Tracing the Transpacific Origins of Modern China
On August 15, I was invited to present my ongoing research on Chinese U.S.-Returned Students (留美) at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica.
My presentation titled 跨太平洋視角下的近代中國起源:一部關於留美華人的社會史(1850–1950)[The Transpacific Origins of Modern China: A Social History of American-Educated Chinese (1850–1950s)] aimed at revisiting the role of Chinese students educated in the United States in shaping modern China and its complex relationship with the Western world. Moving beyond hagiographic narratives centered on exemplary individuals, whether hailed as heroes of modernization or condemned as agents of American imperialism, my research adopts a renewed prosopographical approach, enhanced by computational methods, to systematically map the trajectories, networks, and discursive practices of these foreign-educated elites from a transnational and multigenerational perspective. Beyond individual biographies, the study offers new insights into the transformation of Chinese meritocracy and the intellectual foundations of Sino-American relations. The presentation will outline the research context, share preliminary findings, and introduce the data-driven methodology employed in this study—positioned at the intersection of history, sociology, and natural language processing.
This presentation built and expanded upon earlier talks delivered at Shanghai Normal University (June 6), Jiaotong University (August 4), and the Lyon Institute of East Asian Studies (March 15).
I was pleasantly surprised by the significant interest this research aroused among the different audiences, and I am very grateful to the attendees for their stimulating feedback and warm encouragement.
Below is a brief summary of the main points of the presentation.
From Chinese Advertising to U.S. Universities
The journey began with Lin Zhenbin 林振彬 (1896-1964), a Fujian native who studied in New York before founding one of China’s largest advertising agencies, and whom I first encountered in the course of my doctoral research. Lin’s path was singular, yet far from unique. By 1949, more than 40,000 young Chinese had crossed the Pacific to study in the United States, returning with knowledge and experience that reshaped government, business, academia, and culture.
Why America? Japan was initially the top destination, but after the U.S. created the Boxer Indemnity Scholarships in 1908—and as relations with Japan soured—America became the preferred choice. That legacy continues today, with over 300,000 Chinese students currently enrolled in U.S. universities.
Beyond Heroes and Villains
Traditionally, the 留美 have been cast in stark terms: either celebrated as modernizers or dismissed as agents of American influence. The presentation argued for a more nuanced view.
Using alumni directories, student journals, and archives, analyzed through computational tools and close reading, the pilot studies examined career patterns across generations. The findings showed that returned students did not follow one path: their careers were diverse and complex, but certain patterns stood out. Many experienced upward mobility within their lifetimes and across family lines, moving fluidly between government, academia, and the private sector. Education itself became the largest outlet, serving alternately as a stepping stone to officialdom, a fallback for niche expertise, or a full-time vocation.
These stories were rarely about lone heroes. Family strategies and alumni networks played crucial roles. Uncles often financed education, siblings divided roles, and marriages abroad created alliances. Meanwhile, university ties forged in the U.S. shaped professional communities back in China and extended transnationally to American peers.
Using contemporary media like Eastern Miscellany 東方雜誌 (1904-1948), my research also showed how perceptions of U.S.-educated students shifted with geopolitical contexts. Students in Japan were increasingly criticized as “half-educated,” with their actions framed in nationalistic terms, whereas those in the United States generally enjoyed a more positive image, albeit not without charges of excessive specialization or self-interest. Generational divides further shaped these debates.
Broader Implications
The presentation concluded that study abroad was not just an elite project or a collection of famous biographies. It was a long-term social phenomenon—a way families invested in mobility, a source of networks that shaped China’s professional world, and a contested cultural symbol in the public sphere.
Methodologically, the project reassesses the value of prosopography and advocates combining a data-driven approach with in-depth archival research in order to move beyond anecdotal stories. It highlights the importance of building large-scale biographical and textual databases to overcome the limitations of fragmented sources and to study collective trajectories, networks, and narratives in more systematic ways—what I term an “augmented prosopography.“
In doing so, it is hoped that this research will shed new light on how overseas education helped reshape Chinese meritocracy, connected China to global knowledge flows, and laid foundations for its modern transformation.
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Cécile Armand (18 août 2025). Tracing the Transpacific Origins of Modern China. ADVERTISING HISTORY. Consulté le 9 novembre 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/14hfk


