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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 8, 1982)
POT POLITICS see page 8A Oregon daily _ _ emerald Wednesday, December 8, 1982 Eugene. Oregon Volume 84, Number 67 Professor visits China Studies Boxer Revolution from a different side By Leslie Knight Of the Emerald Foreigners have been ex cluded for more than 30 years from most of China but Joseph Esherick, a University associate history professor, got the chance to explore Chinese vil lages and probe into the past While he has "been in the China racket for 20 years," Esherick didn't get to visit the country until 1979 when nor malization was achieved between the two countries Esherick spent a year in China researching the Boxer Revolution, which took place in the 1890s The boxers were loosely organized bands of martial artists who believed one could achieve invulnerability to bullets through intense con centration. In the Chinese Ian guage the character for a bullet and a spear are the same. Esherick explains that the boxers thought bullets were just long-range spears. The first year Americans were allowed to visit China proved to be a very good year to go. he says "China was in a liberalizing mode at the time, and there was a lot of enthusiasm about the new found freedom." he says "There's been a lot more tight ening down since then Scholars "rather routinely gained access to unpublished materials normally prohibited to foreigners, Esherick says This opportunity was valuable to visiting scholars because "the most important kind of re search you can do in these areas is not going to be in pub lished sources You can get State board considers finalists for top posts Finalists for the presidencies of Western Oregon State College and the Oregon Institute of Technology have been named The candidates, one of whom is a finalist for both posts, will be interviewed by the State Board of Higher Education beginning Dec 16 Chancellor Bud Davis sent the board names of can didates chosen by separate presidential search committees at the institutions He screened the committees recommen dations before forwarding them to the board Larry Blake, president of the North Carolina Community College System in Raleigh, N.C , is the finalist for both the OIT and WOSC presidency Other OIT finalists are Peter Blomerley, president of Ohlone College in Fremont, Calif . and William Orth, dean of faculty at the U S Air Force Academy in Colorado The finalists at WOSC, are James Beaird, interim pres ident of WOSC, Rose Marie Beston, dean for academic affairs at Castleton State College in Vermont and Richard Meyers, president of Pasadena City College in California. After the interviews, the board will provide Davis with a list of candidates ranked according to its rating system The board probably will direct Davis to negotiate with the top candidates If the negotiations are successful, the board will hold a telephone conference on Dec. 20 or Dec. 21 to make the two appointments, says Tim Marsh, publicity director for the state system Interim presidents have been administering OIT and WOSC since the resignations of Kenneth Light at OIT in July and Gerald Leinwand at WOSC in September those here (in the United States) ." Esherick studied unpublished oral surveys conducted in the 1960s about people alive during the boxer uprising The documents were available to him because excerpts were go ing to be made public later that year for a conference on the revolution The oral histories allowed Esherick to view the revolution from a different viewpoint than normally is shown in histories Any such thing as a revolu tion is always shown through the eyes of the people who sup press it The rebels never get to speak for themselves, he says The most authoritative book on the subject to date ap proaches the revolution from the wrong standpoint, Esherick says The Boxer Uprising,' by Victor Purcell, seeks to find out how the revolution changed from being anti-dynastic to pro-dynastic The oral history makes clear that it never was anti-dynastic. It's a false question in the first place," he says Visiting the areas where the uprising grew was another op portunity provided Esherick. It is difficult to gain the same oppor tunity now except for about 100 cities, China is virtually closed to foreigners These cities have tourist facilities and "are not exactly sanitized, but people are used to foreigners being there.' The boxers Esherick studies were opposed to Christian mis sionaries and other foreign in fluences in China Esherick says there are many reasons people have not gained access to most of the villages. "Foreigners are real curiosi ties. People stream out of the fields and the workshops" to marvel at newcomers. He points out this hinders productivity. An incident in 1980 has caused the Chinese to be less cooperative in academic ven tures, Esherick says. A graduate student from Stanford University was "al legedly engaged in smuggling, bribery, driving a vehicle in Photo by Bob Baker Professor Joseph Esherick finally got to visit China after spending years doing research only from books. prohibited places” and other personal offenses that "thor oughly outraged his Chinese hosts,” he says Since these incidents, which are under in vestigation, the Chinese have all but stopped academic field work In November 1980 Esherick visited China again for a month to attend the conference on the uprising and he is writing a book on the subject. Esherick and three other scholars received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that was supposed to begin last summer, but prob lems between the two countries prevented him from visiting the country again, he says. The cultural exchange was brought about because former Pres. Carter was very suppor tive of it, but 'there has been a general souring of relations since (Pres. Ronald) Reagan came in," Esherick says. The Chinese were "very irri tated by Reagan's arms sales to Taiwan” and this may have contributed to the postpone ment of his trip until next sum mer. Esherick and his colleagues were to study three villages to see what changes occurred during the Chinese revolution. Visas were approved for the group in August, but it was clear there would not be enough cooperation for their research to progress, he says. Reasons for these difficulties can only be guessed at, Esher ick says. "The Chinese don't generally give explanations why they are saying no. Sometimes they don't even say no,” Plans for a summer 1983 trip seem firm, and Esherick says the trip participants hope the plans stay that way. 'Some things are beyond one's control. What one can control is conducting oneself in a reasonable manner and cul tivating cooperative connec tions.” Sex: pleasures mix with medical problems By Harry Esteve Ol tt» Em*rald Editor’s Note: This is the last in a three-part series dealing with sexual attitudes, behaviors and problems on campus The joy of sex can turn into sheer misery if the participants aren't careful Sexually transmitted diseases, un wanted pregnancies and psychologically rooted sexual dysfunction are common problems, according to medical and academic authorities Some are harm less, some quite dangerous; some have remedies, some stubbornly resist cure. But in all cases the results can be discomforting, embarassing and stress ful. The malady that is causing the most concern among students seems to be genital herpes — sometimes referred to as the "epidemic of the 80s." Genital herpes, a form of herpes sim plex II, is a lifelong disease with no known cure It appears as lesions or blisters around the genitals and causes irritating and sometimes painful itching and burning. Although it is almost always transmit ted by sexual intercourse or oral-genital contact, the highly contagious herpes virus can also be picked up from towels or other contaminated surfaces. Unlike cases of gonorrhea or syphilis, people who contract herpes do not have to report the disease to medical authori ties. Consequently exact numbers of herpes cases are not available. Last year, however, authorities estimated 20 million Americans were afflicted with the dis ease, with 300,000 to 500,000 new cases appearing each year. At the University’s student health center, Carol John says herpes is not as big a problem as students have been led to believe. “From my perspective, it's not number one,” says John, an adult nurse practi tioner in the women s clinic at the health center. Students have overreacted to the recent surge of publicity on the virus, John says. She sees the same amount of people with herpes this year as she did last year, indicating the herpes outbreak is leveling off Whether students’ fear of herpes is warranted or not, it is “slowing people up,” says Harry Hoberman, University psychology professor. A lot of people are abstaining from sex because of their fears of contracting the virus, he says. Because there is no cure, many people have a “feeling of helplessness," John says. “Some people are really devastat ed by it.” John, however, is more concerned over a different disease that is also sex ually transmitted. Pelvic infection is becoming more common among students, she says. In females, the disease is caused by the bacteria "clamydia,” which attacks the uterus and tubes The infection can Continued on Page 3
