Wang Yuanyuan

    cheekywang@hotmail.com

    PERHAPS no overseas scholar of contemporary East Asian history and culture is better qualified than Ezra Vogel to disentangle the life and legacy of Deng Xiaoping, and the well-known China watcher told members of the public in Shenzhen that he thought it was his responsibility to help foreigners gain a better understanding of the country.

    Vogel made the remarks at a talk at Shenzhen Book City CBD Store on Saturday that attracted about 100 people. The Chinese translation of Vogel’s book, “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China,” was published on the Chinese mainland in January.

    He started the lecture by showing more than 20 pictures taken between 1924 and 1997, which marked the most productive time of Deng’s life. As Deng went to study in France at the age of 16, “he had a very comprehensive understanding of Western history and culture,” which enabled him to make decisions about world affairs, Vogel said.

    He also said that China’s new leadership should increase its efforts to fight corruption, which the general public would welcome.

    Vogel added that issues related to health care, education and food safety should also be addressed so as to improve the quality of life in the country. And he stressed the importance of income distribution. “Those who get rich first should help those who have not. For example, in Japan, there are very few extremely rich people. Most Japanese people have similar incomes and it’s quite fair. If there is a big difference between the rich and the poor in China and incomes of the rich are hundreds times more than the poor, it will be very dangerous,” he said.

    Vogel also said that it is necessary for China to continue its development, and Chinese leaders should give all the citizens the opportunity to have a comfortable life. Deng said that let some people get rich first and Vogel thought it was time to let those people help the rest.

    As China is now a major player on the international stage, Vogel suggested that China could perhaps further increase cooperation with other countries. “For example, the Diaoyu Island issue will be eased if the two countries have more cooperation and communication. There were many exchanges between China and Japan in the 1980s and their relationship was very good, too. I think the two countries have not communicated enough since 1992,” he said.

    Vogel is a Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University and has written on Japan, China and Asia. He retired from Harvard University in 2000, and published “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China” in 2011.

    In order to convey the essential points of Deng’s life and career objectively, he read a large amount of written files and documents and conducted many interviews with people including experts on Chinese issues, children of former leaders, staff who worked under Deng and other leading participants in China’s reform and opening up.

    The Chinese translation of the book, which was promoted as “a comprehensive recount of Deng’s life and China’s reform and opening up” by the Chinese publisher, has sold more than 500,000 copies across the country, said Li Xin, chief editor of Shenghuo-Dushu-Xinzhi (SDX) Joint Publishing Company.

    “The reason why this book was this popular among readers in China is because it was written in a way which was quite different from those written by Chinese scholars. It is a very relaxed book. The author did very good research about the history and wrote the book smoothly using his own writing style. He wanted to write a book which could be well understood by those even with little education, which is rare in China,” Li said.

    The publishing house wanted to introduce the book right after it was first published overseas, but it did not make a move until this year because they are very careful in introducing books on Deng, who has significant influences over China. “This is a biography of Deng Xiaoping, so we should be very careful when introducing it to China. From the title of the book, we can see that it also talked about many current issues in China, but we still named it ‘Deng Xiaoping’s Era’ because we wanted to emphasize the inner link between the Chinese road created by Deng and today’s reality,” Li said.