Tsou Tang
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Tsou Tang ( zh, t=鄒讜; 18 December 1918 – 7 August 1999) was a China-born American political scientist, best known for his book ''America's Failure in China'' (1963) and studies of contemporary Chinese politics. He was on the faculty of
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
from 1959 until his retirement in 1988.


Career

Tsou Tang was born in
Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
on 18 December 1918. His father was the academic and follower of
Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-senUsually known as Sun Zhongshan () in Chinese; also known by Names of Sun Yat-sen, several other names. (; 12 November 186612 March 1925) was a Chinese physician, revolutionary, statesman, and political philosopher who founded the Republ ...
. Tsou worked for the Central Bank of China a year after graduation from Southwest Associated University. In 1941, Tsou began graduate study at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
, earning his doctorate in 1951. Tsou joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1959. He was named the Homer J. Livingston Professor in Political Science, and retired in 1988. He later lectured at the
Illinois Institute of Technology The Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Illinois Tech and IIT, is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the m ...
and the
University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...
. Tsou also taught at
Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...
as an honorary professor, starting in 1986. He was one of the first foreign academics to be granted membership into the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese state research institute and think tank. It is a ministry-level institution under the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The CASS is the highest academic institution and c ...
, bestowed in 1997.


Scholarly contribution

In the 1950s, Tsou was approached by political scientist
Hans Morgenthau Hans Joachim Morgenthau (February 17, 1904 – July 19, 1980) was a German-American jurist and political scientist who was one of the major 20th-century figures in the study of international relations. Morgenthau's works belong to the tradition ...
, chair of the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
’s Center for the Study of American Foreign and Military Policy, to explore the Sino-American relationship using both English- and Chinese-language materials. Tsou’s 1963 book, ''America’s Failure in China, 1941-50'', drew upon his research at the Center. Its success would establish his reputation as a China scholar, and Tsou would go on to become a leader in the field of 'China Studies.' The first of Tsou's six books, ''America's Failure in China'', won attention from news media and his contemporaries. In it, Tsou described the question of, "who lost China?" as mistaken: "No one can lose something which he has never possessed." Tsou asserted that the main reason for the ubiquitous American "failure in China" was the combination of high expectations and low commitment. Throughout the war, Tsou explained, the American government only provided diplomatic support to the
Nationalists Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, Id ...
, rather than military support. Tsou also accused Chiang Kai-shek of being both unable and unwilling to "undertake long overdue reforms", the absence of which drove many Chinese to support the
Communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...
. During the war in China, Tsou found, most Americans completely misunderstood Chinese communism, and none of them had suggested giving direct military support to the Nationalists. Morgenthau stated that it was "both history in the grand style and political science at its best." Henry R. Lieberman wrote for ''
The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'', "This is a balanced, scholarly and sobering work that helps set the record clear on United States relations with China from the time of Pearl Harbor to General MacArthur's ill-fated advance to the Yalu in Korea." Dali Yang summarized Tsou's beliefs thus: "His position in ''America’s Failure in China: 1941-1950'' was that the Nationalist government lost to the communists in the Chinese Civil War because the Nationalist government was corrupt and riven by infighting." The historian Mary C. Wright praised it as "thoroughly documented, well written, and dispassionate", but said that the analysis "combines acute specific insights with apodictic general conclusions that do not necessaarily follow from the evidence so admirably presented." She questioned whether the evidence in Tsou's book showed that either the minority parties or regional military leaders was capable of governing China, and she added that massive American intervention Tsou envisioned would have created a "tidal wave of anti-Americanism." His final writings, a collection of essays, were posthumously published in the journal ''
Modern China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...
'' in 2000. Throughout his career, Tsou emphasized the importance of objectivity, both in sinology and in general. He also held that intellectual and academic exchange between China and the West was the only way for both parties to come to a greater understanding of one another. However, some scholars such as
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
's Professor Qing Liu questioned the motives of this reputation, arguing that it was not merely professional courtesy, but a self-defensive reaction to the developing racial and political dilemmas of early
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
America. Tsou died of heart failure at the age of 80 on 7 August 1999, at the
University of Chicago Medical Center The University of Chicago Medical Center, branded as UChicago Medicine, is a nationally ranked academic medical center located in Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park on the South Side, Chicago, South Side of Chicago. It is the flagship campus for The U ...
.


Selected publications

*Tang Tsou, "A Study of the Development of the Scientific Approach in Political Studies in the United States : With Particular Emphasis on the Methodological Aspects of the Works of Charles E. Merriam and Harold D. Lasswell," (Ph.D. Thesis, Political Science University of Chicago 1951).


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsou, Tang 1918 births 1999 deaths Chinese emigrants to the United States American writers of Chinese descent Historians from Guangdong 20th-century Chinese historians American sinologists Chinese sinologists National Southwestern Associated University alumni University of Chicago alumni Chinese Civil War refugees 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Chinese political scientists University of Chicago faculty University of Utah faculty Academic staff of Peking University Illinois Institute of Technology faculty Educators from Guangdong Writers from Guangzhou 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American political scientists