Serving China through Agricultural Science: American-Trained Chinese Scholars and “Scientific Nationalism” in Decentralized China (1911-1945)

Abstract

Throughout the Republican era in China (1911-1949), American-trained Chinese scholars played critical roles in establishing Chinese institutions for agricultural education, research, and extension. This dissertation argues that it was the sense of "belonging to China"� as a cultural and social entity-not a political one-that motivated Chinese scientists to study in the U.S. and to return to China, to apply their knowledge to the social problems of their homeland. Based on the American model, the scientific institutions established by these scholars nonetheless developed into a pattern uniquely adapted to the Chinese situation. This dissertation also explores the motivations and strategies used by these American-trained Chinese scholars to fulfil their desire of serving China by developing hybrid agricultural ideas, practices, and institutions. Due to political decentralization in Republican China, scholars with similar motivations and goals adopted diverse strategies, which was unusual for nationalistic scholars in other historical contexts. I demonstrate the flexibility of their ideas and practices, which proved adaptive to the dynamic social and natural environments in which they worked (from the Northeast to the Southwest, and from the early "warlord period"� through the turmoil of war in the 1940s). Hoping to improve the lives of Chinese people and to strengthen China's international status, these scientists not only survived during this turbulent era and established a new model for agricultural research and education, but also succeeded in creating and circulating agricultural knowledge for global scientific communities.