A School in Every Village: Educational Reform in a Northeast China County, 1904-31 (Contemporary Chinese Studies) - Softcover

VanderVen, Elizabeth R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0774821779 ISBN 13: 9780774821773

Publisher: UBC Press, 2013

Synopsis

In the early 1900s, the Qing dynasty implemented a nationwide schoolsystem as part of a series of institutional reforms to shore up itspower.

<i>A School in Every Village</i> recounts how villagersand local state officials in Haicheng County enacted orders toestablish rural primary schools from 1904 to 1931. Although theCommunists, contemporary observers, and more recent scholarship haveall depicted rural society as feudal and backward and the educationalreforms of the early twentieth century a failure, Elizabeth VanderVendraws on untapped archival materials to reveal that villagers capablyintegrated foreign ideas and models into a system that was at oncetraditional and modern, Chinese and Western. Her portrait of educationreform not only challenges received notions about themodernity-tradition binary in Chinese history, it also addresses topicscentral to scholarly debates on modern China, including state making,gender, and the impact of global ideas on local society.

About this title

About the Author

Elizabeth R. VanderVen is an historian of modern andlate imperial China. She was on the faculty of the History Departmentat Rutgers University, Camden.

From the Back Cover

In the early 1900s, the Qing dynasty implemented a nationwide schoolsystem to buttress its power. Although the Communists, contemporaryobservers, and more recent scholarship have all depicted rural societyas feudal and these educational reforms a failure, Elizabeth VanderVendraws on untapped archival materials to show that villagers and localofficials capably integrated foreign ideas and models into a systemthat was at once traditional and modern, Chinese and Western. Herportrait of education reform both challenges received notions about themodernity-tradition binary in Chinese history, and addresses topicscentral to debates on modern China, including state making and theimpact of global ideas on local society.

From the Inside Flap

In the early 1900s, the Qing dynasty implemented a nationwide schoolsystem to buttress its power. Although the Communists, contemporaryobservers, and more recent scholarship have all depicted rural societyas feudal and these educational reforms a failure, Elizabeth VanderVendraws on untapped archival materials to show that villagers and localofficials capably integrated foreign ideas and models into a systemthat was at once traditional and modern, Chinese and Western. Herportrait of education reform both challenges received notions about themodernity-tradition binary in Chinese history, and addresses topicscentral to debates on modern China, including state making and theimpact of global ideas on local society.

Edition details

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0774821779
• ISBN 13: 9780774821773
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240