[
    {
        "id": 212531,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1991",
        "page_number": 85,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE: SINO-AMERICAN ARTS EXCHANGE\n\n1972-1986\n\nZHANG RU\n\n65\n\nIntroduction\n\nAs Richard Nixon's jet touched down at Beijing on 21 February, 1972, a great transformation of Sino-American relations started. Two of the world's most populous and yet politically and culturally most different countries finally broke out of the isolation they had themselves created for each other over some two decades. China and the United States established diplomatic relations in 1979. Around 1979, both countries also sought to strengthen their relationship by promoting linkages through trade and other economic activity and through cultural exchanges. On 31 January, 1979, a cultural agreement was signed, initiating officially sponsored cultural exchanges between China and the United States of America.\n\nFrom the founding of the PRC in 1949 to 1972 there was only one American singer, Paul Robeson, who appeared on the Chinese cultural scene. However, his presence in China was not seen as a symbol of friendship between the two countries. Rather, Paul Robeson was a dissenter and was discriminated against at home; his visit to China was used as an opportunity to educate the Chinese as to how progressive people were oppressed in the United States and how those people saw China as a natural supporter of their cause. The absence of a political relationship between 1949 and 1972 made it quite difficult for artists from both countries to cross the Pacific.\n\nWith the reopening of Sino-American relations in 1972, the situation improved and the possibility of arts exchanges was reborn. Still, reality was less exciting than the prospect as only one performing arts group came to China until 1978, and at the same time Chinese visits to the United States were fairly marginal. During the Ford presidency, the only Chinese performing arts group scheduled to visit America was canceled. The Philadelphia Orchestra's visit to China in 1973, almost the only notable event during the period, was warmly welcomed by the Chinese but not followed up by any increase in the intensity of exchanges in the",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212547,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1991",
        "page_number": 101,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "81\n\nrelations with China were employed for the first time by Richard Nixon. Among a number of measures, he lifted restrictions against Americans wanting to travel to China as a gesture for and, therefore, a step to reconciliation. Nixon approved the visit of the American table tennis team to China. At the White House, the president chatted with members of a table tennis team which was the first Chinese sports delegation that ever toured the United States since the founding of the People's Republic. On 13 January, 1973, he interviewed the Shenyang Acrobatic Troupe. Such meetings were conducted as part of the administration's policy of strengthening the U.S.-China general relationship. Even at a time when the administration could only place cultural exchanges low on its priority list, they still enjoyed the attention and support of the president.\n\nAt this stage, Sino-American ties in culture were far from sufficient. This does not mean that either party failed to see the importance of such exchanges. Thus, the Nixon Administration repeatedly expressed its recognition of the importance of cultural relations in the Shanghai Communique and the communique on 22 February, 1973 which actually announced a programme to expand cultural relations. The president's meetings with visiting Chinese artists were also expressions of this concern. However, in the two years after Nixon's visit, the administration could not find the time to handle matters other than strategic concerns. Furthermore, the president was bogged down in the domestic political difficulties which eventually led to his resignation. The Ford Administration, afraid of irritating the Soviet Union and the right wing at home, could only maintain the status quo and even sacrificed arts exchanges with China. By doing so it accelerated a general deterioration in Sino-American relations.\n\nThe Carter Administration made no improvement in either the general relationship or cultural relations with China in its first eighteen months in office. When a new China policy began to take shape in the middle of 1977, the general relationship improved. In May, the State Department prepared a memo for the president which pointed out that unless diplomatic relations were established, the existing cultural and economic relations would possibly stagnate or even be weakened. It also pointed out that Sino-Soviet relations would get closer if the United States failed to have a formal relationship with China. But what played a decisive role in the American efforts to establish diplomatic relations was the soaring influence of the Soviet Union in international affairs, a situation Nixon faced before the Sino-American rapprochement. Clearly",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    }
]