Roots reach back to 1978

The history of visiting scholars in China dates back to 1978, when then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was determined to send large numbers of young students and scholars to study abroad in the hope that they could learn advanced science and technology from developed countries and contribute to the development of China.

In late December of that year, 52 people - selected from more than 14,000 applicants from across the country - arrived in Washington for their two-year visit to study in the United States. Identified as visiting scholars, they were the first group sent after the People's Republic of China was established.

Now, after almost four decades, most of these early visiting scholars from China have become leading figures in their respective fields, including math, physics and medicine. The practice of sending visiting scholars to universities and research institutes overseas has also been carried on and has long remained, in the eyes of ordinary people, a high-level and exclusive experience for university teachers, professors and other scholars.