This book offers research on state and society in Republican China, exploring various aspects of Republican history from the governance perspective. Governance is understood in a broader sense as interactions between state and society, including both the discursive process of social decision-making and the provision of (non-)material public goods. The topics highlighted are: the internationalization of disaster relief, the philanthropic governance of overseas Chinese in Xiamen, the transformation of the cultural group "World Society," historical writing, intellectual autonomy, as well as the construction of warlord identity. (Series: Chinese History and Society / Berliner China-Hefte - Vol. 43)

Literary Societies of Republican China provides a new and comprehensive perspective on the fascinating literary world of the most turbulent period in recent Chinese history: the Republican era of 1911-1949. Wedged between the fall of the Empire and the founding of the Communist state, the Republican period witnessed enormous social, political, and cultural changes. Kirk A. Denton and Michel Hockx have collected thirteen essays by eleven scholars from North America, Europe, and Asia that present detailed discussions of particular literary groups active in the Republican-era literary scene. Some of these groups are familiar representatives of what used to be considered the "mainstream," while others represent literary styles that have hitherto been considered "marginal" or that have been ignored altogether. Each of the essays in this volume looks in detail at literary societies both as producers of literary views and texts and as organizations with sometimes very complex social structures. The result is a unique blend of literary, cultural, and social history, unrivalled in any English-language scholarship on China to date. Book jacket.

Presented in both English and Chinese, this volume covers personal papers, correspondences, memoirs, diaries, photographs, moving images, and other materials held at academic and research institutions across the United States and Canada

The post-Mao period has witnessed rapid social and economic transformation in all walks of Chinese life – much of it fuelled by, or reflected in, changes to the country’s education system. This book analyses the development of that system since the abandonment of radical Maoism and the inauguration of ‘Reform and Opening’ in the late 1970s. The principal focus is on formal education in schools and conventional institutions of tertiary education, but there is also some discussion of preschools, vocational training, and learning in non-formal contexts. The book begins with a discussion of the historical and comparative context for evaluating China’s educational ‘achievements’, followed by an extensive discussion of the key transitions in education policymaking during the ‘Reform and Opening’ period. This informs the subsequent examination of changes affecting the different phases of education from preschool to tertiary level. There are also chapters dealing specifically with the financing and administration of schooling, curriculum development, the public examinations system, the teaching profession, the phenomenon of marketisation, and the ‘international dimension’ of Chinese education. The book concludes with an assessment of the social consequences of educational change in the post-Mao era and a critical discussion of the recent fashion in certain Western countries for hailing China as an educational model. The analysis is supported by a wealth of sources – primary and secondary, textual and statistical – and is informed by both authors’ wide-ranging experience of Chinese education. As the first monograph on China's educational development during the forty years of the post-Mao era, this book will be essential reading for all those seeking to understand the world’s largest education system. It will also be crucial reference for educational comparativists, and for scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds researching contemporary Chinese society.

The first comprehensive book to cover the whole sweep of twentieth-century Chinese education.