Engineers on the Move: Elite Geographic Mobility in Republican China

This article traces the geographic mobility of Chinese engineers active during the Republican era. It analyzes over 17,600 professional biographies to reveal historical trends of student and labor mobility, emphasizing temporal shifts and regional particularities. By concentrating on engineers—architects of national infrastructures—the analysis demonstrates how regional pull and push factors influenced the geographical spread of a national elite actively involved in nation building. The data show that while Shanxi's economy remained largely autarkic, most peripheral provinces experienced an exodus of talent. The Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan region was an early center of education and labor. After 1927, the geography of job opportunities diversified as new projects led engineers into the interior. The article concludes that new technical experts could not adhere to a local sense of belonging but operated within the framework of a national job market, itself subject to regional and interregional political dynamics.