American Academic Research On China's Southwest Frontier History Since The 1980s

After the Second World War,the United States gradully became the center of overseas Sinology and Chinese Studies.Since the 1980s,American academic research on China has gained unprecedented development along with China's reform and opening as well as the normalization of Sino-US relations.In this context,China's southwest frontier history also has attracted the attention of American academia.Most of scholars in the American academia gradually abandoned the thicker myth and colonial color formed by the west early research on China's southwest frontier,then gradually got rid of the Cold "War mentality,its research on China's southwest frontier reflected higher academic achievement and obtained impressive results.Obviously,these results including the conclusions and the theoretical methods of research are an important foundation for China's southwest frontier research today.If the domestic academia intends to further advance the research on China's southwest frontier history and actual problems of the frontier,and establish good cooperative relations with overseas academic institutions and relevant scholars,China's southwest frontier regions desire to promote economic and social development,play a radiation effect as a center for the South Asian and Southeast Asian countries under the state's developing strategic background of "One Belt and One Road" to realize great-leap-forward development,we must comprehensively collect,seriously treat and learn from overseas academic study on China's southwest frontier.The domestic academia has been focusing on and summarizing the western Sinology research.Some China's universities have established overseas Sinology research institutions since the 1990s,which made better introductions,sortings and research on overseas Sinology study.The above results offer a better idea and basis for this dissertation.However,it still appears extremely weak that the domestic overseas Chinese research institutions and scholars make collections and summarizations on the overseas research fruits about Chinese southwest frontier.Yunnan academia has published a few translations about the west research on southwest frontier history.Professor Lu Ren combs and analyzes the developing history and achievements of the west study on China's southwest frontier in the preface of a collection of translated works,"China's Southwest Frontier History in the Western Academic View".But we still haven't found any specialized results which comprehensively collect,comb and comment on overseas research on China's southwest frontier.As a result,it is an urgent academic job to comprehensively collect,summarize and analyze the American academic research on China's southwest frontier since 1980s in order to conform to the demand of China's southwest frontier research and the development trend of overseas Chinese studies.On one hand,I collect the domestic academic translation works on American study on China's southwest frontier history and some related introductions and comments.On the other hand,I also make use of the chance to study in the US for one year as a visiting scholar to collect some English works and make an direct or indirect understanding of the institutions and scholars involved the research on China's southwest frontier history in the US.On this basis,I draw lessons from the domestic academic theories and methods of research on the overseas Chinese studies and refer to the academic course and achievements of the domestic research on China's southwest frontier to make an study on the American academic research on China's southwest frontier history.There are four chapters in this paper,which explores the historical background,transformation and course,academic resources and research institutions,scholars and their academic achievement,research fields and subjects,achievements and deficiencies in American academic study on China's southwest frontier history since the 1980s.Through the above research,this paper has offered the following new understandings:First of all,this paper most completely presents the research results of American academic study on China's southwest frontier history since the 1980s.Each reader may easily understand by means of the text,the form and "the basic documents:the works of American academic study on China's southwest frontier history" in the reference at the end of this paper.Secondly,this paper strives to fully demonstrate an overview of American academic study on China's southwest frontier history since the 1980s by summarizing the research background,the research course,the academic resources,institutions and scholars,the research results and the related subjects,etc.,which changes the conditions of individual researchers and research achievement evaluations being focused in the academia in the past.Thirdly,on the basis of elaboration and introduction,this paper takes the representative historical scholars and their achievement and the ethnologists and the historical contents in their research results in the Amercian academia since the 1980s as the major study objects,and mainly introduces and comments on three generations of scholars'research on China's southwest frontier history including Charles Backus,James Z.Lee,David G.Atwill,C.Patterson Giersch and Bin Yang,which tries hard to achieve the deepening of the research.