Song, Ziwen - His Time and His Legacy

Stanford ChinaRains (http://chinarains.stanford.edu)

Song, Ziwen -His Time and His Legacy

Wednesday, November 29, 6:30 PM

@ Room 215, Building 120
450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305
Map: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=01-120

Speaker: Wu, Jingping
Director, Professor
History Department, Center for Asia Pacific Studies
Fudan University
P. R. China.

Working language: Chinese

Outline of the Talk:

A renewed interest in China and the West in the history of modern China has been sparked by a desire to understand a changing China in the 21st century that harkens back to its 20th century roots. Using Hoover Institution's recently available papers (Song, Ziwen's papers, Jiang Jieshi's diaries, Kuomintang's archives, etc.) , a re-evaluation of China and its 20th century leaders is at the forefront of Chinese studies.

Son of Song, Jiashu and a brother to the eminent Song sisters, Song Ziwen first served as Sun Zhongshan's private secretary and later held ministerial positions in Sun's Guangdong government as Central Bank Chairman and Finance Minister. In 1928, Song joined the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government serving as Minister of Finance, Chairman of the Central Bank, Jiang's special representative to Washington during the war, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Premier, and Governor of Guangdong Province.

Song participated in most of the important events in the first half of the 20th century. Based on Hoover Institution's Song, Ziwen papers, scholars now have better access to understand Song, political leaders and events of his time; and some research has led to a re-evaluation of accepted notions of Chinese history.

Bio. Of Prof. Wu:

Professor Wu is one of China's most respected historians. He is currently the Chairman of History Department and Director of Center for Asia Pacific Studies at Fudan University.

The author of almost 50 books, journal articles and book reviews, Wu's scholarship interests have focused on Nationalist history, Song, Ziwen research, China's financial and economic situation during the Nationalist period, the development of Shanghai area, etc. Having published 4 books and more than 20 articles on Song, Ziwen, Wu has been recognized as "the best Song Ziwen scholar."

Xinping Li & Xiaobin He

ChinaRains at Stanford