The Pan-Pacific Decades: China, Hawaii, and Interwar Pacific Internationalism, 1910s–30s

Recent scholarship on Pacific internationalism and Pan-Asianism in the twentieth century has predominantly focused on Japan and the Philippines, often overlooking China’s role. This research addresses that gap by examining the activities of Chinese migrants, diplomats, and athletes within the Pan-Pacific movement during the early twentieth century. It explores how these individuals strove for, questioned, or resisted unity across the Pacific Rim amid imperialism and political instability in China. A notable example is the 1931 Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) Third Pan-Pacific Conference in Shanghai, marking the peak of Chinese public participation in trans-Pacific initiatives. Chinese scholars, characterized by their modern disciplinary expertise and national diplomacy efforts, were key participants in the Pan-Pacific organizations founded under the Wilsonian ideals in Hawai‘i. Additionally, this research focuses on the resistance to Wilsonian Pan-Pacific internationalism within China. Led by the Research Association for Oriental Issues in Beijing and supported by several regional Kuomintang branches, anti-IPR movements gathered Chinese journalists and party officials who opposed the Pan-Pacific agenda promoted by scholarly elites. Their opposition reveals the growing divide between nationalist perspectives and academic-driven internationalism. By focusing on Pan-Pacific organizations founded in Hawaii (Pan Pacific Union and Institute of Pacific Relations), this research sheds light on an underexplored aspect of Chinese and Pacific history in the Interwar period from the late 1910s to 1930s.