Winter Quarter Updates + Actual Spring Quarter Plans
Needless to say, a lot has changed since late November. I’ve adjusted to life in Shenzhen (which means 6 AM Zoom classes), I’ve made a few new friends (through ballet, what else?), and most importantly, I can announce (with relative confidence) my plans for the next few months.
I like to celebrate my successes and failures in equal measure on Punderings, and it’s been a while since I’ve announced a big win: I’m a Chappell Lougee scholar! With Stanford’s funding, I’ll spend the spring in Beijing, where I’ll complete my first independent research project. As a junior, provided I don’t take a gap year in Shenzhen, I’ll be presenting my research at a few Stanford(ish?) venues.
Reading for and drafting my first academic grant—a process that took several months, nine rewrites, and countless Zoom meetings with various advisors—confirmed my budding love for academia. Getting money is fun, but doing literature reviews and placing yourself in dialogue with existing research and researchers? It’s exhilarating, and I’d gladly spend several more years doing it. I’ve attached my grant at the bottom (protected by the VPUE and SURPS; please don’t steal) if anyone wants to read about my embarrassingly nerdy love for Chinese history, Star Wars, and the flaws of western political theory. I was pretty confused while writing the grant (especially for a multidisciplinary project like mine), so I hope my final draft can help anyone who’s also pursuing funding.
That being said, I’m in 14 units this quarter (after spending an agonizing three weeks as number 2 on the waitlist for STATS60): Intermediate Fiction with Professor Michael Sears (I really, really need to learn how to properly write a short story—all my creative stuff spills into massive projects), Chinese Politics with Professor Jean Oi, and U.S. Policy Towards Northeast Asia with Professors Thomas Fingar, Michael Armacost, and Daniel Sneider. The last class is a graduate-level class, and I didn’t realize it until after the drop deadline. It’s been fun, though.
I’m also continuing my RAship with CISAC (my mentor, Dr. Kahl, was recently nominated for Undersecretary of State…wow), choreographing for and dancing in CBC’s production of Cinderella, and working for FACES. The last weekend saw the conclusion of our annual summit, and I think it was a success by any means: we screened and accepted fifty delegates from across the world, organized five keynote speeches, and hosted a series of parallel forums and alumni events.
All in all, I’m having a good time. I don’t mean to pin my worth to external validation, but the Chappell Lougee is the first award I’ve won since starting my undergraduate education. I didn’t know that awards even existed in college, which just speaks to how my obsessions over college admissions overshadowed my understanding of college itself. Right now, I feel much more confident in my abilities as a writer, researcher, and student, and I can’t wait to see where my work takes me.
P.S.: I’m not looking forward to house-hunting in Beijing, though. It seems like just yesterday that I was talking up real estate agents in Shenzhen.
P.P.S.: I owe a huge thank-you to everyone who advised me on the Chappell Lougee. First among them are my mentors, Dr. Thomas Mullaney and Ms. Emily Corwin, followed by advisors Dr. Melissa Stevenson, Dr. Gabriel Wolfenstein, and Anh Truong. Lastly, Angela is an incredible friend, human, and writer. She is also such a patient person and read three different drafts. Happy birthday queen, we all aspire to be like you.
here’s the draft, i feel like such a nerd, i swear i’m cool and don’t spend all my time on history or sci-fi, don’t judge:
Prototype One: Exploring the Role of the Military in China’s Republican Era
Student: Ana Chen
Faculty mentors: Dr. Thomas Mullaney, Ms. Emily Corwin
Project Summary
Prototype One is a 90,000-word science fiction novel based on the rule of warlord Yuan Shikai during China’s Republican Era (1911-1916). Drawing from the genres of space opera and military science fiction, Prototype One will serve as an extended metaphor for the role of the Chinese military during the Republican Era.
Prototype One is set on the planet Longpael, which boasts an ample supply of junite, a bioenhancing mineral. Historically, the imperial dynasties of Longpael bred brigades of junite-enhanced clones that possessed superhuman abilities. The two protagonists of Prototype One, the clone Wren (based on foreign soldiers in the Republican Era), and President Yana Shaikiene (based on Yuan Shikai), attempt to unify Longpael after their recent victory against colonial aggressors, a victory that left its military and government fractured.
Prototype One draws inspiration from Yuan Shikai (r. 1912-1915), a military leader who led the 1911 Revolution against China’s last imperial dynasty and maneuvered himself into the presidency of China’s first republic. The Republican Era, though short, was China’s first experiment with democracy. Its end marked China’s fragmentation into provincial regimes—a dissolution that had not occurred in three centuries. With Prototype One, I will study and complicate the role of the Chinese military during Yuan’s rule. How did various military factions navigate the space between central government and civilian society? How did the significance of the military during the 1911 Revolution alter the concept of political legitimacy and the methods for obtaining it? How did Yuan use his military forces to continue or push back against the precedent of China’s dynastic system, and how did his use of military force contribute to the end of China’s first republic? I will answer these questions in Prototype One, whose characters will serve as a personification of the dilemmas faced by Chinese leaders in the post-dynastic era.
Objectives
Prototype One follows the regime of Yuan Shikai between 1912-1915, his policies regarding demilitarization and military power, and the reaction of his military towards said policies. With both field and archival research in Beijing, I will reconstruct a nation transitioning from empire to republic. In line with the questions above, Prototype One will explore themes of national identity, cultural legacy, civilian-state relations, and transitions of power through the lens of the Chinese military.
With Prototype One, my aims are twofold. On the historical side, I will challenge and complicate the narrative of the Republican Era espoused by leading scholars Liu Kwang-ching, Luo Ergang, and Wang Ermin, which treats the Chinese military between 1912-1915 as a force that either operated for Yuan’s central government or the warlords that rebelled against Yuan. In reality, the military was a complex entity comprised of bandits, militarized civilians, and foreign soldiers, and which often pushed back against both central government and civil society. Mary Backus Rankin and Edward McCord have conducted preliminary research on the factions within the Chinese military. However, their work explores the ramifications of such factionalization for the warlords themselves, and does not elaborate on consequences of demilitarization for the soldiers, or how military and civil society responded to factionalization and demilitarization. I hope to contribute to Rankin’s and McCord’s research from a creative standpoint, by personifying the various military factions to analyze and clarifying the perspectives of military personnel.
On the creative side, I will explore the space between two genres—military science fiction and space opera—with Prototype One. The historical complexity of the Republican Era grants me the perfect opportunity to study this intersection, which has not been extensively explored in literature. Traditionally, military science fiction focuses on military personnel in the midst of a conflict, while a space opera focuses on civilians or policymakers. However, neither genre would suit the Republican Era. One of the protagonists of Prototype One is a soldier, but there is no foreign threat or imperial aggressor: the conflict of Prototype One lies in demilitarizing society and reunifying a country without the crutch of foreign incursion. Space opera, however, deals with military virtue (i.e. chivalry and righteousness) from the perspective of civilians or policymakers. Prototype One, while set with the same high stakes as a space opera, deals with anti-virtues such as corruption, the loss of legitimacy, and the disintegration of a state: Emperor Palpatine has been defeated, and the Outer Rim has been thrown into chaos. In addition, military personnel during the Republican Era defied the civilian/government binary, which treats the military as an extension of government: choosing the confinements of either the military science fiction or the space opera genre would contradict my historical objective in drafting Prototype One, which is to complicate and challenge that very binary.
I chose the format of a science fiction novel for two reasons. Firstly, science fiction allows me to capture the scale and tumult of the Republican Era. The reunification of China cost twenty-million lives, half the casualties of World War I. The background of an intergalactic battle would help me reconstruct the scale of the conflict and the sense of impending calamity: two aspects that are integral to the Republican Era yet difficult to portray through historical fiction or a historical paper. Secondly, science fiction allows me to draw analogies to various military factions. By ascribing different powers to each faction, I can make the differences between each one more pronounced, and therefore complicate the narrative of military uniformity.
Background and Literature Review
The Qing Dynasty, China’s last empire, fell in 1911. A constitution was drawn in 1912 by the various military leaders who had defeated the Qing, with Yuan Shikai as the president of the Republic. However, the new state soon fell victim to political infighting, corruption, urban demonstrations, and military fragmentation. Military branches in southern China had been imbued with the democratic spirit that had guided the 1911 Revolution, and now operated with considerable autonomy. Certain branches even went as far as selecting their own leaders and refusing those appointed by Yuan Shikai in Beijing. Yuan therefore faced a paradoxical conundrum: how could he maintain legitimacy and defend and expand his territory—two actions which depended on centralized military force—while respecting the military’s power and autonomy?
Frederic Wakeman Jr., Marie-Claire Bergère, and Wen-hsin Yeh comprise a large portion of the academic canon on the Republican Era. However, their discourse focuses largely on political leaders. During my research with Professor Mullaney, I rarely found any sources adopting the military itself--and its attempts to push back against centralized state control—as an entity separate from the Beijing or regional governments. Literary fiction, meanwhile, tends to focus on civilians in the Republican Era. Eugenia Lean’s Public Passions follows a woman navigating the contradictions of China’s new democracy, while Lu Xun’s The Real Story of Ah-Q criticizes the self-serving opportunism and abuses of power in the post-dynastic era. Although Lu and Lean assume the monolithic nature of military and central government, I am deeply influenced by their studies of anti-intellectualism, national disunity, and corruption in the post-dynastic era. Lu and Lean examine the fallout after a rebellion, and the havoc that can ensue post-victory—an aspect of space opera, too, that is often neglected. I will examine the same concepts with Prototype One, although from the perspective of a soldier.
One fictionalization of Chinese history is R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War, which dramatizes the Chinese Civil War. However, while Kuang’s characters are analogous to major policymakers, such as Mao Zedong and Jiang Jieshi, I will examine another cross-section of society. My protagonists are not only analogous to policymakers and state leaders, but also non-state actors and military personnel. I will emulate Kuang’s use of magic, though: in Prototype One, as in The Poppy War, superhuman abilities are metaphors for the power structures that the characters operate within. (Wren, for example, is a foreign clone, and therefore possesses powers different from clones bred by the imperial court.) Drawing from a different point in history, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire shares many attributes of Prototype One’s outline. As Novik did with Temeraire the dragon, his handler Laurence, and Laurence’s Air Corps, I will follow the relationship between soldier and state leader (Wren and Yana) in Prototype One. However, while the dragons’ powers are representative of different geographic regions, they are not analogous for the different factions in one military; Novik does not question the reconciliation of different dragon breeds without a foreign aggressor to unite them. A fictional modality will capture the multiplicity of military experiences while highlighting the differences between each experience, thus simultaneously complicating and clarifying the narrative around military personnel during the Republican Era.
Authorial Intent and Desired Reader Response [included after the review committee’s request for clarification]
Two novels that informed my authorial intent and desired reader response are George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War. Martin modeled the events of A Song of Ice and Fire after the War of Roses, while Kuang narrated the horrors of the Sino-Japanese War. Although Martin modeled characters such as Jaime Lannister and events such as the Red Wedding after British nobility and massacres, and although he utilized these analogies to explore justice, ambition, and warfare, he did not intend to educate his readers on the history that inspired him, nor for them to even recognize the War of Roses. In an interview with a fan, Martin stated that he does “use incidents from history, yes, although [he tries] not to do a straight one-for-one transposition of fact into fiction. [He prefers] to mix and match, and to add in some imaginative elements as well.” History was therefore an engine for his novel. R.F. Kuang, however, drew directly from the graphic events of the Nanjing Massacre and other Japanese atrocities. The novel was a vehicle for the history, as she used her writing to raise awareness for wartime survivors and the scars of Japanese imperialism. (See my interview with Kuang for It’s Real Magazine, in which she discusses the intent behind her work, here.) The history that Prototype One draws from is more similar to the War of Roses than the Sino-Japanese War, but the characters and government of Prototype One have just emerged from a century of imperialism and international conflict similar to the plot of The Poppy War. Therefore, while Prototype One is informed by Kuang’s portrayals of decolonization and various forms of governance, its structure and purpose are more similar to Martin’s: the history gives shape to an exploration of democracy, national identity and disunification, and demilitarization.
I understand that it is difficult to separate such an exploration from the history that informed it. However, I aim to draft Prototype One such that a preexisting knowledge of the Republican Era will not be necessary for readers to understand the plot, the underlying metaphors, or the thought experiments and questions I explore. Should the need arise, I will also be compressing or altering certain historical events to facilitate reader understanding. I understand that such an action necessitates respect for my historical material, and I will therefore work closely with all my faculty mentors to determine how to best translate the past into fiction. Because the events of the Republican Era are not generally considered traumatic in the way that the Century of Humiliation or the Sino-Japanese War were, and because the key factions of my Prototype One are divided along political rather than ethnic or racial lines, I do not believe that my novel will perpetuate any harmful stereotypes or risk otherizing racial or ethnic groups.
Significance
Western scholarship on Chinese history commonly subjects Chinese society to the Western binary of state and civil society, wherein the military is an appendage of the state. This is a flawed framework: many aspects of Chinese society (i.e. student protests, lower-level administrative bureaucracies, and military leaders) existed outside this binary during both the imperial age and the Republican Era. Prototype One will challenge this binary.
Furthermore, a prevailing Chinese belief is the assumption of a cyclical history, that it is unnatural for China to disintegrate, and that unification and reunification is inevitable for the Chinese. I have operated beneath this belief for much of my life. The Republican Era removes this assumption of inevitable reunification, as it is the closest China has ever come to total disintegration.
Prototype One therefore questions both Western and Chinese beliefs regarding Chinese history, beliefs which I have held as a Chinese-American. The issue of national unity and disunity begs the question of national and political identity, a question that has only become more pertinent with the rise of sinophobia during COVID-19, human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and the increase in Chinese diasporas across the world.
Project Plan and Preparation
I have combined the Project Plan and Preparation sections, because I have already begun my research and drafting for Prototype One under the guidance of Professor Thomas Mullaney.
My research will take place in Beijing, the capital city of Yuan Shikai’s regime. I am currently residing in Shenzhen, and I will fly to Beijing in the spring for their primary resources. Thus far, I have had limited access to sources written by Chinese scholars. Throughout the ten weeks of my stay in Beijing, I will visit Beijing’s National Library of China, the Branch Library of Beijing, and the Tianjin Binhai Library, libraries that allow foreigners the same access as Chinese citizens. I will study Yuan’s speeches, his policies regarding demilitarization and military rule between 1912-15, and first-hand accounts by soldiers—resources that are not available in the U.S. I will also travel to and take notes on key places in Beijing—the Army Drilling Grounds, the Presidential Palace, and the Summer Palace—for reference in drafting Prototype One.
In the fall of 2020-21, I took The History of Modern China with Professor Thomas Mullaney. I drafted the first ten pages of Prototype One in close consultation with Professor Mullaney, who also guided me through my research of the Republican Era. I have attached the reading list I completed under his tutelage in Appendix I. I plan to take the Levinthal Tutorial and CHINA211 (Literature in 20th Century China) in the winter, followed by CHINA161 (Soldiers and Bandits in Chinese Culture) in the spring. Should I be accepted into the Levinthal Tutorial, I will work with my tutor on the creative aspects of Prototype One. I will also use my winter quarter classes and my directed reading during the Levinthal Tutorial to study military science fiction, space opera, and Republican Era writers (planned reading list in Appendix II). This list includes Lois McMaster Boujold, Cixin Liu, and Ann Leckie, writers who have examined military history, national identity, and transitions of power through science fiction. Should I not receive the Levinthal Tutorial, I will complete the same reading list via ENG190YA (Young Adult Fiction), and start drafting Prototype One. I am also enrolled in bilingual Chinese, which I plan to continue throughout the year.
My background in writing and historical research has prepared me for this project. Last year, I completed a 120,000-word draft of The Ninth Oath, a fantasy novel set during China’s Three Kingdoms Era (220-280 AD), which is currently on submission with publishers. Before drafting, I spent three months in southern China, studied sources in both English and Chinese, and consulted professors of Chinese history at Stanford. My previous writing has been recognized at the national and international level by the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and the National Council of Teachers of English, and has been published in The Claremont Review, Polyphony Literary Magazine, and more.
Timeline
Winter Break and Quarter:
Finalize lodging plans in Beijing
Outline Prototype One based on preliminary research
Spring Quarter:
Apr. 6-May 1: travel to and takes notes/pictures of the Army Drilling Grounds, Summer Palace, and the Presidential Palace, as well as any additional locations I deem necessary
May 1-Jun 1: visit and study sources at Beijing’s National Library of China, the Branch Library of Beijing, and the Tianjin Binhai Library
Jun 1-Jun 10: synthesize research from the previous months; revise and continue drafting Prototype One
Summer:
Jun 15-Jun 30: finish first 100 pages of Prototype One
Jul 1-Jul 31: finish first draft of Prototype One
Aug 1-Aug 31: revise Prototype One with mentors
Virtual Plan
Should travel be restricted, I will stay with my grandparents in Shenzhen while communicating with my faculty mentors through email. I will take virtual tours of Beijing and use the libraries’ online databases, adhering to the same schedule as above. As elaborated in Appendix IV, I have already determined that the bulk of my required resources are available online.
Resources
Dr. Thomas Mullaney from the History Department will serve as my primary mentor for Prototype One. His expertise in early 1900’s Chinese history and Chinese national identity, coupled with his familiarity with my research and research process, has proved a great resource thus far in creating Prototype One. I will check in with Dr. Mullaney on a weekly basis during my stay in Beijing.
Ms. Emily Corwin, author of Sensorium, will mentor me throughout my writing process. I worked closely with Ms. Corwin last year through The Adroit Journal’s mentorship program, during which I completed weekly readings and writing pieces under her guidance. As a published author who is familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of my writing, Ms. Corwin will guide me through my outlining and drafting process, and provide feedback on the creative aspects of Prototype One. Should I receive the Levinthal Tutorial, I will work with both my Levinthal mentor and Ms. Corwin on drafting Prototype One.
Budget
Room and board in Beijing = $4400
Travel within Beijing = $500*
Flight from Shenzhen to Beijing = $100*
*omitted for my virtual plan
Works Cited
Edmonds, Richard Louis. The State of Studies on Republican China. In Reappraising Republican China, Oxford Press, 3.
Fan, Hongxun. Guomin xinbao, Rizihui. 1912.
Kuang, R.F. The Poppy War. London: Harper Voyager. May 2018.
Kuang, R.F. 2020. Email interview with Ana Chen, published in It’s Real Magazine. https://www.itsrealmagazine.org/interview-with-rebecca-kuang.html
Lean, Eugenia. Public Passions: The Trial of Shi Jianqiao and the Rise of Popular Sympathy in Republican China. University of California Press. 2007.
Li, Tajia. “From revolution to anti-revolution: Shanghai merchants’ political concerns and priorities.” No. 23, Pt. 1 (1994)
Liu, Cixin. Beyond Narcissism: What Science Fiction Can Offer Literature. In Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 14 no. 1, Indiana: SF-TH Inc., 22.
Liu, Kwang-Ching. “The Limits of Regional Power in the Late Qing Period: A Reappraisal,” in Qinghua Journal of Chinese Studies, 1974.
Luo, Ergang. “A new record of the Xiang Army.” Changsha, 1939.
Martin, George. 2001. Email interview with Ser Loras (pseudonym), published in The Citadel: The Archive of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ Lore. https://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/Historical_Influences/
McCord, Edward. The Power of the Gun: The Emergence of Modern Chinese Warlordism. University of California Press. 1993.
Michael, Franz H. “Regionalism in Nineteenth-Century China” In Li Hung-chang and the Huai Army: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Chinese Regionalism. University of Washington Press, 1964.
Military Science-Fiction. 2019. In The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Gollancz.
Novik, Naomi. His Majesty’s Dragon. New York: Del Rey Books. March 2006.
Rankin, Mary Backus. State and Society in Early Republican Politics, 1912-18. In Reappraising Republican China, Oxford Press, 14.
Shibao, (official report), Feb. 5, 1914
Space Opera. 2019. In The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Gollancz.
Wang, Ermin. Huaijun.
Xun, Lu. The Real Story of Ah-Q. China: 1922.
Appendixes
Appendix I: Fall 2020-21 Reading List with Professor Mullaney
“The State of Studies on Republican China” by Richard Louis Edmonds
“From Revolution to Anti-Revolution: Shanghai Merchants’ Political Concerns and Priorities” by Tajia Li
“The Limits of Regional Power in the Late Qing Period: A Reappraisal” by Liu Kwang-Ching
“The Military in the Republic” by Hans van de Ven
“Shanghai Modernity: Commerce and Culture in a Republican City” by Wen-hsin Yeh
“A Revisionist View of the Nanjing Decade: Confucian Fascism” by Frederic Wakeman, Jr.
“A New Record of the Xiang Army” by Luo Ergang
The Power of the Gun: The Emergence of Modern Chinese Warlordism by Edward McCord
“Regionalism in Nineteenth-Century China” by Franz H. Michael
“State and Society in Early Republican Politics” by Mary Backus Rankin
“Student Protest and Student Life: Shanghai, 1919-49” by Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Liu Xinyong
Huaijun, compiled by Ermin Wang
The Real Story of Ah-Q by Lu Xun
A Madman’s Diary by Lu Xun
Public Passions: The Trial of Shi Jianqiao and the Rise of Popular Sympathy in Republican China by Eugenia Lean
excerpts from The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence
Appendix II: Planned Winter 2020-21 Reading List
The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
The Struggle for Empire by Robert William Cole
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
Thirty Snapshots from Guo Moruo by Guo Moruo
Spider Eaters: A Memoir by Rae Yang
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
The Armageddon Inheritance by David Weber
Kafka on the Shore and 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
China in Ten Words by Yu Hua
works that will appear in the syllabus of CHINA211 (Literature in 20th Century China)
Appendix III: Travel Restrictions and Clearances
I am currently residing in Shenzhen, China, with family members. I traveled from the U.S. to Shanghai on November 18, 2020, after obtaining both a negative COVID-19 test and a negative nucleic acid test on November 17, 2020.
As of December 1, 2020, domestic travel within China (including that from Shenzhen to Beijing) is permitted. The city of Beijing requires a fourteen-day self-quarantine for domestic travelers, which I will complete during the end of winter quarter and the beginning of spring break. I have also acquired a green health code. These policies are susceptible to change before spring quarter, and I will update the UAR if they do.
Appendix IV: Library and Archival Access in Beijing
Should I have access to Beijing’s libraries in the spring, I will only need my passport (no reader’s card or additional paperwork is necessary). In the event of a lockdown, I have determined that the resources I need are available online from the libraries’ publicly-accessible databases. Because my research necessitates relatively recent documents (1900’s and beyond), most of these documents have already been scanned.
god this is lowkey embarrassing wtv at least i got to cite myself