A Study On Sino-British Educational Exchange In Modern Times

It’s modernization that is the most drastic,far-reaching and evidently inevitable social change in human history.The fundamental change of modern China is precisely in the process of its heading to the world,which is after the deep exchange of Chinese and foreign education,the collision of eastern and western thoughts,and the fusion of horizons from each other.It’s in the complex pattern of the colonial expansion,the armed aggression,and the cultural penetration of the western imperialist that the educational exchanges between China and foreign countries in modern times began.The United Kingdom took the first place in launching the first Opium War against China and became one of the most influential countries in China in the 19 th and 20 th centuries.However,there is not much Chinese scholars’ research on the history of Sino-British relations,and there are few projects to systematically study the history of Sino-British educational exchanges of modern times.Therefore,the contemporary doctors in the history of educational exchanges between china and foreign countries have the duty to explore the various fields and levels of modern Sino-British educational exchanges in different historical stages,present an independent and complete task of the history of Sino-British educational exchanges.Majoring in English,the author is duty-bounded because of the advantage in collecting foreign language materials.This study firstly investigates the research orientation of the Sino-British educational exchanges and its main problem areas through the quantitative analysis of“keyword co-occurrence”,and then combines the qualitative analysis of the relevant research literature in order to understand the modern British missionary education in China,the beginning and development of overseas Chinese education in the UK,the introduction of British educational ideas into China and the spread of Sinology in the UK,which are the four main areas for sketching the modern Sino-British educational exchanges;taking the cultural communication theory as the main analytical framework,adopting the method of literature analysis and case studies,from the perspectives of macro,meso and micro perspectives,this paper flicks away the heavy historical dusts in modern Sino-British relations and objectively describes the basic facts of Sino-British educational exchanges of the modern era.Finally,it reveals the main characteristics and development rules of Sino-British educational exchanges and evaluates its historical influence and contemporary value.Robert Morrison is a pioneer in modern Sino-British educational exchanges.As early as 1807,he was dispatched by the Church Missionary Society to China on a mission of missionary work.In 1818,the Anglo-Chinese Academy was founded in Malacca,which was the earliest school founded by British Christianity in China.However,it was not ready to educate Chinese,but viewed itself as the base for Western missionaries to learn Chinese culture.The mission of missionaries to China was to spread Christian civilization,which was restricted by both the subjectivity of Chinese historical development and the Chinese people’s inability to understand English.The effect of direct missions was minimal.The missionaries had to find a new way and try to start their education in China directly from the education system.The “empty uselessness” of traditional Chinese education had led to the loss of attraction in the modern social changes,providing an internal opportunity for the input of British missionary education.The missionaries introduced western learning into China by setting up missionary schools,which partly coincided with the motive of the advanced Chinese scholars and officers to pursue the “skills of learning from foreigners to conquer foreigners”.This determined that the British missionaries were less resistant to found church schools in China.Therefore,missionary schools developed rapidly and developed smoothly from primary education to secondary and higher education from the 1840 s to the beginning of the 20 th century.The complete missionary education system provided a reference frame for the establishment of a new education system in China.Among the missionary colleges and schools,Mukden Medical College,founded by Scottish Christian missionary Dugald Christie,has become an example of higher medical education in China in terms of its school-running characteristics and mode,which promotes the rooting,sprouting and growth of western medical education in China.Along with the modern development of Chinese society,the awakening of national and democratic consciousness,the internal power and resources of China’s educational modernization have gradually formed and become active.The British missionary schools were all withdrawn and incorporated into the Chinese education system until the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949.From 1840 to 1949,Sino-British educational exchanges were always accompanied by conflicts and integration,the game of reform and innovation.British missionaries,who regarded themselves as the dominant propagator of western learning in China,actively promoted Chinese educational reform in the late Qing Dynasty,constantly put forward suggestions,formulated plans,and expressed opinions to the government and its officials.They also directly participated in the new-style educational movement in China.Timothy Richard is one of the most active missionaries.After having read the reform plan he presented to the governor of Shanxi Province,Zhang Zhidong changed himself from the Qingliu Party to the Westernization School and eventually became one of the leaders of China’s education reform in the late Qing Dynasty.So it is not an exaggeration to say that Timothy’s educational proposition has a direct impact on China’s educational reform in modern times.At the same time,the collision and game between China and the UK in the field of educational values and ideas also quietly unfolded in the process of active dissemination of British educational ideas in newspapers,magazines and periodicals.In 1909,the Shanghai Commercial Press founded The Educational Review.In the following decades,it introduced and publicized the basic education,applied education disciplines and British educational ideas and innovations in the UK.The original historical materials such as periodicals and newspapers that were consulted at the Shanghai Library,recorded various kinds of the dissemination of British educators’ ideas in China in detail.These materials included Locke’s Gentleman Education,Huxley’s Science Education,Spencer’s Subject Education and Russell’s Progressive Education.All of those reflected the expansion and sublimation of Sino-British educational exchanges and showed the historical process of Chinese education moving towards the world from one aspect.Although modern China was in a state of wars,it never gave up its active pursuit of advanced culture and education.From the late Qing Dynasty to the Beiyang Government,and to the Nanjing National Government period,the students studying in Britain ranked first among the Chinese students abroad.They might go there through official-funded overseas study dispatch(including the central dispatch,local dispatch,military dispatch and the study abroad with British Boxer Indemnity)and might accomplish that at their own expense(including students’ self-funded study abroad and the British Association-funded study abroad).One typical example of these is that most captains of a man-of-war in the Beiyang Fleet were from the students studying in Britain.The educational achievements of the students studying in Britain in modern times can be viewed as one of the fruitful ones of Sino-British educational exchanges.Yan Fu,the outstanding representative of the overseas students studying in Britain with official fees,occupies an important position in China’s educational circles.Zeng Baosun,a successful model among the non-governmental overseas students,took the lead in advocating women education in Hunan Province and became a pioneer figure in modern China in advocating women education.During the period of the Republic of China,the emergence of doctoral dissertations on Humanities and Social Sciences in Great Britain and Northern Ireland showed two important aspects:one is the changes in the trend of studying in Europe and the United States,and the other is the deep development of overseas education.All these can prove that the education of studying in Britain in modern China is a crucial mechanism and bridge to deepen the Sino-British educational exchange.Undoubtedly,modern Sino-British educational exchanges are two-way interaction.The Chinese who crossed the ocean must live with the knowledge of Chinese history,philosophy,culture,education and other fields in the UK.British universities have also invited Chinese scholars to teach and give lectures in the UK,such as Wang Tao,Li Siguang,Zhang Pengchun,Fei Xiaotong and so on.In order to facilitate the development of communication activities,a special organization,the Sino-English Communication Association,was also established.Similarly,a large number of British missionaries,diplomats,and businessmen in modern times began a journey of understanding and familiarizing with and studying China after arriving here on the gunboats of the Opium War.Some missionaries and diplomats who had an academic background devoted themselves to observation and careful study,wrote and published many articles and works on Chinese culture,thoughts,systems,customs,etc.,so that the ancient Chinese civilization spread in Britain where the culture is fertile enough.Some people of insight in the UK began to promote the establishment of Sinology professors and Chinese classes at the university as a frontier for studying Chinese learning.Universities such as University of London,University of Oxford,and University of Cambridge have established relevant Sinology research positions to meet the growing needs of Sino-British educational exchanges.The missionary who was most familiar with China has naturally become the first choice of professors of Sinology.For example,J.Legge,T.L.Bullock and W.E.Soothill of University of Oxford were the most representative figures.In modern times,the spread of Sinology in the United Kingdom reflects the fact that there is no difference in the exchange of Chinese and English education.There are only differences in the level,depth and field of educational exchange.In short,in the process of Sino-British educational exchanges,the cultural elements of each other will become key factors that influence the other’s cultural mutations in the collision.Or it may become a vital part of the other cultural elements;there was inevitably horizon fusion occurring between the two cultures,which promoted the innovation and development of their respective national cultures.This interactive process of mutual absorption and exclusion,conflict and integration is the whole process of modern Sino-British educational exchanges.It shows the sharing,reciprocity and innovation of cultures in educational exchanges,which is the motivation and inevitable destination of educational exchange of contemporary educational exchanges.