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Chinese Students Educated in the US: 1880-1930

Xia HeMay 03 2013

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Purpose of Research

Although this period of history is only eighty years ago, Chinese students from then were significantly different from the Chinese students we encounter now, in terms of perseverance, attitude and the process of embracing a different culture. This study is to examine students in those perspectives and understand the connection to the present.

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Research Questions

• For what reason did Chinese come to study?• How were they sponsored?• What did they study?• What major challenges did they encounter?• What happened to them after they went back

to China?

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The Three Groups of Students

• Chinese Educational Mission• Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program• Female Students

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Resources

• Qian Ning (2002). Chinese Students Encounter America. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press

• Weili Ye (2001). Seeking Modernity in China’s Name: Chinese Students in the United States, 1900-1927. Stanford, California. Stanford University Press

• Erica Lee (2003). At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press

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Ideas from Resources

• Seeking Modernity in China’s Name: Chinese Students in the United States, 1900-1927: did a thorough study of Chinese female students. It provides a good view of how these students changed China during a time when China was full of war wounds.

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Ideas from Resources

• Chinese Students Encounter America: gives a short history of America-educated students.

• At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943: offers a complete description of the Exclusion Laws against Chinese

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Interesting Factors

• Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program led to the establishment of the Harvard of China

• Students mostly chose practical subjects• During their travel to the US, some took a

whole year to their destination due to immigration policies

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Interesting Factors

• Government was heavily involved in these students’ education in terms of subjects

• Most of these students went back to China• Many of them became pioneers in their own

fields

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Conclusion

• Chinese students educated in the U.S. from 1820 to 1930 were the beginning of effects of globalization in the transfer of technical college

• American higher education opened its door to expand opportunities to many more Chinese