Making model citizens: The Chinese YMCA, social activism, and internationalism in Republican China, 1919-1937

This is an institutional history of the YMCA during a dynamic, fast-changing period in Chinese history that was punctuated by a succession of crises. Young Chinese during this period were vitally concerned with anti-imperialism and the restoration of their country's sovereignty after almost a century of foreign encroachments. They also became involved with various reform issues such as rural reconstructions, better conditions for industrial workers, freedom of expression and assembly, and mass education movements. The YMCA, as a progressive Sino-American organization, worked to provide its constituency with a guiding ideal of responsible citizenship by addressing these problems with its own agenda for changing China. At the same time, the YMCA resonated with traditional Confucian socio-ethical concerns, which increased its popularity in China.; The dissertation evaluates the role the YMCA played in the increasing social activism of young Chinese who sought to influence the historical forces transforming their lives in these crucial years. An important question addressed here is the YMCA's activities in the public sphere and its contributions to the emerging civil society and the process of nation-building that was ongoing in 1930s Republican China. The apparent conflict between Chinese nationalism and Christian internationalism that leaders and members of the YMCA confronted, and the Y's alternative model of social reconstruction are examined within the context of the rising influence of Marxism.; The study concludes that the Chinese YMCA was an important institution that had a positive impact on the lives of thousands of individuals during the inter-war years. The Y was a model of harmonious inter-cultural relations that helped to instill an ethic of community, ideals of citizenship, and a mission of social service among a vanguard of Chinese leaders. This success resulted from the valiant efforts of the Y's secretaries both Chinese and Americans in defending their organization and its fourfold program of moral uplift and spirituality against the challenges of rising nationalism and anti-imperialism, and in creating a truly indigenous social service institution.