Chinese Studies and the Disciplines — the Twins Shall Meet

Extract

Chinese studies (alias Sinology) and die disciplines came, in the final analysis, from the same parentage: the desire to know. They are intellectual twins which, nurtured in divergent circumstances and showing dissimilar traits, are thus “fraternal” rather than “identical”. Academe has always been nursery and playground for the disciplines. In the early days, those who served as Sinology's amahs were mostly non-academic people. Uncommitted to die established disciplines and frankly amateurish in approach, they all but bastardized Sinology in the eyes of the more strait-laced among the governesses of the disciplines. For a time, some of the latter were hardly aware of the underprivileged twin's existence.