Song Yiming (Michael Szonyi) / Wen Peng Shanshan / Translation
Ezra F. Vogel, professor emeritus of Harvard University and a well-known American scholar of Chinese studies, died on December 20, local time in the United States, at the age of 90. The Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies then released the following message: "We are very sad to announce the death of our former director, Professor Vogel (1930-2020). Professor Vogel served as Director of the Centre from 1973 to 1975 and from 1995 to 1999. He was the true guardian of our center, a learned scholar, and a good friend. We will miss him very much. ”
Michael Szonyi, director of the Fairbank Research Center, was invited by the www.thepaper.cn to write an article recalling his dealings with Professor Vogel. Song Yiming and Vogel have known each other for two decades and are colleagues and close friends, especially after Song Yiming was elected as the new director of the Fairbank Research Center in 2015.
Song yiming mentioned that before his death, Professor Vogel was preparing a material for the Biden administration on how to advance the bilateral relationship between China and the United States, and promised to write a chapter on "How We Can Build More Trust Between the Two Countries" for the new book edited by Song Yiming. He looks forward to advancing the U.S.-China relationship in ways that benefit both peoples.
The following is Professor Song Yiming's article.
From left to right: Song Yiming, Vogel, Ma Ruode
Remembrance of Vogel
The news of Vogel's death yesterday shocked the Chinese research community. I lost a colleague, but also a teacher, a close friend.
I first met Ezra when I came to Harvard twenty years ago as a visiting professor. By then he already had a huge reputation, and I didn't dare to approach him on my own initiative. Surprisingly, he was actually a friendly, humorous and gentlemanly man. Later, when I became a full professor at Harvard, and especially after becoming the director of the Fairbank Research Center, I often asked him for advice.
He and his wife, Charlotte Ikels, live across the street from the Fairbank Research Center, and their home is a second One. Every month, they host dinners at their homes to welcome visitors to Harvard. They would order takeout for Chinese food, and then we would have a buffet meal. You never know who will be at these events — senior academics from across Asia, top politicians, or someone ezra has met in his long past career. The conversations at dinners are always very interesting and engaging. I felt that entertaining guests so frequently was a heavy burden for the Ezras, but I soon discovered that he was still hosting dinners for other organizations: the us-Japan relations forum and the Chinese sociologists study group. I thought it was too tiring to live like this, but he obviously took and generated a huge amount of energy from it.
Whenever Ezra introduces me to someone, he says, "Song Yiming is a young scholar of Ming history, but he also studies the twentieth century and is interested in contemporary China." "I was very touched and he remembers many details about my research interests. In fact, Ezra was a very generous and caring person, remembering almost every scholar he knew in similar detail. For a few years he organized a series of "critical issues confronting contemporary China", once a week, and each time we would have lunch together in the cafeteria before the presentation began, and colleagues at the school could join whenever they had time. Whenever someone joins, whether senior scholar or graduate student, ezra interrupts the conversation — even if it's a very distinguished scholar or official who is speaking — and introduces the newcomer to everyone, saying, "This is who's who, and what their field of study is." "Everyone is equal in Ezra's mind. One of his most enthusiastic activities in recent years was as a senior advisor to the public intellectuals program of the National Committee on Us-China Relations. The project currently has more than a hundred participants, and he seems to know everyone in the project. At meetings, he would ask each person about their research progress. He had a great interest in the research work and ideas of everyone he met.
The past few years have been very difficult for the U.S.-China relationship. When I feel frustrated, Ezra reminds me that there have been many tougher moments in history than I have now. Many U.S. Chinese researchers, especially young scholars, are disappointed that they are currently unable to travel to China. Ezra reminded them that some of his generation of scholars could not go to China once in decades. It is important, he said, to take a long-term view, to see that the work of building mutual understanding is extremely important, not to think about the current political winds, but to focus on our scholarship. Ezra's extraordinary career, his reputation for honesty and directness, and his polite demeanor meant that he had the ability to deliver, and indeed deliver, messages that might make receivers less pleasant, whether the Chinese government or the U.S. government.
Even in the final days before her death, Ezra remained committed to advancing U.S.-China relations. One of our last email correspondences, just a week ago, was that he had agreed to write one of the chapters of the book I co-edited, The China Questions II. His chapter is called "How We Build More Trust Between Two Countries." We also discussed a document he is preparing for the Biden administration with recommendations on how to improve bilateral relations. He told me— in a very humble tone: "I don't know if anyone will listen to me, but I'll try." "When people ask me if there's anything they can do to help, I tell them that EZRA wants us to try to advance the U.S.-China relationship in a way that benefits the people of both countries."
In Chinese culture, the death of an old man with a long life and a fulfilling life is considered "joy and mourning". Despite the sad loss of a close friend, Ezra's life was rich and wealthy in friendship, family, academic and professional achievements. I am extremely grateful to know him.
Editor-in-Charge: Zheng Shiliang