Revisiting the Kuen Cheng High School dispute: contestation between gender equality and ethnic nationalism discourses

Abstract

By contextualizing the birth of modern Chinese women’s education as well as Kuen Cheng Girls’ High School (KCGHS) in the ethno nationalistic movement in pre‐independence years, and revisiting the dispute over changing KCGHS into a co‐education establishment in the Chinese education movement background in the post‐independence era, this paper illustrates the paradox of Chinese ethno nationalism, that took expression in modernization since its inception. The dispute over converting Kuen Cheng also shows how women’s education, a product of Chinese ethno nationalism as expressed in modernization and an appeal for equal treatment, has unexpectedly become a drive for democratization, equal treatment and pluralization from within the Chinese education movement in the post‐independence era, and thus makes the idea of gender equality not incompatible with ethno nationalism and Chinese education.