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In a final-round interview for a postdoc (to teach pre-modern European history at an Asian university that shall remain nameless), I was asked by the committee if I could recite any Chinese poetry from memory. “Your last name and face indicate that you are Chinese...” https://twitter.com/BeijingPalmer/status/1275800787743133703
Midway through they asked if we could switch from English to Mandarin.
Me: Okay
Them: Your last name is a Chinese name but you studied European history? Why?
Me: Umm...
Them: Did you ever consider studying Chinese history instead? There is more of it
Me: *tanking interview*
Me: Okay
Them: Your last name is a Chinese name but you studied European history? Why?
Me: Umm...
Them: Did you ever consider studying Chinese history instead? There is more of it
Me: *tanking interview*
The real story behind this is that I let a white professor of Chinese history discourage me from studying Taiwan because he didn't believe it was a legitimate subject (& I had no language then to tell him otherwise). I was nurtured by my European history professors, by contrast.
The other half of the real story is that it took studying pre-modern European history to even begin to understand how to see Taiwan's history in a more honest light. I don't know that I could have come to these realizations in another way; I was too close to it all, emotionally.
