Working Both Ends: Julean Arnold's Trans-Pacific Efforts to Promote Sino-American Relations

A member of the first class of young men recruited by the State Department for Chinese language training in 1902, Julean Arnold (1876-1946), a native of Sacramento and a graduate of UC-Berkeley, represented the U.S. in China for a remarkable 38 years, 13 years in the consular service and 25 years as Commercial Attaché.  While tirelessly promoting U.S. trade, Arnold frequently spoke out for what he perceived to be China’s interests.  A popular speaker, for more than two decades he energetically campaigned on both sides of the Pacific to awaken Americans to China’s importance and potential, to promote the study of China in schools and universities, to sound the alarm about Japan’s aggressive policies on the Asian mainland, and to elevate the Sino-American relationship generally.  A strong-minded and energetic promoter, Arnold encountered many bureaucratic stumbling blocks and other frustrations.  In the end, six years after his retirement, he took his own life. 

Today Arnold is a forgotten figure, his name largely absent from histories of Sino-American relations. This paper, based in considerable part on research in the papers of Arnold and his longtime Deputy A. Bland Calder (held by the Hoover Institution), argues for the significance of his role.   Despite the fact that Arnold’s most innovative ideas for promoting Sino-American relations and Asian studies did not come to fruition, they reveal him as a visionary, who in many respects was ahead of his time