The Covid-19 pandemic, first discovered in Wuhan, China in December 2019, has compounded the deterioration of Sino-American relations by exacerbating anti-Chinese sentiments, with some politicians and media outlets fanning the flame. The American public's unprecedented negative perception of China is no doubt attributable to a multitude of factors, both domestic and international, but at least some of these rooted in the lack of comprehensive understanding of China and its modern history.

Prompted by these urgent concerns of our time, this roundtable explores pedagogical issues related to the teaching of modern Chinese history, especially that of the People’s Republic of China (PRC, 1949-), in American colleges and universities. The five of us are members of Chinese Historians in the United States (CHUS), an AHA-affiliated society founded in 1987. Like the majority of CHUS membership, we are Chinese expatriates or naturalized US citizens. With firsthand experiences in many historical events of contemporary China, we have been trained, first and foremost, as professional historians here in the United States. Our distinctive identity lends itself to an ability to cover modern China in a multi-dimensional fashion that goes beyond headlines and soundbites. Simultaneously inhabiting two cultural and intellectual worlds, we feel compelled, and uniquely positioned, to launch a conversation on the current state of American education about China and Chinese history and share our perspectives on how we “CHUS historians” can help make a positive difference.

Our roundtable conversations focus on the following themes:

First, we will reflect on our pedagogical journeys teaching modern China and PRC history, focusing on the common epistemological challenges we face, which stem from our hyphenated identity, and our coping strategies as we strive to teach with professionalism and academic integrity. We will discuss questions such as how to incorporate our insiders’ experiences/knowledge/perspectives to empower our teaching and impart a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of a complex subject to our students without either slipping into the role of a China advocate, or being perceived as such by our students. (Yi Sun and Guo Wu)

Second, we will share some examples of how our unique analytical lenses and advantages in gaining access to certain historical sources have enabled us to depoliticize and demystify the narratives about some of the key figures, events, or facets in modern Chinese history, correcting misunderstandings and biases that have been perpetuated in the standard Chinese as well as Western history textbooks. (Dan Du and Patrick Fuliang Shan)

Third, we find that the general curricular coverage on modern China and the history of PRC in American colleges and universities tends to be one-dimensional, featuring primarily the political arena and state leaders, an angle that may engender misperceptions of China as being inherently different from, hostile or inferior to, the US. This is where CHUS historians can do much by way of developing wide-angled (top-down and bottom up) curricula and excavating and translating teaching materials that allow our students a more authentic, richly textured, and balanced view of China and its history. (Wu Guo and Qiong Zhang)