Ian Buruma Explained

Ian Buruma
Birth Date:28 December 1951
Birth Place:The Hague, Netherlands
Occupation:Writer, historian
Nationality:Dutch
Genre:Nonfiction
Subject:China, Japan, Occidentalism, Orientalism

Ian Buruma (born 28 December 1951) is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States. In 2017, he became editor of The New York Review of Books, but left the position in September 2018.

Much of his writing has focused on the culture of Asia, particularly that of China and 20th-century Japan. He was the Paul W. Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College from 2003 to 2017.[1]

Early life and education

Buruma was born and raised in The Hague, Netherlands. His father, Sytze Leonard "Leo" Buruma, was a Dutch lawyer and son of a Mennonite minister; his mother, Gwendolyn Margaret "Wendy" Schlesinger, was a Briton of German-Jewish descent.[2] [3] [4] He went to study at Leiden University in 1971, and obtained a Candidate degree in Chinese literature and history in 1975. He subsequently pursued postgraduate studies in Japanese cinema from 1975 to 1977 at the College of Art (Nichidai Geijutsu Gakko) of the Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan.

Career

Overview

Buruma worked as a film reviewer, photographer, and documentary filmmaker in Japan between 1975 and 1981. During the 1980s, he edited the cultural section of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong. He later traveled throughout Asia working as a freelance writer. Buruma is a board member of Human Rights in China and a fellow of the European Council of Foreign Relations. Buruma has contributed numerous articles to The New York Review of Books since 1985[5] and has written for The Guardian.[6] He held fellowships at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin (1991) and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. (1999), and he was an Alistair Horne fellow of St Antony's College in Oxford, United Kingdom. In 2000, he delivered the Huizinga Lecture (on "Neoromanticism of writers in exile") in the Pieterskerk in Leiden, Netherlands.

From 2003 to 2017, Buruma was Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College in New York City, New York. In 2017, he became editor of The New York Review of Books (NYRB), succeeding founding editor Robert B. Silvers.[7] [8]

He has been a regular contributor to Project Syndicate since 2001.[9]

New York Review of Books controversy

In September 2018, Buruma left the NYRB position following a dispute about his publication of an essay by Canadian talk show host Jian Ghomeshi. Ghomeshi was acquitted in 2016 of one count of choking and four counts of sexual assault after over 20 women complained either to the police or in the media. The publication of the essay was controversial, in part, because Ghomeshi wrote that the allegations against him were "inaccurate".[10] In an interview with Slate magazine, Buruma defended his decision to publish the piece. He denied that the article was misleading because it had failed to mention that Ghomeshi had been required to issue an apology to one of the victims as part of the terms of a case against him. He also denied that the title, "Reflections from a Hashtag", was dismissive of the

  1. MeToo movement
; stated that the movement has resulted in "undesirable consequences"; and said: "I'm no judge of the rights and wrongs of every allegation. ... The exact nature of [Ghomeshi's] behavior – how much consent was involved – I have no idea, nor is it really my concern."[11]

In response to outrage over his defense of the article,[12] [13] [14] the Review leadership later stated that it had departed from its "usual editorial practices" as the essay "was shown to only one male editor during the editing process", and that Buruma's statement to Slate about the staff of the Review "did not accurately represent their views".[15] More than 100 contributors to the Review, including Joyce Carol Oates and Ian McEwan, signed a letter of protest to express fears that Buruma's exit threatened intellectual culture and "the free exploration of ideas".[16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

Awards

In 2004, Buruma was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Dr.h.c.) in Theology from the University of Groningen.

In 2008, Buruma was awarded the Erasmus Prize, which is awarded to an individual who has made "an especially important contribution to culture, society or social science in Europe".[21] He was included in Foreign Policy magazine's 2010 list of the "100 top global thinkers".[22]

Buruma has won several prizes for his books, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay for Theater of Cruelty.

Personal life and views

Buruma has been married twice. He and his first wife, Sumie Tani, had a daughter, as did he and his second wife, Eri Hotta.[23] [24] Buruma is a nephew of the English film director John Schlesinger, with whom he published a series of interviews in book form.[25]

He argued in 2001 for wholehearted British participation in the European Union because they were the "strongest champions in Europe of a liberal approach to commerce and politics".[26]

Bibliography

External links

Interviews

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Bard Faculty: Ian Buruma. Bard College. November 5, 2014.
  2. News: Grimes. William. Bumping Into Boundaries in a Land of Tolerance (book review. January 27, 2016. New York Times. September 13, 2006.
  3. Web site: 2016. Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War Jewish Book Council. March 6, 2021. www.jewishbookcouncil.org. en.
  4. Web site: Ian Buruma Critical Essays - eNotes.com. March 6, 2021. eNotes. en.
  5. [Peter Collier (political author)|Peter Collier]
  6. Web site: Ian Buruma. The Guardian. 2 September 2021 .
  7. Schuessler, Jennifer. "Ian Buruma Named Editor of The New York Review of Books", The New York Times, May 18, 2017.
  8. http://www.nybooks.com/issues/2017/08/17 "Contents: Contributors"
  9. Web site: Ian Buruma. March 6, 2021. Project Syndicate. en.
  10. News: Ghomeshi . Jian . Reflections from a Hashtag . The New York Review of Books . October 11, 2018.
  11. Chotiner, Isaac. "Why Did the New York Review of Books Publish That Jian Ghomeshi Essay?", Slate, September 14, 2018.
  12. Pilkington, Ed. "New York Review of Books editor Ian Buruma departs amid outrage over essay", The Guardian, September 19, 2018.
  13. Vanderhoof, Erin. "How Ian Buruma's New York Review of Books Ouster Became Inevitable", Vanity Fair, September 19, 2018
  14. O'Rourke, Meghan. "What Magazines Can't Do in the Age of #MeToo", The Atlantic, September 21, 2018.
  15. Williams, John. "New York Review of Books Acknowledges 'Failures' in a #MeToo Essay", The New York Times, September 24, 2018.
  16. [Laura Kipnis]
  17. David Taylor, "How one article capsized a New York literary institution", The Guardian, September 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  18. Ed Pilkington, "Acclaimed authors pen letter in protest at 'forced resignation' of Ian Buruma", The Guardian, September 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  19. [Conor Friedersdorf]
  20. News: A Letter from Contributors. en. 2021-08-31. 2018-10-25. 0028-7504.
  21. Web site: Former Laureates: Ian Buruma, 2008. Praemium Erasmianum Foundation. November 5, 2014.
  22. https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/11/29/the_fp_top_100_global_thinkers?page=full "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers"
  23. Web site: A new cosmopolitan. March 6, 2021. The Jerusalem Post JPost.com. en-US.
  24. Web site: Objective subjects. March 6, 2021. South China Morning Post. en.
  25. Book: Conversations with John Schlesinger . .
  26. News: In praise of Englishness. The Economist. October 23, 2001.
  27. Title in the online table of contents is "Why 'The Tale of Genji' Is Still Seductive".
  28. Online version is titled "Are China and the United States Headed for War?".
  29. Web site: The Churchill Complex - Ian Buruma - 9781786494658 . September 1, 2020 . www.allenandunwin.com.

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