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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2. The Contributions

Author : Pervez Tahir

Published in: Making Sense of Joan Robinson on China

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Joan Robinson’s seven major publications on China were in the nature of end-of-visit reports. Each visit coincided with a major event. Between the visits, the writings provided further explanations or responses to the critics. During the second visit in 1957, Joan Robinson delivered three lectures on the relations between the rate of accumulation and the price level, choice of techniques and usefulness of price system in a planned economy. These analytically interesting lectures remained unpublished. She also became an activist. First, she was associated with the Britain-China Friendship Association and left it for the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding formed after the Sino-Soviet ideological conflict. One of the writings was titled “The Chinese Point of View”. Perturbed over the way information on the Lin Piao affair was managed, Joan Robinson began to ask questions about the cultural revolution. At the end, she did not think that post-Mao reform was a great leap backward.

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Footnotes
1
The Times, 13 June 1953.
 
2
Robinson (1954a) is sometimes referred to in this volume as the Letters.
 
3
The Times, 21 August 1957.
 
4
Interview with Ronald Berger, 20 February (1987). A colleague of Joan Robinson at SACU, he first visited China in 1959 and with her in 1975. See Robinson and Berger (1961) for a BBC discussion between the two.
 
5
Sol Adler’s letter from Beijing, 30 November (1986).
 
6
JVR Collection, King’s Modem Archives. There is something amiss about 1957. Even the passport containing the entry of the visit to China in 1957 is missing! The only writing on China in 1957 is on “The Chinese Classical Theatre” in the Manchester Guardian Weekly of 19 September 1957 under the initials “JR”. Robinson (1977b, 7, 38) indicates an interest in the subject.
 
7
Sometimes this publication is referred to in this volume as Economic Perspective.
 
8
JVR Collection, iii/5.1–5.3. King’s College Library, Cambridge.
 
9
Survey of China’s Mainland Press, 6 September 1963.
 
10
Robinson (1973c) was included in the first edition (1973) of the readings collected by Wilber in The Political Economy of Development and Underdevelopment but omitted in the second edition (1979), which came out after the death of Mao.
 
11
Robinson (1964h) has sometimes been referred to in this volume as Notes for short.
 
12
This quick trip became the basis of Robinson (1965d), which described North Korean economy as a miracle. She was not impressed by Cuba (interview with Berger, 20 February 1987), which she re-visited in 1965. See Robinson (1965e), reproduced as Robinson (1966b).
 
13
Robinson (1964j, 1965f, g, 1966a, e, f, g, 1967c, d, e, f).
 
14
Robinson (1969a) is also mentioned in this volume as The Cultural Revolution for short.
 
15
Robinson (1969c) is a reproduction of Robinson (1968h).
 
16
The lecture was given to the Anglo-Chinese Educational Institute (ACEI) on 21 November 1969.
 
17
The letter was sent to The Times jointly by Joseph Needham and Joan Robinson as chairman and vice chairman of SACU, but it was refused publication.
 
18
Robinson (1973f) is mentioned in this volume as the Economic Management for short.
 
19
A review note in Broadsheet (March 1975, last page) states that Joan Robinson visited China in the summer of 1974. The information seems to be based on the title of the postscript written in 1974 for the second edition of Economic Management—“Postscript—summer 1974” (Robinson, 1975c, 42). The fact, however, is that Joan Robinson did not visit China in 1974. The postscript in question was written on the basis of reports from other visitors, particularly Berger (1974) and Daly (1974).
 
20
Except of course for the brief mention in Economic Management: “The autonomous regions have planned revenue which is much less than expenditure. For example, since 1960 the bulk of Tibet’s budget has been financed and 30 per cent of its grain supply provided by the central authorities. By this means, the government is taxing the relatively richer part of the population to cover its own outlay and to even up development for the poorest” (Robinson, 1973f, 30).
 
21
Her fascination with North Korea continued, as is evident from Robinson (1976a, 92, 1977c).
 
22
Robinson (1977b) is also referred as Reports in subsequent discussion in this volume.
 
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Metadata
Title
The Contributions
Author
Pervez Tahir
Copyright Year
2019
Book
Making Sense of Joan Robinson on China

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28824-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-28825-9

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28825-9_2