History, Historians and the First 60^th Years of the People's Republic of China—A Conversation With Jin Chongji

Abstract

In two ways, Professor Jin Chongji, a leading scholar in modern Chinese history and former president of the Chinese Historical Association, is an ideal candidate for our purpose. First, he is, in a most genuine and literal sense, a member of the first generation of historians in the People's Republic of China. He began his college education in 1947, two years before the collapse of the Nationalist-controlled Old China, and launched his scholarly career in 1951, two years after the birth of the Communist-led New China. Since then he has been working as a historian for nearly 60 years. He is both a witness of the evolution of the tradition of PRC's history profession and a participant in the creation of this tradition.