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Introduction

The Boxer Rebellion formally ended on September 7, 1901. China found itself in a state of disarray after owing $24,448,778.81 in reparations to America. [4] China faced a difficult situation, but the ensuing events led to a long-lasting partnership between China and America that benefited both parties. This project explores the surprising role of the President of University of Illinois, Edmund James, in creating the international alliance between America and China, the first students who benefited from these scholarships, and the subsequent benefits for both countries from those exchanges.

Edmund James

Former University of Illinois President Edmund James was instrumental in bringing the first Chinese mathematicians to American soil. James proposed the idea for what became the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program, which would reduce the amount of money China paid America to $13,655,492.69. In return, the Chinese would send students to America for their education. [4] James helped persuade President Roosevelt to approve the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program by writing a letter stating, “I am thoroughly convinced that the subject of how to enlarge and strengthen our influence over China is one of the most important and pressing problems before the American public today”.[2]

First Boxer Indemnity Students

In 1909, the University of Illinois accepted its first Chinese students. More Chinese students followed in subsequent years. Many students entered the applied mathematics fields such as civil engineering, railway engineering, and chemical engineering. The first foray of Chinese students into pure mathematics was Mr. Chia Cheow Yen who gave a talk to the mathematics club about mathematical education theory. [7]

Qin Fen

Qin arrived at Harvard in 1906 and studied astronomy and mathematics. [21] After his time at Harvard, Qin Fen returned from America to advance China and develop his home country. Many Chinese students like Qin returned to China after their time in America to help develop Chinese mathematics. “On their return to China most of the mathematics graduates from these universities became the driving force for the development of modern Chinese mathematics”. [21] Qin Fen returned to China and became one of the three founders of the Department of Mathematics at Beijing University. Qin Fen also became one of the nine founding members of the Chinese Mathematical Society. [21]

Wang Renfu

Along with Qin Fen, Wang Renfu attended Harvard and received his B.A. from Harvard in 1913. [21] Wang is significant because he is the first Boxer Indemnity Scholarship student who was selected to study mathematics. Wang, like Qin went on to spend time at Beijing University’s Department of Mathematics and became a founding member of the Chinese Mathematical Society. [21]

Jiang Lifu

Jiang studied mathematics at the University of California Berkley and Harvard. He also devoted his life to teaching and promoting western mathematics. Jiang started multiple mathematical programs in China and modeled them after programs he saw in America, including the Chinese Mathematical society, the National Mathematical Institute and the Institute of Mathematics Academia Sinica. The idea for the Institute of Mathematics Academia Sinica came about when the President of Academia Sinica Tsai Yuan-Pe, “had the idea of granting membership and honorary membership to scholars who had made great contributions to their fields - in accord with the practice of many academic organizations in the United States and Europe”. [18] Jiang’s influence on mathematics in China helped to bring an American influence to Chinese mathematics. [21]

Jiang Zehan

Jiang Zehan received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1927. [21] In China, Jiang became the head of mathematics at Beijing University, the vice chairman of the Chinese Mathematical Society, chairman of the Mathematical Association of Beijing, and a member of the State Science and Technology Commission. Jiang Zehan made significant contributions in the field of topology.

Shiing-Shen Chern

By 1943 Chern was recognized as one of the great mathematicians at home and abroad. His time at Southwest University garnered the respect of his students and his own research allowed for China to keep up with the rest of the world in mathematics. Oswald Veblen recognized Chern’s mathematical prowess and invited him to the Institute for Advanced Study. Chern spent his time in America at Princeton and contributed to the Generalized Gauss-Bonnet Theorem as well as the Chern characteristic classes. The Chern classes are characteristic classes associated with complex vector bundles. In 1945 the American Mathematical Society invited Chern to give a talk on the contributions he made during his time at the Institute for Advanced Study. [12]

Chia Chiao Lin

Along with Hua Luogeng and S.S. Chern, Chia Chiao Lin is considered one of the most influential Chinese mathematicians. Lin’s significant contributions to applied mathematics and astrophysics are still recognized today. In 1939 Chia Chiao Lin received a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship to study in the United Kingdom. [16]

Chia Chiao Lin’s success is important for two main reasons. The first reason is that Lin offers an example of the long term effects of the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program. The second reason Chia Chiao Lin’s success is important is that he helped form the foundation for other Chinese mathematicians to be successful in America.

Concluding Thoughts: Diversity Today

The incorporation of Chinese mathematicians in the United States has led to diversity in the contemporary American mathematical community. That over 50% of doctoral recipients in 2014 were from other countries offers one measure of this diversity. [20] The increasing number of non-American doctoral recipients brings a broader mindset to American academics. This influence has not only affected American mathematics, but also Chinese mathematics in their adoption of Western teaching, mathematics departments, and societies. The 2008 and 2018 conferences bringing together the AMS and CMS at Fudan University extends their individual benefits to an even more collaborative enterprise. [1] [19] These relationships exceed James’ original vision of large returns in “moral, intellectual, and commercial influence” and point to an even stronger future. [4] Edmund James’ prediction of a beneficial relationship between China and America has come to fruition more than a century later. Today America and China reflect the effects of his historic insight and subsequent decisions.

References

1) "American Mathematical Society." AMS. Accessed November 19, 2018. http://www.ams.org/meetings/international/2137_other.html

2) Cohen, Jodi S. "University of Illinois Has 100-year History of Interaction with China." Chicagotribune.com. January 13, 2015. Accessed October 17, 2018. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-university-of-illinois-chinese-students-d1side-20140801-story.html.

3) Bieler, Stacey. Patriots or Traitors A History of American Educated Chinese Students. Florence: Taylor and Francis, 2014.

4)"Boxer Indemnity Scholars." China Comes To MIT. Accessed October 17, 2018. http://chinacomestomit.org/new-page-2/.

5)"Boxer Rebellion." History.com. Accessed November 04, 2018. https://www.history.com/topics/china/boxer-rebellion.

6)History.com. Accessed October 17, 2018. https://www.history.com/topics/china/boxer-rebellion.

7)"Illini Everywhere: Chinese Illini, Since 1906." Student Life and Culture Archives. February 25, 2018. Accessed October 21, 2018. https://archives.library.illinois.edu/slc/chinese-illini/.

8)"Illinois International." Illinois-China History | Illinois International. Accessed October 17,

2018. http://international.illinois.edu/services-units/shanghai-office/history.html.

9)Israel, John. Lianda: A Chinese University in War and Revolution. Stanford University Press, 1998.

10)Lifu Jiang. Accessed October 28, 2018.

http://en.sms.nankai.edu.cn/7c/90/c4046a31888/page.htm.

11)Office, News. "Pioneering Applied Mathematician Chia-Chiao Lin Dies at 96." MIT News.

January 14, 2013. Accessed October 21, 2018. http://news.mit.edu/2013/obit-chia-chiao-lin.

12)Palais, Richard S., and Tern, Chuu-Lian. “The Life and Mathematics of Shiing-Shen Chern.” University of California Irvine. http://vmm.math.uci.edu/PalaisPapers/Life&MathOfSSChern.pdf.

14) Period of the Southwest Associated University. Accessed November 25, 2018.

http://nankai.en.school.cucas.cn/en/pages?cid=107&pid=21&spid=1.

15) Rodnitzky, Jerome L. "The Making of a University in the Progressive Era: Edmund James and the University of Illinois." The Great Lakes Review 2, no. 2 (1976): 1-18.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/41337427.

16) Shu, Frank H. "Chia-Chiao Lin (1916 - 2013)." Chia-Chiao Lin (1916 - 2013) | American

Astronomical Society. Accessed October 21, 2018. https://aas.org/obituaries/chia-chiao-lin-1916-2013.

17) Sullivan, Lawrence R., and Nancy Yang Liu. Historical Dictionary of Science and Technology in Modern China. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.

18) "The Academia Sinica." Cardan Biography. Accessed November 25, 2018. http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Societies/Academia_Sinica.html.

19) The Joint International Meeting of the Chinese Mathematical Society and the American Mathematical Society: Home. Accessed December 01, 2018. http://jimca2018.csp.escience.cn/dct/page/1.

20) Vélez, William Yslas, James W. Maxwell, and Colleen Rose. "Report on the 2013-2014 New Doctoral Recipients." 2014 Annual Survey of the Mathematical Sciences in the US, August 2015. https://www.ams.org/profession/data/annual-survey/2014Survey-NewDoctorates-Report.pdf.

21) Xu, Yibao. ‘Chinese-U.S. Mathematical Relations, 1859-1949’. In Mathematics Unbound: The Evolution of an International Mathematical Research Community, 1800-1945, edited by Karen Hunger Parshall and Adrian C. Rice, 287-305. Providence, Rhode Island: American Mathematical Society, 2002.

22)品牌策划:神州互动. Introduction to Chinese Mathematical Society - The Chinese Mathematical Society (CMS). Accessed Octobe r 28, 2018. http://www.cms.org.cn/en/about.html.

Image References

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