Reform the People: Changing Attitudes Towards Popular Education in Early 20th Century China - Hardcover

Bailey, P.J.

9780748602186: Reform the People: Changing Attitudes Towards Popular Education in Early 20th Century China

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0748602186 ISBN 13: 9780748602186

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 1991

This is an intellectual history of the early years of popular education which also discusses how ideas were put into practice. One of the main areas of change during China's transition from imperial monarchy to republic was in popular education. After 1900 Chinese educators began to stress the importance of educating all the people rather than training an elite for government service. Associated with popular education was an attempt to `reform' people's customs and behaviour thought to be decadent and backward, so setting the foundations of post-1949 Communist China. The book describes the setting up of day-schools, vocational schools and public libraries, and the attempts to encourage a hard-working, disciplined and public-spirited citizenry. The study concludes that there was an essential continuity in educational thought and practice that spanned the two political systems.

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