Cross-cultural philanthropy as a gift relationship: The Rockefeller donors and Chinese recipients, 1913-1921

The purpose of this study is to describe the mode of gift-giving which defines the relationship between the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) and China in the second decade of this century. It is a study of the Foundation's gift of Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) to China. It focuses upon the giving mode, the receiving mode and the historical and cultural impact on the two modes. No studies of this nature had been conducted.; This study made use of primary documents deposited in the Rockefeller Archive Center, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, and the Annual Reports of the Rockefeller Foundation and China Medical Board. Secondary sources included biographies, literature on philanthropy, historical studies on political, educational and cultural changes, and theoretical works on gift-giving.; Results indicated that the gift relationship between RF and China was incomplete because reciprocity did not develop between the Rockefeller donors and Chinese recipients. By 1921, the donors had not cooperated with the recipients in the administration of the gift. The recipients had remained distanced and uncommitted to the gift. The inadequacy of the gift relationship was reflected in mutual insensitivity and misperception of each other's cultural conditions and demands. The gift of PUMC, whose medical science was conceived as the best way to uplift China by the donors, did not engage the recipients who were preoccupied with political chaos, hostility toward foreigners and difficulties in adopting Western sciences.; Suggestions were made to understand the gift relationship cross-culturally, especially between the United States and China. The dissertation promoted in the author an awareness of the role of the recipients in a gift relationship and discussed a possible model philanthropists could follow to achieve the expected goals.