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This Dissertation examines Sichuan students' attitude toward modern education in the transitional times. The text describes the intrinsic crisis of the civil service examination system in the late nineteenth century, the establishment of the new school system in the first decade of the twentieth century, and the birth of the first generation of the new political elite in Sichuan after the 1911 Revolution. It highlights the students' participation in the educational reform from their motives of career-seeking and social mobility rather than from their political sentiments such as radicalism, nationalism, and modernization. The study argues that without fundamental social and economic change, educational reform in inland China did not cause a substantial change in the students' traditional attitude towards education. The new school system, substituting for the abolished civil service examination system, functioned as a new ladder of success or a new elite recruiting mechanism for the students. The study suggests that statistical growth did not mean modernity. Tradition played an important role in inland China's modernization movements in the twentieth century by shaping the ways that were used to pursue the aims of the movements and the motives of the people who participate in the movements. Extensive primary documents - ranging from government decrees to local gazetteers - are employed in the study, and attention is paid to the similarities and contrasts between Sichuan and the coastal provinces. Quite a number of tables and a comprehensive bibliography are also included.

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The Tang dynasty (618-907) is often referred to as a golden age of Buddhism in China. This research, concentrated on the first half of the dynasty (618-755), shows that Buddhism's impact on Tang aristocratic society has been overestimated. Looking at models of the familial and social order that one can extract from the Tang Code as well as from some literary works of the period, the picture emerging is that Tang society was a highly stratified one, and based on Confucian values. Buddhism, in order to establish and maintain itself in China, had to compromise with those values. However, its efforts to conciliate its doctrine with some Confucian precepts did not suffice to prevent its decline. Ultimately, Confucian values were reaffirmed as the sole basis of Chinese society, and remained so until the end of the Qing dynasty, in 1911.

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The educational policy for adults in China has fluctuated over the 40-year period since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The purpose of this study will include the effects on adult education of ideological shifts in the underlying educational philosophy related to social and political development in China during the three identifiable key periods of change associated with the re-building and development of the nation from 1949 to 1986; namely, (1) 1949-1966, the beginning of the Communist Era; (2) 1966-1976, the Cultural revolution period; (3) 1976-1986, the period after the Cultural Revolution. / In many cases, the development of Chinese education for adults has been quite irregular due to political upheavals. Marxist principles of education have been felt in China to be difficult to integrate with the developmental needs of the country. Commitment to adult education as an important element of the development pattern has been high, but political struggle has seriously hampered educational expansion. The struggle within the high-level leadership seems to have been the most direct reason for ideological shifts over the 37 year period.

The subject of this study is the historical development of a vehicle for a form of western art (the orchestra) in China from 1840 to the present. The writer was primarily concerned with how the orchestra developed in broad socio-economical, political-cultural, and historical contexts with an emphasis on elaborating certain conditions responsible for the specific features of this development. The following major aspects of the development of the orchestra in China are discussed:1)The uniqueness of China's culture before accepting western culture;2)Reason and procedures by which China accepted western music and its orchestra;3)The social change in the 1950s which affected the function of the orchestra in China;4)The influence of political movements and individual roles on the development of the orchestras in China;5)The emergence of the orchestra as a cultural symbol during China's modernization;6)The fact in which the orchestra become a cultural symbol during China's modernization;7)Roles and functions of the orchestra during the cultural merging of China and the West;8)The future of the orchestra in China.The purpose of this study is to confirm the cultural assimilation of the western orchestra as a world-wide trend, one in which East and West enrich one another. / School of Music

This dissertation is an analytical study of five Chinese piano pieces: Buffalo Boy's Flute by He Lu-ting, Flower Drum by Qu Wei, Xing-jiang Dance No. 1 and No. 2 by Ding Shan-de and Tunes at Sunset by Li Ying-hai. These five pieces represent a specific historical period from the 1930s to the 1950s--a primary phase in the establishment of Chinese piano music. Each piece is analyzed in terms of melody, rhythm, harmony, form and style, in order to ascertain how Chinese composers fused Western compositional techniques with the Chinese musical heritage. A second objective was to provide an historical background of the introduction and development of the piano in China. Through the investigation, this study has traced the channels through which Western music was introduced to China.The study consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 presents introductory information as well as the purpose, significance, procedures and delimitation of the study. Chapter 2, a review of related literature, provides a brief description and evaluation of important sources utilized. Chapter 3 presents a brief history of the piano in China. Chapter 4 provides an analysis of each of the five Chinese piano pieces. Also included are an evaluation of each work, brief biographies, and the historical circumstances surrounding the composition of each piece. Summary and conclusions are reported in Chapter 5.The history of Chinese piano music is relatively short--spanning approximately eighty years. Western music was not introduced to China until the beginning of the twentieth century. The founding of the National Conservatory in 1927 marked the beginning of professional musical higher education in China. Because of the musical training which Chinese musicians received, the German-Russian romantic style exerted a strong influence on the musical development of China. In the past eighty years, Chinese musicians have taken different paths trying to establish a national identity within their musical culture. The five pieces analyzed in this study reflect the accomplishments which Chinese musicians achieved in combining Western compositional techniques with Chinese musical idioms. These innovations have since become common practice among most Chinese composers. / School of Music

The fantastic stands as an important part of Chinese culture. It is in fact through its literature that it has been made possible for us to enjoy this heritage. With the study of fantastic tales and anomaly accounts, this thesis tackles the problem of rationalism in relation with supernatural. It attempts to understand the mechanisms of the intermingling of the concepts of fiction and history, through the comparison of Chinese historical and fictional texts, as well as parallels between China and Europe. It will also deal with the concepts of nature, in both the perspectives of China and Europe, and the Enlightenment.

As cities have evolved over history as a function of human behaviour, they represent the rich social laboratories of a particular civilization. Because of its ancient roots and its particular historical evolution, the urban tradition in China is appreciatively unique, but yet as China is rapidly thrust into modernity and post-modernity of global interdependence most evident in its urban centres, one can discern clearly the serious cultural disparities that threaten the social fabric of the Chinese people. It is through the massive development of its major metropolises that China is embarking on a disturbing trend of false development, a top-down process which imposes disparate images and illusory expectations on a politically-fatigued society. As the centrepiece of China's entrance onto the international stage, the city of Shanghai represents both the vision of Chinas future, but perhaps also its social demise.