INTRODUCTION

In this paper I’ll talk about Christian higher education in China. I have deliberately omitted the grammar indicating tense here: “was”, “is” or “will be”. What was the state of Christian higher education in China? What is the situation of Christian higher education in China at present? Or what will be the future for Christian higher education in China in the years to come? In the space that follows I intend to cover briefly all three aspects.

First, I have to point out that there is no privately run Christian college or Christian university in the People’s Republic of China at the moment. As a matter of fact, Christian higher education had been discontinued by the Communist government in China since 1952, a few years after the Revolution. So, when we talk about Christian higher education in China, we should be expected to use only the past tense. However, in my presentation, I’ll include the present situation and the future scenario. The present tense here in this paper refers to a state of mind, that is, how Christian higher education is perceived by several groups of people—scholars, educators, alumni, Chinese Christians and church groups. And the future of Christian higher education is presented here as an agenda paper and not as history. But let us first begin with the Past as History.

THE PAST:
HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN HIGHER EDUCATION IN CHINA

Although there was not a single Christian university in the PRC after the Communist takeover of the Chinese mainland and not too many Chinese, especially the young, are familiar with the history of Christianity in China, Christian higher education had, in fact, an important role in the history of modern China. For more than one hundred years from the middle of the nineteenth century on, Christian education had occupied a significant place in Chinese society. It is true that almost all Christian schools in China, elementary, secondary and tertiary, were in their beginnings an integral part of the mission enterprise and were strongly motivated by the aim of evangelization. However, many of these mission schools later gradually became less mission-oriented and more concerned with disseminating knowledge, learning and other purposes of education. At the turn of the twentieth century, many Christian educators, Chinese and westerners alike, were also convinced that the Christian colleges and universities could be a reforming force in Chinese society and an agent of modernization. In the beginning of the Republic, the need for reform and to become part of the globalized world and the "family of nations" had become the clarion call of the new intellectuals in China known as the "May-Fourth Generation."  As a result, the early decades of the twentieth century witnessed a remarkable development in Christian higher education in China with the emergence of more than a dozen of Christian colleges and universities and a rapid increase in student enrollment at these Christian educational institutions. In 1918, according to Charles Edmunds, there were over 6,000 Christian schools in China of which twenty-eight were tertiary institutions and fifty-six were teachers’ training colleges. Later in the 1920s and 1930s these Christian tertiary schools were consolidated into thirteen Protestant and four Catholic colleges and universities in China with over a thousand faculty members and six thousand students. The Protestant colleges and universities were: Yenching University in Beijing, Cheeloo University at Jinan in Shandong Province, Ginling University and Ginling Women’s College in Nanjing, St. John’s University, Shanghai Baptist University (Hujiang) in Shanghai, Hangchow University (Zijiang) in Hangzhou, Soochow University (Dongwu) at Suzhou in the province of Jiangsu, Huachung University at Wuhan, West China Union University at Chengdu in Sichuan Province, Fukien Christian Union University and South China Women’s University in Fuzhou, and Lingnan University in Guangzhou. The three Catholic universities were: Fu Jen Catholic University in Beijing, Tientsin University of Industry and Commerce in Tianjin, and Aurora University in Shanghai.1

Even in the humanities, these institutions were not far behind in research and teaching compared with the top universities in China such as Peking University and Qinghua University. A glimpse at the teaching staff of the Christian universities in the area of Chinese studies in the early 1930s, for example, would show the following: Chen Yuan, Qian Mu, William Hung; Ma Jian, Gu Jiegang, Xie Wanying (Bing Xin), and Xu Dishan all connected with Yenching for a substantial period of time. Famous alumni and distinguished graduates from these Christian universities included nationally renowned writers like Lao She, Bing Xin, Xiao Qian, and Xu Dishan, translator Liang Zongdai and Yan Qun; philosophers Thome Fang, Xie Fuya, Ru Xin and Zhao Yabo; historians Shi Nianhai, Wu Yujin, Zhang Kaiyuan, Zhou Yiliang; Tan Qixiang, Weng Dujian, Bai Shouyi, Wu Bingzhen; sociologists Fei Xiaotong, Wu Wenzao, Li Anzai, Yang Qingkun and Zhang Hongjun; and politicians and diplomats Huang Hua, Gong Pusheng, Gong Peng, Lei Jieqiong, Lu Ping and Zhou Nan--the last two playing a crucial role in the transition of Hong Kong from British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The list can be extended much further and longer, showing ample evidence of an important role played by the Christian colleges in modem Chinese society.

THE PRESENT:
MEMORIES, REMEMBRANCES AND RESTORATIONS

As I have pointed out in the beginning, there were thirteen Protestant and three Catholic universities and colleges in China in 1949 before the founding of the People’s Republic. Despite the rising tide of Chinese nationalism and the imminent threat of Communist takeover, Christian higher education showed no signs of retreat or decline in the late forties. However, the heyday of Christian higher education abruptly gave way to rapid decline and disintegration after 1949. Only two years afler the Communist victory, a major reform in the educational system was imposed upon the schools by the Chinese communist government involving structural and curricular reorganization of most colleges and universities. Most of these Christian educational institutions were to be dismantled or incorporated and merged with other public universities.  As a result of this major change, the history of Christian higher education in China came to an abrupt end. The younger generation who were born in the new society grew up with little knowledge of these Christian schools. In fact, a lot of students who attended universities on these former Christian college campus grounds were unaware of their institutions’ Christian past. The present Peking University (Beida) is standing on the ground of Yenching occupying the most part of the former leading Christian university, and Shandong University is now at former Cheeloo’s campus, Nanjing at Ginling’s, Nanjing Normal at the former Ginling Women’s College campus, Zhongshan at former Lingnan’s, and Hangzhou University is occupying the old Zhijiang campus. Historical monuments and old buildings might reveal to the living generation some facets of the forbidden past and arouse in the young minds a sense of curiosity. But the history of Christian education was a sensitive subject if not a taboo in China for decades from the early 1950s to about 1980, a distant memory in the minds of some old alumni and professors and a complete blank in the knowledge of the young because of deliberate omission and political suppression.

Christianity had been labeled by the Marxist-Leninists in the PRC as superstitious, unscientific, subjectivistic, and contrary to the progressive, materialistic and scientific doctrines of Marxism and Communism, and all endeavors of the Christian missionaries including educational institutions were seen as “cultural imperialism”. No wonder that the government would proceed immediately after 1949 to close down the Christian colleges and universities in an attempt to discontinue the cultural influence of Christian missionaries and western countries. This was done through the reform in higher education carried out in 1952 during which all the Christian colleges and universities were either forced to be abandoned or to be merged with other public universities and tertiary institutions. With this major reform all the private colleges in China became nationalized and not a single Christian or Catholic university could maintain its old curriculum or even its original name. Thus, we could pronounce, in 1952, the “death” of Christian higher education in China. Since that time onward, these Christian colleges and universities lived on only in the memory of their alumni and former staff. But even these people who were connected with the old institutions were reluctant to talk about their past. And in scholarship and in research these colleges and universities failed to draw any attention. During the period from 1953 to the end of the 1970s, there was not a single piece of research article or monographic study on these colleges, individually or as a collective entity. For decades before the Reform Era, Christian higher education had no history in China.

The Reform Era initiated by Deng Xiaoping after the death of Mao Zedong and the interim years of Hua Guofeng created more freedom in China not only in the field of economic development but also in the areas of thought, art, and culture. Although the government leaders maintained that Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought would remain the official doctrine, privately many intellectuals, professors and students at colleges and universities in particular, were enthusiastically discussing and promoting different schools of thoughts: western liberalism, Neo-Marxism, Post-modernism, among other ideas and theories. The yearning for new ideas and philosophies as a substitute of orthodox Marxism reached a high point in the middle of the 1980s, and this was referred to as the “Culture Fever” (wenhu re) in China. During this period of intellectual ferment when Marxism-Leninism was rapidly losing its grip on the Chinese mind, not a few Chinese were turning to Christianity for intellectual enlightenment and psychological solace. Some felt that Christianity could fill the void of a post-Marxist vacuum in faith, while others thought Christianity was the foundation of Western culture including the ideas of liberty, freedom, capitalistic spirit and the democratic tradition. At any rate, there was a substantive growth in interest in Christianity, attracting more people to the churches and getting more young intellectuals into the new and emergent area of Christian studies which included the history of Christian missions and Christian education in China. Young scholars who began their investigation of Christian higher education in the mid-1980s have become leading experts in the field such as Shi Jinghuan of Beijing Normal University, Xu Yihua of Fudan University and Dao Feiya of Shandong University. Shi showed interest in missionary education when she was pursuing her postgraduate study at Beijing Normal, and eventually produced a doctoral dissertation on Calvin Mateer’s Shandong Wenhui Guan, the predecessor of Cheeloo University, and John Leighton Stuart’s educational endeavor, the Yenching University. Xu published one of the earlier articles on the history of Christian higher education in 1985, and then continued his research on St John’s University, getting his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1993. Tao was interested in Christian higher education in Shandong and his research publications covered both Christian movements in that province and the history of the Shandong University. Other young scholars who are actively engaged in the study of Christian colleges and universities include Huazhong Normal’s Ma Min, Zhou Hongyu, Wang Lixin of Nankai University who has recently moved to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, Wang Qisheng of Wuhan University, He Jianming of Zhongshan University, many of them being doctoral students of Professor Zhang Kaiyuan.

Professor Zhang Kaiyuan, former president of Huazhong Normal University and now director of the Research Center for the History of Chinese Christian Colleges and Universities at the same institution, has been considered the pioneer and most influential leader in the emerging field of Studies on the History of Chinese Christian Higher Education in the PRC. He began his research in this area in 1985. All the young scholars mentioned earlier who showed interest in the subject and began research about this time were in one way or another influenced by or connected with Zhang. Zhang, a reputed modem China historian, acknowledged that before 1985 his knowledge as well as intellectual interest in Christian higher education was not adequate. But a conversation with Professor James T.C. Liu from Princeton University in early 1985 had started the ball rolling. He recalled on that occasion James Liu had said to him, “This is the time to re-examine the history of China’s Christian colleges and universities.” Zhang agreed with Liu’s proposal as both of them were graduates of Christian universities, Zhang from Ginling and Liu from Yenching. At this point, Liu suddenly raised a challenge. He said that Zhang should take up the job of beginning and promoting research in this area. He gave three reasons: (1) Zhang was a graduate of one of the Christian universities, (2) he was a leading historian in the field of Modem Chinese History and the Christian universities should be a significant and meaningful part of modem Chinese history, and (3) Zhang was then president of Huazhong Normal University and was in an influential leadership position to promote research in the still sensitive subject area of Christian higher education.

Essentially there are only two explanations. One appeals to reason: that the area is significant in modem Chinese history particularly in the history of modernization of China’s education. Secondly it appeals to emotion: alumni connections and the feelings of those who worked and lived in or were connected to the former Christian educational institutions. Many remembered those “good old days” with fond memories. But for a long time during the late fifties and the entire period of Cultural Revolution these memories were suppressed--not only suppressed but locked tightly in the forgotten chambers of the heart. For it was “black material” or evidence of “rightist” or “imperialist” connections or influence.

The suppression of memory had continued for a long time until the political climate turned more relaxing and tolerant in the late seventies. This was the time when the old folks were encouraged to write their memoirs for the Wenshi Ziliao (sources on literature and history) series. Some of the early essays in the Wenshi Ziliao volumes in fact were still very negative toward the Christian colleges and universities, condemning missionary control and foreign influence over administration and curriculum, for example. However, as time passed, more and more writings appeared to be positive and nostalgic, with a lot of good things to say about the life and work at these schools. They were mainly writings by alumni and former staff members of these Christian colleges and universities. Many of them were in the ripe age of seventies or eighties when they re-initiated their memories. They were encouraged by the relaxing political atmosphere as well as by alumni gatherings, and often times their recollections and reminiscences were filled with nostalgia and emotions. The most representative of this kind of wnting were the Yanda Wenshi Ziliao (Sources on Yenching University) in nine volumes published by the Alumni Association of the Yenching University in the eighties and early nineties. Another example were the publications by the Alumni Association of the Ginling Women’s College such as Ginling Nuer (Daughters of Ginling), Wu Yifang (Wu was president of the College), and other volumes. These essays and books are rather fragmentary and sentimental, but they nevertheless constitute an important body of literature for the study of the history of Christian higher education in the past.

THE FUTURE:
RECONNECTING AND RE VISIONING THE PAST

The twin forces of Reason and Passion have created an unprecedented opportunity for the study of the history of Christian higher education in China or simply Christian education in general. The force of Reason: the scholars and historians are motivated by intellectual curiosity and academic interest. They are convinced that the Christian colleges and universities indeed had a significant role in China’s modern transformation particularly in the area of educational modernization. The force of Passion refers to the efforts and sentiments of the alumni associations, friends and former staff connected with these Christian institutions. They realize that their time is running out and are anxious to tell their stories. Many of them have also been working hard to restore or reestablish the old programs or institutes, but so far no one has presented demands for re-instituting the system of Christian education.

The Yenching Alumni Association has been very active in demanding recognition and “partial restoration” of Yenching programs. The old Yenching campus however, has been taken over by Peking University, the leading national university in China since 1952. But since so many former Yenching graduates are now working with Peking University (Beida) and with the government, the voice of the alumni could not be simply ignored. Upon the repeated demands of the Alumni Association, the Peking University has set aside the former office of John Leighton Stuart near the Weiming Lake for the base of the Association where the alums meet regularly. The Association, staffed with mostly senior volunteers, has since produced nine volumes of the Yanda Wenshi Ziliao (Sources on Yenching University). Bing Xin and Xiao Qian were the honorary chairpersons of the Editorial Committee. In 1993, the Association’s demand was partially met with the establishment of the Yenching Graduate Institute (YGI). The YGI was located at the Branch Campus of the Peking University in the city of Beijing, with Professor Hou Renzi of Peking University, a renowned scholar and historical geographer who was also a Yenching graduate, as its honorary director. The YGI’s regular teaching and research programs are administered by Liu Wenlan, also a Yenching graduate of the year 1953. The YGI is an integral part of the Branch Campus of Peking University, and its programs in English, business, food science, computer science, Western civilization and religious studies are recognized by Beida. The YGI has a long-term cooperative relationship with the Professional and Educational Services International Inc. (PESI), a Christian organization based in North America who has helped in bringing into China professors and scholars (Westerners and Overseas Chinese) of a variety of disciplines to teach at YGI.2