpreted and applied critically. Third, some papers do not have a sense of time and space. Le Goff said that "historiography is the science of time", we must highlight the differences in the temporal dimension, the situation in the early, middle and late stages of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression cannot be the same, and there must be differences in different spatial regions. The current article seems to be particularly rich in information, but it cannot read the texture and tension, for example, writing the system only involves the system, and the people in the system cannot be seen, which is not a problem of history, but a problem of the writer. Fourth, the main titles, chapter titles, and abstracts of some papers are not accurate and condensed, and there are too many uncut direct citations in the articles, which shows that these materials have not yet become the author's "own thing". After the article is written, it should be repeatedly read and revised, and each sentence should be "one point is too long, and one point is too short" to demand yourself.
Professor Li Gongzhong pointed out that the completion of some papers of the Anti-Japanese War Youth Association was not enough. It turned out that the articles of the old gentlemen were all handwritten, all of which were thought out first, and then completed in one go. They are really "writing things", not "spelling material". Since the popularization of computers, many materials can be copied directly, but it feels different from typing out word by word, when typing one by one, it is necessary to screen key materials and match and coordinate the materials with their own language. He suggested that whether it is a dissertation or a conference paper, the article needs to be "makeup" and cannot be "plain face". The paper that is taken out must be a formed work, print it out and read it several times, at least to ensure that the sentence is smooth and there are no typos, which is not only a matter of academic ability, but also a problem of attitude. In addition, Li Gongzhong believes that some papers are relatively "flat" and have not been "mentioned" in specific studies, which is related to the lack of combing of academic history. A good academic history combing can put the "tree" of their own research in a forest and find a suitable position, which is also conducive to researchers grasping good themes and digesting good materials in massive materials.
Professor Fu Haiyan believes that reading more articles of the older generation of Marxist historians and learning how they interpret historical materials and refine their views is of great help to young scholars. In addition, materials such as the Harvard Handbook of East Asian Studies should be studied a lot, and how to find entry points, arrange the structure of the article, and how to deduce conclusions can be found in the solutions.
Editor-in-Charge: Han Shaohua
Proofreader: Ding Xiao