Stepping Forth into the World

by Rhoads, Edward J. M.

• ISBN13: 9789888028863
• ISBN10: 9888028863
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-01
• Publisher: Hong Kong Univ Pr

Summary

The Chinese Educational Mission was one of the earliest efforts at educational modernization in China. As part of the Self-Strengthening Movement, the Qing government sent 120 students to New England to live and study for a decade, before they were abruptly summoned home to China in 1881. This book, based upon extensive research in local archives and newspapers, focuses on the experiences of the students during their nine-year stay in the United States.Historians of modern China will find this book highly relevant because of its detailed account of one of the major projects of the Self-Strengthening Movement. To date, there are at most two credible studies in English and Chinese on the Chinese Educational Mission; both are deficient in source citation and tend to dwell on the students' experiences after their return to China rather than during their stay in America.This volume will also appeal to specialists in Asian-American studies, for its comparing and contrasting the experiences of the Chinese students with those of other Chinese in the United States during a period of rising anti-Chinese sentiment, which culminated in the enactment of Chinese Exclusion in 1882. This book offers a slightly different perspective than most other works on the nature of the anti-Chinese movement, which may have been more class-based rather than race-based.The compare and contrast of students from China with those from Japan, which also sent large numbers of students to New England at roughly the same period of time, will be of interest to East Asian comparative historians as well.Edward J. M. Rhoadsis a professor emeretus in history at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author ofChina's Republican Revolution: The Case of Kwangtung, 1895-1913andManchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861-1928."Rhoads has meticulously constructed the individual and collective histories of the 120 young men and boys sent by a beleaguered late Qing government to live and acquire English and Western knowledge in white New England families, schools and universities. As the vanguard of legions of Chinese students who have studied in the U.S. since, and as contemporaries of the far more numerous Chinese coolies whose paths they never crossed, this compelling study adds a surprising new chapter to early Asian American history." - Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Professor of History and Ethnic Studies; Director, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations, Maps, and Tables	p. IX
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Origins	p. 7
Recruitment	p. 13
Preparatory Training	p. 31
En Route to the New World	p. 39
The American Host Families	p. 49
The Chinese Educational Commission	p. 77
Elementary and Secondary Schooling	p. 87
The Students in College	p. 115
Becoming Americanized?	p. 135
Recall and Return	p. 167
The Returned Students	p. 183
Conclusion	p. 215
Notes	p. 223
Bibliography	p. 279
Index	p. 303
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