ABSTRACT
Overseas Chinese students greeted allied victory in 1945 with exhilara tion.1 Young intellectuals who decided to study in the United States, rather than in Europe or Japan, felt comfortable with progressive social philoso phers like John Dewey and liberal Western ideology. One intellectual expressed high hopes for initial efforts of reforming China after WW II:
Bit by bit, we felt the Communist Party might be the right party to lead China. Everyone had something to eat. Bandits and bad forces were swept away. There were no prostitutes then. We also saw that the for eign forces in the British Concession in Shanghai controlled all cus toms, post offices, electricity and gas companies. It seems that they were the master of our destiny. The Communist Party came and got rid of that master. That was amazing because the foreign forces then were strong. I really expressed my admiration for the Party.
