CCS History

Current CCS Chair
Andrew F. Jones

Established in 1957 with funding from the Ford Foundation and the State of California, the Center's mission was to coordinate and support the study of contemporary China on the Berkeley campus. The Center invited scholars to Berkeley to conduct research on the People's Republic of China and on topics of interest in contemporary Chinese studies. In addition, the Center offered language instruction in modern Chinese and its scholars undertook the writing of several dictionaries of contemporary Chinese usage. A series of monographs and occasional papers, published under Center auspices, appeared in the mid-60's and continues to the present time. A contemporary China reading room was established in the early 1960's. As materials from and about the People's Republic of China and Chinese Communist Party history became plentiful, the reading room was transformed into the Center for Chinese Studies Library and a full-time librarian was hired to build its collection and serve its growing number of faculty, students, and scholar patrons. In 2008, the Center for Chinese Studies Library was merged with the East Asian Library to become the new CV Starr East Asian Library.

CCS Chairs

2008-            Andrew Jones, East Asian Languages & Cultures
2005-2008    Kevin O'Brien, Political Science
2004-2005    Jeffrey Riegel, East Asian Languages & Cultures
2000-2004    Liu Xin, Anthropology
1994-2000    Wen-hsin Yeh, History
1990-1994    Tom Gold, Sociology
1988-1990    David Keightley, History
1983-1988    Joyce Kallgren, Political Science
1979-1983    Lowell Dittmer, Political Science
1972-1979    Frederic Wakeman, History
1967-1972    Chalmers Johnson, Political Science
1963-1967    Franz Schurmann, History
1961-1963    Choh-ming Li, Economics
1957-1961    Walter Galenson, Economics