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Earlier in March, Schar School of Policy and Government associate professor Jeremy Mayer traveled to Guangzhou, China, to deliver an invited lecture to a think tank at Sun Yat-Sen University, one of the country’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning.
While his presentation, entitled “The 2024 Presidential Election: Rematch!,” was well received, the talk was not the primary reason he and his brother Ken, sister Jennifer Mayer-Page, and sister-in-law Christina Mayer-Page made the 8,000-mile trip.
The Mayers were on hand to attend a ceremony acknowledging their donation of a significant number of letters, documents, and photographs of historic importance last possessed by their grandparents, Isabel and William Mayer.
Beginning in 1922, Isabel was the longtime English tutor of Wan Jung (aka Wanrong and Elizabeth), the bride of the Qing Dynasty’s Henry Puyi, the last royal emperor of China. The documents capture their experience living among the grandeur of palaces, silk robes, and whispered wartime secrets.
“Isabel was the English and tennis tutor to the last royal empress of China, and Bill was the military attaché at the Peking Embassy during the years of the Sino-Japanese conflict,” Mayer said. “Both grandparents lived in China for decades and knew most of the key players in Chinese politics during the prewar and World War II years, including Chiang-Kai-shek and many others.”
In the 1940s, the Mayers came to live in Arlington, Virginia, where Isabel worked at the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA, and William had an office at the Pentagon. Both are interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
As for his talk at the university think tank, Mayer, who is director of the political science doctoral and master’s programs at George Mason University, was pleased at the robust turnout and the informed questions at the end from the graduate students and professors in attendance.
“It has been somewhat rare for American scholars to be invited in recent years because of the souring of U.S.-China relations,” he said. “The topic was the upcoming presidential elections, along with some comment on how it might affect China if Biden or Trump prevails.”
For the record, Mayer predicted a narrow Biden victory in November, but suggested it would be very close, and several factors could easily turn the odds in Trump’s favor.