Harvard University Press
Chinese and Americans: A Shared History
Key Metrics
- Guoqi Xu
- Harvard University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780674052536
- 9.58 X 6.31 X 1.09 inches
- 1.41 pounds
- History > Asia - China
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Chinese-American relations are often viewed through the prism of power rivalry and civilization clash. But China and America's shared history is much more than a catalog of conflicts. Using culture rather than politics or economics as a reference point, Xu Guoqi highlights significant yet neglected cultural exchanges in which China and America have contributed to each other's national development, building the foundation of what Zhou Enlai called a relationship of equality and mutual benefit.
Xu begins with the story of Anson Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln's ambassador to China, and the 120 Chinese students he played a crucial role in bringing to America, inaugurating a program of Chinese international study that continues today. Such educational crosscurrents moved both ways, as is evident in Xu's profile of the remarkable Ge Kunhua, the Chinese poet who helped spearhead Chinese language teaching in Boston in the 1870s. Xu examines the contributions of two American scholars to Chinese political and educational reform in the twentieth century: the law professor Frank Goodnow, who took part in making the Yuan Shikai government's constitution; and the philosopher John Dewey, who helped promote Chinese modernization as a visiting scholar at Peking University and elsewhere. Xu also shows that it was Americans who first introduced to China the modern Olympic movement, and that China has used sports ever since to showcase its rise as a global power. These surprising shared traditions between two nations, Xu argues, provide the best roadmap for the future of Sino-American relations.
Author Bio
Professor Xu Guoqi was born in China and taught both in Asia and the USA before joining the University of Hong Kong's History Department. He writes and has published widely in both Chinese and English on various topics.
Professor Xu is a leading authority of international history of modern China. His peers in Society of Chinese Historians in the United States (CHUS) recently honored him with the 2008 academic excellence award.
His book Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008, published by Harvard University Press in spring 2008, was chosen by International Society of Olympic Historians as the best book of 2008. The same book also received rave reviews from Washington Post, [London] Times, Irish Times, New York Review of Books, South China Morning Post, Toronto Star, Journal of Asian Studies, among many others.
The Phoenix Television (Hong Kong) devoted two whole episodes of its book program to focus on this book, a rare treatment for any authors. His ideas and comments have been frequently sought by media such as Associated Press, Reuters, the New York Times, the South China Morning Post. His invited articles appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, and other places.
Professor Xu’s research has attracted worldwide attention and his research profiles and interviews appeared in both the United States and China. Most recently two long interviews of him regarding his research on Chinese laborers in France during the First World War and the May Fourth Movement were published respectively in 2009 from China in China Archives China Archives’ February issue (????) and the July issue of Xi Hu Zazhi (????), a popular literary journal.
Research Interests
- International history of modern China
- China and the wide world
- First World War and Asia
- Sports history and diplomacy
- Issues related to Chinese national identity and internationalization
- US-China relations
- Sino-Foreign relations
- Ideas of China
Source: The University of Hong Kong Department of History
Videos
No Videos
Community reviews
Write a ReviewNo Community reviews