China's universities, 1895-1995: a century of cultural conflict

This first comprehensive account of Chinese higher education during the modern period examines the first hundred years of the development of universities in China, with special emphasis on the cultural patterns that shaped them in ways that differed from the development of Western universities. The first chapter compares Chinese and Western traditions of higher education and sets the Chinese experience in the wider historic framework of imperialism and colonialism. The rest of the volume traces the development of Chinese universities chronologically, with three main themes explored in each period: the knowledge map, or the struggle to develop a modern curriculum; the gender map or issues around the participation of women as students and teachers in modern higher education; and the geographical map, or the efforts to ensure that modern higher education became accessible throughout the whole country. The periods covered by the volume are the republican (1911-1949), the socialist period (1949-1976), the reform decade (1978-1990), and the movement toward mass higher education in the 1990s. An index is included.