Abstract
From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, traditional Chinese society experienced a significant period of gradual development toward modernization. Along with the transformation of social institutions, people’s thoughts were also changing. Christian missionaries in China began to continue their mission by establishing Christian universities in the midst of the drastic changes in modern Chinese society. These Christian universities brought Western scientific and cultural knowledge to China, and gradually bridged the gap between the Chinese intellectual community and the outside world. From the acquisition of the right to award degrees to the approval of the Chinese government and, subsequently, to the development of graduate education localized in modern China, Christian universities have made new attempts on the ancient Chinese land. The existing literature, however, often ignores the cultural value and ideological enlightenment contributions made by these Christian universities. This paper attempts to describe the arduous exploration process of Christian universities, employing historical examples to analyze the motivations of Christian universities to develop degree education. The key argument of this article is that Christian universities in modern China are not only “imported” but also a product of “sinicization”, which represents the exchange and collision between Chinese and Western cultures during a special period of time.
Highlights
From 1840, tremendous changes to social patterns began to arise in modern China1, which had a significant impact on the country’s traditional, old-fashioned education
From the second half of the 19th century, modern Western scientific and cultural knowledge began to enter China through various newly established schools, with an increasing number of missionaries coming to China to initiate more up-to-date education
It should be noted that unlike national universities, which were under the direct jurisdiction of the government authorities, Christian universities in modern China had a “dual identity”—they had a foreign identity as they were funded and established by Western missionary societies and were registered abroad; they had a Chinese identity since most of them were registered as private universities with the Chinese government during “the China Regaining Educational Right Movement” in the 1920s
Summary
From 1840, tremendous changes to social patterns began to arise in modern China, which had a significant impact on the country’s traditional, old-fashioned education. It should be noted that unlike national universities, which were under the direct jurisdiction of the government authorities, Christian universities in modern China had a “dual identity”—they had a foreign identity as they were funded and established by Western missionary societies and were registered abroad; they had a Chinese identity since most of them were registered as private universities with the Chinese government during “the China Regaining Educational Right Movement” in the 1920s Revolving around this topic, some thought-provoking issues include how Christian universities developed new-fashioned graduate education in Modern China, with its strong influence of feudal autocracy, within a relatively short period of time, and whether their academic degree qualifications were approved by the government authorities. In the 21st century, a number of Chinese scholars (2003) co-authored The Christian Universities in China, which introduced the preparation, establishment, and early development of these universities, discussing the importing of modern Western education models in particular Another masterpiece in this field is Changing Paradigms of Christian Higher Education in China, 1888–1950, authored by two scholars from China and two from Hong Kong (2002). Researchers did not distinguish graduate education from other levels of education, so that the Christian universities’ significant role at the beginning of graduate education in China has been largely neglected
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