This study examines the 1952 reorganization of Chinese higher education, which restructured disciplines to emulate the Soviet model and prioritized technical fields over the humanities and social sciences. Beyond economic goals, the reorganization served as a mechanism of ideological control, shaping intellectuals' identities through state-led educational practices. This paper introduces the idea of "internalized compliance"—a voluntary submission to authority fostered by curriculum design, organizational affiliation, and political education. Using historical analysis, a case study of Yenching University, textual interpretation of A Single Tear, semistructured interviews, and a small-scale interrupted time series analysis, the study reveals how contemporary intellectuals have been actively molded within institutional structures. The findings shed light on the enduring influence of educational engineering on intellectual conformity and ideological reproduction in modern China.
Ming Lei (Sat,) studied this question.