John Dower: Web page for Pulitzer-winning historian's course is temporarily halted at MIT amid Chinese students' complaints
But while MIT’s OpenCourseWare project has been lauded for sharing course materials freely in an effort to inform and educate the world, a controversy that exploded at the university last week suggests that the institution has a ways to go in educating and informing some of its own students about the purpose of history, scholarship and higher education.
Last Sunday, April 20, MIT featured the “Visualizing Cultures” course on the home page of its central Web site, and seemingly as a result of that increased attention, some of the wood-block images — particularly one entitled “Illustration of the Decapitation of Violent Chinese Soldiers,” which depicted just such a scene — circulated on the Internet, without the captions and other material explaining their meaning (and criticizing them as dangerous Japanese propaganda) that accompanied them on the MIT site.
Within a day, screeds criticizing the prints, Dower and Miyagawa, and MIT appeared on Chinese Web sites, and the university and the professors received e-mail messages (from people outside the institution, reportedly including some MIT alumni) that accused them of cultural insensitivity, called them racist, and urged their firing.
The Chinese Students and Scholars Association, a group made up mostly of MIT graduate students from mainland China, wrote a letter to President Susan Hockfield in which they reportedly asked the university post warnings that the images were graphic and racist. “We do understand the historical significance of these woodprints and respect the authors’ academic freedom to pursue this study,” they wrote. “However, we are appalled at the lack of accessible explanations and the proper historical context that ought to accompany these images.”...
Dower and Miyagawa were not available for comment. But in a statement posted on MIT’s Web site (to which all links to the original course site now point), the two scholars expressed their “deep regret over the emotional distress caused by some of the imagery” and said they were “genuinely sorry that the Web site has caused pain within the Chinese community. This was completely contrary to our intention. Our purpose is to look at history in the broadest possible manner and to try to learn from this.”
Of the images on the site, they said: “These historical images do not reflect our beliefs. To the contrary, our intent was to illuminate aspects of the human experience — including imperialism, racism, violence and war — that we must confront squarely if we are to create a better world.”
“Many people who have seen the Web site, however, have indicated that the purpose of the project is not sufficiently clear to counteract the negative messages contained in the historical images portrayed on the site,” they added. “We have temporarily taken down this Web site while these community concerns are being addressed.”...
Others at MIT and elsewhere had harsh words for the Chinese students who complained, and some said they were perplexed that MIT had responded by taking the site down.
George Wei, professor and chairman of the history department at Susquehanna University and president of Chinese Historians in the United States, an affiliate of the American Historical Association, said he was particularly distressed by the lack of understanding that the Chinese graduate students displayed about the role of history and the value of scholarly exploration.
“I don’t understand what’s going on in the minds of these Chinese students — they’re looking at things in a simplistic way,” said Wei. “In general, students from China, especially those who’ve been trained in technology and science, lack proper training in humanities and social sciences; and they don’t how to look at historical events, to see things in context.”
In his own courses, Wei said, he often posts images “without saying anything,” and asks students “to think about what’s behind the images without trying to influence them by my explanation first.” Images like the ones to which the students objected show that “the Japanese did some terrible things to the Chinese in the past,” he said. “We wish to remember this, not forget it.”