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. He is coeditor of Chinese Cinema: Identity, Power, and Globalization and Chinese History in Geographical Perspective. 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).
‘Through empirical studies of Sino-American educational exchange in a historical perspective, From Missionary Education to Confucius Institutes captures the human stories, institutional support, and state power that shaped the opportunities and challenges for international higher education. This volume serves as a valuable contribution to both China Studies and international education.’ Wing-kai To, Assistant Provost for Global Engagement, Bridgewater State University, USA ‘From Missionary Education to Confucius Institutes provides a most important link between the current geo-political situation and the deep and mutually beneficial links which the cooperation between China and America has produced over the ""long twentieth century."" Focused on educational history, this volume provides useful lessons to academic experts as well as to the general public.’ Lars Peter Laamann, Senior Lecturer, History Department, SOAS, University of London, UK ‘At a time when US-China educational exchanges have been limited by political tensions, From Missionary Education to Confucius Institutes offers an instructive and expansive historical overview. Those exchanges have sometimes been difficult to implement and politically controversial, but they have also had remarkable results that point to their importance in the worst as well as the best of times.’ Mel Gurtov, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Portland State University, USA 'This book has a number of unique features in that it deals with Sino-American educational interaction over a period of more than a century. ... The changing contexts of the four periods covered in this book show fruitful forms of mutual learning in the initiatives of a wide range of individuals and institutions that give us hope for greater openness in future and the kind of balance between strengths on both sides that could nurture our younger generation as cosmopolitan citizens.' Ruth Hayhoe, University of Toronto, Canada 'All the contributing authors of the book break new ground, with several exploring newly available source material and almost forgotten institutions or individuals.' Priscilla Roberts, University of Saint Joseph Macao