Chen Hansheng

Chen Hansheng (Chinese: 陈翰笙; pinyin: Chén Hànshēng; February 5, 1897 – March 13, 2004), also known as Chen Han-seng and Geoffrey Chen, was a Chinese sociologist considered a pioneer of modern Chinese social science,[1] and also a member of legendary Soviet master-spy Richard Sorge's Tokyo ring.[2][3]

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Chen.
Chen Hangshen
A statue of Chen at the Wuxi Museum, showing his visit to a farmer’s home in Baoding to investigate agricultural production and family economic conditions

Chen was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu. He studied at Pomona College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1920. He then pursued a M.A. in history at The University of Chicago. In Spring 1922, he enrolled at Harvard University for a history PhD; there he assisted Charles Haskins. However, a year later, he left the United States for Germany, and completed his doctorate at Berlin University. In 1924, he earned an academic position at Peking University.

He was recruited to the Comintern, also in 1924, by Li Dazhao, as mentioned in his 1988 autobiography My Life During Four Eras. During the 1930s he came down on the Communist side of Mao Zedong, drawing on his field research on the economic conditions of Chinese peasantry for the Institute for Social Science Research. He wrote Landlord and Peasant in China (1936) on this area. He was one of Mao's theorists, and he spent time out of China in Moscow.

From 1945 to 1950, he resided in the U.S. He then returned to China, an uncomfortable experience since he was accused of spying for the Kuomintang. Later in the Cultural Revolution, he was harshly treated.

References
  1. "The Shanghai Years - 1929-1933 | arsfemina.de". arsfemina.de. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  2. Maochen Yu, "Chen Hansheng's Memoirs and Chinese Communist Espionage Archived 2008-02-28 at the Wayback Machine," Cold War International History Project Bulletin, 6-7 (Winter 1995/1996), p. 274
  3. Chiang, Yung-chen (2001). Social Engineering and the Social Sciences in China, 1919-1949. Cambridge University Press. pp. 159–163. ISBN 9780521770149.
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