"Using the world-renowned Harvard-Yenching Institute as a case study, this book is the first comprehensive examination of the transfer of Western/American humanities knowledge to promote modern humanities in China during the first half of the twentieth century. The book adopts the concept of 'cultural engineering' to move beyond the polarization between a 'modernization' thesis and a 'cultural imperialism' argument and stresses the complex multi-layered interactions among Americans and Chinese in U.S.-China relations"--Provided by publisher.