With the emergence of China’s middle class, the country has undergone a massive change with riots, social unrest and massive pollution problems, an Oxnard History Professor, Dr. Scott Corbett told an audience last week.

Dr. Scott Corbett, a trained long-distance runner, found himself short of breath on his recent trip to China due to the air pollution.

Corbett spoke on March 1 during an address to a spellbound audience at Oxnard College. His presentation was entitled: “A Changing China: Chasing after Shadows.” It depicted his six-month travel in 2005 to five cities along the eastern coastline, and three provincial towns in Central China.

It was with apprehension that Dr. Corbett returned to Yangtai, Shangdong Province, to find that his grandfather’s home is still standing, and his burial grounds has been protected by military. There, Dr. Corbett found that his great-grandfather’s name was incised on both sides of the tombstone: in Chinese, and in English. Known locally to the Chinese as Guo Xin-de, he founded the School for the Blind and the Deaf, becoming the first of its kind in the whole of China. He was also among the founding fathers of Yenching University, which is the forerunner the top-ranking liberal arts university in modern China.

He personally witnessed the tremendous reception that Beijing gave when Acting Chair of the Taiwanese Nationalist Party ,Lian Chan, and his wife flew from Taiwan for an unofficial visit. It was the first time in 50 years that a high ranking representative from Taiwan returned to mainland China. Over 20,000 turned out to welcome the couple. This show of affection happened after President Hu Jin-Tao gave his speech at the National Congressional Assembly, when he took the Communist Party’s stand against American intervention in the matter of whether China and Taiwan should remain as separate entities or not. At last, China has arrived at the stage where she can address a foreign power, eye-to-eye.