Conversations and Conflicts

The Encounter of PRC Scholars with European Sinologists in the 1950s

Abstract

Drawing on numerous primary sources such as memoirs, diaries, reports, and correspondence in multiple languages, this paper aims to offer a critical analysis of the encounters between PRC scholars and their Western counterparts at the two Conferences of Young Sinologues of Western Europe held in Leiden and Paris in 1955 and 1956. These conferences constituted the first and only contact between PRC scholars and European sinologists during the early Cold War era, between 1949 and 1978. This study situates this episode within the broader history of limited Sino-foreign academic exchange during the 1950s, a period when ideological divisions and diplomatic isolation constrained contact. Chinese delegates promoted Marxist historiography and presented new archaeological discoveries, while also navigating ideological tensions with Taiwanese, Hong Kong, and Western scholars. Social historians of China from Europe and America engaged in conversations with Chinese Marxist historians, focusing on the nature of Chinese society and the periodization of Chinese history. This study contextualizes the political, intellectual, ideological, and academic dimensions of this encounter. Against the background of the onset of the Cold War, the rise of the Chinese Communist revolution, and the aftermath of the Korean War, these early exchanges laid the groundwork for the globalization of Chinese studies and the formation of an international Sinological community. This study provides a vivid case for understanding the richness and complexity of the interplay between politics and academia in Cold War history. 

本文基於回憶錄、日記、報告及多語種書信等一手史料，對1955年與1956年萊頓和巴黎兩屆“西歐青年漢學家會議”上中國大陸學者與歐洲漢學家的首次接觸進行多重解讀。在冷戰格局下，這兩次會議是中方與西方漢學界唯一的正式交流渠道。文章將其置於1950年代中外學術交流受限的歷史脈絡中，探討中方代表如何在推廣馬克思主義史學、介紹考古新發現的同時，周旋於與臺灣、香港及西方學者之間的意識形態分歧；並梳理歐美社會史學者與中國馬克思主義史家就中國社會性質與歷史分期展開的對話。研究從政治、學術與思想多重維度揭示此次交鋒的複雜性，指出其為漢學研究的國際化與全球漢學共同體的形成奠定基礎，也為理解冷戰時期政治與學術的互動提供了典型個案。