The Study on Discourse of General Education in contemporary China

Foreign language education is an important part of Chinese education, but the overall foreign language education in China is still relatively underdeveloped. Foreign language education and policies in contemporary China are closely related to China’s political, economic, and social development. The contemporary Chinese foreign language education and policies, since the establishment of New China in 1949, can be divided into four periods. The first period is a period of domination by the Russian language (1949–1956), the second period is a period of exploration and transformation (1956–1966), the third period is a period of interruption (1966–1978), and the fourth period is a period of development and improvement (1978 to present). Understanding foreign language education and policies in contemporary Chinese universities can contribute to the future development of foreign language education and policies in China.

Under the influence of “Using the Temple Property for Schools”(UTPSs) movement, the monastic education of Han Buddhism 漢傳佛教僧教育 in modern China, as a whole, has gradually moved towards the mode of Buddhist colleges, through the establishment of the Buddhist Educational Affairs Public Office (BEAPO) 佛教學務公所, the Institution of Monastic Education (IME) 僧教育會, and the institution of Buddhist education 佛教教育機構 with international outlook and has become the prototype of the educational institution of Han Buddhism in contemporary China. The attempts to run schools during the period of the BEAPO at the late Qing Dynasty objectively stimulated the awakening of the consciousness of the Buddhist community to establish schools and to promote education 辦學興教 and became the precursor of the rise of the wave of monastic education after the Xinhai Revolution, especially since the 1920s. The goal of “uniting the national Buddhism” proposed by the BEAPO became the direction for the development of subsequent Buddhist organizations. The BEAPO also accumulated experiences for the construction of later Buddhist organizations and stimulated the awakening of the monks’ sense of subjectivity. The organizational structure and many ideas of the BEAPO were later inherited by the IME; most of the contents of the constitution of it were also inherited and improved by the IME. As a Buddhist organization, the BEAPO made positive efforts to reconcile the tensions between monks and laypeople under the context of UTPS at that time. After the Xinhai Revolution, the Han Buddhist community focused on interacting with secular society, and the practice of Buddhist education reflected the awakening of self-consciousness to “establish schools to promote education”. In terms of the school operation mode, the diversified curriculum and modernized academic system reflect the characteristic of a balance between internal and external studies. During this period, the establishment of Buddhist educational institutions with an international outlook provided a guarantee of talent for the path of the “universalization” of Han Buddhism, as well as provided continuity for the sustainable development of it. Under the influence of the two UTPS movements, the tortuous development of Han Buddhist monastic education in modern China is, in fact, the epitome of the situation of the whole Chinese Buddhism in modern society. At the same time, it also reflects the proactive adaptation of Chinese Buddhism, in modern times, to external pressures and its self-remodeling in the struggle for survival space.

Overseas Chinese education in Nanyang is an important part of overseas Chinese education in modern China. the Educational Review is the longest-running, most complete, and most influential periodical on education in modern China. It is one of the most important primary sources for studying the history of education in modern China. This article takes the relevant articles about the education of overseas Chinese in Nanyang published in the Educational Review as the research object, and explores the status of overseas Chinese education in Nanyang in the first half of the 20th century. It analyzes the problems existing in overseas Chinese education in Nanyang at that time in terms of language structure, teacher professionalism, textbook application, student mobility, and division of powers within the school. It further introduces the countermeasures proposed by those who were enthusiastic about overseas Chinese education in Nanyang at that time, such as unifying the Chinese language, selecting teachers, localizing textbooks, flexible learning cycles and limitations on the powers of school boards. Through the exploration of overseas Chinese education in Nanyang in the first half of the 20th century, hope it will be helpful to the development of Chinese education in Southeast Asia today.

The family is the smallest unit structure of the state and society, and it is the millions of families that make up a huge nation. The family is the first teacher of the child, and the education the child receives in the family will have an important influence on his growth and success. This paper starts from the study of Mr. Cai Yuanpei's thought on aesthetic education, analyzes the historical logic, basic connotation and significance of his thought, discusses the status quo and problems of family aesthetic education in contemporary China under the background of the country's comprehensive implementation of quality education, and puts forward the targeted measures for the promotion of the development of family aesthetic education in contemporary China by taking Mr. Cai's thought on aesthetic education as the guiding concept.

Sensitivity to cross-cultural and cross-national differences in engineering education and practice is essential for globally competent engineers. Those who fail to pay close attention to the historical-cultural contexts of engineering do so at their own peril, increasing the likelihood that their gaps in knowledge and misconceptions will lead to failed collaborations, projects, and products. This chapter aims to support this thesis by describing the historical and intellectual contexts for engineering education in contemporary China. It starts by presenting a variety of controversial issues in current global discourses on China’s engineering education, e.g., distinct understandings of professionalism and accountability, and different approaches to defining core bodies of knowledge, competencies, and other learning outcomes. It argues that these controversies mainly arise from insufficient understandings of three key intellectual contexts of Chinese engineering education: Confucianism (historical), Marxism (ideological), and economic pragmatism (economic). It is then followed by analyses showing how these three intellectual contexts historically contributed to shaping China’s unique developmental trajectory of engineering education. The three dimensions are not presented and judged in historical sequence, but instead framed as interwoven and coproduced, with real and present implications for the culture and character of engineering education and practice. Finally, this chapter attempts to use the three-dimensional framework as an interpretative tool to reflect on the practical issues proposed in the first part. In so doing, it highlights the relevance and implications of the intellectual contexts of global engineering education and policymaking in contemporary China. The chapter’s main thesis is further advanced by revisiting an influential cross-national, comparative study of engineering education, which helps show how discourses originating outside of China frequently provide impoverished or oversimplified understandings of the Chinese context.

Tertiary education in contemporary China (1990–) marks an era of reforms and expansion. In this period, the Chinese tertiary education sector struck the world with its ambitious moves that simultaneously push for rapid enrollment growth, constitute new governance structures, and seek to build world-class universities. Though some of the initiatives were started as early as in the mid-1980s when the Chinese government proclaimed reform programs in the education realm, these moves were forged intensively and extensively since the 1990s. The aggregate enrollment of the tertiary education sector grew from 3.4 million in 1998 (the year immediately before the latest expansion that aimed at having a mass system) to 38 million in 2017, increasing more than eleven times in less than twenty years. The number of institutions increased from 1,022 to 2,913 in the same time span, or by nearly three times. Now the Chinese tertiary education sector stands out as the world’s largest, and a majority of high school graduates in the country are able to continue their education and training at the tertiary level, which used to be a privilege for the very few. In the meantime, the Chinese government has been investing hugely in the elite university schemes (i.e., Projects 211 and 985) to raise some universities and programs to a world-class standing. Put together, tertiary education in contemporary China exhibited extraordinary changes in the past two decades, thus has attracted interest from researchers worldwide to study it. Against this backdrop, we have compiled this bibliographic text in the hope that it would provide a useful research instrument for scholars and students in the field. For this sake, we set up five criteria when selecting the bibliographical items: (i) frequency of citations (it is commonly perceived that solid works are more likely to be referenced and good for further references); (ii) reputation of the publisher or the journal (reputable publishers and journals arguably produce high-quality publications); (iii) status of the author(s) (active researchers in good standing always contribute a bulk of meritorious works in their own fields); (iv) scholarly awards and honors (the recipients of scholarly awards and honors often make outstanding publications in the field); and (v) nominations by scholars in the field (as a highly eclectic thematic area that draws vigor from a large array of scholarly pursuits, it is the field’s practitioners who are most knowledgeable about the remarkable works with respect to tertiary education in contemporary China). The last criterion may especially help identify recent and important works that don’t necessarily get high visibility/citations yet. Based on these criteria, we have collected slightly over two hundred journal articles and scholarly books, published in English or Chinese since 1990, with roughly equal emphasis on literature in either language.

The paper deals with the phenomenon of academic mobility in the context of internationalization of higher education in modern China. It focuses on such problems as specificity of Chinese approach to internationalization of higher education and functioning of academic mobility in the context of transformation of international educational space. It is shown that the image of the future educated China is based on the traditional project of “Great Unity” society (Datong society in Confucian concept of social ideal). At the same time the idea of a united humanity is not exceptionally Chinese, but has deep historical roots and a universal nature. Cautious about the supranational extrapolation of this idea, modern China is nevertheless expanding international cooperation and strengthening cross-national contacts, using cross-border academic mobility as one of its “soft power” tools.

The proposed work examines the trends in the development of Chinese education in the twenty-first century. The policy of the PRC leadership concerning education in the period under review is aimed at solving the following tasks: to win over illiteracy in the country; to computerize education; and, relying on the age-old cultural values of China and preserving national traditions, to integrate Chinese education into the world educational system. Such a policy of China corresponds to the geostrategic tasks of the state aimed at achieving the leading positions of the state in the world. The purpose of this work is to study the trends in the education development in modern China and to identify the most promising vectors for the development of the educational sector. The paper describes the characteristics of computer activity and digitalization of education, which have become widespread in China in the twenty-first century. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, China has managed to achieve significant success in solving problems in the educational sector, which allowed the state to intensify its policy of “going outside” and to solve geostrategic problems on the world stage. The high level of education in modern China is confirmed by the demand for graduates of Chinese universities in the international labor market. The modernization of education in China contributes to the modernization of the state as a whole. The authors believe that the experience of the PRC in education can be considered successful.

In pursuit of civil moral and awareness education, China is currently cultivating citizenship education in response to the trend of advocating global citizenship education worldwide. From the political and sociological rational choice perspectives, the purpose of this article is to conceptualize global competitive citizenship education in contemporary China. Moreover, in the sphere of Chinese higher education, this article also proposes and investigates the emerging idea of global competitive citizenship education by adopting sociological and political rational choice theories. Additionally, cultivating global citizenship education is fundamentally inherent in the global economic, political, and social development in the contemporary China. In the global market-oriented ideology, it is necessary to conduct and implement holistic educational policy to develop global competitive education in response to maintaining the sustainable development of China’s society consistently. The policy implications suggest that cultivating and enhancing global competitive knowledge, skill, attitude, and experience are essential to master global competitive capacity by the means of fostering global competitive citizenship education in contemporary China’s higher education system. In addition, it is a rational and effective pathway for national, institutional, and individual stakeholders to be in collaboration to advocate global competitive citizenship education in contemporary China.

Teachers have had a long-honored standing in Chinese history. Yet the formal education of teachers is a relatively new development. This article reviews the historical development of teacher education in modern China and its current provisions. A number of issues pertaining to the preparation of teachers for both adults and children are examined. This article reveals that the teacher education system in China is inadequate and requires urgent remedial action. Among the issues discussed the most important are teachers' low political and social status and poor living conditions. Some tentative suggestions are made in the hope that these may help to effect changes in the system in China. Two sources of data are employed in conducting this research: literature and interviews.

Teachers have had a long-honored standing in Chinese history. Yet the formal education of teachers is a relatively new development. This article reviews the historical development of teacher education in modern China and its current provisions. A number of issues pertaining to the preparation of teachers for both adults and children are examined. This article reveals that the teacher education system in China is inadequate and requires urgent remedial action. Among the issues discussed the most important are teachers' low political and social status and poor living conditions. Some tentative suggestions are made in the hope that these may help to effect changes in the system in China. Two sources of data are employed in conducting this research: literature and interviews.

This article surveys and discusses the rise of modern Buddhist education in China, its successes and challenges, and its current status. How to modernize the teachings of Buddhism was a key issue in the revival of Buddhism in twentieth-century China. As China was opened to the outside world from the mid-nineteenth century on, Chinese Buddhists quickly realized the need to update their knowledge about this religious faith, practiced around the world. To this end, Yang Wenhui and others established Buddhist academies, in hopes of better training Buddhist monks and educating lay Buddhist followers. After his death, Ouyang Jingwu and Lü Cheng continued the endeavor. Modernizing Buddhism also required one to make Buddhist practice an integral part of one's life. Taixu was an advocate in this regard, even though his attempt was met with limited successes in his lifetime. All in all, these two goals outlined the practices of Buddhist education in modern China, which remain a challenge to Chinese Buddhists today.

Abroad1 May 1980Medical Education in Modern China: An UpdateTSUNG O. CHENG, M.D.TSUNG O. CHENG, M.D.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-92-5-702 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ExcerptIn 1975 after my third China visit I reported, with Axelrod and Leaf (1), on medical education and practice in People's Republic of China. Since then much change has taken place in China not only politically but also in medical education. This updating report is based on two subsequent visits in 1977 and 1979, particularly the latter.Resumption of Five Year CurriculumAfter the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1971) when all the schools, including the medical schools, were closed, the medical schools in China reopened in 1972 but shortened their curriculum to 3 years and admitted junior middle school...

The development of medical education in China occurred quite differently to medical education in the rest of the world. A review of the literature has been presented regarding the historical development and the evolution of medical education research and development (MERAD) units in modern China. The history of medical education in modern China has been divided into three periods: (1) the 17 years before the 'Cultural Revolution' (1949-1966); (2) the period of the 'Cultural Revolution' (1966-1976); (3) the post 'Cultural Revolution' period (1976 onwards). Although a number of MERAD activities had existed on China's medical campuses since 1949, there was no formal organizational structure for MERAD before 1978. The change of the political situation in 1978 led China to seek modernization, with education as its basis. In the process of health care system modernization, medical education was given priority, and the Western model of establishing MERAD units as a means of improving the training of health professionals was introduced. The evolution of medical education research and development in modern China appears to be following the Western pattern due to the multitude of Western consultants and fellowships in Western countries provided to Chinese medical education leaders. A group of people from medicine is gathering in the MERAD field and MERAD units are beginning to take shape in modern China.

Cai Yuanpei was a renowned 20th century Chinese educator. He is best known for his role as the chancellor of Peking University and his belief in “inclusiveness and tolerance (jianrong bingbao).” This essay examines Cai Yuanpei’s knowledge taxonomy both in his early 20th century writings and in his academic policies as Chancellor of National Peking University (1917–1923). As chancellor, Cai made a conscious effort to recruit faculty members who aimed to bring about revolutionary changes to Chinese culture. While his original vision was to integrate scientific methodologies with the intuitive philosophies of xuanxue (玄学), the dominant trend in Chinese scholarship became heavily focused on science. This essay delves into Cai’s exposure to Japanese intellectual influences around 1900, and how it influenced Cai’s initial knowledge taxonomy and its connection to Cai’s definition of science disciplines in modern Chinese education. Cai’s view toward science and philosophy evolved from an emphasis on a continuum between the two in the early 1900s to their separation, as science gained momentum and philosophy became increasingly subordinate to science. The essay shows how Cai’s efforts to create a modern educational system in China where science would be balanced with intuitive learning played out to a predominance of science in Chinese learning.