Short Biography

Sally Chengji Xing 邢承吉 is an Associate Professor of History at Nankai University’s Faculty of History, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on transnational history, U.S. history, the history of science, and academic English writing. Previously, she was a Richard Hofstadter Fellow at Columbia University and a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) and the University of Göttingen. Her research focuses on writing U.S. history and intellectual history from transnational perspectives. Her scholarly papers appeared in Historical Studies, Chinese Studies, World History Studies, Chinese Studies in History, The Readers Magazine, among others. Her public writings in Chinese have appeared in The Paper, Oriental Historical Review, and Wenhuibao. She has previously translated a historiographical book on global and transnational history into Chinese by Akira Iriye; she is also the author of an upcoming book with the Commercial Press of Beijing, featuring academic interviews with leading Americanists entitled History in Practice.

Project

Pacific Crossings: Sino-American Intellectual Exchanges about Science and Education in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

China has nowadays emerged as a major force in global science, but this rise has deep historical roots that connects with American intellectual history in the first half of the twentieth century. Understanding this transnational historical lineage not only sheds light on the evolution of Chinese science and education but also reveals the broader global forces shaped China and the modern world today. My book manuscript, Pacific Crossings explores these historical foundations, arguing that the Sino-American intellectual exchange network—developed since the early twentieth century and crystallized in a unique organization, the China Foundation for the Promotion of Culture and Education (ie. the China Foundation).

Pacific Crossings examines how key American intellectuals like John Dewey and Paul Monroe, alongside Chinese intellectuals trained in the U.S forged a network that fostered the development of science in China. These intellectuals helped build the foundation of China's modern scientific establishment by promoting the translation and adaptation of American scientific and educational ideas. It delves into the political and ideological negotiations between American liberal intellectuals, who sought to instill democratic ideals through science education, and their Chinese counterparts, who modified these ideas to the Chinese context. Just as Daniel Rodgers’ Atlantic Crossings helps us understand the American transatlantic exchange with Europe in the first half of the twentieth century, Pacific Crossings helps us to grasp the deep and lasting impact of American connections with China during the republican era. These exchanges were also not one-sided. While American ideas and institutions influenced China’s modernization, the engagement with Chinese intellectuals also reshaped American science, education and its vision towards China. My book manuscript traces how sustained Sino-American intellectual exchanges transformed China’s scientific and educational landscape while also reshaping American perceptions of China and the global order. In examining this transnational intellectual history and history of science, my work situates China’s scientific rise within a larger narrative of global knowledge exchange, transnational networks, and the making of the modern world.