Engineering Trouble: US–Chinese Experiences of Professional Discontent, 1905–1945: (52 China Studies)

In the early twentieth century, the first large batch of Chinese civil engineers had graduated from the USA, and together with their American senior colleagues returned to China. They were enthusiastic about reconstructing the young republic by building new railways, highways, and canals, but what the engineers experienced in China, including mismanaged railways, useless highways, and silted canals, did not always meet their expectations and ideals. In this book, Thorben Pelzer makes the stories of these Chinese and American engineers come to life through exploring previously unpublished letters, rare images, maps, and a rich biographical dataset. He argues that the experiences of these engineers include a myriad of contradictions, disillusionment, and discontent, keeping the engineering profession in a constant flux of searching for its meaning and its place in Republican China.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments List of Figures and Tables List of Abbreviations Glossary of Recurring Civil Engineers Note on Transcriptions Introduction  Open Roads in China  1 Historical Background  2 The Segment of US-Trained Civil Engineers  3 “Specialized but Equally Ordinary Men”  4 Engineering and Its Discontents  5 Chapter Overview 1 Nationalism and the Cosmopolitical  Education Overseas, 1905–1918  1 Early Ways Into the United States  2 Engineering Education  3 Engineering Practice  4 The Cosmopolitan Dimension  5 The National Dimension  6 Bringing the Profession Home  7 Conclusion 2 Financial Constraint  The Grand Canal Board, 1918–1922  1 A Transnational Venture  2 Recruiting a Team  3 Surveying an Unstable Environment  4 The Money Goes Astray  5 Solidarity—The Yellow River Bridge Controversy  6 Frustration—Huai River Improvement Schemes  7 Conclusion 3 Political Dependency  Wang Jingchun at the Chinese Eastern Railway, 1919–1924  1 The Nationalist Paradigm  2 The Efficiency Paradigm  3 Wang Jingchun’s Ascend to Power  4 The Chinese Eastern—“A Railroad Born in Sin”  5 The Wang–Ostroumov Dyad  6 The End of Expert Management  7 Conclusion 4 The Visible College  The Early Association of Chinese & American Engineers, 1919–1927  1 Formation and Organizational Makeup  2 Functions of the Association and Its Journal  3 Ethics and Socialization  4 Career Opportunities  5 Network for Collaboration  6 Transnational Friendship  7 Conclusion 5 Cohesion and Exclusion  The Relief Commission Paves the Provinces, 1926–1934  1 “Good Roads” and Labor Relief  2 Contested Authority in Yunnan  3 Guizhou—The Strong State  4 Guizhou—Mass Mobilization  5 Guizhou—Beneficiaries and Burden Bearers  6 Continuities Between Xi’an and Lanzhou  7 Conclusion 6 Demise without Exhaustion  The Withdrawal of US Engineers, 1928–194  1 Early Troubles of the ACAE  2 Support for the Command Economy  3 The Resurrection of the ACAE  4 Crisis of Repute—The Salaqi Irrigation Project  5 The Militarization of Civil Engineering  6 The Plight of US Engineers  7 Conclusion 7 Wartime Engineering  Ling Hongxun under Pressure, 1932–1945  1 A Career Start of Ups and Downs  2 Abortive Western Expansions  3 From Guangzhou to Hankou: Cutting Time  4 Lessons Learnt and Lessons Dealt  5 Drawbacks of the Strong State  6 The Xinjiang–Gansu Railway  7 Conclusion 8 Conclusion  1 Summary  2 Findings  3 Implications  4 Outlook  5 Coda: Loose Ends Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Thorben Pelzer, Dr. (2022), Leipzig University, is a postdoc researcher in Chinese history at that university. He has published monographs, essays, and datasets on China, including 100 Karten über China (Katapult, 2022) and Einstieg in die Chinastudien (De Gruyter, 2019).