February 28, 1972

Linguist Dr. Beverly Hong Fincher from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies gave a lecture on contemporary Chinese language entitled “A Trip to China.” With support from the Social Science Research Council and Johns Hopkins, Dr. Fincher visited her native country for a month in the fall of 1971 for the purpose of studying how and in what ways the social leveling and social elevation goals of the People’s Republic had affected Chinese speech.

“Ms. Fincher,” The Miscellany News reported, “said tha tht behavior exemplified by Chinese children in their interactions with one another was evidence enough that individualism does exist in China. The folk songs she heard sung by Chinese children and teh books she saw in many homes led Ms. Fincher to believe that China is not as ‘regimented and austere as we think.’”