Organizer and Chair: Thomas B. Gold, University of California, Berkeley
Discussants: Richard P. Madsen, University of California, San Diego; Merry I. White, Boston University; Thomas B. Lifson, Harvard University; Thomas B. Gold, University of California, Berkeley; Dennis L. McNamara, Georgetown University; David L. Wank, Sophia University
Professor Ezra F. Vogel has been the progenitor of the sociological study of East Asia. His books, such as Japan’s New Middle Class (1963), Canton Under Communism (1969), and One Step Ahead in China (1989) have all achieved classic status, as have many of his journal articles. The graduate students he trained at Harvard have now assumed senior positions in many of the leading universities of the United States and Asia.
If there is one thing which sets apart both Ezra Vogel and his students, it is the centrality of fieldwork-based interviewing in their research methodology. In Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, and Korea they have engaged in the sort of in-depth interviewing and participant observation more closely associated with anthropologists, but situated in the framework of macro-structural analysis more characteristic of sociologists. Two of his oft-repeated encouragements to his students have been: "Don’t forget there are people out there!" and "Let the data sing!" These indicate that to apply social theories and analyse macro processes is one thing; understanding their impact on real people—through observing, interviewing, and living with them—is another, and social researchers must never lose sight of this.
In 2000, Professor Vogel reaches 70 years of age, and plans to retire from active teaching. For this roundtable, six of his former students will provide substantive empirical and methodological examples of his critical role in the development of Asian studies.