ABSTRACT
Juxtaposing two episodes, the founding of the Eurasian School in 1870 and the controversial expulsion of Eurasians from Shanghai’s Public School in 1897, this chapter examines how the spectre of China’s emerging ‘Eurasian Problem’ played out in the educational arena, as a prime site for delineating the place of ‘mixed-race’ subjects in Shanghai’s semi-colonial racial hierarchy. It is argued that whereas the first episode built on stereotypes of Eurasians as ‘gutter children’, the second demonstrated the successful contestation of these stereotypes by elites, and the mobilization of Eurasian claims through recourse to Anglo-American discourses of rights and citizenship. Examining Shanghai’s ‘Eurasian Battle’, the rhetorical grounds on which the struggle for Eurasian inclusion, in an era of racial exclusiveness, could be waged within the inner circles of power is considered, as is the politics of recognition for those of mixed heritage.
