Education, culture and politics: The evolution of Chinese education at The University of Hong Kong, 1911–1941

Education, culture and politics: The evolution of Chinese education at The University of Hong Kong, 1911–1941

• Li, Lin East China Normal University

History of Education, 46(6), 711-729, 2017

Routledge

2017

• P Social Context of Education
  • PA History of Hong Kong Education
• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GA Chinese Language
• Q Philosophy of Education, Educational System & School At Different Levels
  • QJ Educational Institutes, Colleges, Research Institutes, Various Universities

History Education Cultural Identity Higher Education University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China) Confucianism -- 20th Century Imperialism British Colonies Asia Chinese Education Colonialism Confucianism The University of Hong Kong

• Hong Kong

• 1900-1941

• Post-Secondary Education

The University of Hong Kong (HKU), following its establishment in 1911, has assumed the mission of bridging British and Chinese cultures, to prepare European and Chinese elite youth for political and other professional careers, and thus to improve Britain's cultural influence in competition with other western powers with regard to China. Dominated by its colonial character and pragmatic orientation, Chinese education at HKU was confined to no more than a supplementary subject at the initial stage. However, colonial crisis and cultural changes in the 1920s and 1930s, together with the endeavours of local cultural and commercial elites, made advanced Chinese education at HKU necessary and possible, and led to an independent unit for Chinese education and Chinese studies being established and strengthened. Organisational and curricular reforms before the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 led to further modernisation and solidified the structure of Chinese education at this university, laying the essential foundation for its post-war recovery and development. The evolution of Chinese education at HKU demonstrated well the subtle entanglements of education, culture and politics in a colonial context, through which coexistence and tensions between tradition and modernity, between China and the West, and between the imperial and republican intellectuals were also vividly revealed.
[Copyright of History of Education is the property of Routledge.]

• English

Journal Articles

• 0046760X

• 10.1080/0046760X.2017.1360521

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/414978be

2018-06-14