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148 Chapter 6 From Expansion to Termination  The end of World War II saw the beginning of an explosive expansion in educational exchanges between the United States and China. Over one thousand students and scores of scholars were sent by China to the United States every year in the second half of the 1940s, setting a new record. While extending its arms to all the Chinese students and scholars, Washington signed the first Fulbright Agreement with China, sending dozens of scholars and students to China with government funding for the first time in history. However, with the Communist victory in China and outbreak of war in Korea, educational exchange between the two nations, which had just reached its peak, came to a complete stop in mid-1950. The newly established People’s Republic of China stopped sending students to the United States, which was seen as a hostile nation for its support for the Nationalist regime in China’s civil war. Viewing Communist China as a strategic threat, Washington first halted the Fulbright Program and then did everything possible to keep Chinese students in the United States from returning to China. The American and Chinese governments were largely responsible for the drastic postwar expansion of educational exchange as well as the first complete termination of educational relations between the two nations. Expanding Educational Exchanges Having won the war as allies, the United States and China saw the opportunity to further expand educational exchanges between the two nations. Following its reconstruction plan worked out during the war, the Nationalist regime began to send thousands of students and scholars to the United States for education and training. The outbreak of the civil war, while creating some distraction, did not prevent the implementation of various exchange programs. Washington supported the Nationalist effort by extending some of the World War II programs and offering permanent financial support for Chinese students. From Expansion to Termination 149 As a result, educational exchange reached an unprecedented level and educational relations continued to be the strongest tie between the two nations in the second half of the 1940s. Sending more students to the United States for education was a key element in the Nationalist postwar reconstruction plan. Such a plan was made publicly known in the speech delivered by Hu Shi, the former Chinese ambassador to the United States and the newly appointed chief delegate of China to the United Nations Education Conference, to be held in London on December 28, 1945. Speaking in front of an audience of about 550 Chinese students and scholars in the United States who gathered in the Hotel Roosevelt in New York City to celebrate the victory in the war and the success of Chinese-American educational and cultural relations, Hu Shi emphasized that “the most important relations during the past forty years between the United States and China have been the education and training of about 10,000 Chinese students in American colleges and universities.” He told his audience that “Chinese students educated in the United States are occupying positions of importance in all walks of life in China.” Partly because of that, an increasingly large number of Chinese students and professors, he announced, would come to this country in the coming years. He also hoped that more Americans interested in Chinese culture would go to China for education.1 Dr. Hu’s prediction was soon turned into reality as both the American and Chinese governments continued their support for the existing exchange programs and kept starting new ones. The State Department continued to invite Chinese educators and artists to visit the United States in 1945 and 1946. The number of Chinese visitors actually increased from six to eight a year in 1946. Among the eight visitors who stayed in this country between 1946 and 1947 were three of China’s most celebrated artists. One was Shu Sheyu (Shu Shehyu ), a famous novelist better known as Lao She in China. Another was Wan Jiabao (Wan Chia-pao), the most distinguished playwright in China, known by his pen name Cao Yu. The last was Ye Qianyu (Yeh Chien-yu), a noted painter and cartoonist.2 During their stay in the United States, the artists visited universities , museums, and studios, attended writers’ conferences, and gave speeches on Chinese writers during the war. They also continued their creative work in the United States. While Cao Yu worked with an American playwright to adapt his play Peking Man (Beijing Ren) for a possible Broadway show...

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