P. C. Chang and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hans Ingvar Roth

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      P. C. Chang and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

      PENNSYLVANIA STUDIES IN HUMAN RIGHTS

      Bert B. Lockwood, Series Editor

      A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher

      P. C. Chang

      and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

      Hans Ingvar Roth

      UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS

      PHILADELPHIA

      Copyright © 2016 Hans Ingvar Roth and Dialogos förlag.

      Published originally in Swedish under the title:

      När Konfucius kom till FN: Peng Chun Chang och FN:sförklaring om de mänskliga rättigheterna.

      English translation copyright © 2018

      University of Pennsylvania Press

      All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.

      Published by

      University of Pennsylvania Press

      Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112

       www.upenn.edu/pennpress

      Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

      1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Roth, Hans Ingvar, author.

      Title: P. C. Chang and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights / Hans Ingvar Roth.

      Other titles: När Konfucius kom till FN. English. | Pennsylvania studies in human rights.

      Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, [2018] | Series: Pennsylvania studies in human rights | Published originally in Swedish under the title: När Konfucius kom till FN: Peng Chun Chang och FN:s förklaring om de mänskliga rättigheterna. Stockholm: Dialogos, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2018007661 | ISBN 9780812250565 (hardcover: alk. paper)

      Subjects: LCSH: Chang, Peng Chun, 1892–1957. | Chang, Peng Chun, 1892–1957—Ethics. | United Nations. General Assembly. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. | Human rights—History—20th century.

      Classification: LCC PN2878.C487 N3713 2018 | DDC 323.092—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018007661

       For my children, Julia and William

      CONTENTS

       Preface

       Introduction

       PART I. LIFE AND TIMES

       Chapter 1. Peng Chun Chang’s Early Life in China and Studies in the United States

       Chapter 2. Raising a Family, Theatrical Activities, University and Diplomatic Careers

       Chapter 3. New York and the United Nations

       Chapter 4. Chang’s Multifaceted and Intense Life

       PART II. THE IDEAS BEHIND THE UN DECLARATION

       Chapter 5. Peng Chun Chang and the UN Declaration on Human Rights

       Chapter 6. Chang’s Ideas About Ethics and Human Rights

       Chapter 7. Chang, Malik, and Cassin

       Chapter 8. Chang’s Intercultural Ethics and the UN Declaration

       Chapter 9. Chang’s Triumphs, Defeats, and “Blind Spots”

       Conclusion

       Appendix

       Notes

       Bibliography

       Index

       Gallery

      PREFACE

      A very special artwork adorns the platform walls of the subway station at Stockholm University. Look carefully and you will find in it all thirty articles of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Strikingly, all are reproduced in uniform capitals and without spaces between words or periods at the end of the sentences. They include the right to life, liberty, and security of person; the right not to be held in slavery or subjected to torture; the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; as well as the right to an adequate standard of living (Articles 3, 4, 5, 18, 25). The artwork also illustrates the central idea behind this important statement of rights. It is, above all, a matter of a whole, or an assembly, of human rights, none of which can be separated from each other. Each of its articles plays an important role in contributing to that unity which might be described as the declaration’s overarching function: to promote respect for the inviolable dignity of every human being.

      The artwork has its origins in an art project by the French-Belgian artist Françoise Schein titled To Write the Human Rights, or, alternatively, TO INSCRIBE the Human Rights. There is an equivalent mural in the Paris Metro station of Concorde. Realized by the organization INSCRIRE, this global art project is just one of many instances that illustrate the fact that the UN Declaration is one of the most widely disseminated and best-known documents in the world today. (I will use the expressions the UN Declaration, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UDHR as equivalent in the following text.)

      As a student, I used occasionally to stop and look at the articles, wondering about their meaning. Later on, I was fortunate enough to be able to work as a researcher and teacher with a specialist interest in human rights. Initially, I did not think about the individuals involved in drafting the declaration, with the exception of Eleanor Roosevelt, the distinguished