This October, the new book From Missionary Education to Confucius Institutes: Historical Reflections on Sino-American Cultural Exchange will be available for purchase.
Edited by Jeff Kyong-McClain and Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, the book “examines the history and globalization of cultural exchange between the United States and China and corrects many myths surrounding the incompatibility of American and Chinese cultures in the higher education sphere,” according to the publisher, Routledge.
The book consists of four parts: “Student-Faculty Exchanges in Late Qing—Early Republican Era”, “Curriculum Development and Campus Experience in the Nanjing Decade”, “Co-opting Students in the Cold War/Maoist Era” as well as “Confucius Institutes in the United States.” It includes case studies such as “the U.S.-initiated missionary education in modern China, the involvement of private foundations and professional associations in education, the impact of Chinese and American laws on student exchanges, and the evaluation of the experience of U.S. Confucius Institutes.” Together, they provide an insight of “the role of non-state actors in advancing Sino-American cross-cultural knowledge exchange.”
Jeff Kyong-McClain is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Habib Institute for Asian Studies at the University of Idaho. His research focuses on the history of academic disciplines, Sino-American educational exchange, and Christianity in Sichuan. The other editor, Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, is Professor of History and Director of the Global Asia Institute at Pace University in New York, and his research focuses on Christianity in China. He recently coedited Empire Competition (2022) and The Church as Safe Heaven (2019).
