| This thesis brings into dialogue the insights of ethnic and institutional transnationalism. In the former, immigration scholars posit transnationalism as a border-transcending social space within which migrants sustain social networks in two societies. In the latter, international relations scholars probe the role of private associations in transacting increasingly complex relations between nations.; The occasion for this dialogue is a history of The 1990 Institute, a transnational think tank based in the Bay Area and led largely by Chinese Americans. Founded in the wake of the Tiananmen Square tragedy, The Institute seeks to help China modernize through policy-oriented research.; Oral history and archival research are my primary methods; participant observation and media content analysis, secondary. My general conclusions are that U.S.-China transnational relations are expanding, that Chinese Americans are playing a prominent role, and that integrating ethnic and institutional transnationalism helps make sense of these phenomena. |
