Ruan Zongze Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

Photo by Jane Scherr

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Background

Mr. Ruan, welcome to Berkeley.

Glad to be here.

Tell us a little about your background. Where were you born and raised?

I was born in Sichuan Province. Sichuan, of course, is famous for its Sichuan cuisine. I was raised in a small county in the south part of Sichuan. I went to college in a city called Qiong Qing, which is along the Yangtze River. So before 1986, I was living in Sichuan Province.

In looking back, how do you think your parents helped shaped your view of the world?

Well, it's a very interesting question. My parents didn't have much education. They even couldn't write a letter to me when I was in college; of course, I was looking forward to them doing that, [but] they couldn't. But anyway, they were very optimistic about life, particularly about their future life. We have a very large family. I have two sisters and five brothers, plus my parents. That's ten members in my family. None of them made their education further to the college except myself. So they told me, "You must study very hard, work very hard, and it will pay off in the future."

And it's done that. What got you interested in international affairs?

Well, actually, I don't know what got me interested in international affairs. First I went to college to study English literature. After that, I was getting a little bit interested in international news, so I applied for a Master's degree at the CAS, the Chinese Academy of Social Science, but I failed in the exams. However, a couple of days later, I took another exam to the Yome[?] People's University of China. Fortunately, I passed the exams, so I went to study international politics in the People's University of China, in Beijing.

But after that, interestingly enough, many of my classmates were what in Chinese we call shang hai -- that's "plunge into the sea." That is to say, they like to pursue a business career. But I don't think that I had that sort of interest, so I carried on my interest in research.

Going back to your interest in English literature, who is your favorite author? Did you have a famous favorite English author?

No, actually, I read quite a lot of English [language] literature. For example, I like one of the American authors called O. Henry.

John O'Hara?

O. Henry. Short stories. And also I like Jack London.

Who grew up and lived in Oakland, right near here, actually.

Yes, and [Mark Twain,] about those days along the Mississippi. It's really fascinating.

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