Fifty years ago, Chinese history hardly existed as a field of
study in the United States. In 1935, there were no more than a dozen
active American sinologists of whom only one or two were historians.1
Today there are over sixteen hundred members of the Association of
Asian Studies who study China, of whom at least seven hundred are
historians and one hundred are social scientists who work extensively
with historical material. 2 Chinese studies has made vast strides
largely under the banner of area studies. History, especially Qing
history, has predominated. Qing historians have their own journal and
their own professional association with a membership of well over three
hundred individuals.3 They account for almost half of all Chinese
historians and receive the bulk of all historical funding
