Successful Engagement with China Starts with Understanding its History​

​​Business people and academics need to take a fresh look at the history of China as the country’s influence spreads, says The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Professor David Faure. 

Professor David Faure, world-renowned expert on China’s economic and business history.

China’s future is in the international spotlight as never before as it expands its influence and economic power worldwide through the Belt and Road initiative. But to people outside the country, much of China’s past remains an enigma.

That gap in our collective knowledge needs address and there is an urgent need for a comprehensive historical and anthropological re-examination of Chinese history, argues Professor David Faure, world-renowned expert on China’s economic and business history at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

Described by the China Review as one of the premier authorities on the history of Chinese lineage and society, Professor Faure has spent four decades studying the historical anthropology of Chinese society. He says it is vital for business people and anyone with an interest to work in and with China to learn more about its history and society. “I don’t believe you just walk into Shanghai and do your business. You have to understand the history and all the ramifications,” he said.

Cultural Clues

Professor Faure led an eight-year HK$34.6 million (equivalent to US$4.4 million) Hong Kong Government-funded Areas of Excellence project titled the Historical Anthropology of Chinese Society to explore Chinese history stretching from the Song Dynasty to World War II, studying 15 areas of rural China to promote a greater understanding of the country’s history and society.  

His research has found cultural threads stretching back centuries, explaining why when China opened up in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping, people’s innate understanding of business quickly came to the surface, particularly when it came to contracting for private use of land from the communes.

“The process was extremely successful because Chinese people have been signing contracts since the 16th century. It is in their culture and consequently they reacted to the government policy described as the ‘responsibility system’ in a way that made it successful,” said Professor Faure.

“Chinese people also love to buy and sell shares. Where did they learn to do it? They learnt to do it in the 16th century. Chinese people were quite used to shares well before western businesses were and long before company law was introduced.

“They were not just coming out of a collective economy. They were coming out of a tradition they have built up for 500 years. They were trading as capitalists before Europeans were. The Chinese historical economy was very successful – it was the richest country in the world.”

Living Museums

The history and culture of China is best learnt not through documents and texts but by coming face to face with living history, says Professor Faure who grew up in Hong Kong and has been visiting Chinese villages since the 1980s.

His encounters with ordinary people taught him some of the essential difference in the cultures of China and the west, in particular the way in which trust in ritual drives China while trust in law drives the west.

“Everybody you meet is a museum,” he said. “They remember what they have been told. They bring Chinese culture to life in their rituals. They do things without realising why they are doing them in that particular way. As historians we work out the reasons.”

Professor Faure explains that the divergence between China and the west is because in the European scientific tradition, thinkers spent years looking for the natural laws of society and they are still doing so.
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“In China, you have a totally different system which comes from the relationship of ritual to the natural order. You deal with people in the correct manner as dictated by ritual because you expect them to react to you through the same ritual.”

Professor David Faure examines local history documents and local ritual traditions such as village ceremonies, architectural features and inscriptions.

Talking History
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Talking to villagers in China who are living history.

The task facing historians today is to place China’s history into world history by writing the stories of ordinary people – a process that has only just begun in China with projects such as the CUHK studies.

“We are going through the process European historians went through in the first half of the 20th century,” he said. “In China, we are 100 years behind in coming to the realisation that history is a collective of lives lived by people right on the ground.

“As yet, we have a world history which is very much centred on Europe and North America. We have an immediate task at hand which is to think about a world history in which China has a part to play.”

Our Mission for Research in China Studies

Hong Kong is ideally located to be the hub of leading research in China Studies. Building on our strong foundation in China Studies, CUHK draws on interdisciplinary approaches across all faculties of the university and collaborates internationally, particularly with countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) route, to examine China’s global development in trade, economics, finance, logistics and technological infrastructure. We examine the opportunities and challenges for China, global reactions to China’s impact, legal and governance mechanisms for regional collaborations, and the humanistic ramifications of China’s rise. The university is developing a GIS database on developments in China that includes social, economic, political, and other indicators covering 333 prefectures and 2,862 counties. We also study China’s labour market, the impact of the one-child policy, NGOs in China, and migrant populations. In the years ahead, we will extend our focus on China’s global challenges, the roots of Chinese culture, and Hong Kong’s role in China’s development. Capitalising on the national B&R initiative, we have been forging collaborations with institutions along the B&R region and joining university alliances to advance the agenda. 
 
Our work on China’s global engagement  is coordinated by the Global China Research Programme. For more information on the programme, please visit its webpage. 

​Click to learn more:
Institute of Chinese Studies
Centre for China Studies​
Belt & Road Related Work at CUHK