Roderick MacFarquhar: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|British sinologist and politician (1930–2019)}}

{{more citations needed|date=February 2019}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=AprilMarch 20122021}}

{{Infobox philosopherofficeholder

| image = Roderick MacFarquhar (cropped).jpg

| main_interests = Modern Chinese history

| constituency_MP = [[Belper (UK Parliament constituency)|Belper]]

| image = Roderick MacFarquhar (cropped).jpg

| captionterm_start = 28 February 1974

| term_end = 7 April 1979

| predecessor = [[Geoffrey Stewart-Smith]]

| successor = [[Sheila Faith]]

| birth_name = Roderick Lemonde MacFarquhar

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|12|2|df=y}}

| birth_place = [[Lahore]], [[British India]]

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2019|2|10|1930|12|2|df=y}}

| death_place = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], U.S.

| alma_mater = [[Harvard University]] ({{small|[[M.A.]]}}) <br> [[Keble College]], [[Oxford]] ({{small|[[B.A.]]}})

| spouse = {{plainlist|

| institutions = [[Harvard University]]<br> [[School of Oriental and African Studies]] <br> [[Columbia University]]<br> [[Oxford University]]

* {{marriage|Emily Cohen|1964|2001|end = died}}

| school_tradition =

* {{marriage|Dalena Wright|2012}}

| influences =

| influenced =

| notable_ideas =

}}

| children = 2, including [[Larissa MacFarquhar|Larissa]]

'''Roderick Lemonde MacFarquhar''' (2 December 1930 – 10 February 2019)<ref>{{Cite web | title=Roderick MacFarquhar, Former Director of the Fairbank Center, 1930-2019 | url=https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/roderick-macfarquhar-former-director-of-the-fairbank-center-1930-2019/ | date=February 11, 2019| accessdate=11 February 2019 }}</ref> was a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[politician]], newspaper and television [[Journalism|journalist]] and academic [[Orientalism|orientalist]], specializing in [[China]] as a [[Harvard University]] professor,. He also served as a [[Member of Parliament]] in the 1970s. He was best known for his studies of Maoist China, the three-volume ''The Origins of the Cultural Revolution'' and ''Mao’s Last Revolution''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2185878/roderick-macfarquhar-scholar-who-wrote-leading-history-chinas|title=Roderick MacFarquhar: leading historian of the Cultural Revolution|last=Zheng|first=William|date=2019-02-12|website=South China Morning Post|access-date=2019-02-12}}</ref>

| party = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] (before 1981)

| otherparty = [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|SDP]] (1980s)

| alma_mater = {{ubl|[[Keble College, Oxford]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])|[[Harvard University]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]])|[[London School of Economics]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])}}

| module = <!-- Embeds philosophy infobox here -->

{{infobox philosopher

| embed = yes

| institutions = {{ubl|[[Harvard University]]<br> |[[School of Oriental and African Studies]] <br> |[[Columbia University]]<br> |[[Oxford University]]}}

| main_interests = Modern Chinese history

}}

}}

'''Roderick Lemonde MacFarquhar''' (2 December 1930 – 10 February 2019) was a British sinologist, politician, and journalist.

'''Roderick Lemonde MacFarquhar''' (2was Decemberfounding 1930editor –of 10''[[China FebruaryQuarterly]]'' 2019)<ref>{{Citein web1959. |He title=Roderickserved MacFarquhar,as Formera Director[[Member of theParliament Fairbank Center, 1930-2019(United Kingdom)|Member url=https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/roderick-macfarquhar-former-director-of-the-fairbank-center-1930-2019/ |Parliament]] date=Februaryin 11,the 2019| accessdate=11 February 2019 }}</ref> was a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[politician]]1970s, newspaperthen andjoined televisionthe [[Journalism|journalistBBC]]. andIn academicthe [[Orientalism|orientalist]]1980s, specializinghe inbecame [[China]]a asprofessor aat [[Harvard University]] professor,. Hewhere alsohe served several terms as adirector of the [[MemberFairbank ofCenter Parliamentfor Chinese Studies]] in the 1970s. He was best known for his studies of Maoist China, the three-volume ''The Origins of the Cultural Revolution'' and ''Mao’s[[Mao's Last Revolution]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2185878/roderick-macfarquhar-scholar-who-wrote-leading-history-chinas|title=Roderick MacFarquhar: leading historian of the Cultural Revolution|last=Zheng|first=William|date=2019-02-12 February 2019|website=South China Morning Post|access-date=2019-02-12 February 2019}}</ref>

==Family and early life==

MacFarquhar was born in [[Lahore]], [[British Raj|British India]] (now [[Pakistan]]). His father was Sir Alexander MacFarquhar, a member of the Indian Civil Service and later a senior diplomat at the [[United Nations]]. His mother was Berenice (née Whitburn). He was educated at the [[Aitchison College]] in Lahore and [[Fettes College]], an independent school in [[Edinburgh]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Kerry |title=Roderick MacFarquhar obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/20/roderick-macfarquhar-obituary |website=The Guardian |date=20 February 2019 |accessdate=23 January 2020}}</ref>

==Academic and journalistic career==

After spending part of his [[national service]] from 1949 to 1950 in [[Egypt]] and [[Jordan]] as a second lieutenant in the [[Royal Tank Regiment]], he went up to [[Keble College, Oxford|Keble College]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] to read [[Philosophy, Politics and Economics]], obtaining a BA in 1953. He then went on to obtain a master's degree from [[Harvard University]] in Far Eastern Regional Studies in 1955, studying with [[John King Fairbank]], who supported his career as a China scholar.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

He worked as a journalist on the staff of the ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'' and ''[[Sunday Telegraph]]'' from 1955 to 1961 specialising in China, and also reported for [[BBC]] television ''[[Panorama (TV series)|Panorama]]'' from 1963 to 1965. He was the founding editor of ''[[The China Quarterly]]'' from 1959 to 1968, and a non-resident fellow of [[St Antony's College, Oxford]], from 1965 to 1968. In 1969 he was a senior research fellow at [[Columbia University]] in [[New York City]], and in 1971 he returned to England to hold a similar fellowship at the [[Chatham House|Royal Institute of International Affairs]]. HeMacFarquhar wascompleted alsohis doctorate at the foundingLondon co-presenterSchool of Economics in 1981.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/roderick-macfarquhar-journalist-and-politician-who-became-a-china-scholar-dies-at-88/2019/02/12/844bd6be-2edb-11e9-813a-0ab2f17e305b_story.html|title=Roderick MacFarquhar, journalist and politician who became a China scholar, dies at 88|newspaper=[[BBCThe WorldWashington ServicePost]]|access-date=November "24 Hours"7, in 1971.2021}}</ref>

He was paid by the American intelligence agency [[CIA]].

<ref>https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/digital-security/cia-accused-of-11-year-long-cyber-espionage-against-china/74469858</ref>

==Political career==

{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2024}}

In the [[1966 United Kingdom general election|1966 general election]], MacFarquhar fought the [[Ealing South (UK Parliament constituency)|Ealing South]] constituency for the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] but failed to dislodge the sitting [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] MP. Two years later, he was Labour candidate who attempted to retain the [[Meriden (UK Parliament constituency)|Meriden]] seat in a [[1968 Meriden by-election|by-election]]; he was on the wrong end of an 18.4% [[swing (politics)|swing]] at the height of the [[Harold Wilson|Wilson]] government's unpopularity.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

Following the defeat of [[George Brown, Baron George-Brown|George Brown]] in 1970 and favourable boundary changes, MacFarquhar was selected to fight the [[Belper (UK Parliament constituency)|Belper]] constituency, and at the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974 general election]] succeeded in winning the seat from its sitting Conservative MP [[Geoffrey Stewart-Smith]]. Although he won, there was an estimated swing of 4% to the Conservatives had the same boundaries applied in the previous election.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

MacFarquhar proved a moderate figure, in line with Brown's views. He abstained on a vote to remove the disqualification of left-wing Labour councillors in [[Clay Cross]] who had broken council housing laws enacted by the previous Conservative government. However, there were exceptions: he also abstained on a vote to increase the [[Civil list]] payments on 26 February 1975. He acted as [[Parliamentary Private Secretary]] (PPS) to [[David Ennals]], a minister of the state at the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]], and retained the job when Ennals was promoted to be [[Secretary of State for Social Services]]. He was made a member of the Select Committee on Science and Technology.

==After Parliament==

{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2024}}

In 1978 MacFarquhar resigned his office as PPS after voting against the Government. In that year, he became a Governor of the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]], a [[University of London]] constituent body. The post gave him a job which he could do if he lost his seat. In the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 general election]], MacFarquhar did indeed lose by 800 votes, and returned to academia and broadcasting (returning to "24 Hours" for a year).

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He was a scholar of Chinese politics from the founding of the [[People's Republic of China|People's Republic]] through to the [[Cultural Revolution]]. Volume three of his study ''The Origins of the Cultural Revolution: The Coming of the Cataclysm 1961-1966'' (1997) won the [[Joseph Levenson Book Prize]] for 1999.

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Roderick MacFarquhar, [[OCLC]]/[[WorldCat]] encompasses roughly 140+ works in 330+ publications in 11 languages and 1115,00700+ library holdings<ref>[http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/identities/default.htm WorldCat Identities]: [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50-42024 Macfarqhar, Roderick], Worldcat.org</ref>

==Personal life==

MacFarquhar married Emily Cohen, a journalist and East Asian studies scholar, in 1964. They had two children, the writer [[Larissa MacFarquhar]] and economist [[Rory MacFarquhar]], who served as policy adviser in the Obama administration.<ref>{{cite journal |title=In memoriam: Roderick Lemonde Macfarquhar |journal=The China Quarterly |date=June 2019 |volume=238 |url=https://www.piie.com/experts/former-research-staff/rory-macfarquhar |accessdate=23 January 2020}}</ref> His first wife died in 2001. He married his second wife, British foreign policy scholar Dalena Wright, in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Kerry |title=Roderick Macfarquhar obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/20/roderick-macfarquhar-obituary |website=The Guardian |accessdate=23 January 2020 |date=20 February 2019}}</ref>

MacFarquhar died from [[heart failure]] at a hospital in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] on 10 February 2019, at age 88.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Roderick MacFarquhar, Former Director of the Fairbank Center, 1930-2019 | url=https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/roderick-macfarquhar-former-director-of-the-fairbank-center-1930-2019/ | date=11 February 2019| accessdate=11 February 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title = Roderick MacFarquhar, Eminent China Scholar, Dies at 88|work = [[The New York Times]]|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/obituaries/roderick-macfarquhar-dead.html|last = Perlez|first = Jane|date = 12 February 2019|accessdate = 5 March 2021}}</ref>

==Selected works==

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Roderick MacFarquhar, [[OCLC]]/[[WorldCat]] encompasses roughly 140+ works in 330+ publications in 11 languages and 11,00+ library holdings<ref>[http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/identities/default.htm WorldCat Identities]: [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50-42024 Macfarqhar, Roderick]</ref>

==Bibliography==

{{dynamic list}}

{{Expand list|date=July 2021}}

* ''The Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Chinese Intellectuals'' (1960)

===Books===

* {{cite book <!--|author=MacFarquhar, Roderick--> |title=The Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Chinese intellectuals |___location= |publisher= |year=1960}}

* ''China Under Mao: Politics Takes Command'' (1963)

* ''[httphttps://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objectsDocuments/lse:cim826jotDetail/chinese-ambitions-and-british-policy-1966/107465 Chinese ambitions and British policy]'' Fabian tract (1966)

* ''Sino-American Relations: 1949-1971'' (1972)

* ''The Forbidden City'' (1972)

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* ''The Origins of the Cultural Revolution - 2. The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1960'' (1983)

* ''The People's Republic: The Emergence of Revolutionary China, 1949-1965'' (1987)

* The Secret Speeches of Chairman Mao: From the Hundred Flowers to the Great Leap Forward (1989)

* ''The Politics of China, 1949-1989'' (1993)

* ''Towards a New World Order'' (1993)

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* ''The Origins of the Cultural Revolution - 3. The Coming of the Cataclysm, 1961-1966'' (1997)

* ''The Paradox of China's Post-Mao Reforms'' (1999)

* ''[[Mao's Last Revolution]]'' (2006), with [[Michael Schoenhals]], Belknap Press of [[Harvard University Press]], Cambridge, Massachusetts, {{ISBN|9780674023321}}.

* ''The Politics of China: Sixty Years of The People's Republic of China'' (2011)

===Book reviews===

{|class='wikitable sortable' width='90%'

|-

!|Year

!class='unsortable'|Review article

!class='unsortable'|Work(s) reviewed

|-

|2007

|{{cite journal |author=MacFarquhar, Roderick |date=June 28, 2007 |title=Mission to Mao |journal=The New York Review of Books |volume=54 |issue=11 |pages=67–71}}

|{{cite book |author=MacMillan, Margaret |author-link=Margaret MacMillan |title=Nixon and Mao : the week that changed the world | publisher=Random House | year=2007}}

|}

==Notes==

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==References==

* Suleski, Ronald Stanley. (2005). ''The Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University: a Fifty Year History, 1955-2005.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|9780976798002}}; [httphttps://www.worldcat.org/title/fairbank-center-for-east-asian-research-at-harvard-university-a-fifty-year-history-1955-2005/oclc/064140358 OCLC 64140358]

== External links ==

* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/roderick-macfarquhar-journalist-and-politician-who-became-a-china-scholar-dies-at-88/2019/02/12/844bd6be-2edb-11e9-813a-0ab2f17e305b_story.html Roderick MacFarquhar, journalist and politician who became a China scholar, dies at 88] ''Washington Post,'' February 12, February 2019

* [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/obituaries/roderick-macfarquhar-dead.html Roderick MacFarquhar, Eminent China Scholar, Dies at 88] ''New York Times,'' February 12, February 2019

* [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/20/roderick-macfarquhar-obituary Roderick MacFarquhar obituary] ''The Guardian,'' February 20, February 2019

* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-roderick-macfarquhar | Roderick MacFarquhar }}

* [https://scholar.harvard.edu/roderickmacfarquhar Home page] at Harvard.

* [http://www.nybooks.com/authors/589 MacFarquhar's reviews] for [[The New York Review of Books]].

* [https://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/2572998 Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 6th6 April and 16th16 June 2017 (video)]

{{s-start}}

{{s-par|uk}}

{{succession box | before=[[Geoffrey Stewart-Smith]] | title=[[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Belper (UK Parliament constituency)|Belper]] | years=[[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974]]–[[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979]] | after=[[Sheila Faith]] }}

{{s-end}}

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[[Category:1930 births]]

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[[Category:Alumni of Keble College, Oxford]]

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[[Category:British expatriate academics in the United States]]

[[Category:British sinologists]]

[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]

[[Category:PeopleHarvard educatedUniversity at Fettes Collegefaculty]]

[[Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]

[[Category:SocialMembers Democraticof Partythe (UK)Fabian parliamentary candidatesSociety]]

[[Category:People associated with SOAS University of London]]

[[Category:BritishPeople sinologistseducated at Fettes College]]

[[Category:AlumniPeople offrom Keble College, OxfordLahore]]

[[Category:AlumniRoyal ofTank theRegiment University of Londonofficers]]

[[Category:Social Democratic Party (UK) parliamentary candidates]]

[[Category:The Daily Telegraph people]]

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[[Category:Royal20th-century TankEnglish Regiment officersbusinesspeople]]

[[Category:PeopleHistorians fromof Lahorethe Cultural Revolution]]

[[Category:MembersFairbank ofCenter thefor FabianChinese SocietyStudies people]]

[[Category:British expatriate academics in the United States]]