British Charge dAffairess views on the Chinese internal situation during the

Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969

Proposal for MSc History Dissertation, 2016

Supervisor: Dr. Felix Boecking
School of History, Classics and Archeology

Research project aims and objectives

This research project examines the British views on the internal situation of the Chinese Cultural
Revolution from the foreign files on China which have been collected by the Office of the British
Charge dAffaires in Peking in the 1960s. A significant point of this study is to place the views
from the British Charge d Affairess within the certain historical context, analysing how they
thought about China under the early Cultural Revolution. The objectives of this study include:
1) identifying the attitudes of the British Charge dAffaires in Peking towards China under the
Cultural Revolution are positive or negative by the analysis of the foreign files from Peking to
the British;
2) analysing the formation of the British Charge dAffaires views by combining the historical
situation in Hong Kong and the mainland;
3) discussing to what extent the views expressed by the British Charge dAffaires can influence
the general British views on the China under the Cultural Revolution.
By doing so, this research will argue that the views from the British Charge dAffairs derive from
the consideration of British benefits in Hong Kong and their negative attitudes towards the Cultural
Revolution may impact China in western minds.

Context and Rationale

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May 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
in China. As an influential historical event in China, there has been a lot of literature in the field of
the Cultural Revolutions studies. The earliest works produced by Western journalists and
government officials in Hong Kong.1 It is worth to notice that foreign scholarly studies mainly
focus on the causes of the Cultural Revolution and written from the Maoist perspective, such as
Roderick Macfarquhars work The Origins of the Cultural Revolution - 1. Contradictions Among
the People, 1956-1957 (1974) 2. The Great leap Forward, 1958-1960 (1987) 3. The Coming of the
Cataclysm, 1961-1966 (1997), and Robert S. Elegants work Maos great revolution; Stanley
Karnow, Mao and China: from revolution to revolution.2 Interiorly, the studies of the Cultural
Revolution are basing on the memoirs and biographies published since 1976 which devoted to the
description and evaluations of the Cultural Revolution. Some of them are included in the official
Resolution on certain questions in the history of our Party since the founding of the Peoples
Republic of China.3 However, there are few studies placing the Cultural Revolution in the foreign
minds, which can contribute a better understanding of this historical event.

This study differs from previous research in two ways. Firstly, the selection of the time span
differentiates from the majority of research which consider 1966 to1967 as a whole. This research
mainly focuses on the early years during the Cultural Revolution. At the early stage of the Cultural
Revolution in the 1960s, the Office of the British Charge dAffairs made abundant assumptions on
the development of this revolution which can reflect their expectations and attitudes towards the
change of China. Furthermore, at the 22nd Agust 1967, the burning of the British Charge Aaffairs
dramatically escalated the intense relationship between China and British. It is better to choose this
time span to judge whether the British views on the internal China influenced by the international

John King Fairbank, Roderick MacFarquhar, Bibliography Essays from The Cambridge history of China.
Vol. 14, The People's Republic Part.1, The emergence of revolutionary China, 1949-1965. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2008. p892.
2
Bibliography Essays. p895.
3
Bibliography Essays. p893.
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relationship and their benefits in China rather than the real historical situation. Secondly, the
selection of the primary sources can provide different analytical perspectives. The primary sources
used by this research are the recordings from the British Charge daffairs in Peking which was close
to the central of the Cultural Revolution. The authoritativeness of this files can influence on the
shaping of the perspectives on China.
This research project from a small time span and the original British primary sources, placing
Chinese history in British minds, attempts to provide new perspectives on the study of the Chinese
Cultural Revolution.

Primary sources and Methods

Foreign files on China from 1966-1969 from the British Charge dAffaires are the main primary
sources of this research. These files include the observations of posters, Chinas news summary
from the official newspaper Peoples daily, speeches from the Chinese Communist party leaders
and some files dealing with Hong Kong problems during the Cultural Revolution. The Office of the
British Charge dAffaires also from a wide range of perspectives observed Chinese internal and
external politics, economy, education, international relationships and so on. Much of this sources
may without the benefit of hindsight the Cultural Revolution itself, but they represent the views and
attitudes of the British China-watching. In order to analyse the British Charge dAffairess views
during the early revolutionary, this research will select the significant information from abundant
files, such as the exchange views between British and other countries on the question of the Cultural
Revolution. The author will pay more attention to comments and British assessments about the
course of the changing situation in China rather than their descriptions of the Cultural Revolution.
Some files dealing with Hong Kong and reflecting the situation of Hong Kong under the influence
of the Cultural Revolution will also be selected to do this research. On the other hand, Peoples
daily as an official newspaper, circulating major speeches and issuing central directives to maintain
order during the Cultural Revolution, it includes turgid reports with limited authentic information.
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But it can be a supplement to compare the Chinese official views and the British Charge
dAffairess views, exploring how British commented on it.

Content analysis and comparison analysis are the main methods for this research. The content
analysis is applied to choose specific contents in the foreign files and to put emphasis on the views
and perspectives relating to this topic. It will figure out whether the British attitudes towards the
early Cultural Revolution are positive or negative. The comparison of the British official files and
reports in the Peoples Daily can be used for judging whether British adopted a neutral and
objective tone to the commented on it or not. All the analysis will revolve around the contents of the
foreign files from the Office of the British Charge dAffaires.

Provisional Dissertation Structure

Introduction
As the lead-in part, it will give a background and an outline of this research. It will firstly explain
the selection of primary sources and the appropriate methodology adopted, and then the significance
of this research will be illustrated. Secondly, this part will give a concise account of the Chinese
Cultural Revolution. Some professional terms will be defined, such as dictatorship of the
proletariat, and the meaning of the British Charge dAffaires will also be pointed. The structure
of this research will be expounded as well.
Chapter 1
Having established a context of the relevant background, in the first chapter, the author will do the
research basing on the primary sources foreign files on China from 1966-1969 from the British
Charge dAffaires to identify how the British views on the Chinese internal situation during the
early Cultural Revolution. It will focus on their reactions and comments on the Chinese situation to
explore what they observed, how they though about it. By comparing with Peoples daily and the

real historical situation, a conclusion will be drawn that the British Charge dAffairess views on the
early Cultural Revolution were positive or negative.
Chapter 2
Following the conclusion in chapter 1, this chapter will further explore the reasons for the formation
of the British Charge dAffaires views. To be more specific, this part will conduct a case study of
certain region Hong Kong to explore how British related their views to their benefits in China
during the early Cultural Revolution. The primary sources The Hong Kong Annual Report and
foreign Office telegrams dealing with Hong Kong will be selected in this part. By doing so, this part
attempts to produce the argument that the reasons for the formation of the British Charge
dAffaires views are basing on their benefits in Hong Kong.
Chapter 3
After the previous chapters, the judging of the British Charge dAffairess views and the reasons
why they thought about the Cultural Revolution like this have been clearly showed. This chapter
will analyse the possible implications of the British Charge dAffairess views by consulting some
secondary academic works, to explore to what degree Britishs written has been influenced by the
British Charge dAffairess views, and also attempt to discuss to what extent these views can impact
the understanding of China in British perspectives.
Conclusion
A summary of results will be summarized here along with a discussion on the possible problems of
this research and make suggestions for further study of this topic. After the whole analysis, the
argument will be made that the views from the British Charge dAffairs derive from the
consideration of British benefits in Hong Kong and their negative attitudes towards the Cultural
Revolution may impact academic studies and may have potential implications for the China in the
British mind.

Indicative bibliography
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Primary Sources
Foreign files on the internal political situation from the British Charge dAffaires, 1966-1969
Peoples daily 1966-1969
Secondary Sources
Cheung, Gary Ka-wai. Hong Kongs Watershed: The 1967 Riots. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press, 2009.
Ding, Wang . Zhong gong wen hua da ge ming zi liao zhuan bian di yi ji
. Hong Kong: Ming bao yue kan she , 1967.
Ding, Wang . Zhong gong wen hua da ge ming zi liao zhuan bian di wu ji
. Hong Kong: Ming bao yue kan she , 1970.
Dikotter, Frank. The Cultural Revolution: a peoples history, 1962-76. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.
Gray, Jack; Cavendish, Patrick. Chinese communism in crisis: Maoism and the Cultural Revolution.
London: Pall Mall, 1968.
Jiao, Yifu . Hong wei bing xuan ji . Hong Kong: Da lu Press
, 1967.
Ma Jisen. The cultural Revolution in the Foreign Ministry of China. Hong Kong: The Chinese
University Press, 2004.
Macfarquhar, Roderick. The Origins of the Cultural Revolution - 1. Contradictions Among the
People, 1956-1957 (1974) 2. The Great leap Forward, 1958-1960 (1987) 3. The Coming of
the Cataclysm, 1961-1966 (1997)
Macfarquhar, Roderick; K. Fairbank, John. The Cambridge history of China. Vol.14, The People's
Republic. Part.1. The emergence of revolutionary China, 1949-1965. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1991.
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Macfarquhar, Roderick; K. Fairbank, John. The Cambridge history of China. Vol.15, The People's
Republic. Part.2, Revolutions within the Chinese Revolution, 1966-1982. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Song Yongyi, WU Eugene. The Cultural Revolution: a bibliography, 1966-1996. Cambridge:
Harvard-Benching Library, 1998.
S. Elegant, Robert. Maos great revolution; Stanley Karnow, Mao and China: from revolution to
revolution
Thomas W.Ronbinson. The cultural Revolution in China. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1971.
Yan, Jiaqi ; Gao Fu . Zhongguo wen ge shi nian shi . Hong Kong:
Hong Kong da gong Press , 1986.
Zweig, David; William A.Joseph. New perspectives on the Cultural Revolution. Cambridge;
London: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1991.