SOCIETY, SCHOOLS & PROGRESS IN CHINA BY CHIU-SAM TSANG, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Dean, Faculty of Arts, Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong i»< * PERGAMON PRESS OXFORD • LONDON • EDINBURGH • NEW YORK TORONTO • SYDNEY • PARIS • BRAUNSCHWEIG PERGAMON PRESS LTD., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford 4 & 5 Fitzroy Square, London W. 1 PERGAMON PRESS (SCOTLAND) LTD., 2 & 3 Teviot Place, Edinburgh 1 PERGAMON PRESS INC., 44-01 21st Street, Long Island City, New York 11101 PERGAMON OF CANADA LTD., 207 Queen's Quay West, Toronto 1 PERGAMON PRESS (AUST.) PTY. LTD., 19a Boundary Street, Rushcutters Bay, N.S.W. 2011, Australia PERGAMON PRESS S.A.R.L., 24 rue des iScoles, Paris 5e VIEWEG & SOHN GMBH, Burgplatz 1, Braunschweig Copyright © 1968 Pergamon Press Ltd. First edition 1968 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 68-21109 Printed in Great Britain by A. Wheaton & Co., Exeter This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise disposed of without the publisher's consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. 08 012843 2 (flexicover) 08 012844 0 (hard cover) Comparative Studies An Introduction to the Series "Society, Schools and Progress" By EDMUND KING THIS volume is one of a mutually supporting series of books on SOCIETY, SCHOOLS AND PROGRESS in a number of important countries or regions. The series is intended to serve students of sociology, government, and politics, as well as education. Invest- ment in education, or satisfaction of the consumer demand for it, is now the biggest single item of non-military public expenditure in many countries and an increasing proportion in all the rest. The systematic use of education to achieve security, prosperity, and social well-being makes it imperative to have up-to-date surveys realistically related to all these objectives; for it is impos- sible to study one effectively without reference to the others or to assess the objectives without reference to education as the chosen instrument. Comparative studies of all kinds are in vogue. We find univer- sity departments of comparative government, law, religion, anthropology, literature, and the like. Some comparison is taken for granted in a contracting world of closer relationships. But not all comparative studies are forward-looking or constructive. Com- parisons based solely or mainly on backward-looking interests can have their own kind of respectability without necessarily drawing lessons for the present. However, some contemporary comparisons show utility as well as interest or respectability, particularly when observers are enabled to analyse social organization, formative customs, value systems, and so forth. More important still are area studies based upon a comprehen- sive survey of a whole culture, showing the interpenetration of its technology, government, social relationships, religion, and vii viii Comparative Studies arts; for here we see our neighbours making man—and making him in an idiom which challenges our own assumptions and practices. This concerted and conscious making of posterity by a multiplicity of interlocking influences is perhaps mankind's most astonishing feature—at least on a par with rationality and speech, and inseparable from them. As the last third of the twentieth century begins, however, we are witnessing the struggle of competing educational prescriptions for the whole future of mankind. THE MAKING OF THE FUTURE The most important studies of all in the world today are those undertaken with a view to modifying deliberately the formative conditions in which our children and their descendants will live —that is to say, their education. In the pre-industrial past there was plenty of time for the slow evolution of civilization and technology. Even in this century people used to think of societies and education as growing empirically and evolving. Today's world cannot wait upon the spontaneity that sufficed yesterday. It is often said that the Industrial Revolution is entering on its second and more important phase—the systematic application to social relationships of mechanized and urban-style abundance, with a corresponding transformation of all learning opportunities. Certainly that is the dream of the hitherto underprivileged majority of mankind. All countries are involved in this social stocktaking and reckoning for the future, no matter whether they are called socialistic or capitalistic. In any case, the pace of change is so fast everywhere that some co-ordination or phasing of development is accepted as a critical responsibility of statecraft in all countries. THE TRANSFORMATION OF EDUCATION In relation to education, this sequence of events has already been attended by remarkable changes. Education used to be Comparative Studies ix undertaken largely at home, by society at large, by working relationships, or by voluntary organizations. Now it is a publicly regulated, publicly financed activity for the most part. It is provided as a necessary service by an expanding range of public employees. Of course unofficial people and social groups continue to take a keen interest, especially in their own children; but increasingly it is the State which co-ordinates and directs the process for all children. In some countries the State claims a monopoly of education; in most others that claim is hotly resisted, though inevitably the State is conceded a growing share in the partnership. In any case, the State or its professional subsidiaries will assume a mounting responsibility for the allocation of funds, for increasingly expensive instruments and premises, for ensuring fair distribution of opportunity, for preventing the waste of talent, for safeguarding economic and social well-being, and for setting the national priorities into proper order. Therefore, no matter what education has been in the past, the logic of the Industrial Revolution has turned it into publicly regulated and publicly provided activities, directed towards the deliberate con- struction of a more satisfactory future. That commitment is now implicitly indivisible within any one country. It is also accepted that internationally, too, everyone's education is likely to be to the advantage of everyone else in the long run. For this reason alone, international comparisons and assessments are of the utmost importance. Whole countries are finding that their external context is changing in unprecedented ways. The emancipation of formerly subject peoples is a conspicuous example. Another instance is seen in the large regional developments whereby food produc- tion, commerce, and mutual protection are ensured in "develop- ing countries"—usually with some notable reliance on educational improvements. Even quite powerful and well-established countries (like several in Western Europe) co-operate increasingly with their neighbours for commercial and political reasons; and all these changes necessitate some adjustment of school orientation x Comparative Studies and programmes, if only for the interchange of personnel. Apart from such specific instances, it is increasingly obvious that no education anywhere is worth the name unless it is viable in world terms. Great though these adjustments are between sovereign nations, the changes that transcend all national boundaries and apply to all school systems alike are even more radically influential. In all countries, the area of education monopolized by the schools and other formally instructive institutions is diminishing in relation to educative forces outside. For example, the first public television programmes in the world began in 1936; yet within 25 years television and radio absorbed almost as much of children's time and interest (taking the year all round) as the formal school hours in a number of countries. The appeal of such external influences may be greater than the schools'. The universal teacher problem accentuates the change. In any case, all instruction offered in school is largely condi- tional for its success on subsequent reinforcement. This it does not always get in a world of expanding opportunities and ex- periences for young people, which challenge schools' previous prerogatives and sometimes their precepts. A whole new range of "service occupations" provides alternative perspectives. Further- more, technological and social change necessitate much pro- fessional retraining and personal reorientation in all advanced countries. There is far less idea of a once-for-all preparation for life. Learning the unknown is taking the place of teaching the certainties. In all countries we share this uncertainty. Deeply rooted though we all are in our own ways of life, our scrutiny of the future becomes increasingly a comparison of our hypotheses and experiments. No really adequate answers to any educational or social problem can be determined within one country's confines any longer. Comparative Education is above all the discipline which systematizes our observations and conclusions in relation to the shaping of the future. Comparative Studies xi COMPARATIVE EDUCATION IN GENERAL Comparative studies of education are necessarily based upon existing practices, institutions, and background influences which have shaped the present variety of educational idioms throughout the world. It is essential to acquaint ourselves with the most important systems, not as alien phenomena but as variations upon the preoccupations of every family and every school in our own country. To be both civilized and scientific we must try to "feel inside" the common human concerns of our neighbours. By this transference of sympathy we achieve some sort of detach- ment which will enable us to appreciate our own involvement in circumstances—quite as much as theirs. What adds up to education in our own country is as confused a tangle as any to be found in those other countries where we more easily assume the role of critical advisers. Much of it is habituation, and much is emotionally bound rather than rational. Advice and rational planning that do not take account of these actual influences on education at any one place and time are unscientific as well as failing in humanity. From a practical point of view too they will fail, because they lack a sense of the local and topical dynamic. We must know the living present. It is this that gives momentum to the future and conditions it. Thus, even at this first or informative stage of Comparative Education, v/e are made analytically aware (not only descriptively) of today's climax of forces. We inevitably envisage some possibilities for the future—if only with reference to our own reactions and purposes. Therefore, though Comparative Education must go on to study particular problems (such as control or university expansion), it must begin with area studies or dynamic analyses of concurrent influences such as this series provides. Without awareness of what "education" seems now to be to its participants, no student or planner can effectively share in the shaping of the future. He may have falsely identified his "problems". He will probably misjudge their topical significance. On the basis of unrealistic generalizations he will certainly fail to communicate acceptable xii Comparative Studies advice. The climax of local culture which amounts to education in any one place is emotionally more sensitive even than language issues or religion, because it includes within itself these very influences and many others. THE PURPOSE OF THIS SERIES SOCIETY, SCHOOLS AND PROGRESS are here surveyed in the world's most significant countries—significant not simply for reasons of technological or political strength, but because of the widely relevant decisions in education now being taken. Since the end of the Second World War a ferment of reform has been going on. No reform takes place in the sterile conditions of a laboratory. In the social field not even research can be isolated and sterilized. Experiment in education involves all the untidi- ness and unpredictability of human responses, which are the source of all creative ingenuity. Every planner or theorist, every student of "problems" that seem abstract and general enough, needs an opportunity of studying again and again the forensic application of his theories. Nevertheless, so that some general study may be made of frequently recurring tendencies and problems, the books in the SOCIETY, SCHOOLS AND PROGRESS series are arranged in a fairly uniform pattern. They all begin with the historical and institu- tional background. They then go on to describe administration, the school system, family influences, and background social forces in much the same order of progression. Thus it is easy to make cross-references from one volume to another. Gross-cultural analysis of particular problems or interests is facilitated, but always in relation to the living context which so often reveals unexpected pitfalls or opportunities. After this second or "problem" level of cross-cultural analysis in detail, the serious student can go on to a third stage. He can assess as a dynamic whole the collective preparation for the future of each of the countries featured. This third level of assessing orientation, or of planning, is not always marked by Comparative Studies xiii logic alone within any one of the countries concerned; but an international survey of discernible trends can be of great practical importance. The evolving form of the future can at least be surmised and continuing research can guide it. Public investment in education (and consumer demand still more) has often been a precarious venture from the half-known into the unsuspected. Yet buildings, teachers, and the children's lives may be committed for generations. For this third level of comparative analysis it is therefore necessary to work closely with specialists in other disciplines, such as economists and sociologists. But the specialist in Comparative Education gives insight and information to them, just as he receives from them. Making the future is no project for any one man, any one discipline, any one interpretation. This brings us to a last general point. It is more important than ever to have soundly based comparative studies of educa- tion, because the relevance of even the best of systems has limits imposed by time. Reorientation and retraining successively throughout life will be the experience of most people in advanced countries for generations to come. That trend is already evident at the most educated levels in the United States, Sweden, Britain, and some other countries. All human roles are being transformed too, not just subjects and occupations. Therefore it is useless to rely on what has been done, or is being done, in schools. We must try instead to think of what will be required, and to observe experiments now being undertaken on the very frontiers of education, where new matrices, new media, new elements, and methods of learning are being revealed. The less settled educational patterns of "developing countries" (where most of mankind live) make it easier for them to be radical. They can by-pass the institutions, methods, and curricula of older-established school systems in their eager pursuit of unprecedented but valid objectives. This is all immediately important to us, because the whole world's educative relation- ships are being transformed, our own along with all the others. For that reason, one or more of the books in each batch of xiv Comparative Studies volumes published in the SOCIETY, SCHOOLS AND PROGRESS series will deal with a developing country, whose experience is particu- larly relevant in assessing education's contribution to the future. THE PARTICULAR CASE OF CHINA For obvious reasons a comparative study of China is both fascinating and instructive. If there had been relatively little change in recent years the same might have been said, for China represents an ancient and prolific civilization whose message continues to influence profoundly the most numerous people on earth, and has also exerted great power over the development of Japanese culture to this very day. However, the changes which have overtaken the Chinese way of life and its external connec- tions in this century intensify our interest incalculably. In the first place, slow-paced and intermittent reaction to the Western barbarians during previous centuries suddenly acceler- ated and became more acute at the beginning of the twentieth with the establishment of a Republic. China's neighbour Japan also revealed the possibility of using the formal education system of the West not only to achieve national resurgence but to challenge Western imperialism and eventually Western tech- nology. The difficult development of the Chinese Republic, its humiliation by the treaty powers and Japanese encroachment, did not prevent the gradual spread of regard for Western educa- tion's advantages, as shown in the United States, in Japan, and in some European countries. Internal challenges were thus pro- duced in China between the venerable old and upstart new, between the literary tradition and the scientist returning from abroad, between Confucianism and its competitors, between a minority of innovators and the majority of a 650 million popula- tion. All these tensions provide a wealth of material for cross- cultural comparisons even within the one country. More remarkable than ever is the story since the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949, for that event and all the rapid changes since have made China pivotal in world affairs. The