ABSTRACT
The need to send Chinese students to the fountainhead was seen by Viceroys Tseng Kuo-fan and Li Hung-chang in 1870 and at Yung's urging a programme for sending Chinese boys to school in the USA was formulated. Out of 400 000 or so 'returned' students from the West many outstanding scholars emerged to promote the cultural changes of modern China. The intellectual ambivalence of the 'returned' students naturally percolated deeper than the levels of life-style and languages. The social life of Chinese students abroad was governed by a few voluntarily or involuntarily accepted rules. Very few Western-trained students who had an interest or specialized in literature took up translation as a career. Deficient in both Chinese and Western learning, the ambivalent and confused 'returned' students, except for the scientists and engineers, made a pitifully small contribution to knowledge and introduced too few Western works into China.
