To Educate China in the Humanities and Produce China Knowledge in the United States: The Founding of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, 1924-1928.

The article focuses on the involvement of the American institutional initiative in the establishment of the Harvard-Yenching Institute (HYI) in 1924-28, in response to the nationalism of China. She discusses the bureaucratic trail of memorandums and reports from the archives of HYI, which was founded as an independent educational corporation at Harvard University and an office at Yenching University in Peking, China. It explores the initiatives launched by American progressive educators and philanthropists for the academic study of languages, cultures, history and societies of foreign regions, such as Asia. It demonstrates that Chine was not a passive victim, nor a simple responder in the founding of HYI.