A Study Of John Leighton Stuart's Image Constructed By Contemporary Chinese Mainland Academic Circle

John Leighton Stuart, an American possessing an indissoluble bond with China, had exerted far-reaching influence on the communication and exchange between China and the United States in modern times. Born and raised in China, Stuart had spent most of his life in this ancient Eastern country. Broadly speaking, American Presbyterian missionary, the father of Yenching University and the U.S. Ambassador to China can be seen as the three most well-known roles taken by him in the Chinese context.Most of the Chinese people form their general understanding of this historical figure through the reading of the famous article “Farewell, Leighton Stuart!” In the early decades of New China, the image of John Leighton Stuart in this country was by and large restricted to “the faithful spokesperson for U.S. interests in China” and “a symbol of the complete defeat of the U.S. policy of aggression.” With the gradual relaxation and diversification of the domestic social environment, the overall image of Stuart has repeatedly experienced the process of reconstruction. This thesis is based on the research results in regard to John Leighton Stuart from Chinese mainland academic circle since the late 1980 s, extracting and analyzing the image of Stuart constructed by this group. Via the combing of the related materials, it can be found out that Stuart's mainstream image in the academic sphere of contemporary mainland China contains three principal dimensions, namely, a missionary with a modernistic thought, an educator with an inclusive spirit and a political participator with an US-oriented mind. The first three chapters of this thesis display and dissect these three dimensions composing the primary image of John Leighton Stuart.On the basis of further research, it is discovered that John Leighton Stuart's image constructed by contemporary Chinese mainland academic circle is more objective and multifaceted in comparison with that in the early time; meanwhile, this image still stands as a controversial one. Nevertheless, in addition to the distinct feature of multifacetedness, a certain degree of consistency is embedded in this image of Stuart. The belief in Christian values and the preservation of American interests are wound through the three principal dimensions of Stuart's image, lingering on as a sort of aura and constituting the foundation of the aforementioned consistency.