Lexington Books American Universities in China: Lessons from Japan

American Universities in China: Lessons from Japan discusses the aspirations and operations of American universities in China through the lens of previous American universities' expansion efforts in Japan. It provides an in-depth explanation of the factors that contributed to the rise and decline of American universities in Japan in order to examine and predict the sustainability of American universities in China today. Through a review of historical documents, interviews with stakeholders in Japan and China, and an analysis of the cultural contexts of both the Japanese and Chinese higher education systems and the position of American universities within these environments, this book seeks to address the potential success or repeated failure of the American university abroad. Review Yang situates the contemporary development of American universities in China within a similar but failed historical experiment in Japan in the 1980s. This innovative and detailed comparison of US universities in Japan and China is a timely and critical intervention into a field that has often taken an ahistorical approach to university internationalization. Astutely argued and clearly-written, Yang's book should be required reading for any university planning to engage abroad.--Cynthia Miller-Idriss, American University About the Author Dennis Yang is member of the US Foreign Service and regional English language officer at the US Department of State.