Serving China through Agricultural Science: American-Trained Chinese Scholars and “Scientific Nationalism” in Decentralized China (1911-1945) A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Xuan Geng IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Adviser, Susan D. Jones August, 2015 © Xuan Geng 2015 Acknowledgements As an international student pursuing new knowledge and exploring a new culture at the same time, I have been fortunate to have wonderful adviser, faculty, and friends providing me directions and assistance during my years in Minnesota. In completing my graduate studies and dissertation writing, I am indebted to many people. My appreciation goes first to my adviser, Professor Susan D. Jones. Her significance in my academic growth cannot be overstated. Susan always provided incisive, timely, and inspiring advice, pointing the dissertation in the right direction and suggesting practical steps to be taken. She often offers critical suggestions helping me to find my own intellectual identity, and has given me great encouragement to get through the obstacles I met in the research. Susan was one of the warmest supporters throughout my studies and life in Minnesota. The time I spent with her is one of the memories that I will cherish for my life. And Susan has been my model in terms of mentorship, scholarship, and personality. I am very fortunate to have instructions from Professor Sally Kohlstedt. Sally always gracefully pushed me to think more deeply and precisely. Her advice made my dissertation research and writing a wonderful process for me to explore wide variety of sources and methodologies in the studies of intellectual history. She has always been generous in spending time reading my drafts and providing comments critically and considerately. Studying with Sally has promoted my work to a higher level. i I appreciate my dissertation committee members, Professors Jennifer Gunn and Hiromi Mizuno. In addition to reading and commenting on my dissertation, they have always been helpful whenever I sought advice concerning my dissertation. They have been great resource for discussing my work and provided wonderful insight and help with historical studies. I would like to thank other scholars in our HSTM program, such as Professors Mark Borrello, Michel Janssen, Robert Seidel, Thomas Misa, Alan Shapiro, Jennifer Alexander, John Eyler, Jole Shackelford, Dominique Tobbell. Their classes I attended have significantly promoted my academic growth. I would also like to thank historians beyond our program, such as Professors Zuoyue Wang, Sigrid Schmalzer, Danian Hu, Donna Gabbaccia, Liping Wang, and Ann Waltner. Conversations with them have greatly inspired my research and made my study of modern Chinese science and transnational history more interesting and meaningful. Another good fortune for me about studying at Minnesota has been the kind and helpful students and staff at our HSTM program. I appreciate comments and supports from friends such as Barbara Eastwold, Shawn Foster, Barbara Reiterer Louis, Joseph Martin, Aimee Slaughter, Maggie Hofius, and Hyung Wook Park. I am grateful for their support and encouragement over the past eight years. In the process of graduate studying and writing this dissertation, I have been supported by generous scholarships and grants, including the HSTM fellowship, the Dunn Peace Research Scholarship, the HSTM summer research travel grant, the Sally Kohlstedt Graduate Fellowship Award, and travel grants for annual conferences from History of Science Society and Agricultural History Society. The HSTM Program has ii supported my life and studies through teaching assistantship for four years, and I have the honor to work as a research assistant for Professor Susan Jones, which not only allowed me to learn more about the history of epidemics, but also provided a stipend for one year. My research has been largely supported by other scholars in both China and the States. I appreciate archivists and librarians at the University of Minnesota University Archives, Kroch Library Division of Rare and Manuscripts Collections, Tsinghua University Archives, Peking University Archives, the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing, Archives at the Institute of Zoology in Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Reference Library at the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The University of Minnesota libraries and Interlibrary Loan Libraries provided me primary and secondary materials while I worked on campus. Finally, my appreciation goes to my family. I am grateful to my parents. They are always with me through everything. My husband Bo Wang has always been supportive morally and materially, helping me to overcome difficulties and become a historian. And I would like to thank Chengxian Grace Wang, my two years old daughter. She has been one of the best comforts and joys throughout my graduate studies and dissertation writing process. She helps me to rethink the significance of life and motivated me to explore our new lives. iii 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. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. i Abstract ......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 “Science” as an ideology and approach to serve the country ........................................ 11 Strategies to Serve China with Agricultural Science .................................................... 17 Methodology and Structure of this Dissertation ........................................................... 30 Chapter 1: The First-generation of American-trained Agricultural Scientists and Institution-Building: the Early Republican Era (1912-1928) ........................................... 40 1.1 Agricultural sciences in Peking University ............................................................. 41 1.2 Agricultural Program at the Nanjing Higher Normal School /Southeastern University ...................................................................................................................... 48 1.3 Zou Bingwen, Agricultural Education, and the Ideology of Serving China through Agricultural Sciences .................................................................................................... 60 1.3.1 Agricultural Education in China: General situation of agricultural education in China in the early 1920s ............................................................................................ 65 1.3.2 Agricultural Science as the Primary Solution to Improve China ..................... 79 1.4 Guo Bingwen, “Cultivating Capable People for the Country,” and Efforts at the Southeastern University ................................................................................................ 83 1.5 Summary ................................................................................................................. 90 Chapter 2 Agricultural Science in the Missionary University: The College of Agriculture and Forestry at University of Nanking, 1910s-1930s ....................................................... 98 v 2.1 Missionary Schools in China, Rising National Identity, and Tension between the Foreign and the Chinese .............................................................................................