This thesis examines the rise of modern Chinese libraries between the1840s and the 1930s in the context of educational reform, intellectual development, national regeneration and state building. It focuses on how educational reform and other factors influenced the way in which modern libraries came into being in China. It argues that the establishment of modern libraries in China was a complicated and long process, as China followed neither the “industrialisation and democracy” model of the United States nor the “modernisation” model of Meiji Japan. Modern libraries were introduced into China in the closing years of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) to facilitate educational reform and national regeneration. The Nationalist government, established in 1928, further stimulated the expansion of Chinese libraries as part of the government’s state building efforts. This thesis examines the Chinese case in the emergence of modern libraries: the case of “underdevelopment” with distinctive Chinese characteristics. To explore the factors that contributed to the underdevelopment of modern Chinese libraries as they emerged, this thesis employs a case study of the Metropolitan Library of Beijing—the predecessor of the National Library of China—between 1909 and 1937 in terms of its formation, early development, and problems. This analysis reveals that both the macro and micro factors conducive to library development were not present in China before the 1920s. Even when the conditions improved during the 1920s and the 1930s, especially during the Nanjing Decade, the development of modern Chinese libraries was far from satisfactory for various reasons, with low library consciousness being an important one. The Conclusion of this thesis outlines the continuing impediment of low library consciousness in China today. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2004. / Includes bibliography.