| ID | 139668 |
| Title Proper | Returning to the middle kingdom |
| Other Title Information | Yung Wing and the recalled students of the Chinese educational mission to the United States |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Xi, Lian |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This article re-examines the frustrated Westernizing efforts of Yung Wing and the recalled students of the Chinese Educational Mission to the United States (1872–1881). It does so in response to recent scholarship (in both the Chinese and the English languages) which affirms the ‘transformative role’ of the returnees in late Qing reform and modernization. On the basis of a variety of sources, this article suggests, instead, that for those patriotic students returning to the Middle Kingdom, eager to bring about a fundamental change in its political system and rejuvenation of its civilization, disillusionment was often inevitable, and the choice—short of revolution—became one of either marginalization or co-option by the autocratic state. Despite all their achievements, China’s earliest students of the West ultimately failed to set the country upon a new modernizing course—a failure that pointed, beyond itself, to an emerging (and subsequently persistent) pattern in the troubled relationship between the new, Westernized elite and the state in modern China. |
| `In' analytical Note | Modern Asian Studies Vol. 49, No.1; Jan 2015: p.150-176 |
| Journal Source | Modern Asian Studies Vol: 49 No 1 |
| Key Words | Political System ; United States ; Modern China ; Middle Kingdom ; Yung Wing ; Chinese Educational Mission ; Westernizing Efforts ; 1872-1881 ; Transformative Role |