1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910450345303321

Autore

Ye Weili

Titolo

Seeking modernity in China's name [[electronic resource] ] : Chinese students in the United States, 1900-1927 / / Weili Ye

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, : Stanford University Press, 2001

ISBN

0-8047-8041-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (356 p.)

Disciplina

378.1/9829951073

Soggetti

Chinese students - United States

Chinese - Education (Higher) - United States - History - 20th century

Returned students - China

Electronic books.

China Civilization 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-312) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Romanization -- Introduction -- CHAPTER ONE Student Associational Life and Chinese Nationalism -- CHAPTER TWO The Professionals: Predicaments and Promises -- CHAPTER THREE The Question of Race -- CHAPTER FOUR The Women's Story, 1880s-1920s -- CHAPTER FIVE Between Morality and Romance -- CHAPTER SIX The Serious Business of Recreation -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Character List -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The students who came to the United States in the early twentieth century to become modern Chinese by studying at American universities played pivotal roles in Chinese intellectual, economic, and diplomatic life upon their return to China. These former students exemplified key aspects of Chinese "modernity," introducing new social customs, new kinds of interpersonal relationships, new ways of associating in groups, and a new way of life in general. Although there have been books about a few especially well-known persons among them, this is the first book in either English or Chinese to study the group as a whole. The collapse of the traditional examination system and the need to earn a living outside the bureaucracy meant that



although this was not the first generation of Chinese to break with traditional ways of thinking, these students were the first generation of Chinese to live differently. Based on student publications, memoirs, and other writings found in this country and in China, the author describes their multifaceted experience of life in a foreign, modern environment, involving student associations, professional activities, racial discrimination, new forms of recreation and cultural expression, and, in the case of women students, the unique challenges they faced as females in two changing societies.