Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley Oral History Center University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California University History Series Department of History at Berkeley Frederic E. Wakeman, Jr. Historian of Late Imperial and Modern China University of California, Berkeley, 1965-2006 Interviews conducted by Ann Lage in 2005 and 2006 Copyright © 2019 by The Regents of the University of California Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley ii Since 1954 the Oral History Center of the Bancroft Library, formerly the Regional Oral History Office, has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Frederic Wakeman dated April 20, 2005. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Excerpts up to 1000 words from this interview may be quoted for publication without seeking permission as long as the use is non-commercial and properly cited. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to The Bancroft Library, Head of Public Services, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should follow instructions available online at http://ucblib.link/OHC-rights. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Frederic E. Wakeman, Jr. “Frederic E. Wakeman, Jr.: Historian of Late Imperial and Modern China: University of California, Berkeley, 1965- 2006” conducted by Ann Lage 2005-2006, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2019. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley iii Fred Wakeman Photo courtesy of Center for Chinese Studies Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley iv Frederic E. Wakeman was professor and scholar of Chinese history at the University of California, Berkeley from 1965-2006. Along with mentoring several generations of students at Berkeley, he wrote groundbreaking histories of late imperial and modern China, meticulously researched, deeply analytical, and written with the graceful narrative style of a master novelist. On the Berkeley campus Wakeman chaired the Center for Chinese Studies from 1973-1979 and was director of the Institute of East Asian Studies from 1990-2001. As vice chair of the US Committee on Scholarly Communication with China, he was instrumental in opening scholarly exchanges between the US and China to social scientists in the 1970s. In the 1980s he chaired the Social Science Research Council. His public service, coupled with his research, writing, and teaching, had a major impact on China studies in the US and internationally. The oral history delves at length into Wakeman’s unique early life and education guided by his father’s ambitions for his elder son and his own wide-ranging interests. He discusses intellectual mentors and compatriots at Harvard, Berkeley, in China, and elsewhere who influenced his research interests and approaches. He describes the genesis, research, and writing of his major works and the impact of collaborative relationships with Chinese scholars, the opening of Chinese archives to US scholars, and the advantages of his “border runner” perspective on Chinese history. Wakeman reflects on the all-male cohort hired in the Department of History at Berkeley in the late fifties and early sixties, a variegated group with tolerance for different historical approaches and insistence on rigorous standards for promotion to tenure. He contrasts the camaraderie of this group with the department’s gender and cultural battles in the early and mid-1980s. He vividly describes campus protests of the Vietnam war era and the effect of campus political battles on the history department and the Center for Chinese Studies. Wakeman also traces hiring in the China area, making the Berkeley department a major US site for training historians of China. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley v Table of Contents—Fred Wakeman Series Preface xii Series List xv Interview History by Ann Lage xvi Interview 1: March 30, 2005 Audiofile 1 1 Father’s family background — Father’s upbringing, education, and marriage in the Midwest — Father’s early career in advertising and move to New York City shortly after Fred’s birth — Wartime years in Platte City, Missouri — Vivid memory of maternal grandfather’s death — Father’s success with first novel, Shore Leave — Home on Fifth Avenue, elementary school in NYC, father’s educational ideas — Devout grandmother’s influence — Move to Cuernavaca, Mexico, memories of Austrian school, illness and developing a love for reading — Return to Midwest for recovery — Father publishes highly successful novel, The Hucksters, made into movie with all-star cast — Family move to Bermuda: life with literature, literati, travel, languages — Complicated relationship with father, father’s ambitions for Fred, siblings. Interview 2: April 13, 2005 Audiofile 2 32 More on life as young teenager in Bermuda — Saltus Grammar School: importance of sports, boxing match, influential teacher Constantine FitzGibbon — Influence of a nomadic life, always trying to pass as a native — Early interest in the world of intrigue, Hamish Mitchell — Move to an elite enclave in Santa Barbara, California, in 1948, and then sailing to Cuba on a new yacht in a storm with racketeer godfather — Military school in Cuba, bullying promotes interest in martial arts — Exposure to and impact of violence in Cuba — First fascination with Chinese, in Cuba — Experiences with Hemingway in Cuba — Awareness of class, race, and exploitation from Cuba — Move to Florida, then back to Europe. Audiofile 3 60 School in France at age fifteen, reading French literature and history — Completing high school in Florida with advanced placement courses, and success with girls — To Madrid, Mallorca, and Paris, prior to enrolling at Harvard. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley vi Interview 3: April 20, 2005 Audiofile 4 69 Freshman year at Harvard, 1955, classes, swim team, women — Social stratification, homophobia among some classmates — Instigating a demonstration that backfired — Classmate Ted Riccardi, musician and linguist and Sherlock Holmes enthusiast — Living in a bifurcated world, the intellectuals and the final club — Joining and quitting the final club — Academics, major in history and literature, influential professors: William Langer, H. Stuart Hughes, David Owen — Brief contact with Chinese studies through Paul Cohen — An aside on Roxane Witke’s interview of Madame Mao in 1973, a tale of two intelligence agencies — Entanglements in China studies between historians and government — Honors thesis topic moves from French poetry to utopian social movements of 1848 revolution, Saint-Simonianism. Audiofile 5 96 More on Saint-Simonianism and the 1848 French Revolution, the relationship of French utopian socialists with the Cao Dai in Vietnam, and Fred’s enduring interest in secret societies — Ted Riccardi and Fred’s decision to study Chinese. Interview 4: April 27, 2005 Audiofile 6 100 Interest in sociology and economics, career thoughts included banker, broker — Father’s economic downfall and remarriage — Fred’s marriage at age twenty to Nancy Schuster — Recruited by Harvard professor for job with the CIA — Study of Weber and Parsons at Harvard, and later reevaluating Weber — The attraction of the CIA as possible future career, continuing connection as graduate student at Berkeley — Studies in Paris, 1959, during a politically charged time, challenging his certainties about America’s role in the world — China studies as an escape from CIA commitment — Before graduate school, writing a successful novel and adventures selling encyclopedias and vacuum cleaners in Florida — Reflecting on why he chose to study China, and why he came to Berkeley, why history. Interview 5: May 4, 2005 Audiofile 7 125 Ford Foundation Cold Warriors and funding for Chinese studies and other area studies — Intensive language tutorial, the Current Chinese Language Project, taught by traditional Chinese language and literature scholars at Berkeley — Professors in the Oriental Language Department in the early 1960s — Complexities of learning Chinese, both