A Historical Perspective On US-Sino Collaboration in Agricultural and Environmental Research and Education.

The current collaborations among U.S. and Chinese educators and researchers must be celebrated and appreciated in view of the dedicated efforts in overcoming tortuously challenging circumstances by many over the years who have paved the way to the flourishing interactions today. Young Chinese students were sent to the U.S. for education starting in mid 19th century, especially in railway and shp building and modern weaponry. However, support for these reformist efforts in sending students to study abroad collapsed for lack of support by the government of the Qing Dynasty during its waning years. Yet in spite of the hardship these returning students endured and made significant contributions to China’s modernization. After the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC) in 1911, more students came to the U.S. to study, including many in agricultural fields, and then returned home to help building the modern China. Many U.S. institutions and scholars also developed interest in China for her long history of cultural heritage and her richness in natural resources. Scholarly exchanges between U.S. and China flourished. However, after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, China’s education and research systems were reorganized to pattern after the Soviet systems. Only the government of ROC, relocated to Taiwan, continued to send students to study in the U.S.. Many of these students also remained and built their professional careers in the U.S. Meanwhile, those Chinese scholars, who were educated in the U.S. from the 1920s to the early 1950s and returned to the China mainland to work, began to suffer under anti-Western repression and endured hardship in maintaining their scholarly activities, especially during the time of Cultural Revolution. Remarkably, after China re-opened her door to the West after the Cultural Revolution, it was precisely that generation of older US-educated Chinese scholars who were instrumental in re-connecting China with the West by contacting their alma maters and professors in the U.S. These U.S. institutions and professors in turn played key roles in helping China’s re-development, such as in agriculture. Those Chinese students who remained in the U.S. after their study to develop their professional careers also played significant roles in re-establishing the education and research entities in China after the Cultural Revolution, which had essentially closed the universities in China for a decade. The Association of Chinese Soil and Plant Scientists in North America (ACSPSNA) was formed under the auspices of ASA in 1981. Together with IDEALS, a number of symposia were organized at ASA meetings in the 1980s. To help preserve the history of scientific collaborations between U.S. and China through these difficult years, a legacy fund has recently been created by UCCA and IDEALS at the University of Minnesota to support and maintain an archive to be devoted to collecting and preserving the historical records and memorabilia that document individual as well as institutional efforts and contributions during the past four decades in the rebuilding of China’s agricultural education and research institutions and in the establishment of collaborations among U.S. and Chinese institutions.