十九世紀中葉，中國與日本經歷了漫長的海禁，正待甦醒時，容闳和新島襄迫不及待打了前鋒，前往美國新英格蘭地區完成大學和研究所學歷，成了中日的留美先驅。他們都偏離東方社會的主流－科舉、武家－規範，但處身於社會的底層、邊緣、夾縫，容闳見證了清末到民國的改朝換代，新島則見證了幕末到明治前二十年的思潮激變。本文由「東方與西方」、「前近代與近代」、「宗教和國家認同」、「公意與私情」的對比，取異域、跨界和認同的主軸，探討容闳與新島襄相近的異國經驗及其文化認同問題。並將二人置於中、日留美學史予以定位，並分析中、日由師夷之長到送出公和費西學之子的過程中，展現的國民性差異及文化特性。

In the middle of the nineteenth century, China and Japan had experienced long periods of “Prohibited Sea Policy.” It was just as if the two countries had experienced a hundred-year sleep and were waiting to be awakened. It was then that Yung Wing and Joseph H. Neesima both left their countries, and went to New England for their graduate and post-graduate education, becoming trailblazers for those who followed them to North America for education. They left the mainstream of East Asian society, characterized by such stern traditions as the Imperial Civil Service Examination System and Japanese Military Family Culture. After immersion in a western society during much of their young adulthood, they were somewhat marginalized when they returned to their native countries, and hampered in their careers as a result of their foreign experience. How did Yung and Neesima view the changes in their native countries that took place during their lifetimes, for Yung, the end of the Qing dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China and for Neesima the ideological cataclysm from the end of the Tokugawa to the Meiji period? This paper explores concepts such as “East and West,” “pre-modern and modern,” “religion and national identity,” “public meanings and private feelings,” to compare the foreign, boundary crossing, and identity. From practicing the strategy of “learning from the strengths of the foreign invaders” to opening minds to the West, the paper compares the similar experiences of Yung Wing and Joseph H. Neesima. Second, it analyzes how intellectuals identified themselves with nationalism when encountering cultural conflicts and integration between the West and the East. Through investigating the history of China-Japan overseas study, the paper shows how the experience of studying overseas reformed national education, and what roles these two men played in the process of modernization of China and Japan.