從徐國琦Chinese and Americans: A Shared History 談美國學界對中美關係史研究的新取徑

Xu Guoqi's Chinese and Americans: A Shared History and the New Approach in Understanding the History of Sino-American Relations

香港大學歷史系徐國琦（Xu Guoqi）教授新著《中國人與美國人：一個共有的歷史》（Chinese and Americans: A Shared Ｈistory），為其完成「近代中國的國際化三部曲」的專書之後，立基於國際史∕跨國史的研究視野，提出以「共有的歷史」的取徑探討近代中美交往的共同歷程和經驗。回顧英文學界半個世紀以來的中美關係史的研究脈絡，該書的書寫架構和研究方法別具新意。近年來關於近代中美關係的研究似乎很難有突破口，從冷戰時代初期費正清（John K. Fairbank, 1907-1991）《美國與中國》（The United States and China, 1948），到1971 年孔華潤（Warren I. Cohen）《美國對中國的反應》（America's Response to China），在其交錯與接替的中美關係史論述中，費正清以「中國回應美國」，到孔華潤提出的「美國回應中國」，後續尚有柯文（Paul A. Cohen）論述「在中國發現歷史」（Discovering History in China）、柯偉林（William C. Kirby）闡釋「中國的國際化」，均致意於扭轉美國學界側重某一研究取徑的自我批判。姑不論徐國琦新著選擇的個案或解釋觀點是否具有說服力，其所展現的企圖心昭然可揭。本文討論美國外交史學界有關中美關係史的研究轉向，並介紹本書如何將具體個案置於宏觀的國際史和中美關係史視野，以此闡述「共有的歷史」的研究取徑及其意義。

Professor Xu Guoqi is the author of a trilogy of international history books of modern China. Now he has published a new book titled Chinese and Americans: A Shared History. This new book goes beyond the earlier international / transnational history by introducing a new perspective through which to study history of Sino-American relations, namely the “shared history” approach. Xu's groundbreaking approach provides a fresh understanding of the shared history between the Chinese and Americans as well as the other historical fields. The study of history of Sino-American relations has been lacking a major breakthrough in approaches for a quite long time. John King Fairbank's landmark book The United States and China (1948) and Warren Cohen's long-standing America's Responses to China (1971) both focused on the United States either from the perspective of China's responses to the U.S. in Fairbank's case or America's responses to China in Cohen's case. To correct the shortcomings of the “responses” approach, Paul Cohen suggested in the 1980s that we study China from a China-centered approach, William Kirby in the 1990s proposed a perspective of internationalizing China. However, these approaches all had shortcomings of their own. Xu Guoqi's new approach, however, seems to be more ambitious than the others and might represents a major breakthrough. This paper examines the possible contribution and significance of Xu's new book and his new approach of the “shared history” perspective.