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gained access to unpublished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
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