mini传媒

Published on September 28, 2021
Job titles and other details are as of the time of publication.
(The interview was conducted in Japanese and was thereafter translated into English.)

Various master’s and doctoral program experiences that led to my research on the history of rural China

I specialize in the fields of Oriental economic history and modern Chinese history, and conduct research on the global transformation of family farming to industrial organizations in the mid-20th century and the methodology of socio-econometric history, with a main focus on China’s rural revolution as well as developments of marriage, kinship, job mobility, social stratification, and wealth distribution in farming villages.

All these research topics came from my various experiences in physics, philosophy, and history in United States, China, Japan, and Hong Kong during my school years from the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts to the master’s program of the same university, and a doctoral program at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Let me explain step by step how I first encountered those topics: “history”, “China”, and “agriculture”.

From physics to Chinese – from philosophy books to a larger history

During my high school years, I was inspired by a friend and became an avid reader of various books on Eastern philosophy. I continued this reading through university, but mostly I studied theoretical physics and quantum mechanics until my junior year, believing that my interest in physics would reveal the origin of the universe and help me understand the meaning of life. At that time, I probably had the impression that there was something in common between Eastern philosophy and physics.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy physics at university and found classes such as quantum mechanics quite boring. I became more strongly attracted to the Chinese language. I was like a “fish in water” when I began studying Chinese. I changed my major from physics to Asian studies and immersed myself in Chinese literature. Continuing research on China in my master’s program, I chose the Zhuangzi as my master’s thesis and wrote a paper as to how the Zhuangzi was created in terms of its historical structure.

During the course of my studies, I realized the importance of history for my research. When I began studying the Zhuangzi, I read it as a philosophy book read throughout the ages. However, the more I studied it, the more I came to think that the Zhuangzi was merely a product that happened to be created in a certain period of time. I considered it necessary to study philosophy books such as the Zhuangzi along with history.

While tracing back through the literature, I noticed that the various issues society faced in the past were no different from those we deal with today. Such issues as how politics can make people happy, how to redistribute limited resources, and how to deal with natural phenomena remain the same. Given this tendency, I thought it would be easy to look at the period closer to modern times, since statistics and other data are more readily accessible.

Therefore, I focused my research on Chinese history again. China was then, and remains, the world’s most populous country, that is, the world’s largest human society. I believe China’s historical course in terms of anthropology and sociology is the most appropriate research topic to understand the interaction between human societies and the environment surrounding those societies. In addition, understanding this aspect was what economics meant to me.

That was how I encountered the topics of “history” and “China”. I did not simply approach these topics theoretically. In my sophomore year at university, I began learning Chinese and spent the summer studying abroad on Hainan Island in southern China.

After graduating from university in three years under the grade-skipping system, I undertook a summer road trip from Nepal to Shanghai, and studied for a master’s program in Beijing for six months. I visited China every year until the coronavirus pandemic forced an end to those visits. Through these journeys I honed my Chinese language skills and strengthened my determination to work through the studies of history and China.

Establishing the current research theme after encountering “agriculture” in Japan

A visit to Japan made “agriculture” a keyword for my research.

I completed the master’s program with my thesis on the Zhuangzi, but grew tired of studying at graduate school. I wanted to learn another Asian language and chose Japanese. Using a scholarship and the money put aside from part-time jobs since I was 16, I decided to travel to Japan as a change of pace.

With no acquaintances in the country, I joined the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), a volunteer organization involved in organic farming. I learned Japanese while living and working on farms in Niigata, Nara, Saitama, Okinawa, and other prefectures. Living a life of ease and comfort, or “seiko udoku” – literally meaning working in the fields on fine days and reading books on rainy days – “agriculture” was added as a keyword for my research. On a personal note, I met my now wife (Japanese) around that time.

After working with WWOOF in Japan for about a year, I studied in a summer Japanese language studies program at the University of California, Berkley, and started a doctoral program at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I also studied at the University of Virginia Department of Anthropology for a year during that time. I conducted surveys and studies on rural villages in northeastern China (formerly Manchuria) at the recommendation of my academic supervisor. In summer 2011, I spent about one month at Hitotsubashi University Library researching materials about Manchuria. I later lived in a farming village near Harbin in Heilongjiang Province for several months, and wrote my doctoral dissertation to complete the program at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese Social History Research Center of Shanxi University and as an assistant professor at the University of Iowa, before joining Hitotsubashi University.

In this series of studies, I created a database based on a large volume of primary sources on rural China derived through the socialist education movement in the 1960s, and published Power over Property: The Political Economy of Communist Land Reform in China, a book that examines various types of land reforms in village communities and their practical processes.

Think broadly and develop an interest in various things rather than thinking about the future

From physics to Chinese, from the Zhuangzi to history, from the US to China and Japan, and from a research room to fields outside… I have deepened my learning by acting in my own interests while changing both directions and locations. I never considered future career plans, but always followed my curiosity, and this process has made me what I am today. I would like to send students the following message: Think about yourselves with a broad perspective and develop a wide range of interests, rather than thinking too much about the future.

A broad perspective can also be interpreted as a “comparative viewpoint spanning over time and space.” To help students develop this viewpoint, my lectures and seminars teach them to be exposed to people and space in history through primary sources.

The present perspective cannot be used as it is when thinking about the past because the past is another world. Look at the period as it was, consider it deeply, and let your imagination work. A comparative perspective spanning over time and space can be developed by considering what we can and cannot understand about people and space in history.

There is no need to think too hard about this. To take a familiar example, when reading science fiction novels, we unconsciously use this perspective. Such novels describe worlds with totally different times, places, and life forms. In many settings, these stories attempt to reveal the weaknesses of our current world by depicting other worlds.

The subjects of my lectures and seminars cover “history”, “China”, and “rural villages”, which are completely different times, societies, and lifestyles, namely, “other worlds” for students today. It is my hope that we can overcome the weaknesses of our world while observing the strengths of other worlds.