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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10930 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Yu, Li |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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