Special Education in Shanghai During the Republican Era: A Focus on the Qunxuehui

Abstract

Special education is the result of human civilization and serves to compensate for congenital deficiencies through postnatal education. During the Republican Era, the field of special education in Shanghai underwent a significant transformation around 1920. Under the wave of Regaining Educational Right Movement, Western-dominated special education gradually shifted towards local influence. During this transitional period, the Qunxuehui, leveraging its accumulated experience in education and its high level of concern for the disabled, actively engaged in special education and became a powerful successor to local special education forces at that time. The successful establishment of schools for the deaf and mute, as well as schools for the blind, provided valuable local case studies for subsequent participants in special education. However, the challenges and deficiencies encountered in the process of establishing these schools also reflected numerous deep-rooted problems in Shanghai and even across the country.