This book offers new insight into the love-hate relationship between the United States and China by examining the experience of Chinese students caught between the two countries. American-educated Chinese have considered themselves patriots because they studied in the west in order to return home to build a strong and prosperous China. However, when they returned they were often accused of being traitors who advocated Western ideals. The author focuses on several generations of Chinese students from 1872 to the present as she examines attempts to bridge the gap between East and West. The work includes seventeen biographical sketches that place the cultural and political trends of over a century within a more personal and accessible context. Through the students' experiences we are able to trace developments in China's modern history, China's ambivalence toward Western influence, U.S.-China relations, and the use of educational and cultural exchanges as a political device.

Introduction, Chronology or Chinese Students' Lives, Prologue. Planting Talents for the Future: The Chinese Educational Mission, 1872-1881 Chapter 1. Reaping the Whirlwind: China and the United States, 1880-1910 : Associate General Secretary of the YMCA in Beijing Chapter 2. Preparing Students for the United States: Tsinghua School, 1911-1928 : China's Liaison Officer to the U.S. Army under General MacArthur : A Student's Mixed Feelings Chapter 3. Sailing from Shanghai : Rural Welfare Advocate Chapter 4. Carrying a Satchel in a Strange Land : A Historian : Providing a Spiritual Home Chapter 5. Experimenting with Democracy : Representing China in Washington and Geneva Chapter 6. Student Ambassadors : The First Chinese Woman University Professor : The Influence of One Hospitable Man : China's Ambassador to the United States during World War II Chapter 7. The Road that Leads to Home : The Rural Reconstruction Revolutionary: Saving China through Science : Educating the Common and the Gifted Saving China's Universities Chapter 8. Smashing the Bridge to the West A Human Rights Advocate Saving China's Heritage Chapter 9. No Place to Display One's Talents, Epilogue. Continuing the Quest for Modernization: Chinese Students in the United States, 1978-2002