From 2017 to 2022, I served as dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University―the first foreign dean of a political science faculty in mainland China’s history. This book chronicles my experiences as “a minor bureaucrat,” offering an inside account of the workings of Chinese academia and what they reveal about China’s political system. It wasn’t all smooth sailing―as my accounts of sporadic bungles and misunderstandings show―but this post as dean provided me a unique vantage point on China today.
Neither a Chinese citizen nor a member of the Chinese Communist Party, I was appointed as dean because of my scholarly work on Confucianism―but soon found myself coping with a variety of issues having little to do with scholarship or Confucius. These include the importance of hair color and the prevalence of hair-dyeing among university administrators, both male and female; Shandong’s drinking culture, with endless toasts at every shared meal; and some unintended consequences of an intensely competitive academic meritocracy. As dean, I also confronted weightier matters: the role at the university of the Party secretary, the national anti-corruption campaign, and its effect on academia. As a chapter heading asks provocatively “What’s wrong with corruption?” I also encountered formal and informal modes of censorship. Considering both the revival of Confucianism in China over the last three decades and the Communist comeback since 2008, I predict that China’s political future is likely to be determined by both Confucianism and Communism.
My experience as dean shaped my political theorizing. I came to appreciate the Confucian-inspired social rituals in Shandong province—the home ground of Confucianism—that help to generate a sense of social harmony among participants. I draw on the great Confucian thinker Xunzi to make sense of my experience and show how such rituals have value in contemporary academia and society at large. I came, unexpectedly, to appreciate my colleagues’ sincere commitment to Communist ideals and I discuss how Marxism will continue to inform the political system, though Marx’s original vision of communism may be of limited value. My unhappy experience with increased censorship generated reflections on the importance of free speech in academia inspired by John Stuart Mill. Towards the end of the deanship, I became a figurehead without any substantial power and came to reflect on the value of symbolic leadership. Inspired by the ideas of the contemporary Confucian scholar Jiang Qing, I conclude with a defense of symbolic monarchy as appropriate for the modern world.
My book skates a fine line between philosophical anthropology and normative political theorizing. I aim to provide a truthful account of how Chinese academia works and how it is relates to the overall political system while also discussing how the status quo can be improved by more faithful adherence to Confucian, Marxist, and liberal ideals.
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