Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China: The Interwar Period (Global Histories of Education) 3030824411, 9783030824419

Table of contents :
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Images
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Transnational Activities and Internationalisation of Education Before the Twentieth Century
1.2 The 1922 School System in China and Its Defects
1.3 Politics and Education in the Nanjing Decade
1.4 Nationalist Ideology, Education, and Sovereignty
1.5 Perspective, Methodologies, and Research Questions
1.6 A Note on the Book’s Organisation
1.7 The Structure of the Book
Chapter 2: Chinese Proposals on Education Cooperation and the League of Nations
2.1 China, the League of Nations, and Technical Cooperation
2.2 International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation
2.3 International Educational Cinematographic Institute
2.4 Conclusion
Chapter 3: Teaching About the League of Nations and International Consciousness
3.1 Teaching About the League: A Proposal for Cultivating International Consciousness
3.2 The Sub-Committee of Experts: Networks and Endeavours
3.3 The League of Nations in China: The Attenuated Faith
3.4 Interwar Period with Wars: The Disillusionment with Peace
3.5 The Image of the League in Textbooks
3.6 Conclusion
Chapter 4: The League of Nations and Chinese Educational Film
4.1 Appointing Sardi to China
4.2 The Journeys of Sardi in China
4.3 Educational Sovereignty and the National Branch of the IECI
4.4 The ECSC and Transnational Influence
4.5 International Educational Cinematography Competitions
4.6 Conclusion
Chapter 5: The League of Nations’ Education Mission to China
5.1 The League and the Formation of the Mission
5.2 Learning About China Before Arrival
5.3 The Educational Tour Arranged by the Chinese Government
5.4 Conversations with Chinese Educators Arranged by the Chinese Government
5.5 Non-official Activities of the Mission
5.6 Formation of the Report
5.7 The Basic Principles and Diagnosis of Chinese Educational Problems
5.8 Disputes over the Value of the Report in China
5.9 Disputes over the Cultural Basis of the Report in China
5.10 Influence of the Report on National Educational Policies
5.11 Discussion of the Report at the ICIC
5.12 Conclusion
Chapter 6: The Chinese Educational Mission to Europe
6.1 The Formation of the Mission
6.2 A Diagnosis of Chinese Educational Problems and the Aims of the Mission
6.3 The Networks of the ICIC and the Arrangement of the Journeys
6.4 Education in European Countries and International Tendencies
6.5 Primary Education in Europe
6.6 Middle School Education in Europe
6.7 Educational Reform Proposals for Primary Education
6.8 Educational Reform Proposals for Middle School Education
6.9 The Influence of the Report in China
6.10 Conclusion
Chapter 7: Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

GLOBAL HISTORIES OF EDUCATION

Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China The Interwar Period

Kaiyi Li

Global Histories of Education Series Editors Tim Allender University of Sydney Camperdown, NSW, Australia Diana Vidal University of São Paulo Butanta, São Paulo, Brazil Linda Chisholm Education Rights and Transformation University of Johannesburg Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa Christian Ydesen Department of Culture and Learning Aalborg University Aalborg, Denmark

We are very pleased to announce the ISCHE Global Histories of Education book series. The International Standing Conference for the History of Education has organized conferences in the field since 1978. Thanks to our collaboration with Palgrave Macmillan we now offer an edited book series for the publication of innovative scholarship in the history of education. This series seeks to engage with historical scholarship that analyzes education within a global, world, or transnational perspective. Specifically, it seeks to examine the role of educational institutions, actors, technologies as well as pedagogical ideas that for centuries have crossed regional and national boundaries. Topics for publication may include the study of educational networks and practices that connect national and colonial domains, or those that range in time from the age of Empire to decolonization. These networks could concern the international movement of educational policies, curricula, pedagogies, or universities within and across different socio-political settings. The ‘actors’ under examination might include individuals and groups of people, but also educational apparatuses such as textbooks, built-environments, and bureaucratic paperwork situated within a global perspective. Books in the series may be single authored or edited volumes. The strong transnational dimension of the Global Histories of Education series means that many of the volumes should be based on archival research undertaken in more than one country and using documents written in multiple languages. All books in the series will be published in English, although we welcome English-language proposals for manuscripts which were initially written in other languages and which will be translated into English at the cost of the author. All submitted manuscripts will be blind peer-reviewed with editorial decisions to be made by the ISCHE series editors who themselves are appointed by the ISCHE Executive Committee to serve three to five year terms. Full submissions should include: (1) a proposal aligned to the Palgrave Book Proposal form (downloadable here); (2) the CV of the author(s) or editor(s); and, (3) a cover letter that explains how the proposed book fits into the overall aims and framing of the ISCHE Global Histories of Education book series. Proposals and queries should be addressed to [email protected]. Preliminary inquiries are welcome and encouraged. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15390

Kaiyi Li

Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China The Interwar Period

Kaiyi Li Georg Eckert Institut Leibniz-Institut für internationale Schulbuchforschung Braunschweig, Niedersachsen, Germany

Global Histories of Education ISBN 978-3-030-82441-9    ISBN 978-3-030-82442-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82442-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the ­publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and ­institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: mccool / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

International organisations, such as the UNESCO, the OECD, and the World Bank, are playing an increasing role in the globalisation of education, from helping designing national policies to carrying out worldwide educational assistance programmes. However, even though the transnational is becoming a rubric in historical studies, and the historical rise of those international organisations and their works in the field of education has attracted many scholars’ attention, the role of the League of Nations, as a pioneer and far-reaching international organisation in the field of internationalising education during the interwar period, has not been very well explored by scholars so far. The book is a study of how the League of Nations endeavoured to explore the field of education within the framework of technical cooperation between the League and China during the interwar period. Four cases are selected to be analysed in the book: teaching about the League of Nations in China, and the League’s role in the development of Chinese educational film, which belong to the works of globalising educational concepts and methods; the education mission appointed by the League of Nations to China in 1931, and the Chinese education mission to Europe with the assistance of the League in 1932, which belong to the works of international educational assistance. When the author started the topic as her PhD thesis, the main question she came up with was what did the education cooperation between the League and China bring to China. However, the outcomes of the four cases analysed in the book are not impressive. In the process of thinking about what led to such outcomes and doing the literature review, she v

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entered the field of transnational history and found a new perspective to write and explore the meaning of the four cases. The book focuses on how and what factors influenced educational knowledge moving across different types of boundaries during the interwar period, and contains mainly three lines of analysis: the process the League normalised through its works in the field of education, the experts who travelled transnationally and their experiences, and the role of the Chinese government. The book has used historical documents in different languages. Where necessary, the author keeps Chinese characters after the English translation. In the Romanisation of personal names and place names, simplified Pinyin are generally used. The only exceptions are the University of Nanking and Canton. The former refers to the university sponsored by American churches in Nanjing until 1952. In the cases that Wade-Giles has become the accepted standard, the index of the book contains both spellings. The city of Beijing, after the Beiyang government was placed by the Nanjing government, was named Beijing. The book uses the name Beijing. The book is intended for people with different interests: the history of the League of Nations, transnational history, the history of Chinese education, and the cultural exchange between Europe and China. It is designed to contribute a Chinese case study to the history of the League of Nations but at the same time avoids taking merely the Chinese government as the centre of the narrative. Braunschweig, Niedersachsen, Germany

Kaiyi Li

Acknowledgements

Without the priceless help of a large number of colleagues, this book would never have come to fruition in its current form. I express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Professor Eckhardt Fuchs for his guidance and support. Professor Fuchs helped me unconditionally with my research. The discussions with him always inspire me on how to make my arguments stronger. Taking the opportunity, I also want to express my appreciation to Professor Domonic Sachsenmaier, who gave advice critically, and my colleagues in the Georg Eckert Institute–LeibnizInstitute for International Textbook Research. The book is written based on abundant archival materials. Travelling across national boundaries to gain access to those documents could not have been realised without the assistance of colleagues in the following archives: The League of Nations Archive in Geneva, Geheimes Sttatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, the Second Historical Archives of China, Shanghai Archive, the Institute of Modern History Archives, Academia Sinica, and the LSE Library Archive. Special thanks are extended to M.A.  Gui Zi, whom I met only once in Anfield Stadium of Liverpool Football Club and who kindly scanned the letters written by R.H. Tawney at the LSE Library Archive for me: You will never walk alone! Finally, I am grateful to Dr. James Lavender, who polished the book and ensured the texts were in reader-friendly English. Many thanks also to the ISCHE conference and the Committee Members of the series books Global History of Education, who gave a young scholar like me a chance

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to publish my work and provided many suggestions to and comments on how to revise the book. Finally, I extend my gratitude to Linda Braus and Paul Smith Jesudas at Palgrave Macmillan for their generous support and the three anonymous reviewers, who provided valuable criticisms in the first stage of preparing the book.

Contents

1 Introduction  1 1.1 Transnational Activities and Internationalisation of Education Before the Twentieth Century  3 1.2 The 1922 School System in China and Its Defects  7 1.3 Politics and Education in the Nanjing Decade 10 1.4 Nationalist Ideology, Education, and Sovereignty 15 1.5 Perspective, Methodologies, and Research Questions 18 1.6 A Note on the Book’s Organisation 22 1.7 The Structure of the Book 24 2 Chinese Proposals on Education Cooperation and the League of Nations 33 2.1 China, the League of Nations, and Technical Cooperation 34 2.2 International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation 37 2.3 International Educational Cinematographic Institute 43 2.4 Conclusion 46 3 Teaching About the League of Nations and International Consciousness 55 3.1 Teaching About the League: A Proposal for Cultivating International Consciousness 57 3.2 The Sub-Committee of Experts: Networks and Endeavours 60 3.3 The League of Nations in China: The Attenuated Faith 64 ix

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3.4 Interwar Period with Wars: The Disillusionment with Peace 67 3.5 The Image of the League in Textbooks 71 3.6 Conclusion 75 4 The League of Nations and Chinese Educational Film 83 4.1 Appointing Sardi to China 85 4.2 The Journeys of Sardi in China 88 4.3 Educational Sovereignty and the National Branch of the IECI 92 4.4 The ECSC and Transnational Influence 97 4.5 International Educational Cinematography Competitions101 4.6 Conclusion109 5 The League of Nations’ Education Mission to China119 5.1 The League and the Formation of the Mission120 5.2 Learning About China Before Arrival125 5.3 The Educational Tour Arranged by the Chinese Government129 5.4 Conversations with Chinese Educators Arranged by the Chinese Government137 5.5 Non-official Activities of the Mission140 5.6 Formation of the Report142 5.7 The Basic Principles and Diagnosis of Chinese Educational Problems145 5.8 Disputes over the Value of the Report in China149 5.9 Disputes over the Cultural Basis of the Report in China151 5.10 Influence of the Report on National Educational Policies154 5.11 Discussion of the Report at the ICIC156 5.12 Conclusion158 6 The Chinese Educational Mission to Europe167 6.1 The Formation of the Mission169 6.2 A Diagnosis of Chinese Educational Problems and the Aims of the Mission173 6.3 The Networks of the ICIC and the Arrangement of the Journeys182

 Contents 

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6.4 Education in European Countries and International Tendencies185 6.5 Primary Education in Europe193 6.6 Middle School Education in Europe195 6.7 Educational Reform Proposals for Primary Education196 6.8 Educational Reform Proposals for Middle School Education197 6.9 The Influence of the Report in China199 6.10 Conclusion201 7 Conclusion209 Bibliography221 Index235

Abbreviations

CLNU CNEC CWC ECSC ICIC IECI IIIC ILO KMT LNHO NGOs NRC NUEA The Sub-Committee of Experts UIA UNESCO

Chinese League of Nations Union Chinese National Economic Council Child Welfare Committee Educational Cinematographic Society of China International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation International Educational Cinematographic Institute International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation International Labour Organization Kuomintang (Guomindang) League of Nations Health Organization Non-governmental organizations National Resources Commission National Union of Education Associations Sub-Committee of Experts for the Instruction of Children and Youth in the Existence and Aims of the League of Nations Union of International Associations The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

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List of Figures

Fig. 5.1 Fig. 6.1

The networks of the education mission appointed by the League of Nations in China The correspondence between the Chinese mission, IIIC, and ICIC (The network is described according to the documents from the League of Nations Archive, 5B/34328/28134)

138 183

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List of Images

Image 4.1 Image 4.2

The Farmers’ Spring, cited from Liangyou 1936, 113 The certification for the film The Farmers’ Spring. (From Liangyou, vol. 113)

104 107

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List of Tables

Table 4.1 Table 5.1

The timetable of Sardi in China The journeys of the mission in China

89 131

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This book explores how educational ideas and practices flowed across national boundaries as part of educational cooperation between the League of Nations and China. It concentrates on the interwar period, especially the Nanjing Decade (1927–1937), when education was a part of the League’s overarching grand project to increase international communication and understanding, and when the Nanjing government, which nominally unified China in 1928, established technical cooperation with the League. This story is traced using four themes or cases: teaching about the League of Nations in China; the League of Nations’ role in the transnational circulation of educational films; the education mission appointed by the League of Nations to visit China in 1931; and the Chinese education mission appointed by the Chinese government with the assistance of the League of Nations to visit Europe in 1932. It enriches the study of the history of the League of Nations by focusing on how technical organs of the League (which were declared to be non-political) promoted the internationalisation of education and provided assistance in international and national education. As the study will prove, the principle that national sovereignty was the highest standard of international educational activities shaped the ways in which the League carried out its programmes. Because of this principle, a clear distinction between international-level and national-level activities existed in the four cases examined within this book. The study identifies a distinctive space © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. Li, Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China, Global Histories of Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82442-6_1

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configured by the League’s intellectual organs for the development of education. The study defines this as an international space where the League’s intellectual organs tried to limit the participation of national governments but include scholars and other international organisations. The League’s intellectual organs also carefully kept their activities within such a space. As the study will show, this space did not have a physical boundary like a national territory, and in fact, it was still in the process of formation at that time. Centring on educational programmes, different kinds of actors—including the technical organs of the League, other international and national organisations, experts with different nationalities, and governments—interacted with each other in this space, as well as moving across its boundary and that of other spaces. Hence, the study argues that this space and the transfer of educational ideas and practices across those boundaries provide another perspective for understanding the internationalisation of education and the national educational development in the interwar period. The inquiry, rather than concentrating on how educational programmes were carried out in China, shifts perspective to focus on the process of how educational ideas and practices circulated across boundaries, and on the factors that stimulated the formation of concrete situations during this process. It by no means suggests that the implementation of those educational programmes in China is not important, but rather aims to reveal what factors influenced the implementation, or lack thereof, of transnational activity. The study thus engages two areas of inquiry: the historical one and the theoretical one. Historically, the research rewrites the educational cooperation between the League and China by reading multinational archival documents and related articles, with the context that the commissions and committees of the League inherited pre-war international educational activities and became the central mediators of international educational movements.1 The four cases the study selected were carried out across two different types of space: the international space constructed by the League and the space of national territories—including China and other European countries involved in the cooperation. On the one hand, the four cases belong to two different types of educational programmes of the League: teaching about the League and the circulation of educational films belonged to the promotion of international consciousness and were part of the internationalisation of educational ideas and practices, while the League’s education mission to China in 1931 and the Chinese mission to

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Europe in 1932 with the assistance of the League belonged to international educational assistance intended to improve Chinese education performance. In both cases, the process involved experts going across national boundaries, and educational ideas and practices also flowed across those boundaries in the process. On the other hand, the four cases covered different educational realms in China. Different factors influenced the process of implementation and, accordingly, the possible outcomes of those programmes. Theoretically, the study proposes that the historical focus on the process by which educational ideas and practices move across national boundaries becomes available only when the cooperation between the League and China are recognised within the background of globalisation of education, and when it is acknowledged that non-state actors played a no less important role than states in the process. It is also important to observe that educational development and globalisation were not linear processes, and there were in fact many possible outcomes. Hence the non-­occurrence of activity taking place across national boundaries is as important as what did occur.

1.1   Transnational Activities and Internationalisation of Education Before the Twentieth Century One historical context in which the study locates itself is that of the internationalisation of education through transnational activities since the late eighteenth century. The emergence of modern, national, and public education systems since 1789 in many Western countries was conditioned by the formation of nationalism, democracy, and the industrial revolution.2 States and national governments gradually introduced national public education systems and developed national educational policies, which were vehicles for transferring high culture to the populace and for cultivating nationalism and national identity as a part of national sovereignty. The increasing influence of states on national academic and educational institutions resulted in education becoming a representative of civil power, which formed an element of national competition.3 In the nineteenth century, the development of the telegraph and post, of trains and ships, and of printing technology, at the same time, made long-distance movement and the spread of news and knowledge across

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national boundaries feasible. Meanwhile, the translation, publication, and distribution system allowed both travel reports written by educators and educational masterpieces to spread worldwide, introducing those educational systems and models, thoughts and reforms into international debate. While earlier forms of travel were generally limited to elite intellectuals visiting academies to acquire certain specific pieces of knowledge, teachers and educational administrators travelling abroad to undertake special investigations to improve the inadequacy of their national education systems and fostering social progress now became a significant majority in transnational education activities.4 From the 1880s, international congresses became the primary vehicles for political, cultural, and scientific exchange, showing that the “age of internationalism”, as defined by Daniel Laqua, was coming.5 From 1815 to the First World War, 466 international non-governmental organisations and 37 international governmental organisations were created, and 191 and 20, respectively, were still active in the middle of the twentieth century.6 The rise and fall of these international organisations finally promoted the combination of or cooperation between similar organisations and the formation of an association that acted as the liaison between multiple organisations at the beginning of the twentieth century. Some permanent bureaus, commissions, and institutions began to form in various disciplines, like the Universal Postal Union, the International Telegraph Bureau, and the Hague Tribunal. These international organisations dealt with all member countries or representatives concerning a range of problems and promoted the genesis of agreements, the resulting issuing of regulations, and the distribution of information.7 However, the internationalisation of the educational movement in the age of internationalism did not first occur with the establishment of international educational organisations but rather in the social realm, with regard to issues such as welfare, poverty relief, juvenile crime, and child protection.8 In the debates around those issues, education as a method to solve social problems gained international consensus, even in the nineteenth century. As early as 1855, some resolutions dealing with the topic of compulsory school attendance were concluded in the First International Congress of Welfare, and different nationalities’ delegates brought them back home and lobbied their government to carry them out.9 Furthermore, educational exhibitions and congresses appeared much earlier than professional international education organisations. An international educational congress was always held in the same year as the World’s

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Fairs. The first Great Exhibition in 1851  in London was a showcase of technical, material, and scientific achievements of the Industrial Age, and it was also a means of transmission for education, because educational products became the direct object of exhibition, and since the 1876 World Exhibition, education became a classified group.10 In 1876, the first international educational congress was held in Philadelphia in connection with the World Fairs and decided to become a permanent institution.11 At the end of the nineteenth century the international educational congresses, though naturally fragmentary and lacking a centralised organisation, became the place where scholars informally gathered to exchange pedagogical knowledge.12 Although the establishment of these international congresses, exhibitions, and organisations promoted the internationalism of education, they were not designed to cooperate around a common goal, but rather for the exchange of education knowledge. For the visitors, one of the primary impulses that pushed them to look transnationally was the prospect of learning from other countries, thereby making up the inadequacy of their national education.13 The internationalising of the British workers’ education process in the second half of the nineteenth century is a good example: educational and industrial experts considered the 1851 Great Exhibition to have revealed the potential risk that European nations’ system of elementary education was better than that of the British because they produced an advanced industrial workforce. For that reason, it was concluded that Britain should adopt and produce similar institutions to train its own workers. Similarly, some Artisan Exhibition Tours went abroad to compare and evaluate other countries’ procedures in order to provide reports and documents aimed at amending deficiencies in Great Britain’s education system.14 These conferences and exhibitions made transnational education circulation possible and gave non-state actors a greater chance to influence education directly. However, nation states and nationalist ideologies still played a significant role in the process of internationalising education. The national pride and ambition of countries seeking a leading position were essential impetuses for the circulation of education knowledge across national boundaries. In the 1870 World Exhibition, for example, Sweden exhibited its “Sweden schoolhouse”. It was an opportunity for exchange with other countries and to show the world its advanced education

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materials and ideas, as well as an opportunity to establish itself as an educational leader in Europe and the world.15 Taking Germany as another example, for political reasons, this country was not active in the World’s Fair until the 1890s. Presenting itself in the 1893 World’s Fair became a political task for the country as it was anxious to establish itself as a political, economic, and cultural world power—education hence became a significant part of the German exhibition.16 The aforementioned cases show that different countries considered their education instruments and achievements as means to persuade other countries to follow them and maintain the central position in international society. At the end of the nineteenth century, in the shadow of growing international tension, the World Exhibitions increasingly evolved towards the conflict areas of imperialist competition and cultural hegemony. In this context, educational exhibition became an important media to propagate national education politics and a channel through which to approach foreign affairs.17 After the war, competition and nationalism at the international level still existed and indeed became even more intensive. Despite advocating international cooperation and the general belief in science inherited by internationalism, the International Research Council founded in 1919 did not allow Germany to join.18 Germany was also excluded from the French-­dominated international confederation of students that was established in 1919, while it quickly became the leader of the International Student, a rival organisation that grew out of European Student Relief.19 At the same time, the international peace movement also profoundly influenced the international education movement: “The desire for international understanding and humanity that was articulated at the Hague conference affected education directly.”20 Subsequently, some international schools and educational organisations were established in the United States and European countries in order to promote peace and increase international cooperation.21 After the First World War, the belief that the academic community could contribute to peace-building promoted the establishment of some international educational organisations, for example the Institute of International Education in the United States in 1919.22 Promoting international communication and increasing international understanding became the moral target of many newly established international educational organisations. However, until the beginning of the 1920s, those international organisations were dominated by Western countries.

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It was against this background that the League of Nations was established after the First World War. Although education was initially excluded from the work of the League, as the study will show, it finally found a position in the League’s system and became a permanent and vital aspect of its work. Many educational endeavours were carried out by the technical organisations of the League such as the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Health Organisation (HO), and most notably the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC).23 These technical organisations not only sought to reach international understandings and agreements related to education, but also carried out activities that promoted the transfer and communication of educational knowledge. The League inherited many pre-war international educational programmes and devoted itself to using education to promote international understanding and peace. This study will hence examine four cases (teaching about the League of Nations, the League of Nations and educational films, the League’s education mission to China in 1931, and the Chinese education mission to Europe in 1932) to explore the relationship between the League’s educational programmes and those from before the First World War, and the new enterprises conducted by the League during the interwar period. Recent historiography has challenged Karen Mundy and Mona Ghali’s assertion that “the general message of the [interwar] period was clear: education was an unsuitable arena for intergovernmental policy action”.24 This study contributes to such a discussion and analyses how the League designed and carried out educational policies and programmes across national boundaries.

1.2   The 1922 School System in China and Its Defects Since the first modern national educational system draft, known as Renyin School System Ordinance, which followed the example of Japan, was issued in 1902 by the Qing government, Chinese national education has undergone many debates and reforms until the educational cooperation between the League and China started in the 1930s. Between 1919 and 1921, John Dewey spent two years in China, at the invitation of Chinese educators who had studied in the United States. During this time, Dewey gave lectures in many cities in China. His visit to

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China was considered the centrepiece of the lobbying effort by American-­ educated Chinese scholars for school reform.25 In September 1921, Paul Monroe travelled to China to carry out an educational investigation, at the invitation of the Chinese Education Improvement Association (中华 教育改进社). Monroe gave a series of lectures in China and discussed the problems facing Chinese education with Chinese scholars. He showed great enthusiasm for Chinese educational reform and published articles discussing the new school system introduced in China in 1922.26 Monroe thus had a more direct influence on the Chinese education system than Dewey did.27 Monroe identified several problems with Chinese education. He was opposed to the total Westernisation of education in China and suggested that Chinese education must cultivate its own character and seek to conserve its own cultural identity through increased communication with the West. He considered that the curriculum structure of middle schools in China was not logical, because the Chinese government could not provide corresponding materials and funding for the development of middle schools. At the same time, however, middle school pupils were overburdened with content they were required to learn. Monroe concluded that primary school teachers in China were of generally better quality than middle school teachers. In the first two years of training (primary school teachers) in junior normal schools, students received the same education as that in middle schools and continued their pedagogical training, and as a result graduates were familiar with pedagogical theories and different teaching methods.28 Monroe criticised middle school to be the weakest part of the school system in China. He argued that the international tendency of education was towards shortening the duration of primary education and extending the duration of middle school. Hence, in his view, the four-year education provided by middle school in China was too short a period of time to educate pupils properly. He also asserted that the curriculum in China was overstretched and could meet the demands neither of the pupils who wanted to continue their studies nor of those who wanted to find a job after completing middle school.29 In 1922 the Ministry of Education published the Draft Action of the School System (学制系统草案) and established a new school system based on the American model, known as the Renxu School System. This comprised six years of primary education, three years of junior middle school education, and three years of senior middle school education. Under the 1922 school system, primary education lasted for six years but was divided

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into two stages (four years in lower primary school and two years in higher primary school). The Draft Action of the School System identified primary education as being a form of general education, and not simply a preparation for middle school. The 1922 school system was also concerned with the age at which pupils began primary schooling. It required that the school age should be determined by provincial governments according to their local situation. After the fifth year of primary education, primary schools were required to provide vocational training for those who would be unable to continue their studies.30 Under the 1922 school system, middle school was made up of two stages of three years. However, this could be adjusted into differing formats according to the local situation: four years of junior middle school and two years of senior middle school, or two years of junior middle school and four years of senior middle school. In principle, junior and senior middle schools should be established together, but the separation of junior and senior middle schools was also accepted if it was required by the local situation. Junior middle school was concerned mainly with general education but was also required to provide vocational subjects according to social demands. Senior middle school was to be divided into the following groups: general education, teacher training, domestic management (家 政), industry, agriculture, and commerce. However, it was also acceptable for schools to only cover a few of these areas. Middle school education adopted an elective system and a course credit system, whereby students could select subjects according to their interests and requirements.31 However, since the issuing of the 1922 school system, the debates on and criticism of it have never stopped. Jiang Menglin, one of the prominent supporters of the new education movement in China, expressed his worry over Chinese educators blindly imitating foreign ideas.32 In 1924, Sun Xincheng, a famous educator in China at that time, also expressed a similar opinion and argued that neither the Japanese model nor the American model—educational systems designed for industrial countries— fit China, an agricultural nation, and that the new system largely prevented the progress of primary school in China.33 The operation of middle schools also quickly incurred queries from educators. An educator named Xie Zhongsun expressed his concerns about the application of the elective system in middle schools. He was of the opinion that most pupils did not know what they were truly interested in, and would always pick subjects either according to what was easiest or at random. He also pointed out that most middle schools were small in size and did not have

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enough teachers, so they were unable to provide many choices for students.34 Another educator named Cao Chu also indicated that the reality of the 1922 school system was quite different from what had been intended. Because they were unable to provide an education which covered all subject groups, most schools only provided curricula that prepared pupils for university education, with the result that most pupils who were still ineligible to go to university went out into society with largely useless knowledge.35 It indicates that scholars at that time considered the chaotic nature of middle school education to result in a poor future for its graduates. Li Runzhang, a professor in Peking Univeristy, also expressed his worries about the poor performance of middle school pupils who attended the entrance exam for Peking University in 1924. He found that they could not answer very simple questions and, even with an extremely low pass rate, many students who were admitted to the prior course of the university still lacked a solid foundational knowledge.36 While the other scholars worried that the secondary education of the new system sacrificed vocational training, the description of Li Shuhua to some extent reveals that middle schools were even unable to guarantee the quality of the education that prepared pupils to enter university. Clearly, there was a tendency in the 1920s China of scholars starting to think twice about the counterproductive outcomes brought about by transplanting foreign education systems into China directly. Rather than being keen to see which education system produced the best outcomes in foreign countries, scholars shifted their focus to China, and to thinking about how to produce a modern education system suited to the Chinese situation. It was against this background, as the manuscript will show, the Chinese government proposed to the League that China wished to get the advice for national educational reform from the League’s experts and China gradually got involved in the educational programmes of the League.

1.3   Politics and Education in the Nanjing Decade In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek established the Nanjing government and it subsequently replaced the Beijing government as the legal government and won international acknowledgement. Education became an important part of national construction designed by the Kuomintang (KMT), and a national educational reform, with the aim of centralising and enhancing political ideology education, was carried out under the leadership of the Nanjing government from 1927.

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One of the reforms worth special attention was that related to educational administration. Li Shizeng, one of the early members of the KMT and the leader of the France-educated scholars, and Cai Yuanpei, also one of the early members of the KMT and the leader of Chinese educators and scholars, had supported Chiang Kai-shek in his conflict with Wang Jingwei, and they used their reputation within the KMT and educational society to gain the authority to organise the educational administration.37 In 1927, following the model of the French académies, Cai Yuanpei and Li Shizeng created the University Council (大学院) as a central education administrative body and leading scholarly institution, and established university districts (大学区) in some provinces. In each university district, all higher educational institutions were designed to be merged into one university, which not only provided higher education but also supervised all levels of education. The chancellors of the universities would be organised into a council to discuss national educational problems and policies. Although the University Council has long been considered by scholars as a method to realise liberalism and maintain the authority of teachers and professors in organising national education, Cai Yuanpei explicitly stated that the establishment of the University Council was a means for the KMT to preach the Three Principles of the People.38 However, the system of the University Council and university districts did not progress smoothly. Internal conflict was a fatal factor in the collapse of the system. The close relationship between Cai Yuanpei and Li Shizeng broke down towards the end of 1928 because of their disagreement over how Beijing University District should be operated.39 Besides this disagreement, teachers and students in the Central University District (in Jiangsu Province) also organised several protests against the university district system and complained that it largely ignored the development of primary and middle schools.40 The system of the University Council and university districts was designed to remove the politicians from the control of education and establish a mechanism that maintained the power of scholars and educators to operate the educational administration system. However, the internal conflicts of the system turned it into a field within which different factions waged war for administrative power.41 At the same time, the influence of ambitious politicians from the KMT also limited the functionality of the system. Proposals put forward in the Fourth Plenary Session of the Second Central Executive Committee of the KMT in 1928 called for the abolition of the University Council because it prevented the party from exercising control over educational policies.42

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In October 1928 the University Council was replaced by the Ministry of Education, and in July the following year the university district system was abolished. Subsequently, Jiang Menglin was appointed Minister of Education. However, the conflict around the appropriate level of centralisation of educational administration powers remained unresolved. Because of a conflict which arose with Wu Zhihui over the nomination of a chancellor for the Labour University, Jiang Menglin was forced to resign his ministerial position in December 1930. This conflict was superficially solved in December 1930 by the appointment of Chiang Kai-shek himself to the position of Minister of Education. Chen Bulei, who was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Education in 1930, recalled the ongoing conflict between differing cliques in his memoirs: Chiang (Kai-shek) told me, education is the core part of national revolution and construction. Whatever things I come across, I should consult with Wu (Zhihui), Li (Shizeng) and Cai (Yuanpei). But I should be very careful and not fall into the prejudices of the cliques. Anyway, I cannot oppose Li and Cai’s advice, but I also cannot be blindly obedient.43 His opinion reflected the fact that, although Li Shizeng and Cai Yuanpei no longer held any position in the Ministry of Education, their authority and reputation nonetheless made them important figures in educational decision-making. In June 1931 Li Shuhua, a France-educated scholar recommended by Li Shizeng, was nominated to be the Minister of Education. Half a year later, Zhu Jiahua, a Germany-educated scholar as well as an important figure in the KMT, replaced Li Shuhua as the Minister of Education until April 1933. The nomination of Zhu Jiahua as the Minister was partly due to his loyalty to the KMT and the fact that he would devote himself to pursuing “partyisation” (党化) education.44 After the abolition of the University Council in October 1928, the central government issued The Law of Ministry of Education Organisation (教育部组织法), which enhanced the power of the Ministry of Education. The law was issued on 7 December 1928, and was then revised six times over the subsequent years.45 The law laid out the general structure of the Ministry of Education, including its different departments and the working scope of these departments, and the function of the different official positions of the ministry. The later revisions to the law only made slight alterations to the contents. Two of these revisions are directly related to the time period this study deals with. The first is the revision of July 1931, when the League was in the process of forming the educational mission to China. In this revision, the Ministry of Education created a new position

1 INTRODUCTION 13

entitled educational inspector (督学) that comprised between four and six persons who would carry out inspections and guide the development of national education.46 The second relevant revision was that of April 1933, at the time when the mission appointed by the Chinese government to visit Europe had not yet returned to China. In this revision it was stated that the textbooks and other teaching tools should be examined and designed by the Ministry of Education (in the 1928 version the function was undertaken by the Compilation and Translation Bureau (编译局) that was affiliated to the Ministry of Education).47 Such revisions reflect the tendency towards the centralisation of education. In May 1928 the University Council organised the first National Educational Conference. The conference passed a resolution for the revision of the school system based on a proposal written by Cheng Shikui and Meng Xiancheng which continued the basic structure of the 1922 school system. In the proposal they wrote: The new 1922 school system has not yet been implemented for a long period of time in most regions, and the positive and negative aspects of the system can hardly be observed yet. However, education reform comprises many aspects, and it seems that it would be better not to change the school system so frequently. Nonetheless, according to the educational performance of recent years within the framework of the new school system, there are two matters needing to be improved both in principle and in practice. To meet the demands of peoples’ livelihoods, there should be an extensive establishment of supplementary schools, and furthermore there should be a change in the way that vocational schools are operated. This is the first matter. In order to improve the efficiency of education, normal schools should be independent, and senior middle school should be centralised. This is the second matter.48

The wording of the approved proposal reflects the fact that elite Chinese educators had obviously started to question the extent to which they could imitate foreign educational models in order to improve national education performance. Such a discussion had an in-depth influence on organising national education. But they did not wish to overhaul the school system completely; rather, they only wished to change it slightly in response to the local situation. In 1930, the Second National Educational Conference was called up. In this conference, the Ministry of Education provided proposals, and the

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attendees, most of whom were educational officials, discussed those proposals. Many resolutions on education were passed in the conference. The Primary School Plan put an accent on the idea that primary education should be provided to all people and should focus on rural society. Primary school should principally be established by city and county governments, and central and provincial governments should subsidise primary education as necessary. The duration of primary schooling should be six years, of which four years would be compulsory. In rural regions, the duration of compulsory education could be as low as one year. The regulation also stipulated that non-Chinese citizens and groups not organised by Chinese citizens or the Chinese government could not establish primary schools. Moreover, all primary school teachers must be Chinese. The plan also set out standards related to financial expenditure, buildings, and equipment for primary schools. It stated that the way in which teachers were selected and examined should be decided by the Ministry of Education. Provincial educational administrations should organise a teacher selection and examination committee to recruit and provide further education for teachers in a given province. It declared that because the Chinese government urgently wanted to extend compulsory education to all citizens, teachers who had already worked in primary schools and who were competent in the use of educational methods should be given certification to work for one year, after which their certification would be extended to three years if their performance was good. If candidates had not received teacher training but could pass an examination and undertake an internship, they would also be accepted as teachers. The regulation also stipulated a minimum salary for teachers.49 However, the extent to which such regulations were put in practice is questionable. Regarding secondary education, the conference decided that improvement in quality rather than quantity was the most urgent task. Secondary education ought to connect primary education with higher education. General education and vocational training should go hand in hand. The degree of education provided should be improved, and access to secondary education should be widened according to the local economic situation. Senior middle schools should be established by the provincial government, and junior middle schools could be established by provincial, city, or county governments. Agricultural and industrial vocational schools should be established separately from senior middle schools. Education in teacher training and commerce could still be provided by middle schools, because these programmes did not require extensive extra equipment for

1 INTRODUCTION 15

teaching. The plan for secondary education also proposed that there should be equal numbers of middle schools (including teacher training programmes and housewifery programmes) and vocational schools. The plan criticised some problems with middle schools: the contents of textbooks were too complicated and covered too many topics for pupils; there was no overarching system for textbooks, and different stages did not connect together; pupils lacked any channel through which they could publish or present their educational performance; teachers only delivered lectures and did not show sufficient care for students. It suggested that teachers at senior middle schools should be graduates who had at least completed their studies at a special college, and should have good knowledge of the subject that they taught. Those who had a level of education equivalent to that received at special colleges but had accepted teacher training courses and those who had teaching experience should be given priority for jobs.50 Clearly, before the education cooperation between the League of Nations and China started in 1931, the Chinese government had designed full-scale educational reform regulations, which seemed reasonable and could remedy problems facing Chinese education.

1.4   Nationalist Ideology, Education, and Sovereignty In 1844 the Qing government signed the Treaty of Wangxia with the United States, which ensured the right of foreigners to create and organise educational institutions in China. By 1859 missionaries had launched 50 schools in various regions of the country and recruited roughly a thousand pupils.51 At the 1890 General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries in China, Calvin Wilson Mateer, missionary to China with the American Presbyterian Mission, stood firm in his view that parochial schools should not restrict their work to the preaching of religion and baptism of pupils, but should also educate them to become potential future leaders of society and religion.52 Based on such an understanding, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mission schools were upgraded to a superior institution that placed special emphasis on scientific knowledge alongside religious education. When the Department of Education of the Qing Dynasty was founded in 1906, it adopted a laissez-faire approach towards schools established by non-Chinese citizens. Such schools were not

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required to register their operation in China, but their graduates were not eligible to receive stipends and titles that the state granted to other institutions.53 For these reasons, almost all schools established by foreigners were registered with their metropolitan states. Those schools had their education materials, school system, and route to the university provided for them by the municipal states.54 At the same time, the growing popularity of the ideology of saving the nation through education (教育救国) encouraged Chinese educators and scholars to pay closer attention to the foreign-operated schools in China. As early as 1907, scholars in China had warned against foreign-operated education and insisted that education was too important and integral to national sovereignty to be left to foreigners.55 This ideology was inherited by scholars such as Huang Yanpei, Lu Feikui, and many others. They made a stand that education was the best path to modernising the nation and preventing its destruction.56 Because education was viewed as a tool that served society and nation, educational institutions operated by foreigners that taught religious content and existed outside the administration of the national government incurred much criticism from Chinese scholars. Between 1923 and 1927 a group of educators including Chen Qitian and Yu Jiaju formed a school of nationalist educational thought. In 1925 they organised the National Education Association (国家教育协会), which at its peak had more than 160 scholars amongst its membership. Scholars belonging to the school of nationalist education thought published articles advocating nationalist education in influential journals such as Zhonghua Jiaoyujie, Guojia yu Jiaoyu, and Xingshi Zhoukan. They advocated the view that nationalist education was the only way to save the nation, and affirmed that it was essential to recover educational rights from foreigners.57 The intellectual currents of scientism, nationalism, culturalism, and anti-imperialism converged in the Anti-Christian Movement of the 1920s.58 In 1924 this movement (which had originally protested the organisation of the World Student Christian Federation conference at Tsinghua University in 1922) turned its attention to attacking Christian education in China, accompanied by student strikes at many missionary schools. In the same year, the National Union of Educational Associations (NUEA 全国教育会联合会) passed a resolution in support of the abolition of religious curricula in China. They insisted that education was a country’s foundation and that religious education was turning students into “quasi-­ foreigners” rather than Chinese citizens.59 Scholars in the 1920s also felt indignant that missionary schools did not pay attention to

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Chinese language teaching, with the result that many students graduating from Christian schools were unable to use the Chinese language properly.60 They condemned missionary schools for trying to change China into a Christian nation and judged the missionaries to be pioneers of imperialism. As a result, they proclaimed that the Chinese people must oppose all missionary education institutions and that recovery of rights over education was a key part of the campaign to guard national sovereignty against destruction and occupation by foreigners.61 The Recovery of Educational Rights Movement (收回教育权运动) won the support of the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the 1920s. Newspapers operated by the two parties published many articles supporting student movements that protested missionary schools and asserted the imperialist character of those educational institutions.62 In 1925 the Beijing government issued a stipulation targeted at turning missionary schools into a part of national education by requiring them to register with the Ministry of Education. In the same year, the Canton government (established by the KMT) also issued a stipulation forbidding all educational institutions operated by missionary groups from assigning the Bible as a compulsory text for students. In 1926 the Canton government issued the law that required all schools operated by foreigners to register with the Chinese government (the one established by KMT) and permit government inspections.63 During the Northern Expedition in March 1927, the KMT troops arriving in Nanjing attacked foreigners, leading to the death of the American vice-president of the University of Nanking. Because of this incident, many foreign missionaries left China or relocated to the Shanghai international settlement. The flight of foreign teachers gave Chinese educators the chance to reorganise school and university administration in their absence. When these foreign teachers later returned to their schools, they still had to face a rising tide of student radicalism.64 In 1929 the Nanjing government issued a regulation on private educational institutions. In this regulation, the government required all private educational institutions in China to register with the Ministry of Education and organise their curricula according to the standards issued by the ministry. This regulation furthermore forbade educational institutions from being headed by foreigners or making a religious curriculum compulsory; students had the right to choose whether they would attend particular religious rituals or not.65 By 1931, all universities and colleges established by missionaries in China (with the exception of St. John’s University,

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which refused to obey it) had been registered with the Ministry of Education. The registration of foreign educational institutions was an imperative part of the Nanjing government’s efforts to establish a unified education system under the firm control of the government.66 The Chinese government nominally had the power to inspect missionary educational institutions in China and to ensure that Chinese educators were involved in the school administration and management. However, there was still a considerable gap between governmental stipulations and concrete practices in the 1930s. For example, Wei Zhuomin, the chancellor of Huachung University, suggested the Chinese educators appointed to head missionary educational institutions were only nominal leaders, and that such people were nominated only to meet government requirements while the administration and finances of the institution remained under the control of foreigners.67 Similarly, in terms of school culture, the nationalisation of foreign educational institutions in China was not realised as expected. To take the example of Shanghai, the practices of conducting religious services, singing in choirs, and the celebration of Christian festivals in fact spread from missionary colleges to Chinese educational institutions, and the administrators of missionary colleges played an active role in orienting student life towards Christian culture. Hence, there was still a lack of national culture in China’s missionary colleges and universities.68 Before the cooperation between the League of Nations and China started in 1931, the nationalist ideology amongst Chinese educators was becoming increasingly strong. The Chinese government was enhancing its control over missionary education in China, which was agreed by the society to be a part of national sovereignty.

1.5   Perspective, Methodologies, and Research Questions Considering the historical context of the study, this book takes up the concept of transnationalism as the theoretical basis and analytical perspective of the study. The transnational, as a perspective, does not treat the nation as a hermetically sealed container69 but as one amongst a range of social phenomena to be studied, rather than the frame of the study itself.70 Different from global history, though it also analyses the phenomenon of globalisation and the internationalisation process, transnational history focuses on particular regions and nations within particular networks, and

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understands that the nations embedded in the term “transnational” are not original elements to be transcended by the forces we are discussing.71 Transnational history examines the processes by which something moves from one place to another: it focuses on relations and formations, circulations and connections, between, across, and through these units, and how they have been made, not made and unmade.72 Hence the transnational approach is a challenge as well as a supplement to the nation-centred historiographical tradition. It emphasises the importance of supranational entanglements and networks to the construction of analytical strategies beyond national narratives.73 It thus provides a research frame, defined by Christine Mayer as “reference for relational approaches to history across boundaries”.74 In applying a transnational perspective to the processes of internationalisation and interaction between different educational knowledge systems, the role of international organisations increasingly catches scholars’ attention.75 The four cases examined by this book fit well with the framework of transnational study. The cooperation between the League of Nations and China is a programme to which many experts and international organisations directly made a valuable contribution; nevertheless, China and the other countries involved in the four cases were substantial units as both spatial territories and political subjects, which could not be deterritorialised. The four cases are good examples to analyse from a transnational perspective in order to see how educational ideas, methods, and policies circulated across different boundaries. Scholars of transnational history have found several specific research methodologies to be particularly helpful.76 One methodology the study employs is network analysis. Network analysis has typically been applied within the social sciences, and it is in this context that its paradigms and theories have been formulated. In the field of history of education, although specific theories and methodologies relating to network analysis have not yet been formulated, the term “network” has been utilised by scholars to describe transnational relations.77 The network, according to the understanding of Claire Lemercier, is not confined to supporting a specific theory but is a tool that allows historians to learn something new from the perspective of relationality.78 The network provides a perspective from which to describe rather than to measure this relationality, and it helps to integrate different actors through time and space.79 More importantly, when applying formal network analysis to historical research, the aim is not to draw a complete network that maps out all the ties of each

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actor, but rather to use networks to understand “how they were created and/or what their consequences are”.80 Some scholars have used network analysis to explore and reveal the relations between people, institutions, and organisations. Such research has found that different organisations related to similar topics may share the same people, and discovered how different organisations connect people and other organisations together.81 The other methodology the study received inspiration from is the model of cross-national attraction advanced by Phillips and Ochs. “Educational borrowing assumes that one country initiates interest in, or cross-national attraction to, foreign educational practices and policies”,82 and educational lending refers to “what can be taught and exported to elsewhere”.83 Lending and borrowing processes are not neutral and are typically practices with many different political and economic motivations.84 Philipps and Ochs divided the educational borrowing process into four stages: cross-national attraction, decision, implementation, and internalisation/indigenisation. Amongst the four stages, the stage of cross-­ national attraction is recognised by the two scholars to be the precondition of such activities. It includes both “impulses” and externalising potential. “Impulses” refers to complex factors related to local social and political demands, which push scholars or officials to look abroad, while “externalising potential” refers to the individual foci of attraction in the target country which might solve particular existing or potential problems.85 The two education missions analysed by the study are closely related to national educational reform and educational policy borrowing. However, the analysis of the two cases will not strictly follow this model, because the model to some extent ignores the role of the governments of the countries from which educational ideas are borrowed, and, as the study will prove, the four stages sometimes overlap and do not have clear boundaries. But the study gets its inspirations from the model and will pay special attention to the motivations of those experts involved in the four cases, and how their previous knowledge about targeting countries influenced their understanding of education in other countries. The study is based on the following preconditions of understanding. First of all, the four cases must be analysed within the historical situation in which they occurred—China, the League of Nations, and the other countries involved in the four programmes. Also, education should not be considered only from the pedagogical perspective but as an organic part of society. Secondly, the study understands that the people who were involved in the transnational process need to be paid special attention. It was these

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experts who functioned as the intermediaries and promoted the transfer of education. As these educators were also shaped by the social and historical circumstances in which they lived, in order to understand what and how educational ideas and practices flowed across national boundaries, it is necessary to understand the background of the experts who were involved in the programme, namely, the impulses defined by Phillips and Ochs. Finally, in three amongst the four cases, educators wrote educational reports based on their transnational experiences. These reports are considered discursively constructed in the study. Hence, rather than providing evaluations on those reports, the study cares more about how those discourses were constructed and the implications behind the reports. This study will apply network analysis to explore two specific phenomena. The first phenomenon that the study will explore through the mapping of a network is the people the League’s experts met in China. Through visualisation of the social network of educational experts appointed by the League in China, the study will reveal what kinds of conversations the Chinese government arranged for the mission, how far respective national governments were involved in each expert’s trip to China, and what extra activities were carried out in China during the trip which deviated from the official schedule. The second is the League’s involvement in the arrangements for the trip made by Chinese educators to Europe. By mapping a network, this study aims to visualise how the League coordinated scholars from different nations. Hence, this visualisation will disclose how the League carried out its activities regarding educational issues and identify the driving forces behind the network. For such reasons, the study will investigate the four cases from the following dimensions. Firstly, it will analyse the role of the League in this cooperation. Why and how did the League and its technical organisations such as the ICIC become involved in educational problems, a field that was initially outside of its range of tasks? How did the League of Nations prepare the trips made by international educators to China and by Chinese educators to Europe? What kind of standards did the League formulate in relation to educational problems? What topics did the International Educational Cinematograph Institute (IECI) mainly focus on in its work? What kind of preparation work did the League of Nations undertake for carrying out those transnational educational activities? Secondly, by investigating the experts who moved across national boundaries in order to facilitate educational cooperation, this study analyses why and what kind of knowledge was transferred and adopted in the

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process. The core interest of this piece of research is the role of the experts who participated in the transfer of knowledge. What were the backgrounds of these experts, and what was their understanding of national education? What were their opinions about Chinese education? What was the function of these transnational visits in the formation of the subsequent reports? How did these reports relate to the experts’ previous understandings and experiences? What factors influenced Chinese scholars’ and officials’ appreciation of different educational models and advice? To what extent were those educational models and new concepts implemented in China? Thirdly, in relation to international competition in these transnational activities, this study will examine the ambitions of different nations that lay behind their participation in cooperation. Were there any national interests motivating the educational experts appointed by the League of Nations to visit China? If so, how did the League maintain the tendencies towards internationalism and diminished nationalism in its work? What kind of educational institutions did the Chinese government choose to show to these visiting experts? What kind of educational institutions were visited by the Chinese mission to Europe, and what were their common characteristics? Why were Chinese educators especially interested in the educational film competitions organised by the IECI, rather than its other programmes? What were the contents of the educational films produced for these competitions?

1.6   A Note on the Book’s Organisation Before starting to analyse the four cases, I give the reasons why the study only selects four amongst the many serious educational programmes conducted between the League and China. The educational cooperation between the League and China included a series of events that covered different topics. In 1924 the Chinese government required that textbooks in China include information about the League, following the resolution of the Assembly of the League of Nations. In 1931 the Chinese government sent a proposal to demand that the League establish technical cooperation; one item in the proposal was that the Chinese government appealed for the League to appoint experts to China to assist Chinese educational reform and help China to establish intellectual relations with foreign countries. Following that, the League sent experts on national education systems, experts in educational cinematography in 1931, and

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experts in vocational education to China in 1934. The Chinese government also appointed an educational mission to European countries to investigate European education systems in 1932. In 1931, the League dispatched three professors to China’s National Central University at the request of the Chinese government. Hygiene experts from the League’s HO also helped China with the establishment of a national medical education system during the interwar years. After the outbreak of the Second Sino–Japanese War in 1937, the Chinese government continued to try to assist the CWC of the League with an investigation into child welfare and education in China in 1938. There are three reasons for selecting these four cases for analysis and not others. The first reason is that they represent two different types of the League of Nations’s educational activities during the interwar period, which were inherited and transformed by post-war international organisations into internationalising educational concepts and consciousness, and international education assistance respectively. Teaching about the League of Nations and the circulation of educational films are two programmes that belonged to the original work programmes of the League—not only China but also other countries engaged in these programmes. These two programmes were activities concerned with the internationalisation of educational concepts and methods. The educational mission appointed by the League to visit China in 1931 and the Chinese educational mission to Europe in 1932 were two programmes that fell within the framework of technical cooperation between the League and China—they were programmes which were only conducted with China. These two programmes were activities concerned with international educational assistance. The second reason for choosing these four cases is that these four examples indicate different methods of achieving the spread of educational knowledge between regions, and demonstrate how different factors shaped the transfer process. As this study will show, the four cases have different origins, transfer processes, and outcomes, which indicate that each of the four cases themselves is worthy of comparative research. Teaching about the League of Nations was an example of how Chinese educators reacted to an international educational programme. Circulation of educational films was an example of how the League propagandised the generalisation of new educational tools and how the Chinese government sought to promulgate Chinese culture in the West. The two educational missions were about educators undertaking the transnational lending and borrowing of educational models. These four cases can assist in advancing

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the understanding of the complex nature of educational cooperation between the League of Nations and China and the transnational education transfer process. The third reason for selecting them is that these four examples can be analysed within the framework of pre-university education and can thus limit the scope of the research. The knowledge of the League of Nations was taught in Chinese primary and middle school textbooks. In spite of the fact that the two educational missions encompassed problems ranging from primary education up to university education, their work was too broad to consider every aspect they assessed if the following points are taken into consideration. Firstly, the educational cooperation between the League and China related to vocational education and higher education included other programmes such as the establishment of a medical education system, the exchange of academic staff, and vocational guidance (which requires more specialised knowledge of medicine, geography, and other subjects). Secondly, the educational reports on higher education and social education written by Chinese educators who visited Europe cannot be found.86

1.7   The Structure of the Book The study includes three parts. The first part provides a general introduction to the background of educational cooperation. It principally serves to answer the questions as to why and how educational cooperation between the League of Nations and China was possible. Chapter 2 introduces the technical cooperation between the League of Nations and China, of which educational cooperation was a part. It also presents the structure, working purviews, and unwritten principles for dealing with international educational problems that were developed by the League’s organisations—the ICIC, and its executive organ the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC), and the IECI—to enable educational cooperation with China. The second part of the book analyses the two educational activities that lay within the initial framework of the educational programme of the League. Special attention will be paid to the attitudes of Chinese educators towards particular educational programmes of the League. This part will also illustrate the contrast between the League’s intentions with regard to these programmes (which were concerned with internationalist values) and the actual transfer process, which was always influenced (if not

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dominated) by nationalist concerns. Chapter 3 focuses on teaching about the League in China, analysing how the League designed this programme, and the attitudes of Chinese educators towards the League of Nations and the post-war peace. This chapter will further demonstrate the social background, especially the discussion on the League in relation to peace and education, in which the programme was carried out. Finally, the chapter will analyse the image of the League of Nations provided by Chinese textbooks. Chapter 4 is concerned with the trip of Baron A. Sardi, the educational expert appointed by the League to China, and the cooperation between the League and China in the domain of educational film. This chapter will analyse the journeys of Sardi in China and what kind of knowledge he transferred to China. It will moreover demonstrate the attempts made by Chinese scholars and the government to establish further relations with the IECI and the factors that impacted the stability of such relations. Finally, this chapter will analyse the two educational films Chinese scholars made for international educational cinematographic competitions organised by the IECI, and reveal the intention of Chinese scholars in participating in the two competitions. The third part of the book analyses the educational mission appointed by the League to visit China in 1931 and the Chinese educational mission dispatched by the Chinese government to visit Europe with the assistance of the League in 1932. This part focuses on the educational knowledge transfer processes and examines how the League arranged the trips, paying particular attention to the experts involved in these transnational processes. Chapter 5 concerns the League’s educational mission to China. It will first analyse how the League arranged such a mission and what shared traits the four experts possessed. This chapter will then move on to investigate the prior knowledge that these educational experts held about China. It will further explore the mission’s trip to China, and reveal their diagnoses of Chinese educational problems and the Chinese government’s intention in arranging the journeys. Finally, this chapter will investigate what factors influenced the implementation of the proposals put forward by the mission. Chapter 6 concerns the Chinese education mission to Europe, in which special attention will be paid to the experts. This chapter will first analyse how the mission was called up and the tasks of the mission. It will then analyse the four experts, including their understanding of national education and their suggestions for the reform of Chinese education. In a third step, the chapter will focus on the trip of the Chinese mission in Europe and how they articulated the image of education in

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European countries. Finally, the chapter will demonstrate the extent to which the proposals were indigenised by Chinese national educational reforms and what kind of factors swayed the indigenisation process. The concluding chapter will integrate the three earlier parts of the book and summarise the different possibilities of transnational educational circulation, and the critical factors that are influential in deciding what knowledge is transferred.

Notes 1. Eckhardt Fuchs, “The Creation of New International Networks on Education: The League of Nations and Educational Organisations in 1920s,” Paedagogica Historica 43, no. 2 (2007): 200. 2. Edward H Reisner, Nationalism and Education Since 1789: A Social and Political History of Modern Education (Geneva: The Macmillan Company, 1922), 1. 3. Elisabeth T.  Crawford, Nationalism and Internationalism in Science, 1880–1939: Four Studies of the Nobel Population (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 28–46. 4. Philipp Gonon, “Travel and Reform: Impulses Towards Internationalisation in the Nineteenth-Century Discourse on Education,” in Educational Policy Borrowing: Historical perspectives, ed. Kimberly Ochs and David Phillips (Oxford: Symposium Books, 2004), 127–128. 5. Daniel Laqua, The Age of Internationalism and Belgium, 1880–1930: Peace, Progress and Prestige (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 4. 6. Francis S.  L Lyons, Internationalism in Europe, 1815–1914 (Leyden: Sythoff, 1963), 14. 7. C.C.  Eckhardt. “The Old Internationalism and the New League of Nations.” The Scientific Monthly 8, no. 5 (1919): 437–438. 8. Eckhardt Fuchs, Die internationale Organisation der edukativen Bewegung. Studien zu Transfer- und Austauschbeziehungen im Aufbruch der Moderne (Habilitationsschrift Mannheim 2007), 71. 9. Eckhardt Fuchs, “Children’s Right and Global Civil Society,” Comparative Education 43, no. 3 (2007): 395. 10. Eckhardt Fuchs, “All the World into the School: World’s Fairs and the Emergence of the School Museum in the Nineteenth Century,” in Modelling the Future: Exhibitions and the Materiality of Education, ed. Martin Lawn (Oxford: Symposium Books, 2009), 52. 11. Eckhardt Fuchs, “Educational Sciences, Morality and Politics: International Educational Congresses in the Early Twentieth Century,” Paedagogica Historica 40, no. 5–6 (2004): 759.

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12. Damiano Matasci, “International Congresses on Education and the Circulation of Pedagogical Knowledge in Western Europe, 1876–1910,” in Shaping the Transnational Sphere: Experts, networks, and issues from the 1840s to the 1930s, ed. Davide Rodogno, Bernhard Struck and Jakob Vogel (New York: Berghahn Books, 2014), 221–222. 13. Fuchs, “Educational Sciences,” Paedagogica Historica, 757–784; Matasci, “International Congresses”, 218–238. 14. Michele Strong, ““Clothing” Britain’s “Legions” with “Intellectual Weapons” and “Sound Science”: The Industrial Education Movement, the Artisan Exhibition Tours, and the Early Formation of Modern Educational Travel, 1876–1889,” in Die Weltausstellung von 1851 und ihre Folgen, eds. Franz Bosbach and John Davis (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012), 141–162. 15. Christian Lundahl and Martin Lawn, “The Swedish Schoolhouse: A Case Study in Transnational Influences in Education at the 1870s World Fairs,” Paedagogica Historica 51, no. 3 (2015): 319–334. 16. Fuchs, “All the World,” 55. 17. Davis John R., “The Great Exhibition and its legacy,” in Die Weltausstellung von 1851 und ihre Folgen, eds. Franz Bosbach and John Davis (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012), 377–349; Fuchs, “All the World,” 53. 18. Jacobo Darwin Hamblin, Science in the Early Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia (California: ABC-CLIO, 2005), 158–159. 19. Elisabeth Piller, “Can the Science of the World Allow This?: German Academic Distress, Foreign Aid and the Cultural Demobilization of the Academic World, 1919–1925,” in The Academic World in the Era of the Great War, ed. Marie-Eve Chagnon and Tomás Irish (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 204. 20. Fuchs, “Educational Sciences,” Paedagogica Historica, 774. 21. Those international organisations and schools include International School of Peace in Boston (1910), the International Bureau of New Schools in Geneva (1899), the American School Peace League (1908), and so on. See Alex Standish, The False Promise of Global Learning: Why Education Needs Boundaries (US: Bloomsbury, 2012), 10–11. 22. Phillip G, Altbach, Global perspectives on higher education (US: JHU Press, 2016), 74. 23. Fuchs, “The Creation”, Paedagogica Historica, 202. 24. Damiano Matasci and Joëlle Droux, “(De)Constructing the Global Community: Education, Childhood and the Transnational History of International Organisation,” in The Transnational in the History of Education: Concepts and Perspectives, ed. by Eckhardt Fuchs and Eugenia Roldán Vera (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 239. 25. Suzanne Pepper, Radicalism and Education Reform in 20th-Century China: The Search for an Ideal Development Model (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 91.

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26. Hongyu Zhou and Jingrong Chen, “Paul Monroe and Education of Modern China,” Educational Journal 35, no. 1 (2007): 1–38. 27. 黄书光, 中国社会发展变迁的教育动力 (上海: 上海教育出版社, 2014), 77–78. 28. 郑林变, “孟禄与二十世纪二三十年代的中国教育” (上海: 华东师范大学, 2005), 17–20. 29. Ibid., 21–23. 30. “学制系统草案,” in 中国近代教育史资料汇编: 学制演变, ed. 陈元晖, 璩 鑫主, 唐良炎 (上海: 上海教育出版社, 2007), 875–879. 31. 唐青才, 借鉴与变革:中国近现代中学课程设置研究 (天津: 天津大学出版 社, 2015), 102–103. 32. Pepper, Radicalism and Education Reform, 92. 33. 舒新城, “小学教育问题杂谈,” 中华教育界 14, no. 4 (1924): 3–4. 34. 解中荪, “中学生选课问题,” 新教育 10, no. 2 (1925): 78–84. 35. 曹刍, “中学校的几个紧要问题,” 教育杂志 17, no. 8 (1925): 1–12. 36. 李润章, “中学校教育问题: 附表,” 太平洋 (上海) 4, no. 5 (1924): 1–17. 37. 严海建, “蒋介石、党国元老与国立劳动大学的存废之争,” 史学月刊, no. 11 (2018): 61–71. 38. Chiu-Chun Lee, “Liberalism and Nationalism at a Crossroads: The Guomindang’s Educational Policies, 1927–1930,” in The politics of Historical Production in Late Qing and Republican China, ed. Tze-ki Hon and Robert J. Culp (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2007), 299. 39. As early as 1925, when Zhang Shizhao was the Minister of Education, he proposed that the eight national universities in Beijing should be merged. This plan was abandoned in response to protests from those universities. In 1927 when Zhang Zuolin (a warlord who governed Manchuria from 1916 to 1928) occupied Beijing, Liu Zhe, the Minister of Education at the time, used this political and military power to force the nine national universities to be merged into one university named Jingshi University. After June 1928, when the KMT and Nanjing government took control of Beijing, the students and professors of Peking University presented a petition demanding independence for Peking University from Jingshi University. At that time, the Nanjing government was carrying out the University District programme. In the conference of the standing committee of the University Council on 15 June 1928, the so-called American and French cliques had a disagreement about the name of Peking University and the appointment of its chancellor. Cai Yuanpei and the American–British clique proposed that all universities in Beijing should be unified under the name of Peking University, due to that institution’s long history. But Li Shizeng and the French–Japanese clique insisted that Jingshi University should rather be renamed Zhonghua University. Cai had originally planned to be the chancellor of Peking University himself. Conversely, Li Shizeng and

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the French–Japanese clique thought that Li himself should be made chancellor of Zhonghua University. Hu Shi opposed the French–Japanese clique’s plans and argued that Li was overly influenced by the clique and that the name Peking University should be preserved. Zhang Naiyan, the nephew of Zhang Jingjiang, protested that the “absorb everything” (兼收 并蓄) ideas of Cai might lead to a perfunctory outcome without a clear distinguishing and selection process. Hu Shi was disappointed by the nomination of the chancellor of Beijing University District and resigned from the standing committee of the University Council in protest. Two months later, Cai and Li had further divergence on whether or not a Beijing University District should be established. Li Shizeng intended to make Beijing the cultural and educational centre of China and proposed that Beijing University District should not only include Beijing but also take charge of educational development in Tianjin and Baoding (the capital of Hebei province). Cai pointed out the problems faced by the Jiangsu and Zhejiang University Districts and advocated that the creation of Beijing University District should be carried out more cautiously, given that it would cover an even larger region. On 16 August 1928, Cai put forward a proposal to establish Beijing University District without expressing any support in the conference of the standing committee of the University Council. His proposal was approved. However, without the support of the members of the ‘American clique’ (Cai, Hushi, and Jiang Menglin), Beijing University District faced protests since the day it was established. To quell the protests organised by students, especially those from Peking University, Li Shizeng ceased all financial funding for Peking University, and the situation in Beijing reached a stalemate. Finally, Li had to seek help from Cai. On 6 December, Cai and Jiang Menglin sent a message by telegraph to the students of Peking University and advised them to seek a compromise with Beijing University District. Following negotiations with Wu Zhihui, Li Shizeng and Li Shuhua conceded that Peking University could maintain its independence within the structure of Beijing University District. See 茹宁, 中国大学百年模式转换与文化冲突 (北京: 知识产权出版社2012); 黄启 兵, “北平大学区时期北京大学的合并与分离,” 高等教育研究 34, no. 7 (2013): 83–89. 40. 汤广全, 教育家蔡元培研究 (济南: 山东人民出版社, 2016), 184. 41. 茹, 中国大学, 163. 42. Allen B Linden, “Politics and Education in Nationalist China: The Case of the University Council, 1927–1928,” The Journal of Asian Studies 27, no. 4 (1968): 763–776. 43. 陈布雷, 陈布雷回忆录 (北京: 东方出版社 2009), 127–128. 44. 安树芬, and 彭诗琅, eds., 中华教育通史第八卷 (北京: 京华出版社, 2010), 1761.

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45. 韩君玲, eds., 中华民国法规大全(点校本) (北京: 商务印书馆, 2016), 92. 46. “中央消息:立法院通过修正教育部组织法,” 湖北教育厅公报 2, no. 14 (1931): 150–151. 47. “修正教育部组织法第三条第四条第六条第十二条条文,” 教育部公报 5, 19–20 (1933): 23–24. 48. 程时奎 and 孟宪承, “整理学校系统案,” in 中国近现代师范教育史资料, ed. 李友芝et al. (北京:首都师范大学校友办, 1983), 650. 49. “第二次全国教育会议重要方案: 改进初等教育计划(第二次全国教育会议 第四次大会修正通过),” 河南教育 2, 19–20 (1930): 59–70. 50. Ibid., 71–82. 51. 桑兵, 晚清学堂学生与社会变迁 (桂林: 广西师范大学出版社, 2007), 24. 52. 何晓夏 and史静寰, 教会学校与中国教育近代化第一版 (广州: 广东教育出 版社, 1996), 124. 53. In order to attract more people to study at modern educational institutions, in 1905 the Qing government stipulated that graduates from various stages of modern educational institutions could receive the same titles awarded by the imperial education system. 54. 刘少雪, 中国大学教育史 (太原: 山西教育出版社, 2007), 9. 55. 王运红, “中国近代教育权收回行动综析,” 硕士论文, (湖北: 华中师范大 学, 2009), 13. 56. 吴玉伦, “教育救国思潮的形成与发展,” 湖南科技大学学报(社会科学版), no. 5 (2005): 120–123. 57. 杨思信, “对20世纪20年代国家主义教育学派的历史考察.” 学术研究, no. 7 (2008): 110–117. 58. Jessie G Lutz, “Chinese Nationalism and the Anti-Christian Campaigns of the 1920s,” Modern Asian Studies 10, no. 3 (1976): 395–416. 59. 罗伟虹, 中国基督教(新教)史 (上海: 上海人民出版社, 2014), 415. 60. 顾绮中, “中国教育的悲哀,” 教育杂志 17, no. 3 (1925): 1–2. 61. 杨效春, “基督教之宣传与收回教育权运动,” 中华教育界 14, no. 8 (1925): 1–9. 62. 杨思信 and 郭淑兰. 教育与国权: 1920年代中国收回教育权运动研究 (北 京: 光明日报出版社, 2010), 213–226. 63. Ibid., 237–238. 64. Arkush, R. D. Fei Xiaotong and Sociology in Revolutionary China (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1981), 9. 65. 赵厚勰, 雅礼与中国:雅礼会在华教育事业研究 (1906–1951) (济南: 山东 教育出版社, 2008), 91. 66. 陶飞亚 and 吴梓明, 基督教大学与国学研究 (福州: 福建教育出版社, 1998), 94. 67. Ibid., 96.

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68. Wen-Hsin Yeh, The Alienated Academy: Culture and Politics in Republican China, 1919–1937 (Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, 1990), 206. 69. Bernhard Struck, Kate Ferris, and Jacques Revel, “Introduction: Space and Scale in Transnational History,” The International History Review 33, no. 4 (2011): 573–584. 70. Micol Seigel, “Beyond Compare: Comparative Method After the Transnational Turn,” Radical History Review 2005, no. 91 (2005): 63. 71. C. A. Bayly et al., “AHR Conversation: On Transnational History,” The American Historical Review 111, no. 5 (2006): 1449. 72. Pierre-Yves Saunier, Transnational History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 12. 73. Eugenia Roldán Vera and Eckhardt Fuchs, “Introduction: The Transnational in the History of Education,” in The Transnational in the History of Education: Concepts and Perspectives. Ed. Eckhardt Fuchs and Eugenia Roldán Vera (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 10. 74. Christine Mayer, “The Transnational and Transcultural: Approaches to Studying the Circulation and Transfer of Educational Knowledge,” in The Transnational in the History of Education: Concepts and Perspectives, ed. Eckhardt Fuchs and Eugenia Roldán Vera (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 53. 75. Matasci and Droux, “(De)Constructing the Global Community,” 231–260; Saunier, Transnational History, 133. 76. Vera and Eckhardt Fuchs, “Introduction,” 19–38. 77. Eckhardt Fuchs, “Networks and the History of Education,” Paedagogica Historica 43, no. 2 (2007): 190–193. 78. Claire Lemercier, “Formal Network Methods in History: Why and How?,” in Social Networks, Political Institutions, and Rural Societies. Ed., Georg Fertig (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2015), 281–310. 79. Fuchs, “Networks”, Paedagogica Historica, 192. 80. Lemercier, “Formal Network,” 284. 81. Angelo van Gorp, Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “Backing the Actor as Agent in Discipline Formation: An Example of the “Secondary Disciplinarization” of the Educational Sciences, Based on the Networks of Ovide Decroly (1901–1931),” Paedagogica Historica 40, 5–6 (2004): 591–616.; Martin Lawn, “The Institute as Network: The Scottish Council for Research in Education as a Local and International Phenomenon in the 1930s,” Paedagogica Historica 40, 5–6 (2004): 719–732. 82. Kimberly Ochs and David Phillips, “Processes of Educational Borrowing in Historical Context,” in Educational Policy Borrowing: Historical perspectives, ed Kimberly Ochs and David Phillips (Oxford: Symposium Books, 2004), 8.

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83. Gita Steiner-Khamsi, “Globalization in Education: Real or Imagined?” inThe Global Politics of Educational Borrowing and Lending, ed. Gita Steiner-Khamsi (New York: Teachers College, 2004), 2. 84. Laura M Portnoi, Policy Borrowing and Reform in Education: Globalized Processes and Local Contexts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 148. 85. David Phillips and Kimberly Ochs, “Processes of Policy Borrowing in Education: Some Explanatory and Analytical Devices,” Comparative Education 39, no. 4 (2003): 453. 86. The relevant documents are not in the Chinese Second Historical Archive in Nanjing or the Institute of Modern History Archives, Academia Sinica in Taipei. They are also missing from the database Hanwen Minguo Shuku.

CHAPTER 2

Chinese Proposals on Education Cooperation and the League of Nations

Although China was a non-permanent member of the Council between 1921 and 1923, and then again between 1926 and 1928, the Chinese did not establish faith in the League of Nations. The participation of China in the League’s work was quite limited. This was the case until 1925–1926, when Ludwik Rajchman, on a trip to East Asia, passed by China, and subsequently put forward the suggestion to the League that it should provide technical assistance to China. Against this background, in 1931, the Nanjing government submitted proposals for technical cooperation to the League of Nations. In the proposal of intellectual cooperation, the Nanjing government requested that the League find a group of experts to help China assist in the reform of the national educational system. It also hoped that the League would facilitate the establishment of intellectual relations between China and other nations. The League’s Council approved this proposal and entrusted the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) to put it into action. This chapter provides the essential background to this educational cooperation, with a focus on two aspects. This chapter firstly introduces general information about how the technical cooperation between the League of Nations and China (which included educational cooperation) started. It reveals how technical cooperation became possible in China and the anxieties that the Chinese government had about the cooperation, especially concerning national © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. Li, Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China, Global Histories of Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82442-6_2

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sovereignty and international image. In the next step, this chapter introduces the League’s organisations that were related to this cooperation— that is the ICIC, its executive institute, the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC), and the International Educational Cinematographic Institute (IECI). It aims to disclose the principles and methods these organisations developed in dealing with educational topics and the special meaning and challenges brought by the cooperation with China for those organisations.

2.1   China, the League of Nations, and Technical Cooperation As Chap. 4 will demonstrate, Chinese enthusiasm towards the League of Nations cooled before the official establishment of the League had even taken place, because the Paris Peace Conference failed to meet China’s demands for recovering sovereignty over occupied territories in Shandong province. During the Beijing government period (1912–1928), showing little faith in the League’s capacity to handle diplomatic affairs relating to national sovereignty, Chinese diplomats and the government granted the League a symbolic rather than practical function. They sought the moral support of the League for treaty revisions during international meetings such as the Washington Conference1 and tried to win international recognition by seeking appointment to a non-permanent position in the Council. China only occasionally participated in the League’s technical organisations, sending representatives to attend conferences but without being deeply involved in their programmes, with the exception of the Advisory Committee on the Opium, which dealt with matters closely related to Chinese national interests.2 Chinese officials and diplomats also expressed little interest in the possibility that the League could assist in dealing with domestic problems. On account of the experiences of the League in the financial reconstruction of Austria and Hungary, the British Foreign Office in 1924 proposed that the League ought to help to solve China’s financial problems and instability. However, Ronald Macleay, the British ambassador in Beijing, exhorted his government not to do so. He gave several reasons, two of which were directly related to the League. First, there was no sign in China that the distrust in and disgust of international control had decreased; on the contrary, China was fighting to abrogate extraterritorial zones controlled by foreign powers and regain

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tariff autonomy. Secondly, the League had failed to solve the problems of the former that remained after the Paris Peace Conference and China lost its non-permanent position on the Council of the League—nationalist sentiment in China would never accept interference from the League.3 The moment for seeking help from the League for domestic affairs, or in other words, accepting the assistance provided by the League, came after the Kuomintang (KMT) nominally reunited China and replaced the Beijing government as the governing body represented in the League in 1928. As for the League, there was concern that after China lost its non-­ permanent seat again on the League Council in 1928, it might follow the recent example of Brazil and quit the League. For that reason, the General Secretary revived Rajchman’s proposal in an attempt to win China back.4 In the meantime, the Nanjing government was eager to achieve international recognition and consolidate their legitimacy. In 1927, Chiang Kai-­ shek broke with the Soviet Union and expelled left-wing members from the party. The KMT sought to build good relations with the West, while their diplomatic goal of getting rid of the treaties signed with imperial powers never changed.5 The KMT considered that receiving assistance from foreign experts who possessed advanced technology and expertise could be a way to assist in the reconstruction of China while avoiding any sacrifice of national sovereignty. Already in a book published after the First World War, The International Development of China, Sun Yat-sen expressed his wish that basic industries in China (in particular the communications system) be organised with international assistance of the sort provided by the League.6 An official in the Chinese representative office of the League named Qi Zhi proposed, at the end of 1928, that China could take advantage of the League to benefit the reconstruction in China.7 In October 1928, the Nanjing government established the Ministry of Health and invited Rajchman and two other experts, Victor Heiser and Arthur Newsholme, to form an International Advisory Council for China. From their work in China, Rajchman had come to believe that the success of health reform in China depended on the foundation of a good economy.8 He lobbied influential politicians in China to cooperate with and seek technical assistance from the League. However, it took two years to expand this international cooperation beyond the field of health, mainly because the Chinese government was still suspicious about cooperation with the League. They worried that such cooperation would require the sacrifice of Chinese sovereignty. The first proposal to extend cooperation beyond health issues was put forward in 1929 by Zhang Jingjiang, who

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was a senior member of the KMT and the Chairman of Zhejiang Province. It is particularly important to note that this proposal did not originate in the central government. Zhang Jingjiang invited the League’s experts to draw up a plan for the Construction Commission (建设委员会),9 which would assist in the financial development of Zhejiang Province. However, when the League replied to the proposal, they only mentioned the central government, and not the Construction Commission that had initiated the proposal. Because of fears that the switch from the Construction Commission to the central government might turn Chinese internal political problems into an international affair and incur interference from other countries, Sun Ke, Hu Hanmin, and Wang Chonghui rejected implementing the proposal in China at the 94th State Council Conference (国务会 议).10 At the end of 1930, Rajchman came to China again and attempted to persuade the Chinese government to commence broader cooperation with the League. However, even Soong Tse-ven expressed concern that importing experts from the League could lead to the League interfering in Chinese sovereignty.11 Besides concerns over national sovereignty and the imperialistic intentions contained in the League’s assistance, Chinese diplomats were also worried that any experts sent by the League would spread negative information about China. On 19 January 1931, the Council of the League held a meeting without any Chinese delegates present in which they discussed the potential technical cooperation with China. Subsequently, Wu Kaisheng, a Chinese delegate in Geneva, cabled a message to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressing his unease and trepidation that the decision taken by the Council might contain other hidden motives. He warned the Chinese government to pay special attention to any political activities undertaken by the League’s experts who visited China, out of concern that they would spread negative propaganda about China when they returned to Europe.12 These lengthy efforts to establish technical cooperation came to fruition and were first realised in the field of intellectual cooperation, which had a non-political outlook. On 6 March 1931, the Vice Minister of Education Chen Bulei proposed a programme of intellectual cooperation to the Council, with a focus on cultural and scientific relations. He made two specific proposals. Firstly, he suggested that the League should select three European professors (of English literature, geography, and geology) to be appointed to the Chinese National Central University, reflecting the wishes of the chancellor of National Central University to establish

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relations with universities in other countries, and following the modes of collaboration with the League of Nations that China had already established in other fields. Secondly, he expressed that the Chinese government was keen to investigate the scope of the intellectual work undertaken by the League of Nations.13 These proposals originated in the Ministry of Education, but focused on international intellectual exchange and cooperation, without any reference to national educational reform. On 25 April, Soong Tse-ven, in the name of vice chairman of the Executive Yuan (行政院 the executive branch of the Republic of China) sent a letter to the Secretary General. In the letter, he informed the League of Nations of the creation of the Chinese National Economic Council (CNEC 全国经济委员会) for the purpose of planning the reconstruction of China, and requested the assistance of the technical organisations of the League in providing advisers to design and implement reconstruction plans in China. Amongst these requests, one specifically was concerned with education: And in addition, the League might help the government to find advisers to assist the development of the Chinese educational system and facilitate the communication between the centres of intellectual activity in China and abroad.14

On 19 May 1931, the Council decided to authorise the ICIC to address the issues relating to the reform of the educational system in China and intellectual relations with China.15 Later, the IECI, because of the expansion of cooperation to the field of educational film, also participated.

2.2   International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation In 1921, Wilson Harris, an active member of the League of Nations Union in the United Kingdom, wrote that the creation of a committee for intellectual work (the ICIC) “opens (the) door for the first time to action by the League in the field of education”.16 However, the process of opening that door was not easy. Between 1919 and the first session of the ICIC in 1922, the Secretariat of the League received various proposals related to education.17 However, in the first session, the committee members of the ICIC decided not to engage with any of these educational proposals

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except for those related to inter-university relations. Several reasons could explain the unwillingness of the ICIC to engage with education problems. Firstly, intellectual cooperation as a concept describes a broader latitude than education alone, and the ICIC was only able to pursue so many projects at a single time. At its inception, the ICIC was designed to focus on intellectual relations, especially related to the sciences: The work of the Committee, to the scope of which had not been strictly defined, either by the Council or by the Assembly, was to submit to the Assembly a report on the steps to be taken by the League to facilitate intellectual relations between peoples, particularly in respect of the communication of scientific information.18

The opening speech of Inazō Nitobe, the Under-Secretary General of the League, on behalf of the Council implied that the chief task of the ICIC was to establish connections and networks amongst intellectuals, with a primary focus on the sciences. Although the Council allowed the ICIC to define its working scope, Henri Bergson, the chairman of the ICIC, judged that “it was not within the competence of the Committee to consider education questions”.19 In September 1922, at the second Committee of the Third Assembly, a Chinese delegate proposed a motion related to education. He asserted the importance of moral education and suggested that he expected the ICIC to give a favourable hearing to any proposal related to the International Congress on Moral Education. As a representative of this congress, he expressed their willingness to communicate with the ICIC and sent them a copy of two volumes of congress proceedings and a copy of the Voeu de Genève on History Teaching.20 The second Committee of the Assembly transferred the proposal to the ICIC; however, the ICIC rejected it. Gonzague de Reynold, a committee member from Switzerland who in his life published many works and outlined a traditionalist Catholic and Swiss nationalist worldview, suggested that it would be imprudent for the ICIC to engage with this project, and asserted that the ICIC “should take no action in this matter, since it was not its business to consider moral education”.21 Secondly, some members of the ICIC were worried that by assisting in matters related to education, the organisation might be drawn into a dispute over issues of national sovereignty. When Jules Destrée, a Belgain committee member of the ICIC and a socialist politician, suggested in 1922 that the ICIC should advise the League of Nations to “consider

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measures for bringing immediate assistance to the nations where intellectual life was threatened with imminent disaster, or where it was impoverished and impeded by the poor character of the education given to the mass of the population”,22 some committee members such as de Reynold and Marie Skłodowska Curie, a Polish physicist and chemist, deemed that such action would infringe on the sovereignty of the countries in question.23 In 1925, the International League for New Education wished to obtain the support of the ICIC. However, Bergson replied that the ICIC “had not dealt with this matter up to the moment because the Assembly had decided to exclude from the terms of reference of the Committee problems concerning the education of the young. This exclusion was a formal decision”.24 Replying to the question on education, Jules Destrée reiterated that questions of education, in the English sense of the word, were connected with the question of national sovereignty. The Committee could not concern itself with such a problem without appearing to interfere with the life of a nation, all the more so as within each nation questions of education were among those upon which there was most disagreement between the various parties in the country.25

This implied that the members deemed education to be a topic that belonged to national sovereignty, and it was improper for them to lend a hand in it. The ICIC also imposed constraints in referring to educational topics on its executive institute, the IIIC.26 According to the rules established by the ICIC, the IIIC was warned against exceeding its remit and interfering in educational questions which were closely related to issues of national sovereignty and domestic life, or encroaching on the autonomy of universities, academies, or learned societies.27 It was clear that the members of the ICIC considered there could be a hermetic international space which had a clear boundary separating it from national affairs and in which they could carry out activities that excluded political influences. However, education still found a place within the work of the ICIC. The first channel through which the ICIC engaged with educational issues was their work on inter-university relations. The ICIC Sub-Committee for Inter-University Relations was originally designed to provide intellectual relief, chiefly in the form of scholarships for students and professors from Central and Eastern Europe.28 It was furthermore intended to establish scientific cooperation between universities: “International Co-operation

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in the sphere of scientific research is partly assured by scientists themselves, but it is more difficult to establish this cooperation between Universities.”29 Because the League was an organisation whose duty was the coordination of international relations, the members of the ICIC believed that it was well-positioned and that it was possible to act in the same way as the League to regulate relationships between universities without interfering in their internal affairs and without encroaching on the sovereign rights of particular nation states.30 The ICIC and the IIIC inaugurated their work on inter-university relations by collecting documents about university life in different countries and facilitating international relations and interactions between the universities.31 However, the ICIC needed a dedicated body to carry out this work, so in 1923 they created the University Information Bureau. Through the work of the newly established University Information Bureau, two new proposals related to the curriculum and international education seemed to be possible. The first proposal related to the study of contemporary nations in universities: In order to diminish the sources of misunderstanding and the lack of sympathy between nations the universities are invited to organise courses on the nations of to-day according to the facilities at their disposal. It would be the aim of these courses to familiarize […] students with their existing political, economic, and moral conditions.32

The second proposal related to international vacation courses: The courses should be international, not only as regards students, but also as regards the teaching staff and the programme of lectures. Adequate notice of the programme of each course, and also of the names of professors should be given to the League of Nations or its Committee.33

This did not mean that the ICIC would directly intervene in the curriculum of any university, but rather that it limited its activities to only communicating the programmes of these courses to various countries through the University Information Bureau. Also, the two programmes contained the clear intention of cultivating international understanding and communication. The second channel by means of which the ICIC engaged with educational work was through the promotion of international understanding. In

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1925, the ICIC started work on a project assigned to it by the Council, entitled Instruction of Children and Youth in the Activities and Aims of the League of Nations. To some extent, this task lay outside the planned remit of the ICIC. Nitobe said: It had further been indicated, when the report A.10.1925 [which entitled the programme to the ICIC] was under discussion, that, outside the special question dealt with in that report, the Committee on Intellectual Cooperation would not have to intervene in educational matters.34

Notwithstanding the ICIC considering this as an exception to their regular role, this project contributed to education becoming a part of the ICIC’s work (see Chap. 3), introducing education as a method for promoting international understanding and peace that would be part of the permanent works of the ICIC. As part of their efforts to increase international understanding, the ICIC later carried out work to revise textbooks. Prior to 1925, the ICIC received several proposals urging the League of Nations to take action to reconcile patriotism with factual truth in school textbooks.35 The members of the ICIC were initially unsure how to respond to these requests. The words of George Oprescu, the secretary of the ICIC, revealed this hesitancy, as he asserted that it was the right time to attempt a first step towards the activities of teaching and peace, but he also pessimistically admitted that it was too early to attempt to teach any subject (especially history) from an international viewpoint: “[I]t is useless to try to impose any particular textbook on countries or even to recommend its adoption; States must be left full freedom to organise their teaching in their own way.”36 The words of Oprescu reflected that he understood education was a part of national sovereignty, and should be fully decided by a national government. Although he understood it was important that education should promote international understanding and reconciliation, he had no idea how to put this noble cause into practice. Weighing up the probable advantages and disadvantages of the ICIC directly intervening in the revision and rectification of textbooks, the ICIC finally decided that such work would be the responsibility of the ICIC’s national committees,37 which would establish bilateral communication by themselves and report back to the ICIC on the outcome of their efforts.38 The decentralisation of power to the national committees reflected the vacillation of the ICIC over how directly it should involve itself in general education.

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It was not until 1931 that the ICIC finally decided to appoint a specialist sub-committee of experts to find proper methods for revising textbooks and removing passages that were untrue or that displayed prejudice that would impede international understanding.39 The Sub-Committee of Experts for the Instruction of Youth in the Existence and Aims of the League of Nations (The Sub-Committee of Experts) (see Chap. 4) organised a conference about teaching history in 1932, which attracted many international organisations that lacked any coordinating centre.40 In 1933, three members of the ICIC (Gilbert Murray, Jose Castillejo, and J.T. Shotwell) and two members of the Sub-Committee of Experts (Dreyfus-Barney and G.Gallavresi), as well as assessors (Wilhelm Garlgren, Amaranatha Jha, Abbe A.  Woycicki, Marcel Nyns, J. Piaget, and T. Ruyssen) appointed by the Executive Committee of the ICIC assembled in The Advisory Committee on League of Nations Teaching, and this new committee held its first session in Geneva on 11 and 12 July 1934. In this session, members of the ICIC and experts from various national and international organisations examined topics related to teaching about the League, teaching history, and other subjects which were firmly related to moral disarmament.41 In the following years, the ICIC and the IIIC issued several proposals and a declaration on the revision of school textbooks, which required the Council to draw the attention of all national committees of the ICIC to collect documentary material which would assist in the revision of educational textbooks and history teaching.42 As the preceding paragraphs have shown, although initially hesitant, education gradually became an essential part of the works of the ICIC, most of which concerned internationalism and international understanding. From the brief analysis of the process of how education became a part of the working scope of the ICIC, and the methods the ICIC used to deal with educational topics, two unwritten principles can be concluded. First of all, the ICIC considered that education belonged to national sovereignty and never attempted to establish direct communication with any individual national government or conduct activities that might influence the authority of a related stakeholder. Secondly, in order to realise the first principle, the ICIC entrusted the individual National Committee of the ICIC with the responsibility to conduct the programmes put forward by them and cooperated with other international organisations. In addition, almost no work directly relating to national education development had

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been carried out by the ICIC. From this perspective, the proposal that the Chinese government put forward for assisting Chinese educational reform was quite challenging and unprecedented.

2.3   International Educational Cinematographic Institute The earliest attempts to use film for educational purposes had taken place in both Europe and the United States during the 1900s. During the interwar period, there was growing excitement in many countries over the potential of films to shape public opinion and cultivate the next generation of citizens.43 The popularity of film aroused great interest amongst international educators, but also led to concern over the social effects of film. Some committees and organisations of the League of Nations were already paying attention to it in the early 1920s. In 1923, the ICIC received several proposals related to films44 and in 1927 the ICIC discussed the possibility of establishing an office of cinematography, which faced hesitation from committee members due to its close relation with education.45 Other organisations of the League, such as the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), examined the negative impact of cinema on children, and explored ways to protect the moral and physical well-being of children from it. In 1926 and 1927, the CWC evaluated the effect of cinema on the mental and moral well-being of children. The committee members of the CWC agreed that there should be restrictions and age limitations on the films shown to children but also argued that measures should be taken to encourage film companies to produce educational and instructive films.46 In 1927, the CWC drew up recommendations on the relationship between children and film that were circulated to various national governments. These recommendations advised that each country should establish a system of censorship to prevent the exhibition of immoral films, encourage the circulation and exchange of films that promoted the intellectual, moral, and physical education of children and young people, and thus promote a hygienic cinema environment for children.47 The CWC hoped to reach some degree of international agreement to control and restrict the counterproductive influence of film on children. Clearly, it was from the perspective of social welfare and social influence that internationalists paid attention to film. Further, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) similarly paid special attention to the importance of educational film. They

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contended that film production was a form of labour and that the use of educational films could assist in “vocational guidance, technical instruction (in which cinematography is already rendering signal service), the problem of safety, industrial hygiene, the education of the working classes and the utilization of their leisure”.48 In 1928, the IECI was established in Rome, with the financial support of the Italian government. The IECI worked under the direction of the Council of the League of Nations and was advised by the ICIC. The asserted aim of the IECI was to encourage the production, distribution, and international exchange of educational films concerning topics including teaching, art, industry, agriculture, commerce, health, and social education.49 The organs of the IECI included the governing body, a permanent executive committee, and a director. Just as the director of the IIIC was always a French citizen, the director of the IECI, Luciano de Feo, was Italian. The IECI established a wide network of contacts related to educational films, encompassing other organisations within the League, other international organisations, and film companies. For example, working together with the International Museums Office, the IECI compiled film catalogues.50 According to the regulation that stipulated the relation between international organisations and the League of Nations, institutions such as the IECI that were finalised by an individual government but placed at the League’s disposal must contain some persons who were also members of an advisory organ of the League and were especially competent in the matters the concerned institution dealt with.51 The governing body of the IECI included people who were members of the ICIC, the CWC, and the ILO, in addition to some from the International Agriculture Institution in Italy. The institute moreover expanded its network through the establishment of national institutes in different countries. These national institutes became the main liaisons between the IECI and different nations, and it was with their help that the IECI collected information on the application of educational films in every country and distributed information on the activities of the IECI to each country. It also created connections with various national and international organisations, including the International Council of Women, the International Committee on Social Instruction and Education through Cinematography and Broadcasting, and the International Chamber of the Educational Film in Basel.52 The connection between the IECI and these international organisations was mutually beneficial. The IECI could expand its own influence through those

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organisations and carry out activities through them, which it was unable to do by itself because of the constraints on personnel and funding. The international organisations themselves could gain international reputation and authority through their connection with the IECI. For example, the IECI lent its premises to the International Chamber of the Educational Film at Basel for the Conference of Cinema-Owners and the Film Press Congress in order to increase the latter’s reputation.53 In 1933, the IECI established an Advisory and Technical Committee that consisted of producers and representatives from national organisations of technicians, with the view of ensuring closer cooperation with the film industry and technicians.54 During the interwar period, the IECI functioned as a centre for scholars who cared about educational films. With its extensive network, the institute successfully carried out several activities to promote the development and popularisation of educational films around the world. First, the IECI undertook a piece of international investigative research. This research consisted of questionnaire enquiries and expert investigations. The questionnaire continued the work of the CWC and ILO as mentioned before, examining the use of film in the fields of general health and social hygiene and the scientific organisation of labour.55 Aside from that, this piece of work also entailed an extensive enquiry into the needs that pupils had for films, which then functioned as a reference for educationalists who designed and used educational films.56 In order to study educational film in various countries, Luciano de Feo visited France, Germany, the United States, and Spain in 1929 and 1930.57 In 1931, Baron Sardi visited China as a representative of the IECI, as will be discussed in Chap. 4. Secondly, the IECI undertook significant efforts to build up a collection of both educational films and information related to them, although the collection of the former did not bear fruit. In its first year of operation, it collected information on the various institutions and organisations that might be interested in educational films. It furthermore attempted to establish a film library to conserve educational films and other documents. By 1930, the library had received and catalogued 900 newspapers and reviews about educational films.58 In 1931, it started to compile international statistics about educational films. This included the creation of various lists, including a list of films about the prevention of accidents, a list of work relating to film censorship, and a list of educational and cultural films that had been officially examined in various countries.59 Most of the

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documents the IECI collected were published in the journal International Review of Educational Cinematography, which was issued by the IECI from 1929 in five languages. The journal not only gave readers first-hand information about the activities of the institute, but also published academic research on educational films and articles describing the different policies various nations had undertaken to deal with the social influence of film. Thirdly, the IECI organised international conferences on educational films and provided assistance to other international organisations that carried out related activities. In 1933, it contributed a collection of publications to an international exhibition of cinematography held to coincide with the fourth International Book Fair in Florence.60 It also supported the International Teaching and Education Congress which took place from 19 to 25 April 1934. At this conference, representatives of governments and scholars from many countries exchanged ideas about the present position of cinema in relation to didactics and education.61 In 1935, the IECI, in cooperation with the Brussels International Exposition, organised a rural film competition (see Chap. 4). In preparation for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the IECI organised an international film competition themed around physical culture and sports. According to the proposal, the competition would be held in the autumn of 1935, and a gold medal assigned to the best film during the Olympics the following year, following a pattern already established by a competition for books related to sports.62 However, the IECI itself did not assume the role of making its own educational films. In 1930, when the League of Nations planned to produce a film showing the work it was doing, the IECI did not directly participate in the production, but only assisted by providing “the information already collected and to afford them the benefit of the relations established with film producers and scenario writers”.63 Besides, such a film produced by the League of Nations seemed never to come into realisation.

2.4   Conclusion In 1931 the Chinese government put forward the proposal that the League of Nations would appoint a group of experts who would be able to guide the reform of the Chinese educational system and assist in the

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establishment of intellectual relations with other countries. The League of Nations appointed the ICIC and the IECI to deal with this project of educational cooperation with China. Since their establishment, these two organisations of the League had formed two principle-based methods for approaching educational problems. First of all, they upheld the principle of not interfering in other nations’ sovereignty as the fundamental basis on which international educational problems would be dealt with. Secondly, they largely relied on their own networks of connections with other international organisations and intellectuals who showed interest in their work. The working scope of the ICIC and the IECI indicates that the education cooperation between the League of Nations and China referred not only to the prior-established projects of the League of Nations (i.e. teaching about the League of Nations and sending educational film experts to popularise educational films) but also to the new international educational events (such as appointing educational experts for Chinese educational reform and arranging for Chinese educators to visit Europe) that were quite unique for the ICIC and the IIIC. Against this background, the cooperation between China and the League in educational reform not only expanded the working scope of the ICIC and the IIIC, but also served as an attempt for them to normalise the way in which international organisations approached national educational problems.

Notes 1. Alison Adcock Kaufman, “In Pursuit of Equality and Respect: China’s Diplomacy and the League of Nations,” Modern China 40, no. 6 (2014): 615–618. 2. 唐启华, 北京政府与国际联盟, 1919–1928 (台北: 东大图书出版社, 1998). 3. Ibid., 114–117. 4. In 1925–1926, while visiting Japan as part of an eastern mission, Ludwik Rajchman, a co-founder of the Health Organisation of the League of Nations, travelled to China and sought cooperation with the Chinese government to control the epidemics in ports. He met both officials from the Beijing government and that of the Nationalist government established by the KMT in Canton. After he had returned to Europe, Rajchman put forward a private proposal to the Secretary General. He advised that at least the social and economic organisations of the League could support China with technical experts and suggestions without interfering with Chinese

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sovereignty, and that considering the Chinese domestic situation, the League and the Western countries could express sympathy towards the KMT (who at that time were engaged in the North Expedition and were not recognised as the official Chinese government). See F. P. Walters, A history of the League of Nations (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1952), 330–331. 5. Ibid., 330. 6. 姜旭朝, 孙中山经济改革论 (北京: 团结出版社, 1989), 120. 7. 张力, 国际合作在中国: 国际联盟角色的考察, 1919–1946 (台北: 中央研究 院近代史研究所, 1999), 132. 8. Marta Aleksandra Balinska, For the Good of Humanity: Ludwik Rajchman, Medical Statesman (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1998). 9. The Construction Commission (建设委员会) was established in 1928 and was affiliated to the Nationalist government. The Construction Commission functioned like an official think tank, which designed concrete plans for national construction according to The International Development of China written by Sun Yet-sen. Zhang Jingjiang was the chairman of the commission. 10. Technical Cooperation with League of Nations, 1929–1931, 631.5/001, 台北: 中央研究院近代史研究所档案馆. 11. 张力, 国际合作在中国, 138. 12. Technical Cooperation with League of Nations, 1929–1931, 631.5/001. 13. Correspondence from Bulei Chen to the League Council, 1931.3.6, 5B/28134/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 14. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Thirteenth Session, 1931.8.15, C-471-M-201-1931-XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 88. 15. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, Sixty-third Session of the Council Minutes, 1931.5.19, 5B/28134/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 16. H. Wilson Harris, Geneva 1921: An Account of the Second Assembly of the League of Nations (The daily News, LTD., 1921), 29. 17. Although the Union of International Associations (IUA) was one of the main supporters of the establishment of the League of Nations, their recommendation to establish a committee for intellectual cooperation was ignored at the Paris Peace conference. This was because it was viewed to be an issue of lesser importance and urgency by those who compiled the covenant. See H. R. G. Greaves, The League Committees and World Order: A study of the Permanent Expert Committees of the League of Nations as an Instrument of International Government (New York: AMS Press, 1979): 111–113. However, since the establishment of the League, various propos-

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als related to (especially) intellectual education were proposed to the League during this time. The executive committee of the French Association proposed to establish a permanent office for intellectual interchange and education for the collaboration and international understanding in educational questions and science, literature, and art. The IUA requested the League of Nations to create a technical organisation for education and science and an international educational bureau, and consulted on the possibility of the League of Nations commissioning and publishing its own textbooks in English and French. Proposals related to inter-­university relations included calls for student exchange, calls for the creation of an international bureau of universities, and some international organisations who asked for the patronage of the League of Nations. The elements related to education generally included calling for an international bureau or conference of education under the auspices of the League, the introduction of teaching about the League of Nations and international law in primary schools, and requests for information about international education by some organisations and governments. See International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the First Session, 1922.10.11, C-711M-423-1922-­­XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 18. League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the First Session, C-711-M-423-1922-XII., 3. 19. Ibid., 19. 20. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations Committee on Intellectual. Cooperation Minutes of the Second Session, 1923.9.1, C-570-M-224-1923-XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 72. 21. Ibid., 41. 22. League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the First Session, C-711-M-423-1922-XII, 8. 23. Ibid. 24. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations Fifth Session, 1925.6.25, C-286-M-104-1925-XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 18. 25. Ibid., 19. 26. Because the ICIC only convened once or twice per year, the body quickly found that it lacked the necessary material resources to carry out the work assigned to it by the Council of the League and needed an executive organ to carry out the decisions of the ICIC. Thus, the French government decided to create an annual subsidy to allow the ICIC to establish the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) in Paris in 1926.

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The IIIC was thus financed by the French government, directed by a governing body composed of some members of the ICIC, and presided over by a French chairman. 27. Committee on Intellectual Co-operation Fifth Session 1925.5.27, C.288.1925.XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 1. 28. League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the First Session, C-711-M-423-1922-XII: 9. 29. Ibid., 6. 30. Ibid. 31. League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Second Session, C-570-M-224-1923-XII: 68. 32. Ibid., 34. 33. Ibid. 34. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Seventh Session 1926.29.27 C.87.M.43.1926.XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 6. 35. These proposals were made by the Association Holland Abroad, the European Centre of the Carnegie Endowment, and by committee members Julio Casares and Leopoldo Lugones. See International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Sixth Session 1925.8.20, C.445.M.165.1925. XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 13. 36. Ibid., 14. 37. The National Committee of the ICIC was the national branch established by intellectuals from individual nations to coordinate with the ICIC to carry out its programmes. In the second session in 1923, the ICIC drafted a ruling on the creation of national committees. According to this ruling, national committees could only act as intermediaries between intellectual organisations in their respective countries and the ICIC. The national committees themselves were allowed to define their relations with national governments, and their own rules for procedure and appointment. See International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Third Session 1924.1.1, C-3-M-3-1924-XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 34. The National Committee of the ICIC in fact opened the door for national influence, which, as the chapter shows, the ICIC tried to avoid. For example, according to the research of Takashi Saikawa, the Japanese National Committee, its formation and financial resources were deeply influenced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and its primary purpose was not to correspond and cooperate with the ICIC, but rather to introduce Japanese

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culture to the West and fight for Japan to be treated as representative of all of Asia. See Takashi Saikawa, “From Intellectual Cooperation to International Cultural Exchange: Japan and China in the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation”, Asian Regional International Review, no. 1 (2009): 86. 38. League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Sixth Session C.445.M.165.1925.XII: 18. 39. Report by the representative of France, Work of the Thirteenth Session of the International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation 1931.8.2, C.517.1931.XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 3. 40. Eckhardt Fuchs, “The Creation of New International Networks on education: The League of Nations and Educational Organisations in 1920s,” Paedagogica Historica 43, no. 2 (2007): 207. 41. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Report of the Committee on the Work of its Sixteenth Plenary Session, 1934.8.11, C.339.M.156.1934.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 17–21. 42. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Report by Professor G. de Reynold on the Work of the Twentieth Plenary Session of the Committee, 1938.8.10, C.253.M.150.1938.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 9. 43. For example, in France, experiments with the use of film for scientific purposes (rather than for commercial audiences) had already begun at the end of the nineteenth century. After the First World War not only were audiences increasingly interested in documentary films, but governments and other non-official groups showed growing interest in the power of film to form the national identity, popularise the knowledge about agriculture, and so on. See Alison J. Murray Levine, Framing the Nation. Documentary Film in interwar France (New York: Continuum, 2010). In the United States, Thomas Edison, John Collier, and Georg Kleine drove the first wave of the promotion of educational films. See Amanda Keeler, “John Collier, Thomas Edison and the Educational Promotion of Moving Pictures,” in Beyond the Screen: Institutions, Networks, and Publics of Early Cinema, ed. Marta Braun, Charles Keil, Rob King, Paul S. Moore, Louis Pelletier (Bloomington IN: John Libbey Publishing), 117–125. In Germany, the Cinematographic Reform Association was formed in 1907 and advocated the introduction of films to classrooms. See Eckhardt Fuchs, Anne Bruch, and Michael Annegarn-Gläß, “Educational Films,” Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 8, no. 1 (2016): 1–13. 44. League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Second Session, C-570-M-224-1923-XII: 47.

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45. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of Ninth Session, 1927.9.24, C.424.M.157.1927.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 41–42. 46. Child Welfare Committee, Advisory Commission for the Protection and Welfare of Children and Young People Child Welfare Committee Minutes of the Second Session, 1926.5, C.264. M.103. 1926.IV., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 29–31. 47. Child Welfare Committee, Advisory Committee for the Protection and Welfare of Children and Young People Child Welfare Committee Minutes of the Third Session, 1927.6.16, C.347. M.121. 1927.IV., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 55. 48. League of Nations, International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation International Educational Cinematographic Institute, 1928.8.8, C.383.1928.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 7–8. 49. International Education Cinematographic Institute, Draft Statute for the Institute, 1928. 2.28, C.63.1928.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 50. League of Nations International Educational Cinematographic Institute, Report to the Council on the Fourth Session of the Governing Body of the Institute, 1932.4.1, C.922.M.487.1931.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 2–3. 51. League of Nations, Relations between the League of Nations and the Institute or Bodies Set up under its Authority, 1928.6.6, C.296.1928.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 52. League of Nations International Educational Cinematographic Institute, Report to the Council on the Fourth Session of the Governing Body of the Institute, C.922.M.487.1931.XII., 2–3. 53. Ibid. 54. League of Nations, Intellectual Co-operation Organisation Reorganisation of the International Educational Cinematographic Institute, 1933.4.24, C.255.1933.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 55. International Educational Cinematographic Institute, Report of the Council on the Third Session of the Governing Body of the Institute, 1931.1.2, C.694.M.291.1930.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 9. 56. League of Nations, International Educational Cinematographic Institute Report by Italian Representative, 1931.1.14, C.55.1931.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 57. International Educational Cinematographic Institute, International Educational Cinematographic Institute Report of the Council on the Second Session of the Governing Body of the Institute, 1929.12.7, C.3.M.1.1930.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 2–3.

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58. Report of the Council on the Third Session of the Governing Body of the Institute, C.694.M.291.1930.XII.: 3. 59. Ibid. 60. Editor, “The Florence Cinematographic Exhibition,” International Review of Educational Cinematography 4, no. 7 (1932): 556. 61. Editor, “The international Congress of Teaching and Education,” International Review of Educational Cinematography 6, no. 5 (1934): 319–352. 62. Ibid., 349. 63. Report of the Council on the Third Session of the Governing Body of the Institute, C.694.M.291.1930.XII.: 4.

CHAPTER 3

Teaching About the League of Nations and International Consciousness

The interwar period was a time during which various international organisations actively organised or participated in projects with the aim of formulating an international consciousness amongst the public, especially the younger generations, regarding cooperation and the prevention of further wars. The experiences of the First World War prompted educators in many European countries to begin to rethink the relationship between the abolition of war and education, a relationship that had been advocated by peace activists but aroused little interest amongst educators before the war.1 The enthusiasm for the League of Nations amongst intellectuals prompted educational thinkers at the Paris Peace Conference to draw up several plans for how education could contribute to the League (see Chap. 2). Many international educational organisations believed that the permanent stability of the League would depend on the accordance of national educational aims with the League’s spirit. As a result, representatives of such organisations (including the Allied Associations for a Society of Nations, the Workers’ Educational Association, and the International Council of Women) proposed that children should be instructed in the facts and aims of the League.2 In the life of the League of Nations, the educational programme designed to inform children about the League, which was first approved in 1923, opened the door for educational activities to become a part of the work of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC); © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. Li, Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China, Global Histories of Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82442-6_3

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it was also one of the educational programmes on which the League put most emphasis. However, as Chap. 2 indicates, it was a consensus amongst the committee members of the ICIC that education belonged to national sovereignty, in which international organisations should not and could not intervene. Thus, it was a challenge for the ICIC, which assumed charge of the programme of educating about the League as assigned by the Council. The struggle between exerting maximal influence in carrying out the programme, on the one hand, and carefully avoiding the accusation of intervention in domestic affairs, on the other, was hence an issue throughout the designing and conducting of the programme of the ICIC. This raises the questions of what role the ICIC assumed in promoting the implementation of the programme internationally and how the programme was carried out within a national scope. Some studies that focused on how the programme was carried out in the Commonwealth of Nations have revealed that the League of Nations was taught through textbooks, national holidays, and other extra school curricula, and teaching about the League in those countries partly aimed to cultivate cosmopolitan citizens.3 However, those studies did not provide an in-depth analysis of the programme itself, namely how it was designed by the League and what the relationship was between the ICIC, the other international organisations that assisted the ICIC in the work, and the individual nation states. Also, the situation in the Commonwealth of Nations could hardly be considered a universal phenomenon. If teaching the League’s programme meant cultivating cosmopolitan citizens and was carried out in the same way in each country, then the Second World War would lose its ideological basis amongst the public. This chapter offers an analysis of the implementation of the programme for teaching about the League in China during a time when the atmosphere of nationalism and anti-imperialism was increasing in strength. As the chapter will prove, this atmosphere, in the period beginning in the 1920s, resulted in a totally different situation to that in the Commonwealth of Nations. It first introduces how the programme was put forward and designed by the ICIC and reveals the networks and the methods through which the ICIC intended it to be carried out. It moves to an analysis of the attitudes of Chinese scholars and educators towards both post-war peace and the League during the interwar period, which were the interpretive conditions for how the programme was carried out in China. Finally, the chapter analyses how the League was presented in history textbooks in the 1920s and 1930s China and discusses what ideology it inculcated into the next generation through the programme.

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3.1   Teaching About the League: A Proposal for Cultivating International Consciousness Although the Covenant of the League of Nations did not include education as a part of the League’s work, proposals dealing with problems related to education continued to be put forward to the Council and Assembly (see Chap. 2). At the same time, some international organisations had already carried out activities to popularise the League of Nations amongst the public (and the younger generation in particular) and sought an opportunity to establish formal relations with the League. For example, the World Federation of Education Association argued in 1923 that a special committee should be established to “consider the League of Nations and the problems involved in our acceptance or adhesion to that organisation, with special reference to its bearing on international education”.4 It indicated that even before educating youth about the mission of the League became a task for the League itself, the belief that the League could become an essential mechanism for educating the world about peace and mutual understanding had already formed amongst many international educators, who wished that the League should sustain the role of the centre of international educational organisations. In 1923, on the motion of Edith Lyttelton, the British substitute delegate to the League and an activist in international women’s organisations, the League concerned itself with the problem of teaching the younger generation.5 Against this background, later in the same year, the Assembly adopted a resolution that required the governments of member states to organise programmes in their respective countries to educate children and youth about the existence and aims of the League and the terms of the Covenant.6 In 1924 and 1925, the Assembly re-emphasised the fundamental importance of familiarising young people with the principles and work of the League. Such consciousness amongst the League became increasingly strong in the following years. In 1927, Jules Destrée re-­ emphasised that “the League of Nations’ existence was largely conditioned upon the sympathetic response from the different peoples”.7 The Assembly moreover pointed out the importance of “training the younger generation to regard international cooperation as the normal method of conducting world affairs”.8 Just like other educational programmes of the League, such as teaching international relations, which was based upon the ideology that the road to peace lay in universally shared knowledge,9 teaching about the League carried with it the implication that the world’s youth

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should share a common faith in cooperation leading to peace, and in the ability of the League of Nations to maintain this peace. In 1926, under the requirement of the Council and following the resolutions in the Assembly, the ICIC took on the task of forming the Sub-­ Committee of Experts for the Instruction of Children and Youth in the Existence and Aims of the League of Nations (henceforth the Sub-­ Committee of Experts)10 to determine the best methods of making the work of the League of Nations known to the younger generation. The task for the Sub-Committee of Experts, according to the description, was finding methods to realise the project rather than deciding what was to be taught to students, because, according to the works done by the Sub-­ Committee of Experts, they realised that “the League of Nations itself is not the same from country to country”.11 When discussing how to appoint the members of the Sub-Committee of Experts, the committee members all expressed the necessity that representatives, especially those who were familiar with this question from international organisations, should occupy the positions.12 The Sub-Committee of Experts was composed of 14 members. It included 3 members from the ICIC (Gilbert Murray, Jules Destrée, and Julio Casares) and 11 other members who had close networks with some international organisations and were experienced in educational work.13 The member structure of the Sub-Committee of Experts reflected two of its key intentions: to internationalise the programme of teaching about the League and to make implementing the programme within each national territory practical. First of all, the Sub-Committee of Experts tried to balance the quota of different nationalities to maximise its influence around the world, rather than merely focusing on European countries. After the ICIC was established in 1922, the standard for the nomination of committee members, which was designed so that it should depend on personal achievement, faced challenges from delegates of different member states of the League of Nations, who advocated that the committee members of ICIC should represent different national cultures.14 The composition of the Sub-­ Committee of Experts indicated practical concession between these two approaches by appointing scholars with reputation and influence from different countries. The constitution of the members of the Sub-Committee of Experts had followed a careful composition between different nations— when the French delegate Paul Lapie died shortly after the Sub-Committee of Experts was created, another French expert named M.  Rosset was appointed to replace him. Although the Sub-Committee was dominated

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by European nationalities, it also included two members from Asia and two from Latin America. This was designed to contribute to the expansion of international educational activities to include non-European countries. As early as 1926, the ICIC had realised that their influence was mainly in European countries, and considered Asia to be a valuable target for expanding the influence of the League of Nations. That year, Atul Chandra Chatterjee, an Indian committee member of ICIC, proposed to organise a conference (which was ultimately never realised) in which all Asian countries would participate, allowing them to obtain information about the work done for education and propaganda by the League in Europe, with a view to making the League more widely known.15 From the perspective of Latin American countries, most of the activities of the League before 1928 were of little interest to them, given that they were focused largely on the problems created by the First World War in Europe.16 The appointment of delegates from Latin American countries to the Sub-Committee of Experts also contributed to increasing Latin American participation in teaching the League’s programme, and the expansion of the influence of the ICIC into Latin America. Secondly, the appointment to the Sub-Committee of Experts also demonstrated that the ICIC recognised the importance of professional educators to international education activities. The Sub-Committee of Experts’ membership contained experts in education and educational administrators. It was expected that the involvement of specialised education experts would allow the Sub-Committee to put forward practical and professional resolutions. Moreover, the experts appointed to the Sub-Committee of Experts also enjoyed considerable influence and reputation in their respective national educational spheres and in other international organisations, which ultimately made the promulgation of the Sub-Committee’s activities easier. For example, Julio Casares, the Spain committee member of the ICIC, was invited to give lectures on the subject of Intellectual Co-operation and School Teachers at Madrid in 1928 by the school teachers’ union Assemblée Pédagogique. In his lecture, he described the work of the League, and how it particularly related to intellectual cooperation. Following this lecture, Assemblée Pédagogique applied to the Spanish government to set up an enquiry into the recommendations of the SubCommittee of Experts and the possibilities of realising them in Spain.17 Laura Dreyfus-Barney was the vice-president of the International Council of Women, an international organisation which had education and peace committees for discussing the works of ICIC, and actively participated in

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the networks of associations that cooperated with the League.18 Hence, if a scholar, such as Dreyfus-Barney for example, was an active member or played a leading role in an international organisation which had a close relationship with the ICIC and believed in the necessity of the educational works of the ICIC, he or she would not only try to arrange activities through international organisations but also promote their realisation within a national scope.

3.2   The Sub-Committee of Experts: Networks and Endeavours As mentioned in Chap. 2, the ICIC carried out their activities prudently without intervention in national education. The Sub-Committee of Experts also obeyed the principle of limiting their activity to an international level. Their work mainly involved three aspects: advising on the methods of teaching about the League of Nations, collecting and disseminating literature, and seeking to motivate teachers directly. The first primary task of the Sub-Committee of Experts was formulating recommendations on the methods of teaching about the League as a form of international advocacy. In 1926, they published a series of recommendations for teaching the aims and organisations of the League. In the recommendations, the Sub-Committee of Experts conceived of different methods for general education, higher education, and out-of-school education. The recommendations suggested that all children and adolescents should receive education on the ideas of the League before they finished formal education. It advised that teachers could receive special access to attend courses in Geneva and organise special occasions to celebrate and inform the public about the work of the League. The recommendations also encouraged cooperation between teachers, educational authorities, and various private organisations to devise the programme.19 They were then circulated to governments of member states. Members of the ICIC and another 25 interested international organisations provided feedback on the recommendations and advocated that they should carry out the recommended practices in their respective nations.20 The second primary task of the Sub-Committee was collecting documents and providing literature and communication to those interested in making the League known by youth. A great number of documents provided by the Sub-Committee of Experts were about the work of the

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League of Nations. The Education Information Centres of the League21 worked in constant cooperation with the League Library and the Information Section of the Secretariat. The League Library assisted in the reading and indexing of articles in periodicals, while the Information Section prepared periodical summaries on the work of the League.22 With the support of these two organs of the League, the Sub-Committee of Experts was able to provide updated materials on the works of the League for teachers and interested organisations. In 1927, the Sub-Committee issued a pamphlet named The Aims and Organisations of the League of Nations as a reference book for teachers, aiming to persuade the population that the League of Nations’ work was the concern of the whole of humanity, and could not be disregarded by anybody.23 In 1935, after the reorganisation of the Sub-Committee of Experts, another pamphlet for teachers titled The Aims, Methods and Activity of the League of Nations was circulated in various countries as a reference book for teaching about the League, thus serving the same function as the one published in 1927. The two pamphlets introduced the general work of the League and were designed for teachers. Using the pamphlet, as the Sub-Committee of Experts assumed, they could give a general lesson on the League, and highlight the points in the works of the League of Nations which were of particular interest to each nation.24 It meant that the Sub-Committee of Experts did not regard their materials as a comprehensive and compulsory educational content source, but only as a reference for teachers. Although the general intention contained in the programme—that is, cultivating the international understanding of cooperation, thereby leading to future peace—seemed to be a universal value without controversy, the plan that teachers would select the works of the League that were of relevance to each particular national interest implies that diverse understandings of the League existed and the Sub-Committee would not interfere in it. It further collected updated news and reports on teaching about the League in various countries and provided communication to the organisations and people who wanted to learn about the situation of teaching about the League in other countries. From 1929 the Sub-Committee of Experts published Education Survey, an annual journal for teachers. The journal published articles on teaching about the League, in order to “supply valuable information to teachers in all countries regarding the steps taken and results achieved throughout the world by governments and private individuals”.25 From 1934, the journal was renamed Bulletin of League of Nations Teaching. In 1930, the Assembly reached a resolution

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that invited national governments to report every two years on the progress made in introducing instruction about the League into the curricula of their own national systems of education.26 In 1930 the Sub-Committee of Experts put forward a proposal to cooperate with the International Educational Cinematographic Institute (IECI) to utilise films and broadcasting for the promotion of international cooperation.27 It was a response to the growing success of broadcasting, as well as the immense influence of cinema on the moral growth of young people and the evolution of national consciousness. Highly comparable to the approach they had taken to literacy documents, the Sub-Committee of Experts wanted to collect information for the preparation of scenarios with a suitably international character and planned to produce an educational film about the work of the League of Nations. However, such a film was never realised, and the IECI was ultimately dissolved due to the withdrawal of Italy from the League in 1937.28 It was during the process of collecting documents, in 1930, that the Sub-Committee of Experts’ members advised that the creation of document collections was an activity that was insufficient to meet the design of the experts who had advocated the creation of Education Information Centres: Even the fragmentary documentary information accumulated in Geneva and Paris has developed, through the connections it forced the League of Nations Secretariat and the Institute to open with governments and unofficial organisations, a network of relations in the field of education which makes the need of further steps being taken most acutely felt.29

The Sub-Committee of Experts hinted that if the League of Nations wanted to attain prestige and authority in its educational activities, it must make further efforts to address these problems. To consolidate its leadership in educational activities, in the following years the Sub-Committee of Experts focused on the third primary task, namely trying to enhance its specialist expertise on education and expand its networks, with the aim of motivating teachers directly. For the Sub-­ Committee of Experts, the most practical and influential approach was sending a lecturer who was equipped with good knowledge of the League and education to different countries to give lectures to teachers.30 With the appointment of these experts, the Sub-Committee of Experts hoped that the Education Information Centres could function as a tool for

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finding the best means to promote awareness of the League and uniting teachers, without ever interfering in national education issues or advocating any particular practical line of policy. When the proposal was put forward in 1927, it was denied because Albert Dufour-Feronce, the representative of the Secretary-General, considered that not only did the current financial situation not permit such a plan, but also the Assembly would not welcome such a suggestion.31 The misgivings of DufourFeronce, especially on the potential opposition from the Assembly, indicated the potential worry that sending an expert to each country might incur criticism about interfering in domestic affairs and arousing concern amongst national governments. In 1930, the proposal was put forward again and re-emphasised the importance of experts who “direct the action of educationists and the teachers of the world towards the increasingly necessary international outlook”.32 However, the session ended with a failure to reach a conclusion about which persons should be nominated as experts. However, during the interwar period the Sub-Committee of Experts assisted other international organisations that were interested in the programme to establish a direct connection with teachers. For example, in 1930, the Sub-Committee of Experts noticed that some associations and persons had already set up summer courses for teachers in the League, and provided scholarships for students to travel to Geneva.33 Between 1928 and 1929 the Information Section of the Secretariat, which for several years had adopted a system of inviting journalists to become temporary members, invited educators from different countries to act as temporary members, to enable them to closely follow the League’s work.34 However, such activities were not large in scope. The work of the Sub-Committee of Experts and the methods they used to conduct its work indicate that it tried to define an international space as its purview. The ICIC and the Sub-Committee of Experts avoided direct communication with each government—the Assembly transferred their recommendations to each government, and they considered the methods designed by them and the pamphlets produced by them to be used only for reference, and teachers and national governments decided what kind of knowledge about the League would be taught to children. As an international educational programme, the failure to send experts to give lectures in each nation revealed the predicament the ICIC faced at that time: they lacked sufficient financial resources to carry out actual work and struggled with the ambiguous boundaries of national sovereignty with

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references to educational programmes. The practical influence of the programme within national territories hence largely relied on the work of other international organisations, committee members’ influence in their individual countries, and the conscious participation of teachers.

3.3   The League of Nations in China: The Attenuated Faith Woodrow Wilson’s proposal of organising a general association of nations to maintain world peace proved inspirational to Chinese scholars who yearned for the rebuilding of a peaceful new world order after the war. As Tang Qihua has shown, from the end of 1918 to February 1919 Chinese scholars and the government had high expectations of the League of Nations. However, this initial enthusiasm soon turned into disappointment and rage when the Chinese delegation at the Versailles Conference failed to achieve China’s ambitions related to the Shandong Problem.35 Although influential Chinese diplomats and intellectuals established the Chinese League of Nations Union (CLNU) in March 1919, the CLNU’s contributions could hardly be defined as inspiring before the outbreak of the Second Sino–Japanese War in 1937, at least within national scope. The CLNU attended annual League of Nations Union conferences from 1919 to 1925 and translated news about the League into Chinese every three months. From 1925 to 1936, the CLNU failed to organise any activities within China, due to lack of funding and of people willing to devote themselves to the work of the CLNU,36 regardless of the level of technical cooperation between China and the League of Nations in that period. As the previous sections have demonstrated, the ICIC’s programme for teaching about the League largely relied on international organisations and the national unions of the League in various countries. The CLNU, being the organisation with the closest and most direct relations with the League, unlike the British League of Nations Union, which held various activities to support making the League of Nations known to the younger generation,37 was unable to contribute to any activity of teaching about the League in China. But this did not mean that Chinese scholars were indifferent to the works of the League. During the interwar period, the events of the League, especially those resembling the Chinese situation, caught the attention of Chinese scholars. By commenting on those events relating to political

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topics, the disappointment and distrust of the Chinese towards the League became more fervent in the later 1920s and 1930s than it had been previously. Such disappointment and distrust could be detected in two cases. One was that of Brazil failing to achieve the status of a permanent Council member in the League of Nations and later quitting the League. In 1926, Chen Denghao published an article in the journal Xiandai Pinglun.38 He discussed the reorganisation of the Council of the League of Nations and criticised the way that the Council always supported powerful countries to the detriment of weaker countries and gave people the suspicion that one or two large countries manipulated the League.39 Later, another author named Hao, who also published his article in the same journal, raised the possibility that, from the Brazil case, it was evident that American countries would quit the League and establish a Pan-American organisation to contend with the European-dominated League of Nations.40 Such concerns intimated that Chinese scholars considered the influence and the authority of the League were being heavily discounted and became merely a regional organisation, and that it was, accordingly, not reliable. Another case was the Abyssinia (Ethiopia) sovereignty problem and its relation to the League, which started in 1926. In that year, an author named Qi Feng, who published his article in Chenbao Fukan, one of the most influential newspapers in China at that time, suggested that the Chinese situation was quite similar to that of Abyssinia—thus, the question of whether or not Abyssinia would dare to protest the actions of the UK and Italy in the League, and what kind of outcome would be achieved, was very meaningful for China.41 Another article in Dongfang Zazhi, also one of the most widespread newspapers in China at the time, analysed the new treaty between Great Britain and Italy and argued that Abyssinia had a right and was reasonable in protesting and asking for the intervention of the League. The author further argued that if the League could not solve the problem impartially, Abyssinia had the right to and indeed should enter into a war to protect itself. In the end, he reminded Chinese readers that the Chinese situation was not better than that of Abyssinia.42 These comments implied that Chinese scholars understood the primary function of the League was protecting the sovereignty of each country and that they had the suspicion that the League could not realise its declared function. Although the event happened far from China, the implication delivered by these comments was clear: if the League was unable to protect Abyssinia’s sovereignty, then China should likewise not expect the League

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to contribute to solving its sovereignty disputes and to protect China when imperial powers instigated a war. In 1929, a scholar named She Xiya wrote an article which discussed the potential ability of the League to maintain international peace. In the article, he pointed out that, although many countries advocated disarmament and peace in the Assembly, this was only lip service; in fact, all countries were nonetheless increasing their reserves of weaponry and their military expenditure. He further argued that the League had proved unable to either maintain peace or decrease the hostility between different countries because its organisation alone (without armed forces or executive power) could not force nations to obey the Covenant.43 It was clear that even before the League had disappointed the Chinese by its intervention in the Mukden (Manchurian) Incident, scholars in China had shown that they believed neither that the League could protect Chinese sovereignty nor that it had the capacity to maintain peace. This pessimistic attitude towards the League was considerably more palpable after the Mukden Incident. On 18 September 1931 the Japanese army staged a false flag event and seized Northeast China and manipulated the establishment of Manchukuo in March 1932. The Chinese government put forward the problem to the League with the hope that the League could take preventative measures and force the Japanese army to withdraw. After appointing a Lytton Commission to evaluate the Mukden Incident in 1931, however, the League of Nations failed to provide a satisfactory resolution for the Chinese in the Lytton Report in 1932. The report condemned the Japanese but suggested the establishment of an autonomous government under Chinese sovereignty and recognition of Japan’s special economic interests in that region. Although the Assembly drew the conclusion that Japan had acted aggressively, this did not change the reality that Japan in fact continued to occupy Chinese territory. This kind of decision was considered by the Chinese to be sacrificing Chinese national sovereignty and interest.44 Although the Assembly of the League of Nations issued a motion that condemned Japan as an aggressor in 1933, it could not change the fact that the Chinese government could not recover its sovereignty over Manchukuo. Following the motion, Japan quit the League, and the League did not impose any further sanctions. In contrast to previous complaints that the League failed to protect the sovereignty of weaker countries, discourses in journals and newspapers—even those targeted at less-educated groups—after the Mukden Incident started to claim that the incident

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proved an intrinsic and unfair imbalance within the League. One representative article published in a mass education journal advanced and criticised that the Council dominated all the affairs of the League of Nations. The author gave a negative view of the predominance of the Council: Fourteen nations who were given […] ample power to handle international disputes can hardly avoid the character of an oligarchy. In fact, non-­ permanent members (of the Council) only act as attendees, and when it comes to important events, the two or three great powers who have direct relations to the issue always hold secret meetings for negotiation. […] The discussion that takes place in the Assembly is nothing more than a meaningless process.45

A similar opinion was also presented in another mass education journal. It criticised the permanent members of the Council and asserted that they had already reached an agreement before any discussion was put forward to the Assembly—the League was thus just a system that sacrificed the interests of weaker countries in order to meet stronger countries’ demands.46 Yet the League, as contemporary scholars noticed, carried out many programmes in the field other than those directly related to national sovereignty and political disputes. The events within the structure of the League that caught Chinese attention the most were how unprivileged countries and China itself were treated when they put forward disputes with imperial countries to the League, as well as the positions of those non-Western countries in the League. The League, well known by the Chinese as an international political organisation that was expected to establish a new international order where each country would be treated equally, lost its reputation amongst the Chinese after 1932.

3.4   Interwar Period with Wars: The Disillusionment with Peace Not only were the disappointment and the distrust towards the League of Nations pervasive amongst Chinese scholars and in public discourse, but the faith in the domestic and international peace during the interwar period in China was also fragile. Amongst Chinese scholars, the end of the First World War brought about a contradictory sentiment towards peace.

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On the one hand, the people of China felt stimulated by the end of the First World War. In 1918, the Chinese government decided that 11 November would be a national holiday to celebrate the end of the war. Celebrations were held in many cities. For example, the government in Zhejiang Province required schools and shops to hang colourful flags, and all ships and cars sounded their horns to celebrate the end of the war in Europe.47 Victory of righteousness, the judgement on the end of the First World War, was not only accepted by scholars such as Chen Duxiu,48 one of the co-founders of the Chinese Communist Party, but also by the society. The general sentiment of the Chinese people towards the war’s end was well demonstrated by an essay written by a pupil that was subsequently published: “the end of the European war was the victory of righteousness, and Chinese workers contributed to the war”.49 Relating the victory of the Allied Powers to the triumph of righteousness, the celebrations that took place in China contained two implications. First, they understood China as a fellow victor, as it was a member of the Victoria Group which declared wars on Germany and sent workers to the front lines to help in the Allied war effort. Second, they understood that as China was a country which had contributed to the victory, China should be rewarded with a raised status in international society. Compared to the celebration amongst society, some educators in China were reserved about how to teach about the end of the First World War and the international position of China. They were clear that the end of the First World War did not mean the arrival of peace for China. The Jiangsu Education Association (江苏省教育会) made this point clear in a conference that was concerned with how to teach about the end of the First World War (which they named the European War) to pupils—they argued that although the people of China had held celebrations, these were not for China: We should take the opportunity to let pupils know our current situation and the level of our educational attainment. We not only congratulate the victory of righteousness by the Allied Powers, but we should also not insult the defeated powers of Germany and Austria. This is true justice. We should also make it clear that we celebrate world peace. We did not really participate in the war, and we did not win. Our domestic situation can hardly be called peaceful. For China, there is nothing worth celebrating.50

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For those educators, the fact that the Chinese government did not send troops to participate in the war diminished the sentiment that the victory demonstrated China to be on an equal footing with other powers. This complex feeling about the end of the First World War further influenced the opinion of Chinese educators on education in China. After the end of the war, many Chinese educators contended that China should reform education and follow the international tendency towards peace. The portrayal in China of Wilson as the world leader of the “spirit of democracy”51 was juxtaposed to the enthusiasm for progressive-­democratic education, and the United States’ educational systems and teaching methods within educational spheres (rather than the previous emphasis on German and Japanese militaristic education). In 1919, Jiang Menglin wrote an article in which he alleged that the victory of the United States and the Allied Powers represented the victory of progressive-democratic education over militaristic education. He argued that citizens of the United States could become soldiers directly when their country needed them because democratic education had cultivated sound individuals and created an evolved society.52 Similar opinions were expressed in another article written by Ying Ning, an editor of the Education Weekly issued in Zhejiang Province. He deemed that the tendency in post-war education was for militarism to be replaced by democracy, and hence that nationalist education would be replaced by education for all human beings—international citizens.53 Prior to the Paris Peace Conference, the influential educational journal Xin Jiaoyu translated a speech by William C.  Bagleg, a professor of education at Teacher College, Columbia University, which discussed the relationship between the League and education. The article stated that if the League wished to avoid becoming merely a flash in the pan, then its aims and activities should be made known to pupils and students through education.54 After the end of the First World War, it was apparent that there was a growing call for Chinese education to be readjusted in accordance with the predicted post-war peace. However, the tendency towards internationalism and belief in peace education in China did not last long. The failure in Versailles was perceived as a domestic defeat,55 and, in the new culture movement which followed, intellectuals in China turned their criticism towards traditionalism and warlordism.56 Furthermore, China’s international relations and domestic situation did not improve as many people in China had expected after the war.57 Rather than focusing on literacy and scholarly pursuits for the edification of Chinese people,

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Chinese scholars began to pay closer attention to politics (in particular the role of imperialism in China) following the political violence of 1925 and 1926.58 The complexity of domestic politics and China’s foreign relations led to the result that the more pacifistic attitudes of educators towards peace, education, and the League were quite controversial. In an effort to oppose warlords and to promote enlightening the populace through education, educators initially advocated disarmament and increased expenditure on education. Such a proposal was put forward at the fifth annual meeting of National Union of Educational Associations (NUEA) in October 1919, was repeated at the next meeting a year later, and was followed by mass meetings on the subject held by citizens in the fall of 1922.59 However, such kinds of assemblies had almost no impact on the domestic chaos. It is worth highlighting that the campaign for disarmament in China was oriented towards domestic affairs, and had nothing to do with international understandings. Since 1925, criticism of pacifistic education began to appear in China, and both nationalist and leftist currents started to question it. This is exemplified by Yang Xianjiang, a communist educator, who in 1925 stated that the so-called pacifistic psychology in China was ridiculous, because the people of China desired peace regardless of what was right or wrong, and did not even dare to revolt when suffering oppression—in his opinion, this would lead to further chaos in China. He argued that one important educational method in order to achieve peace was to add military training to secondary education, in order to cultivate more talented people who could lead armies and rectify the weakness of China’s youth.60 Similar attitudes were also held by nationalist educators in China. In a 1924 article, Yu Jiaju worried that the resolution for advocating international understanding at the International Education Conference might have a negative impact on China. He condemned the anti-nationalist and anti-militarist attitudes which had predominated in Chinese education in prior years and warned that such tendencies would make the Chinese become ‘the second Jew’.61 He predicted that peace was almost impossible in the future, and advocated that education in a country such as China, which faced the aggression of imperialist powers, should first and foremost cultivate patriotism in order to fight for national independence, and only then think about peace education.62 Even liberal educators expressed concerns about peace education. For example, Li Jianxun, a professor in National Beijing Normal University, was of the opinion that international peace did not necessarily mean disarmament. Pointing to the fact that the great powers

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increased their troop numbers every year, he insisted that the precondition of international understanding and friendship (which was advocated at the International Education Conference) was that even a weak country should have enough troops to stand against powerful countries63—which in fact was the idea of the balance of power. In the 1930s, the feeling that the next world war was going to break out sooner or later was popular amongst Chinese educationalists. Yang Lian, who went to Europe as a member of the Chinese education mission in 1932 (see Chap. 6), made such a claim in a speech he delivered after coming back to China. He said that the current situation reminded him of the years before the First World War in that not only was every country expending its army, but also the popular physical education and sports in European countries were preparing people to be soldiers.64 He reminded Chinese audiences that education in China must follow the international tendency of preparing for the Second World War. In 1930s China, as a reaction to the armed world, military training was widely organised in middle schools and universities.65 Although Chinese educators yearned for peace, their faith in peace was not strong, and they did not believe that disarmament, which was advocated at international educational conferences and by the League of Nations, would be successful. The arms race amongst the great powers and amongst domestic warlords led Chinese educators to believe instead in a traditional international order based on the equipoise of power. For them, the precondition for peace was a strong military, which would enable a weak country to not worry about external aggression. In the opinion of Chinese educators, for a country such as China, increasing international understanding without a foundation of military power was unrealistic. With such a background, it was not difficult to understand why Chinese educators lacked interest in the programme intended for teaching about the League of Nations in China and the increasingly negative images of the League in Chinese textbooks.

3.5   The Image of the League in Textbooks Following the resolution of the Assembly, in 1923 the Ministry of Education required all primary and secondary schools and police training academies to include teaching about the League of Nations in their curriculums. According to the analysis of Zhang Li, for Chinese diplomats, teaching about the League of Nations was seen to be a piece of evidence

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that China was active in carrying out the resolutions of the League and deserved a position in the ICIC.66 In this sense, it might be the case that teaching about the League was an activity that served greater utility from a diplomatic perspective, rather than as a practice intended to cultivate cooperation and a spirit of international understanding. In 1924, the Ministry of Education again put forward a resolution for teaching about the League to provincial education ministries. This resolution required middle schools and higher schools to include the League in both classroom curricula and extracurricular activities and encouraged educators in China to collect material related to the League for pupils’ reference.67 However, this resolution did not contain any clear information on reference materials, so the authors of textbooks and teachers effectively decided for themselves what kind of material they would use to explain and evaluate the League of Nations. Before going into detail about the portrayal of the League in textbooks, it is necessary to establish the context of the textbook market in China at that time. Prior to the outbreak of the Second Sino–Japanese War in 1937, the production of textbooks in China was decentralised. In 1914, the Ministry of Education issued a regulation on textbook censorship, which stated that the Ministry of Education only carried out the inspection of different versions of textbooks and that headmasters in every school had the power to decide which textbook their school would adopt.68 Although it is not known to what extent the weak government was able to carry out these dictates, Peter Zarrow nonetheless suggests that “perhaps the censorship system contributed to the dominance of the few publishers which, with their large editorial staffs, could consistently work with it”.69 After the Kuomintang (KMT) united China in 1927, the party introduced its own curriculum and laid out the Three Principles of People as the ideological foundation of all subsequent textbooks in 1929. The Nanjing government established the National Institute for Compilation and Translation in 1933 to conduct the censorship of textbooks according to the standard established in 1929. Before the Second Sino–Japanese War in 1937, the Commercial Press (商务印书馆), the Zhonghua Book Company (中华书 局), and the World Book Store (世界书局) were the main three textbook publishers that dominated the textbook market.70 For this reason, the following part will focus on the textbooks published by these three publishing houses. In this period, the League of Nations was taught in the subject of history; the sections on both Chinese history and world history contained

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information on the League. The first appearance of the League of Nations in a history textbook was in 1921, just one year after it had been established. In the section entitled Paris Peace Conference and the Shandong problem, the League of Nations was mentioned as one of Wilson’s proposals.71 From 1921 until 1923, whether or not textbooks included information about the League of Nations depended mainly on the individual textbook author’s perception of the League. For example, in the textbook New World History (新著世界历史) compiled by Li Taifen in 1922, in a section with the title The Resolutions of the Peace Conference the author cited four articles from the League of Nations Covenant and explained them in detail.72 By contrast, in the one compiled by Hong Yun and Jin Zhaozi and published in 1923, the Paris Peace Conference was mentioned, but not the League of Nations.73 After 1923, possibly due to the decree by the Ministry of Education which required them to do so, most textbooks included the League of Nations. Textbooks usually mentioned the League together with the Paris Peace Conference and the First World War, and sometimes included them together with the Washington Naval Conference.74 The descriptions given of the League in textbooks published after 1923 are not strikingly different; authors used similar materials and gave similar evaluations of the League. Firstly, textbooks emphasised the importance of the United States in the establishment of the League.75 The emphasis placed on the role of the United States was based on the prominent influence of Wilson. More importantly, as mentioned before, at the time of the Paris Peace Conference scholars in China considered the United States to be a reliable political ally, and expected that the assistance of the United States would be an important part of China’s attempt to regain national sovereignty.76 Consequently, when describing the relationship between the League and the United States, all Chinese textbooks praised Wilson’s contribution to the establishment of the League. These textbooks also explained why the United States did not join the League. They attributed this to the Monroe doctrine, which held that the United States did not want European countries interfering in their domestic affairs. Such an explanation was culturally acceptable for the Chinese within the context of anti-imperialism in China. Having given such an explanation, these textbooks then continued to describe the Washington conference that was convened by the United States, at which the Shandong problem as well as other problems relating to Chinese sovereignty and the influence of

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foreign countries in China, which had not been solved in the Paris Peace Conference, were discussed. Secondly, some textbooks described the principles and functions of the League.77 In these textbooks, authors emphasised Article Ten of the Covenant as the main task and aim of the League: The Members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members of the League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled.78

This indicates that Chinese educators considered stopping aggression and maintaining the independence of an individual nation to be the most important and valuable function of the League. The decision to underline this Article was in accordance with Chinese diplomats’ requirements of and demands on the League. Article Ten gave legitimacy to the claims that China should regain its sovereignty (which was under threat by imperialist powers) and enjoy international equality. This Article was also seen to be of value because it implied that if Japan committed acts of aggression against China, the League of Nations would support China and issue sanctions against Japan. Such a perspective can also be explained as a part of international understanding; however, rather than positively cooperating in undertaking new enterprises, the cooperation from the perspective of China was a passive one via the sanction of those who would break the Article and threaten others. Aside from Article Ten, some of these textbooks also introduced other tasks and principles of the League of Nations. For example, they described the aims of disarmament and international justice, the institutional structure of the League, and the mandate system. However, most textbooks focused on the political aspects of the League rather than its other social and humanitarian activities. Thirdly, only a few textbooks gave a positive evaluation of the relationship between China and the League. Only in the 1923, 1926, and 1927 versions of Newly Compiled History Textbook (新编历史教科书) is it mentioned that China was selected as a non-permanent member of the League of Nations Council and that Chinese delegates were appointed as judges in the International Court of Justice.79 No textbooks described the efforts of Chinese diplomats to regain sovereignty through the League. Discussion of the technical cooperation between China and the League was also

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completely absent from textbooks. By contrast, the authors of textbooks always used the Shandong problem and the Mukden Incident to evidence the incapacity of the League. Some textbooks went even further in their criticism of the League. The textbooks published by Commercial Press in the late 1920s and early 1930s described how the League was manipulated by great powers and asserted that weak countries could not make themselves heard in the League.80 Alongside these examples, the textbooks also assigned blame to the League of Nations for failing to stop conflicts in Europe and prevent the aggressive actions of more powerful countries. The evaluation of the League in textbooks was directly related to the question of the extent to which the League was capable of realising Article Ten. The portrayal of the League in textbooks was thus similar to the portrayal established in public discourse and in the discourse of educators themselves—incapacity and unreliability. The evaluation of the League of Nations in Chinese textbooks was not positive, but activities outside schools to instruct the general public about the League were virtually non-existent. Since 1932 the Chinese National Committee of the ICIC had undertaken the translation of the annual minutes of the ICIC into Chinese. However, there are no documents that suggest that the Chinese National Committee of the ICIC considered raising awareness of the League of Nations to be one of their tasks.

3.6   Conclusion Although teaching about the League, which aimed at establishing a new international order and maintaining peace, did not prevent the outbreak of the Second World War, it was an overstatement to blame the programme for failing to motivate the public, especially the young generation. Teaching about the League was one of the League’s earliest attempts at establishing international educational policy entrepreneurs. The structures of and the work done by the Sub-Committee of Experts, and how they were carried out in China, a nation whose position in the international order maintained by the League was peripheral, revealed the routes of globalising educational policy and the various factors that could impact its final realisation. At the level of the ICIC, what the ICIC and the Sub-Committee of Experts did was an endeavour to establish and maintain the legality of an international organisation in conducting educational programmes. Upholding that education belongs to national sovereignty and insisting

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on the principle of avoiding criticism for intervention in said sovereignty, they tried to mark a clear boundary separating the remit within which the organs of the League designed the programme from that in which other actors realised it. The Sub-Committee of Experts, appointed by the ICIC, undertook the work of designing methods for making the younger generations aware of the existence and aims of the League and providing materials as reference for those who showed interest in the programme; it also functioned as an international communication centre. However, the League did not give any instruction to each country about what should be taught. It was the teachers and publishers in each country who decided what kind of knowledge about the League was to be imparted to students. When it came to how to realise the programme in individual countries, the only attempt the Sub-Committee of Experts made at entering into national territories—sending experts to give lectures to teachers in each nation— failed due to the constraints of financial shortages and the worry over criticism about intervening in national sovereignty. The case of teaching about the League of Nations in China showed that although the value the Sub-Committee of Experts ascribed to the programme—that of cultivating international cooperation—seemed to be universally accepted without debate, the explanation of what international cooperation exactly meant and as to whether the League achieved this cooperation or not could be totally different from different perspectives. However, the League failed in its attempts to transform the post-war system of international relations from one based on the equipoise of power into one based on the equality of every country. The contradictions between its declared aims, functions, and ways of dealing with international disputes—especially the Shandong Problem and Mukden Incident— attenuated faith in the League amongst many Chinese educators and ordinary people. The discourse of educators on the League ranged from an initially optimistic view based on concepts like datong to a pessimistic one based on the incapacity of the League to act, and finally to a critical one based on the perception of it as an organisation manipulated by the great powers. As a result of considering the League mainly as an international political organisation where China should and could improve its international status and regain its sovereignty, the Chinese mainly focused on whether the League could realise its political aims rather than other humanitarian problems that the Chinese cared about. Located in the nationalist discourses that were pervasive in educational materials in China at that time, the criticism towards the League was not difficult to understand.

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Notes 1. Helen McCarthy, The British People and the League of Nations: Democracy, Citizenship and Internationalism 1918–45 (Manchester and New  York: Manchester University Press, 2011), 105. 2. Andrews Fannie Fern, “Education at the Peace Conference,” The Journal of Education 90, no. 8 (1919): 207–208. 3. Helen McCarthy, The British People and the League of Nations; Julie McLeod, “Citizenship Education on the World Stage: Curriculum for Cosmopolitanism,” in Transnational Perspectives on Democracy, Citizenship, Human Rights and Peace Education, ed. Mary Drinkwater, Fazal Rizvi and Karen Edge (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), 155–176. 4. David S. Jordan, “Education for Peace,” The Journal of Education 100, no. 23 (1924): 625–628. 5. “Editorial,” Educational Survey 1 (1929): 5. 6. League of Nations, ed., How to Make the League of Nations Known and to Develop the Spirit of International Co-Operation: Recommendations by the Sub-Committee of Experts, International Committee on Intellectual Co-Operation, League of Nations (Geneva: Imp. Kundig, 1927), 5. 7. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of Ninth Session, 1927.9.24, C.424.M.157.1927.XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 33. 8. Ibid., 8. 9. Ian M. Harris, “Peace Education Theory,” Journal of Peace Education 1, no. 1 (2004): 9. 10. The Sub-Committee of Experts for the Instruction of Children and Youth in the Existence and Aims of the League of Nations changed its name several times. The programme was originally named Instruction of Children and Youth in the Activities and Aims of the League of Nations in 1926. From 1927 to 1929 the Sub-Committee used the name the SubCommittee of Experts for the Instruction of Children and Youth in the Existence and Aims of the League of Nations in the minutes of those sessions of the ICIC. However, in the pamphlet Instruction of Youth in the Aims of the League of Nations that was published by the Sub-Committee in 1928, the name of the Sub-Committee was written as The Sub-Committee of Experts for the Instruction of Youth in the Aims of the League of Nations. And Since 1930, the 12th session of the ICIC, the Sub-Committee was titled as The Sub-Committee of Experts for the Instruction of Youth in the Aims of the League of Nations. In 1933 the Sub-Committee was assembled into The Advisory Committee on League of Nations Teaching. For consistency, the thesis uses the name Sub-Committee of Experts for

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the Instruction of Children and Youth in the Existence and Aims of the League of Nations. In this book, it is written as the Sub-Committee of Experts. 11. “Editorial,” Educational Survey, 7. 12. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Seventh Session, 1926.9.27, C.87.M.43.1926.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 14. 13. These 11 members who were not from the ICIC comprised Luis A. Baralt (Cuba), professor and author of works on pedagogy; S.  N. Chaturvedi (India), “licentiate of teaching” at the University of Allahabad and Director of a Secondary School at Lucknow; Arturo Pardo Correa (Chile), assistant professor of Pedagogy at the University of Santiago, Chile; Dreyfus-Barney (France), vice-president of the Peace section of the International Council of Women, Liaison Office between the International Council of Women and the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation; Giuseppe Gallavresi (Italy), professor of history at the University of Milan, author of historical works, and assessor for Education at Milan; Bogdan Gavrilovitch (Serbia), former rector of the university of Belgrade; C.  Kiritzesco (Romania), Director of Secondary Education at the Ministry of Education, Bucharest; Peter Munch (Denmark), Minister for Foreign Affairs, author of several history manuals, delegate of Denmark to the League of Nations; Inazo Nitobe (Japan), professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo, former president of the First National College, Tokyo, member of the Imperial Academy of Japan; H. Schellberg (Germany), Counselor at the Ministry of Education of Prussia; Lapie (France), Rector of the University of Paris, former director of Elementary Education—because of his death, Lapie was replaced by Rosset (France), director of Primary Education at the Ministry of Education, Paris. The name list sees League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of Ninth Session, C.424.M.157.1927.XII: 1; and International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, International Committee on Intellectual Co-operataion Minutes of the Eleventh Session, 1929.9.14, C-­342-­M-­121-­1929-­XII_ EN., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 1. 14. After the establishment of the ICIC, in the name of cultural diversity, various national governments asserted that they should have considerably more influence in the ICIC via appointing their nations’ committee members. See International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Third Session, 1 January 1924, C-3-M-3-1924-XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 29. 15. League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Seventh Session, C.87.M.43.1926.XII.: 9.

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16. Don A. Edwards, “Latin American and the League of Nations,” Journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs 8, no. 2 (1929): 139. 17. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of Tenth Session, 1928.10.30, C.533.M.160.1928.XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 14. 18. Sarah Hellawell, “Building a ‘New International Order’: International Women’s Organisations and the UIA.” In International organisations and global civil society: Histories of the Union of International Associations, ed. Laqua Daniel, Van Acker Wouter and Verbruggen Christophe (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), 101. 19. League of Nations, How to Make, 11–17. 20. Ibid., 9–11. 21. To provide the necessary support for the work of the Sub-Committee, the League of Nations was requested to establish two Education Information Centres which would be located at IIIC in Paris and the secretariat in Geneva in 1927. The Education Information Centre at the secretariat was intended to be responsible for maintaining relations between governments and official associations; the one in Paris was intended to make contact with private associations, most of which had already established a relationship with the Liaison Committees of Major International Associations. However, because they lacked official staff with expertise in educational questions and funding, these Education Information Centres were unable to carry out the work entrusted to them until 1930. See International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of Ninth Session, C.424.M.157.1927.XII: 35; International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Twelfth Session, 13 August 1930, C-428M-192-1930-XII., League of Nations Archive, 110. 22. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation Minutes of the Eleventh Session, C-342-M-121-1929-XII_EN., 58. 23. Ibid., 59. 24. Ibid., 58. 25. League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Twelfth Session, C-428-M-192-1930-XII., 76. 26. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Thirteenth Session, 15 August 1931, C-471-M-201-1931-XII., League of Nations Archive Geneva: 72–73.

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27. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Twelfth Session, C-428-M-192-1930-XII., 77. 28. The work of the IECI was undertaken by the ICIC after 1937. But in the next year, the Second World War broke out. However, there were some educational films about the League of Nations produced by other national League of Nations Unions, for example, the Star of Hope by the British League of Nations Union. The IECI also cooperated with the International Labor Organisation to produce some educational films to educate the public about this labour organisation. 29. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Twelfth Session, C-428-M-192-1930-XII., 110. 30. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of Ninth Session, C.424.M.157.1927.XII.: 33. 31. Ibid., 35. 32. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Twelfth Session, C-428-M-192-1930-XII., 110–111. 33. Ibid., 76. 34. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation Minutes of the Eleventh Session, C-342-M-121-1929-XII_EN., 58. 35. During this period, the League was understood by Chinese scholars as related to the Confucian concept of datong, an entity which would unite all of humanity with his Covenant. Besides, scholars such as Tao Menghe, Xiong Xilin, and Gu Weijun believed that with the structure of the League of Nations China’s international position could be improved. See: 唐启华, 北京政府与国际联盟, 1919–1928 (台北: 东大图书出版社, 1998), 68–69; Bruce A. Elleman, Wilson and China: A Revised History of the Shandong Question (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2002). 36. “中国国际联盟同志会复兴缘起,” 中国国际联盟同志会月刊1, no. 1 (1936): 95–97. 37. McCarthy, The British People, 103–131. 38. The main writers of Xiandai Pinglun included famous scholars such as Wang Shijie, Hu Shi, Zhou Gengsheng, and Zhang Xiruo. Articles published in the journal could be considered as representative of a group of scholars’ opinions in China. 39. 陈登皞, “国际联盟理事问题,” 现代评论 3, no. 69 (1926): 9. 40. 皓, “时事短评:国际联盟的前途,” 现代评论 4, no. 80 (1926): 22. 41. 齐风, “阿伯深尼亚主权问题,” 晨报副刊:国际, 1926, 5–6.

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42. 夏奇峰, “亚比色尼亚与英意协定,” 东方杂志23, no. 16 (1926): 53–4. 43. 佘西崖, “国际联盟与和平,” 励笃季刊, no. 2 (1929): 56. 44. 洪岚, “李顿调查团报告书公布前后中国社会各界的反响,” 史学月刊, no. 5(2006):55–59. 45. 冯逸铮, “国际联盟裸像,” 社会与教育3, no. 2 (1931):5–7. 46. 静宜, “呜呼! 国际联盟!” 民众周报, no. 196 (1931): 8–10. 47. “庆祝欧战胜利,” 教育周报 (杭州), no. 233 (1918): 17. 48. 陈独秀, 独秀文存随感录 (北京: 首都经济贸易大学出版社, 2018), 21. 49. 黄炳柏, “庆祝世界和平记,” 平远留省学报, no. 1 (1919): 169. 50. “商榷世界和平后之训育方针,” 江苏省教育会月报, no. 12 (1918): 5. 51. Guoqi Xu, China and the Great War: China’s Pursuit of a New National Identity and Internationalization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 244–246. 52. 蒋梦麟, “和平与教育.” 教育杂志 11, no. 1 (1919): 3–4. 53. 婴宁, “军国主义与国民教育之前途,” 教育周报 (杭州), no. 231 (1919): 1–11. 54. “国际同盟与教育,” 新教育1, no. 2 (1919): 69–70. 55. Elleman, Wilson and China, 89. 56. Tse-Tsung Chow, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (S.l.: Harvard UP, 1960), 84–168. 57. During the May Thirteen Movement in 1925, several Chinese protesters were killed by the British police in Shanghai. The patriotic public considered this to be evidence that foreign powers were determined to keep China in subjection. In 1931, Japan caused the Mukden Incident and occupied three provinces in Northeastern China. Regarding the domestic situation, the depression and discontentment were even more serious. Except the foreign aggression (which Chinese used the term 外患), the civil chaos (which Chinese used the term内乱) also didn’t stopped. Between 1919 and 1925, three major wars between different warlords in North China took place: in East China between 1924 and 1925 the warlords of Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province fought with each other; in South China, Sun Yat-sen organised the Government of the Republic of China in Guangzhou in 1921, and mobilised the Northern expedition in 1926. 58. Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 163–164. 59. Chow, The May Fourth Movement, 260–261. 60. 杨贤江, “实力的和平教育,” 教育杂志 17, no. 5 (1925): 1. 61. In popular discourse at that time in China, the Jewish people were considered to be representative of a nation that had lost its lands and been subju-

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gated by others. They felt that the Chinese would face a similar danger if they failed to unite together and save the nation. 62. 余家菊, “非和平主义的教育,” 少年中国 4, no. 10 (1924): 1–2. 63. 李建勋, “世界和平非废除陆海军,” 北京大学日刊, 5 May 1924, p. 2. 64. “我国大可借镜欧洲教育之优点:楊廉郭有守返国谈话,” 湖北教育公报 4, no. 3 (1933): 6. 65. Sau-yi Fong. “‘Sacrificing’ for the Nation: Student Military Training in Guomindang China (1928–1937).” Master’s dissertation, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2013. 66. 张力, 国际合作在中国: 国际联盟角色的考察, 1919–1946 (台北: 中央研究 院近代史研究所, 1999), 41. 67. 张国淦, “教育部通咨各省区为国际联合会第四届议案已分别咨令文,” 政 府公报, March 28, 1924. 68. 王建军, 中国近代教科书发展研究 (广州: 广东教育出版社, 1996), 270. 69. Peter G. Zarrow, Educating China: Knowledge, Society, and Textbooks in a Modernizing World, 1902–1937 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 39. 70. 吴永贵, 民国出版史 (福州: 福建人民出版社, 2011), 116. 71. 吴研因, ed., 新法历史教科书 6 (商务印书馆, 1921). 72. 李泰棻, ed., 新著世界史 (商务印书馆, 1922). 73. 金兆梓 and 洪鋆, eds., 新小学历史课本 (中华书局, 1923). 74. The Washington Naval Conference was a military conference called up by the US President in Washington D.C. from 12.12.1921 to 06.02.1922. Including China, Japan, Great Britain, and other nine countries attended the Conference. The Conference was independent of the League of Nations. In the conference, China signed the treaty with Japan on solving the Shandong problem, and partly regained Chinese sovereignty, which the Chinese government planned to achieve in the Pairs Peace Conference. 75. 傅林一, 新时代历史教科书 (商务印书馆, 1933); 何炳松, 复兴初级中学教 科书外国史 (商务印书馆, 1937); 金兆梓, 新中华外国史 (中华书局, 1932); 傅运森, 新学制历史教科书 (商务印书馆, 1926). 76. Xu, China and the Great War, 245–246. 77. 傅, 新学制; 傅林一, 新时代历史教科书4 (商务印书馆, 1928); 徐映川, 复 兴历史教科书 (商务印书馆, 1933); 姚绍华, 小学历史课本 (中华书 局, 1933). 78. League of Nations, The Covenant of the League of Nations: (Including Amendments Adopted in December, 1924), https://avalon.law.yale. edu/20th_century/leagcov.asp (accessed 20 June 2017). 79. 傅运森, 新撰历史教科书 (商务印书馆, 1926, 1927, 1932). 80. 傅, 新学制; 徐, 新时代; 何, 复兴; 傅, 新时代.

CHAPTER 4

The League of Nations and Chinese Educational Film

In the 1920s, in juxtaposition to the rapid development of the cinema industry in China was the growing criticism from educators, journalists, and scholars who worried about the poor quality of the films shown in China and contended that they led to social problems.1 In response, scholars and educators insisted that films should fulfil an educational function and promote the progress of society, which was an inheritance of the traditional value assigned to mass recreation in China, in which traditional opera (戏曲) sustained the social function of civilisation (社会教化). It was also a continuation of social education, which had used mass communication media, such as popular lectures, dramas, and novels, to educate the masses since the end of the nineteenth century in China.2 Because educators and scholars were the leading advocates of importing a film inspection system into China at that time, educational value became a central standard for evaluating the quality of a film from the 1920s.3 Meanwhile, educational film as a new tool of teaching also appeared in China, although it was only rarely used. From 1919 to 1923, the Commercial Press, one of the leading publishing houses in China, produced a series of educational films on topics ranging from hygiene education to charitable education. According to the research of Xiao Lang and Li Bin, the production later ceased due to a shortage of funds and the company’s changing market target.4 Occasionally, news about how educational films (or rather films with an educational function) were used for © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. Li, Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China, Global Histories of Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82442-6_4

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schooling in Western countries and Japan appeared in Chinese newspapers and journals. However, at that time there was no large-scale discussion on the importance of educational film and how to develop or use educational film in China. Before the 1930s, rather than knowing there was a category of film named educational film that was used to assist teaching, most educators in China only knew that film should, like other mass recreations, sustain educational functions.5 It was against this background that, at the end of 1931, the League’s International Educational Cinematographic Institute (IECI) appointed Baron Alexander Sardi to travel to China. As many scholars have asserted, internal factors decided the widespread use of educational film in China,6 and without the visit of Sardi, educational film would still have become popular in China later on; nevertheless, it is undeniable that Sardi’s trip accelerated the process. However, the trip should not be considered merely as a catalyst for the development of educational film in China; nor should it be analysed only within the context of Chinese educational film development. It should also be considered as a part of the globalisation of educational film, which began simultaneously in Europe and America at the beginning of the twentieth century and was advocated by the League and other international organisations during the interwar period. The trip not only promoted the popularity of educational films in China but also brought China into the networks established by the IECI for educational films in the coming years. This included the Educational Cinematography Society of China (ECSC) joining the IECI; the news and articles about the progress of Chinese educational films being published in the journal International Review of Educational Cinematography issued by the IECI; the participation of Chinese delegates at international educational cinematographic conferences organised by the IECI; and the international educational film competitions organised by the IECI. These events undermined the ostensible neutrality of the international educational programme—a result negotiated by international organisations, experts, national governments, and scholars. For this possibility to come into view, it was not sufficient to recognise how the programmes that Chinese scholars and organisations participated in influenced Chinese domestic educational film development (further, this has already been articulated in the narrative of national educational development). Instead, the door opened by the trip which allowed China to take part in an international society in which other countries (mainly European countries) also presented, as well as to experience how nationalism and internationalism

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interacted in the transnational space, needs to be seen as a new spatial opportunity for the formation of the consciousness of national educational competition amongst Chinese scholars and the construction of a Chinese version of modernity by Chinese educators in international education events. Aside from this, the interaction between the IECI and China was also a channel to investigate how the IECI functioned during the interwar period and what factors influenced the realisation of their asserted goals— promoting both international understanding through educational film and the circulation of educational films across national boundaries. How this came to be is explained by four events. The first is the trip of Sardi to China at the end of 1931, during which he articulated the multinational educational film development experiences, which aroused tremendous interest amongst Chinese scholars but at the same time constituted national propaganda for Italy. The second is the ECSC’s replacement of the Bos’s Institute as the Chinese national branch of the IECI, which reflected Chinese scholars’ understanding of educational sovereignty when dealing with international educational programmes. The third is the transnational circulation of educational films and methods of organising educational films in China via the IECI, which disclosed possible factors that constrained the extension of the IECI’s influence in China. The fourth is Chinese films participating in international educational film competitions organised by the IECI, which constructed an international space for international competition and for presenting the Chinese image of modernity.

4.1   Appointing Sardi to China Although Sardi was neither a committee member of the IECI nor acted on behalf of the League, he accepted the task of travelling to China assigned by the IECI at the end of 1931. The IECI was reluctant to appoint Sardi, but he was the best choice in the situation, due to the lack of preparation on the part of the IECI. Appointing an educational film expert to China was a late decision of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC). After it was decided that an educational mission would be appointed to China, the ICIC decided to send Henri Bonnet, the director of the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) to China as part of the educational mission, who would undertake not only the work of establishing the connection between ICIC and China but also of assisting the mission’s

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trip in China. Together with deciding to send Bonnet to China, the ICIC accepted that “the plan of cooperation with China in educational matters should include the services of an expert on the educational cinematograph”.7 This indicates that appointing an expert on educational film to China was a late decision when other experts had already been appointed. The educational film expert was to be sent to China partly due to the fact that the IECI was also under the advice of the ICIC and was an important part of educational works of the League. But it should also not be forgotten that when the education mission was appointed, Rocco, the Italian committee member of ICIC and the director of the governing body of the IECI, also required that an Italian member should be included (see Chap. 5). In fact, the appointment of such an expert to China, rather than being a request from the Chinese government, was a proposal that originated from the ICIC. It was no earlier than 2 October that the Chinese delegate in the League received the telegraphic message informing him that the Chinese government accepted the visit of an educational film expert to China.8 After this, Murray and Rocco were assigned to find a proper educational film expert to send to China immediately, who would leave together with Bonnet 20 October.9 Luciano de Feo, the director of the IECI, was initially to be appointed to China, but illness prevented him from going.10 As early as 9 October, Murray and Rocco had decided to send Sardi to China11; however, up until 28 October, Dufour-Feronce was still negotiating with Sardi to persuade him to leave at the end of the month (Bonnet also postponed his trip to the end of October 1931).12 Because Sardi could not leave together with Bonnet, the ICIC was at the last minute considering whether it might be better to postpone the trip and wait until de Feo had recovered.13 Finally, on 30 October, Sardi and the ICIC reached the agreement that he would go to China before 15 November.14 This lack of preparation is further demonstrated by the ambiguous task assigned to Sardi by the IECI and the material prepared by the IECI. Sardi was expected by the IECI to get in touch with the Chinese authorities,15 a general requirement which did not define any concrete programme for Sardi. According to the report subsequently written by Sardi, he wished to introduce and expand the scope of educational films in China, a place where, in his opinion, “educational cinematograph(y) could be applied to special local conditions in many ways and have (a) specially good result”.16

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The self-assigned task implied that Sardi expanded his connection in China from politicians to a broader scope. Hence, it required that Sardi should bring necessary materials to China to persuade the Chinese to accept educational film as a new educational media. According to the report written by Sardi, it was the Instituto L’Unione Cinematografica Educativa (Instituto Luce) in Italy rather than the IECI that provided him with most of the materials: the Instituto Luce provided Sardi with a selection of their publications that included monographs on educational cinematography and the work of the Instituto Luce, in addition to 20,000  m of film; it also appointed a photographer to accompany him during his trip to China.17 In contrast, the IECI only provided him with the same documents as it gave to other experts travelling to China,18 alongside notes and information mainly drawn from the International Review of Educational Cinematography.19 The prominent role played by the Instituto Luce in preparing the material was due primarily to the fact that the collected material of the IECI was not sufficient for this task. As Chap. 2 shows, the IECI was established in 1928 and its first three years mainly focused on investigating the current situation of educational film, promoting the use of educational film in various countries, and establishing relations with other organisations that showed interest in the topic. The IECI itself did not produce educational films and until 1933 it still mainly devoted itself to collecting documentary materials and acting as an information centre with only a limited educational film collection. On the contrary, the Instituto Luce already owned many educational films and documents that would be useful for the trip. The Instituto Luce had been established in 1924 under the auspices of the Italian government and gained its international reputation when it was selected as a model institution of educational films in a cinema conference sponsored by the League in 1927.20 Already in the 1920s, the Instituto Luce had produced scores of educational films and newsreels covering various topics.21 More importantly, Instituto Luce had a close relationship with the IECI. Both institutes were supported by the Italian government and located in Rome. De Feo, the director of the IECI, was the former director of Instituto Luce. Hence, it is not surprising that when Luciano de Feo could not assume the task, Sardi went to China instead, and that the Instituto Luce provided much assistance in preparation for the trip.

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4.2   The Journeys of Sardi in China Arriving on 1 December 1931, Sardi stayed two months in China and left on 8 February, after realising that it was impossible for him to meet with the Chinese authorities personally due to the Shanghai incident on 28 January 1932.22 From Table 4.1, it is clear that in comparison with the trips of other members of the League’s education mission to China (see Chap. 5), Sardi visited fewer cities and fewer educational institutions. The minimal overlap between the League’s education mission and that of Sardi was that they both visited Suzhou as well as Chinese cinemas in Shanghai. For this reason, the education mission and the visit of Sardi could hardly be considered as a single entity, as was wished by the ICIC. Sardi further went to Beijing and Tianjin (which the education mission had visited) after separating from the League’s education mission. Apart from domestic political problems (see Chap. 5), the other notable restriction on the trip was that showing educational films required special equipment and technological support. It was impossible for Sardi to travel to small counties or mass education institutions, which generally had almost no cinema equipment. Even when he delivered a lecture at Peking University, he could not show educational films, and he had to end his lecture early because of the malfunction of a projector.23 Similarly, Sardi had planned to show educational films at various institutions in Tianjin; however, it was not possible to find proper machines and these events had to be cancelled.24 The predicament of Sardi in China (as reported by journalists) echoed what he wrote in the final report: “I did not find in any of the towns I visited any organisation for educational cinematography, either official or private.”25 The newspaper articles that reported Sardi’s activities and his final report revealed that he chiefly focused on introducing educational films to Chinese educators and politicians, which indicated that the contents of the educational films he brought to China were less important than their visual effects. Table 4.1 shows that the locations of Sardi’s activities were mostly higher educational institutions and public occasions. In each place, he first gave lectures to introduce educational films and then showed selected educational films he brought from Italy without explaining the contents. As previously mentioned, before Sardi came to China, most Chinese educators had no idea about the educational film movement in foreign countries. The lectures and film screenings organised by Sardi thus provided new knowledge to Chinese educators and politicians and raised

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Table 4.1  The timetable of Sardi in Chinaa Place

Time

Activities

Shang Hai

1 December 7–10 December 11 December

Arrival in Shanghai Together with other members of the League’s education mission at educational institutions in Shanghai Together with other members of the League’s education mission at educational institutions in Suzhou Interview with a government representative Interview with Soong Tse-ven Interview with Soong Tse-ven and screening of educational films Lecturing, screening films, and holding discussions with teachers and students at College Municipal Français (French Municipal Junior High School) The first public lecture in the Municipal Hall and screened films The second public lecture at the Municipal Hall The third lecture at the Society of Science

Suzhou Shang hai

12 December 14 December 17 December 19 December

23 December

Nanjing Beijing

27 December 1 January 1932 3 January 4 January 6 January 7 January 8 January 9 January 10 January 11 January 12 January 13 January

Tianjin

17 January 18 January 20 January

Shanghai 23 January–7 February 8 February

The fourth lecture in the Central Theater Meetings with some officials Arriving in Beijing and holding an interview with journalists Lecturing and screening educational films at Tsinghua University Welcome dinner at the Italian Embassy Lecturing and screening educational films at the Peking University Attending a tea meeting at Yuan Tongli’s home Welcome dinner hosted by the Mayor of Beijing. Lecturing and screening educational films at Fu Jen Catholic University Meeting with Zhang Xueliang Lecturing and screening educational films at the American College of the University of Medicine Lecturing and screening educational films at Ping’an Cinema for Italian troops stationed in Tianjin Lecturing and screening educational films at Nankai University Lecturing and screening educational films at Nankai Middle School Outbreak of the Shanghai Incident prevented any further activities Left Shanghai for Italy

a The formed is organised based on China and Cinema; 大公报, 1932.01.06; 1932.01.07; 1932.01.12; 1932.01.15; 1932.01.08; 1932.01.21; 1932.01.22

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awareness, on the basis of multinational experiences, of how educational films might be developed in China. Sardi foremost highlighted the advantages of educational films that textbooks and other educational media did not possess from three perspectives. First, they could contribute to understanding modern knowledge that was difficult to picture or understand solely through verbal explanation. Natural phenomena and the development of modern politics, culture, and economics could all be conveyed through visualisation in educational films.26 Second, they could arouse children’s interest in learning and provide intuitive instruction for students.27 Third, he endorsed the idea that educational films were more economical because they could be shown to a large number of people at once, and could therefore achieve better results than other teaching methods.28 More importantly, Sardi brought the synchronic multinational experiences of using educational film to the attention of Chinese scholars. Although his introduction focused mainly on European countries and the United States, he subsequently expanded the horizon to countries such as Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary, which, if not in a peripheral position on the map of Chinese knowledge of the world, were by no means understood as advanced powers by the Chinese.29 The speeches of Sardi argued that using film for educational purposes was not a unique activity for those imperial countries but also a trend that could be pursued by those, like China, who were struggling to become powerful, and that adopting educational film for teaching was a symbol of modern education. Such information deterritorialised the development of Chinese educational film into the global modernisation of education. However, Sardi’s intention was not to establish a hegemonic way of developing educational film in China but to support the argument that educational film should be organised according to the local situation. China, in his eyes, had two particular conditions which were different from other countries. The first was the vast difference, both social and intellectual, between the inhabitants in cities and those in rural regions. The second was the undeveloped means of transport.30 Hence, he concluded in his report that it was impossible to think of transplanting any model of established organisation to China directly.31 Emphasising the particularity of the Chinese local situation, as Chap. 6 shows, was not unique to Sardi, but was also shared by the educators appointed by the League to China. Even so, when giving concrete examples for the Chinese government, Sardi mostly used the situation in Italy, and this, as the following sections

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will show, did influence the ways in which Chinese educators and officials tried to organise educational film in the first few years. He recommended that a semi-official organisation, just as in Italy, would fit China the most, because a semi-official organisation with governmental support and supervision would enjoy great authority but at the same time it would enjoy great freedom as a private company.32 Besides, Sardi tried to persuade Chinese scholars to follow the example of Italy that the Instituto Luce owned 32 ambulatory cinemas and was able to give more than 2500 performances a year for millions of spectators with lectures by local agricultural experts.33 Meanwhile, he introduced to Chinese scholars and officials how the Italian government utilised educational film as a propaganda method to illustrate the most important works and undertakings carried out by the Italian government during the previous year.34 Already in 1929, when Sun Yat-sen’s remains were moved from Beijing to Nanjing and interred in the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum, the Kuomintang (KMT) showed documentary films to citizens on the way, in order to introduce the Northern Expedition and Sun Yat-sen for propaganda purposes.35 Such suggestions from Sardi would be of significant interest to the leaders of the KMT. This construction of Italy as an example in developing educational film, Sardi explained in his final report, was due to his belief that the success achieved by Italy seemed liable to produce similar success in China. Yet though it was true that Italy and its Instituto Luce were in a leading position in the development of educational film in Europe, Sardi’s intention of national propaganda and expanding the influence of Italy should not be ignored. Sardi was the only expert who went to China who officially acknowledged his national government in the report. Ostensibly the Italian Legation played quite a helpful and neutral role in promoting the cooperation between the League and China, according to his report. As Sardi wrote, the Italian Legation “prepared a full program of lectures in the most important educational institutes, both Chinese and foreign, and arranged political and general engagements for me”.36 However, Sardi did not mention other propaganda activities that were arranged by the Italian Legation. On 18 January 1932 he gave a special lecture for the Italian garrison in Tianjin and showed two films. The first film was Anno IX - Le opere - il popolo - il valore. It described the work, organisation, principles, and values of the fascist regime over the nine years since it had been in power. Another film was a sound film of a speech by Benito Mussolini.37 This particular activity did not serve to improve education in China or

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otherwise support the aims of the League—instead it was a symbolic act of national propaganda targeted at overseas troops. The fact that these two films were not mentioned in the list of the films that he took to China38 indicates that Sardi deliberately covered up activities which might be seen to violate the spirit of the League.

4.3   Educational Sovereignty and the National Branch of the IECI Sardi was expected to meet Soong Tse-ven again in January 1932 and intended to write a plan for setting up an educational film organisation in China before leaving.39 However, the outbreak of the Shanghai Incident prevented him from realising this plan, and he went back to Italy on 8 February 1932. Although Sardi expressed a positive vision of educational films in China, reporting that his trip had aroused great interest amongst Chinese scholars and officials by his lectures and discussions,40 he nevertheless did not believe in the capacity of the Chinese government to sustain such work at that time. Carlo Bos, an Italian Inspector General of Customs and the president of the Shanghai branch of the Rotary Club, paraphrased the words of Sardi in a letter: “Recent political events and consequent financial stringency have however destroyed all hope of securing in the near future more than the moral backing of the Chinese authorities.”41 The implication was clear that Sardi suspected the Chinese government’s support would be merely lip service and there would be no practical progress in educational film under the leadership of the Nanjing government. As a result, before leaving China, Sardi utilised his authority as the agent of the IECI to appoint Bos as an honorary delegate of the IECI for China. According to the letter prepared by Sardi to introduce the programmes of the IECI, Sardi wished that Bos could help the IECI establish relations with commercial and social institutions in China, and with the Chinese central government.42 The principal methods by which these relations would be established were expected to be through subscriptions to the International Educational Cinematographic Review and borrowing from the international catalogue of educational films compiled by the IECI.43 Before 1 April 1932 at the latest, Bos established an educational cinematographic institute (referred to in this chapter as Bos’s Institute) in Shanghai.44 Most members of Bos’s Institute were foreigners who worked

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in Shanghai and were chosen because Bos asserted that they wanted to start actual work amongst local municipal and private schools. On 1 April 1932, de Feo wrote to the Chairman of the International Settlement in Shanghai that “we have already constituted a Chinese branch of the IECI in Shanghai with its headquarters at 9 Route Pichon and presided over by Mr. C. Bos”.45 In the International Review of Educational Cinematography published in May 1932, Bos, as the delegate for China, published an article.46 In the following issue published in June 1932, an article introducing the so-called Chinese Committee of the IECI was about the institute established by Bos.47 From March to June 1932, Bos’s Institute undertook some initiatives to utilise educational films in China, or more precisely, within the international settlement in Shanghai. The first initiative was to gain support from the authorities of Shanghai municipality (in particular of the international settlement). From April, Bos wrote several letters to the secretary and Chairman of the Municipal Council appealing for financial support for the institute. On 26 April, Foster Kemp, who served in the Department of Public Education of the Municipal Council, wrote a letter to the secretary of the Municipal Council and expressed his desire to follow the proposal of the IECI and establish a library of educational films, from which the schools in the international settlement that were already equipped with cinematographs could borrow free of charge.48 This letter implied that the establishment of such an institution was under the guidance of the IECI. On 27 April, the secretary of the Municipal Council wrote to de Feo that they had already established a connection with Bos and would try to make detailed plans in the future.49 The correspondence indicated that de Feo was following the work of Bos’s Institute and supported its work in China. The support of the IECI would, without doubt, make the work of Bos’s Institute easier. The second initiative was the screening of educational films in schools. Although the letters from IECI and Bos might have given Shanghai’s municipal authorities the impression that they could provide educational films, in fact, the educational films that Bos’s Institute screened in China were all from the Eastman Kodak Company. On 30 May, the institute organised a screening of four Eastman Kodak films supplied by R. E. O. Bolger, another member of the Rotary Club.50 This information indicates that the so-called Chinese branch of the IECI, namely Bos’s Institute, was in fact established by, or at least won the support of, the IECI. However, the legality of IECI doing so was quite questionable. The Organic Statute of the IECI, issued in 1928, did not

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stipulate its purview. However, Article 3 defined its relation with the ICIC as follows: the work of the IECI shall be carried out under the direction of the Council of the League, which shall be advised in this respect by the ICIC.51 In this sense, the IECI should also follow the principle upheld by the ICIC which involved avoiding criticism over intervention in national sovereignty. In the case of national committees of the ICIC, the ICIC stipulated that such committees could only act as intermediaries between intellectual organisations in their respective countries and the ICIC. The national committees themselves were allowed to define their relations with national governments and their own rules for procedure and appointment.52 The implication was clear that, for a sovereign country, a national committee should be left in the hands of local scholars, and the ICIC would not intervene in the work of such committees. From this perspective, de Feo’s claim that they established Bos’s Institute deviated from the principles and methods designed by the ICIC. It is not clear if the IECI was aware of the fact that the institute established by Bos did not get authorisation from the Chinese government. Nevertheless, such an institute, authorised to be the “Chinese Branch of the IECI” but organised by foreigners in the international settlement, at least made Chinese scholars feel offended. Guo Youshou (Chap. 6) recalled the reaction of the Chinese society to Bos’s Institute in his memoirs dating from 1945: In the summer of 1932, an article in a newspaper reported that an Italian staff member of the Customs together with some missionaries in Shanghai had established an educational film institute. It was not only a national institute but also represented China in the IECI of the League. […] Bos is an Italian, so it was easy for him to establish a connection with the IECI in Rome. Also, in the winter of 1931, the League had sent an educational mission to China, one member of which was an Italian whose task was to investigate educational film. […] At that time, the members of the Film Censorship Committee in China all thought that the development of educational film ought to be organised and carried out by Chinese people themselves. Furthermore, they wished to create a national institute in Nanjing. Therefore, they decided to establish the Educational Cinematography Society of China (ECSC).53

From the words of Guo Youshou, the Bos’s Institute’s use of the word “national” and representation of China in the IECI was most unacceptable for him. He ascribed the fact that the institute established by Bos was

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permitted to represent China to Bos’s nationality, implying that the authority, the reason, and the channel through which Bos’s Institute got such a title was neither noble nor legal. The existence of such an institute was a slap in the face of Chinese scholars and authorities, because, in their mind, it was only the Chinese that could set up an organisation with the title of a national organisation representing China. In October 1932, when the mission of Chinese educators that visited Europe in response to the League’s mission to China was in Rome, they protested this issue directly to the IECI and won recognition for the ECSC as the Chinese National Branch of the IECI over Bos’s Institute.54 Guo Youshou further evaluated the replacement as the sign that the ECSC had established its international status.55 Yet the protest did not produce any echo within China. The event and the meaning of the replacement endowed by Guo Youshou were emblematic of the developing consciousness of educational sovereignty in China. In the 1920s, Chinese scholars and students fought for the right to control education by constraining and regulating the role and authority of foreigners in Chinese education (see Chap. 1). Emphasising that only the Chinese can represent China in an international organisation was a refractive illumination of the educational right in an international scope. After replacing Bos’s Institute in the IECI, further disputes between the ECSC and the Institute continued, but only within the Shanghai international settlement. The disputes, although each side had their own account, the ECSC claimed were about maintaining educational sovereignty, which could be considered as a continuation of the movement for recovering educational rights beginning in the 1920s. On 20 October 1934, the Shanghai Municipal Council received a letter from Zeng Linfu, a member of the ECSC. In the letter, he made an accusation that persons in the international settlement had carried out activities in the name of the China National Institute of the IECI and asked the municipality to intervene to prevent them from taking further actions.56 Without pointing out the object, it was clear in Zeng Linfu’s letter that the ‘persons’ referred to were the members of Bos’s Institute. For Zeng Linfu, the conflict point was that Bos’s Institute illegally usurped their title, rather than being about the concrete activities of the institute. The Shanghai Municipal Council transferred the letter to Bos’s Institute and received a reply from John S. Barr, a Scottish missionary of the London Missionary Society who had replaced Bos as president when he left China.

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In Barr’s reply, he outlined three points. Firstly, he explained that Bos’s Institute arranged film screenings in various schools and educational institutions throughout the International Settlement for which a small fee was charged. This part of their work was handled by Dai Shusen, an accredited Chinese representative of the institute. It appears that their tactic of charging fees from school pupils in the Chinese territory to cover the cost of screening was quite successful. Secondly, Barr notified the municipality that the institute had recently decided to alter its title to one which was less official-sounding and was now known as the Educational Film Society. Thirdly, he mentioned that the ECSC had approached the Eastman Kodak Company to request a monopoly on its educational films, but had been refused.57 The response of Barr implied the conflict point was commercial competition, and that they disrupted the intentions of the ECSC, which had attempted to have a monopoly on Kodak educational films in China (as mentioned before, Bos’s Institute also used educational films provided by the Kodak Company), and that they therefore eroded the potential market of the ECSC—the schools in Chinese territory under the international concession, where the Institute had successfully earned money to support its operations. Accepting the explanation of Barr, the Municipal Council felt that the letter from the ECSC appeared to be an attempt to secure a monopoly on screenings of educational films within the locality.58 But the Municipal Council also admitted that Dai Shusen had falsely used the name of the ‘China National Institute of the IECI’.59 On 19 November, the Municipal Council released a document which stated that Bos’s Institute had been reorganised and would henceforth use the name ‘the Educational Film Society’. It also moved its headquarters to Medhurst College and stopped using the offices of the Bureau of Education of Municipality as a correspondence address. As a result, the Municipal Council then considered any misunderstandings about the nature of the relationship between Bos’s Institute and the Municipal Council had been dispelled.60 On 23 November, the deputy secretary of Shanghai Municipal Council replied to the ECSC. He wrote that after investigation, it had been found that Bos’s Institute had already discontinued the use of its former title, and was currently known as the Educational Film Society. Because the Educational Film Society only showed educational films in schools, the Municipal Council considered its activities to be nothing objectionable. Besides, they would no longer grant the institute the use of their address as a correspondence address.61 The reply to the ECSC shows that Shanghai Municipal

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Council considered the letter from ECSC to be chiefly about commercial competition with Bos’s Institute but did not express this to the ECSC. In fact, to avoid unnecessary trouble, they tried to avoid taking sides in this dispute. After Bos’s Institute had changed its name, there are no further documents to suggest that the ECSC had any further conflict with them. Although it is possible that there was an opportunity for one of these bodies to secure a monopoly on the screening of educational films in Shanghai (which Shanghai Municipal Council speculated was the case at the time), considering the event within the context of the recovery of educational sovereignty since the mid-1920s, it seems that the dispute over the use of the title—especially as the title was being used by foreigners in China who were closely interrelated with imperialism—was the main reason for the protests by the Chinese.

4.4   The ECSC and Transnational Influence The ECSC established by Chinese scholars in 1932 was a direct response to the existence of Bos’s Institute. However, the idea that such an organisation should be established in China had already emerged. According to the article titled China and the I.I.E.C. published in January 1932 in the International Review of Educational Cinematography, the Chinese Minister of Education informed the IECI of the constitution of a National Educational Film Centre when Sardi was in China.62 Gu Qian in her study revealed that the ECSC was a public organisation but was under the authority of the government concerning its financial activities and membership. She argued that the ECSC did not present itself as an official organisation because it would be easier to negotiate with liberal Western nations who responded with antipathy to the Party and its propaganda.63 However, a private organisation with governmental support to organise national educational film was, as the previous analysis showed, not only recommended by Sardi but also proven to be a success in other countries. Besides, the primary function of the ECSC was by no means international communication, but rather supporting domestic educational film development. Hence, the ECSC, constituted as a semi-official organisation, could hardly be expected to be communicating with liberal Western people. Nevertheless, it is unquestionably the case that the ECSC was established by a group of scholars as a non-official organisation and had a close relationship with the government. Firstly, the establishment of the organisation was carried out under the auspices of the government. On 8 July

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1932, the CESC held its opening ceremony at the Ministry of Education in Nanjing. Representatives from the Central Committee of the KMT and the Ministry of Education attended.64 Secondly, many members of the ECSC were politicians and officials. The CESC comprised 7 supervisory committee members and 21 executive committee members. Influential politicians such as Zhu Jiahua, Wang Jingwei, Chen Guofu, Zhang Daofan, Qian Changzhao, Chu Minyi, Luo Jialun, and Chen Lifu were members of the supervisory committee and the executive committee.65 But the ECSC also opened its membership to the general public. According to its regulations, anyone who had an interest in educational films could apply to join the ECSC.66 Thirdly, the ECSC received a financial subsidy from the government. Starting in October 1932, the Film Censorship Committee subsidised 100 yuan per month to the ECSC. The ECSC also tried to apply for extra funding from the Ministry of Education and other government departments.67 The main aim of the ECSC was to promote the use of educational films in China. However, a situation it faced during the initial years was the shortage of educational films. The members of the ECSC turned their hands to the IECI and considered this to be part of the ongoing cooperation in matters of education between China and the League. So the ECSC made this proposition with the undeclared assumption that they would receive such educational films for free. However, the outcome frustrated the ECSC from two aspects. First, upon receipt of these 30 films, they were informed that they would have to pay 5800 yuan.68 With the financial support of the Central Committee of the KMT, the Ministry of Education, and the National Central University, the ECSC was able to pay the cost, because they considered that the purchase of these films in that situation was necessary “for the sake of China’s credit reputation in international society”.69 They only bought the films because they did not want to derogate China’s international image and reputation by breaking their promise. What further disappointed the ECSC was the qualification of the educational films imported from the IECI. Before receiving them, the ECSC had no knowledge of exactly which educational films they would receive and expected that the educational films would be in many different languages as they were sent by an international organisation.70 However, when they arrived, it was discovered that they were all in Italian.71 In fact, the collections of the IECI mostly focused on documentary materials and did not yet have a database of educational films. It is very likely that all the films were provided by Instituto Luce.72 Those educational films increased

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the cost for the ECSC if it had to use them. It was more challenging to find someone who could speak both Italian and Chinese to add subtitles. At least in 1935–1936, the ECSC was still paying 681 yuan73 for adding Chinese subtitles to films imported from the IECI, while they only earned 675 yuan from lending those films to schools and other agents.74 If the 95 yuan refund of renting educational films that the ECSC paid to Chunguang Cinema75 were taken into consideration, the ECSC not only did not earn anything from the educational films imported from the IECI but had to spend further on it. This was the only case where the ECSC imported educational films via the IECI. Although there is no direct evidence that this was why the ECSC ceased to import educational films from the League, it is undoubtedly the case that the ECSC did not have good communications with the IECI, and that the films they received did not meet their expectations. Simultaneously, a no less important factor in decreasing the necessity of importing educational film from the League was that some Western film companies had begun to investigate the Chinese market for educational films. As early as 1929 a German military counsellor76 had tried to persuade the Chinese Ministry of Education to import German educational films and entrust a German company to produce educational films for China.77 In 1933, the Shanghai branch of the ECSC imported ten educational films from the German UFA Company, which were then circulated amongst the schools and other mass education institutions of Shanghai.78 In 1936, the Eastman Kodak Company held nearly 90% of the market for short educational films in China.79 The reason for Kodak’s success in China was likely that it was the only company selling educational films to have a branch office in Shanghai.80 Unlike the Instituto Luce, the ECSC itself in the following years did not produce any educational films, but cooperated with the University of Nanking, the National Central Film Studio (中央电影制片厂) which had been established in 1933, and other film companies (Mingxing Company and Lianhua Company), in the production of educational films. In 1935 the ECSC sought more funding through extra taxes for the showing of educational films in cinemas in Nanjing. This approach may have been inspired by the way the Instituto Luce sought to collect money to finance its activities. According to the translation of an article written by Sardi introducing the Instituto Luce, since 1926 the Italian government had stipulated that all cinemas in Italy must show educational films and propaganda films produced by Instituto Luce before commercial films.

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This approach was intended to reduce national expenditure, as cinemas would pay a fee for the educational films shown.81 Similarly, in 1935, the ECSC proposed to the Executive Yuan that every cinema in Nanjing should show educational films and pay the resulting fee. The Executive Yuan entrusted the implementation of this task to the Financial Bureau and Social Bureau of Nanjing. These two bureaus replied that they would impose special educational film fees from 4 February 1935 onwards, according to the recreational tax imposed on cinemas. However, these two bureaus would receive 5% of the fees charged to cinemas in compensation for their work.82 The plan faced resistance from cinema owners, who argued that it was without proper administrative formalities and the time from which the fees would begin to be charged was too soon. According to the negotiations between the two bureaus and representatives of cinemas on 20 February, a standard for charging educational film fees was reached: (i) an extra fee of 5 li83 was added to the price of each ticket costing between 1 and 2 jiao; (ii) an extra fee of 1 fen was added to the price of each ticket costing between 2.1 and 5 jiao; (iii) an extra fee of 2 fen was added to the price of each ticket costing more than 5 jiao.84 Even though the ECSC designed stipulations for how these educational film fees would be used, the institution’s yearly income and expenses table did not record any income from educational film fees.85 At the end of 1937, Nanjing was occupied by Japan, and it became impossible for the ECSC to charge the fees. Transplanting a method that proved to be successful in other countries but turned out to be a failure in China reveals the constraint of local situations. The unsuccessful attempt disclosed the incapacity of the Nanjing government in organising education, such that it could not even implement regulations in its capital city. Outside of its limited role in circulating educational films, the Chinese Committee also showed little interest in participating in the IECI’s organisational work. Compared to the eagerness that the Chinese government had to nominate a Chinese committee member to the ICIC,86 they never fought for a position in the IECI. When the International Educational Cinematographic Conference was held in Rome in 1934, the Chinese government only appointed Zhu Ying, the secretary of the Chinese Embassy in Italy, to attend. Although Zhu Ying was elected to serve as the vice president of the conference, there is no documentation showing that he put forward any proposals during the conference.87

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4.5   International Educational Cinematography Competitions Even though the ECSC did not establish a close relationship with the IECI, it showed great interest in the educational cinematography competitions organised or supported by the IECI. The ECSC attempted to enter films in two such competitions. The first was a film named The Farmers’ Spring (农人之春) for the Rural Cinematographic Competition organised by Brussels International Exposition in conjunction with the IECI88 in 1935, which won the third prize. The second was a film named Chinese Sports (中国体育) that was produced for the sports film competition to be held at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, but which missed the submission deadline. The process that the ECSC used in deciding whether to attend these competitions and which films it would present revealed a clear intention of using international spaces for international competition and the exchange of knowledge. When, in 1934, the ECSC received the invitation to attend the rural educational film competition, it justified China’s participation in the competition explaining that how to improve rural life is one of the most important international problems. The competition, on the one hand, shows reform of the rural in different countries, and on the other hand, provides the opportunity to exchange educational films that serve as a reference for the international experiences of rural improvement.89

For the ECSC, the competition essentially functioned as a platform to enable China to learn from the experience of foreign countries—mainly the West. Similar opinions were expressed in the film magazine Diansheng. An article argued that learning from Western experiences would be very helpful in solving China’s rural problems.90 Another article wrote: Our nation is an agricultural nation; however most rural areas now suffer from bankruptcy […] we do not expect that a Chinese film could win anything in this competition, but a representative who attended would be able to recount to us his experiences and thoughts [on other countries].91

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Both the ECSC and educators in China expressed the stance that the competition’s theme was more important than the competition itself, and China was a learner in such an international event. Although the writings of Chinese educators would give their readers the impression that they did not care about the ranking that China would achieve in the competition, the ECSC did try their best to produce a film which made good use of cinema technology and had high-quality content. The production of the film won the support of both the government and leading rural reform organisations. The Central Film Studio of the KMT Propaganda Department assumed the work of shooting the film. Three prominent rural organisations provided further guidance: the Rural Renaissance Committee of the Executive Yuan, Dingxian National Association of Mass Education (organised by Y. C. James Yen), and the Shandong Rural Construction Research Association (organised by Liang Shuming), with the latter two being key representatives of rural reform movements in China at that time.92 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided financial support for the production of the film.93 The ECSC also contacted renowned professional scholars and film stars to participate in the production. Educational film specialists, including Wei Xueren, Pan Chenghou, and Shao Zhongxiang, participated in writing the script. Wei Li, Li Ying, and Lan Ying, the most famous stars of the Central Film Studio, acted in the film.94 The assistance and cooperation of these institutions shows that the ECSC and the Chinese government attached great importance to the competition and considered it to be a significant chance to show China’s rural development to the world, even though, as the previous article indicates, rural bankruptcy was a key theme of newspapers in China at that time. The intention of using international space as a channel to attend international competitions was more evident in the case of the international sports film competition. The ECSC was disappointed when they got the news that China was not a member of the executive committee of the competition. They considered a position on the committee to be a symbol of international influence but acknowledged that the quality of Chinese educational films was not high enough to merit such a position: “We feel ashamed that China could not be involved in the executive committee. This is because our national educational film industry is still in its infancy, especially when it comes to sports educational films.”95 The self-­condemned nationalism that blamed the Chinese for their own suffering96 served the domestic intention of encouraging film companies in China to invest in

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educational films and help China to improve its reputation in the world. International competition, though not explicitly expressed, was deeply rooted in the ECSC’s international activity. Besides, these international competitions were channels through which Chinese scholars and educators could construct the Chinese image in the world. The misrepresentation of China in films was a topic that Chinese representatives on international occasions mentioned more than once. In the 1931 International Council of Women, the Chinese representative Kao Kyuin San criticised the intentionally presented negative images of the Chinese population and other oriental people in the films shot by Westerners, and urged the elimination of filmic misrepresentation, which Joyce Goodman defined as the negative pole of rapprochement.97 In 1932, the International Educational Cinematography issued an article introducing the situation of educational film in China. In the article, the ECSC wrote about the five standards of film content in China and stated that films produced by Western people contained many negative representations of the Chinese.98 From this perspective, those international competitions provided opportunities for Chinese educators to promote the international understanding of China via the presentation of an ‘authentic’ China that was constructed by the Chinese rather than by foreigners—a positive pole of rapprochement. The two educational films revealed the visions of the modernity of Chinese educators in relation to the life of Chinese rural people and Chinese culture. The film named The Farmers’ Spring told the story of a rural family’s daily life. It opens with a sunrise. A rural couple, Mr and Mrs Li, get up early and clean their house. They wake up their two children, feed the livestock, and prepare breakfast. The film introduces the family in more detail. Mr Li has a virtuous wife, two brothers who have received training in agricultural improvement, and two elderly parents in their seventies. Altogether their family has eight members. They live together and make their living from agricultural work. After breakfast, the grandfather, as the patriarch of the family, encourages his sons and grandchildren with a traditional proverb, which instructs them to work harder and focus on agriculture. The children go to school, and the young men go to work in the fields. They use the most up-to-date modern methods to improve their farming, improving the irrigation, transplanting, and harvesting of rice. Although farming is challenging manual labour, Li and his brothers are pleased, and they sing while they work. Other farmers in their village know that Mr Li has used a copper-carbonate-based fertiliser to improve

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his wheat harvest, so an agricultural instructor named Wu brings them to visit Mr Li’s fields. While the men are working in the field, the women are working at home. Their work involves weaving, picking bamboo, feeding silkworms, and preparing and delivering lunch to the men of the family. At sunset, the family’s children return home riding on a water buffalo. The farmers return carrying their hoes and begin the recreations of the evening. The grandfather tells stories to his grandsons, Mr and Mrs Li talk with each other, and Mr Li’s youngest goes to the river with his fiancée to sing love songs (Image 4.1).99 The rendering of China’s rural society in the newspapers of the 1920s and 1930s was never as beautiful and harmonious as that of the film. In fact, rural crises and bankruptcies were popular topics amongst Chinese scholars at the time.100 However, as an educational film for international competition, constructing a favourable international image of China was

Image 4.1  The Farmers’ Spring, cited from Liangyou 1936, 113

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much more important than giving an accurate representation of rural life for the Chinese educators and officials involved. The film consciously shows rural life—or an idealised image of rural life—from two perspectives. Firstly, the film focuses on the influence of science in rural society as a part of the image of modernity. Chinese intellectuals in the 1930s understood technical knowledge to be a defining feature of modernity and considered such scientific expertise to be something that Chinese peasants lacked.101 The film portrays the reform of rural farming technology by establishing the necessary background that Mr Li and his brothers have all received agricultural training. As a consequence, they achieve a better harvest than other villagers. More importantly, the film shows Chinese peasants as eager and open to new scientific methods and fertilisers. The farmers in the film tell the agricultural expert “Mr Wu, the wheat has grown well this year! Could you please teach us more new farming methods and farming technologies?”102 With these words, the image of Chinese peasants is reshaped to one of an open-minded farmer from one focused on selfishness, poverty, sickness, and foolishness, the rubrics through which the image of peasants was constructed in domestic newspapers, and Chinese rural society is shown to be modernising. On a secondary level, the film shows the harmonious life in rural society beyond the influence of industry and city. It shows an idealised vision of traditional rural life as ‘men plough, while women weave’.103 In the film, three generations live and work together. The men work in the fields while women are responsible for housework. The grandfather is described as the family leader, who gives a stirring speech after breakfast and tells stories to his grandsons. Through the relationship between Mr Li’s younger brother and his fiancée, the film also shows that people are free to choose who they marry. Life in rural society is presented as peaceful, plain, and pleasurable. The film moreover does not describe any ongoing reform in the structure of China’s rural society. The film The Farmers’ Spring can hardly be considered an authentic portrayal of rural life in China. In the same year, another educational film, Rural Construction (乡村建设), which introduced the rural improvement projects organised by Y. C. James Yen in Dingxian, shows an entirely opposite view of China’s rural society. The film includes four parts that poignantly identify the problems faced by Chinese rural society, presenting Chinese peasants as poor, ignorant, weak, and selfish.104 The film shows how experts and educators try to teach peasants to accept aspects of a modern lifestyle, such as new hygiene measures,

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literacy education, and economic cooperation.105 The difference in portrayal is due to the different intended audiences of both films. The international film competition was an opportunity to improve China’s image in international society and undertake propaganda. Thus, it is understandable that in The Farmers’ Spring, the production team tried to avoid the portrayal of Chinese society as lagging behind other countries, and instead attempted to show a rural society becoming modern. It was not intended to persuade others to follow Chinese methods or motivate audiences but rather to show a new Chinese rural society to other nations. Conversely, the film Rural Construction was intended for a Chinese audience who in the eyes of scholars required education. Hence it explores the backwardness of Chinese rural society and tries to infuse modernity into rural society. The competition was held on 23 and 24 July 1935  in Brussels. Although 19 nations had signed up to participate, only 13 attended. In the competition, China won the third prize. The Chinese film, together with the Italian and Hungarian entries, was selected to be screened at the International Exposition. It was the first time that a Chinese film had won an international prize, and so it was considered to have won honour for the nation by the Chinese officials and educators who had sponsored its production.106 The film functioned as a medium through with China showed an idealised image of rural society to Western countries and constructed an image of China that they would have liked to realise, and which was totally different from the images constructed in Western films.107 Pi Zuoqiong, the Chinese representative in the competition, commented on the other films featured that “these films show the modernisation of agriculture in other countries from the process of sowing seeds, irrigation, harvest, extraction, packing and transportation. These films show the authority of science and the spirit of research in other countries”.108 Just as the Chinese film showed the importance of science and improving farming methods, it was the modernisation and scientific methods evident in other countries’ films that were most impressive (Image 4.2). The image of a form of modernity in which scientific methods unite with traditional Chinese life is also represented in Chinese Sports.109 In the first part, the film introduces Chu Minyi, a leading figure in early nationalist government, and explains that he has carried out extensive research on sports and innovated many new fitness techniques. Although Chu Minyi

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Image 4.2  The certification for the film The Farmers’ Spring. (From Liangyou, vol. 113)

is 53 years old, the film underlines that he still has the body of a young adult. In the second part of the film, Chu Minyi demonstrates some of the basic techniques of tai chi, and shows how tai chi can be practised as a group exercise. The narrator describes tai chi in more detail: The movement of tai chi is slow, homogeneous, and continuous. Once you start a movement, you have to move your whole body. […] Tai chi is not like other sports which focus solely upon power, nor like sitting in silence to cultivate one’s qi.110 It is the most appropriate sport to strengthen the body.

In the third part of the film, Chu demonstrates the use of some special tools for practising tai chi that he has invented. The film emphasises that the tools are scientific, and can make up for the difficulties a practitioner encounters when there is no one of the same skill levels to practise with.

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While Chu Minyi uses two of these tools to practise tai chi, the narrator explains the use and theory of the tools. In the final part of the film, Chu Minyi demonstrates another traditional sport in China called jianzi. The mission of the sport is to keep a heavily weighted shuttlecock in the air without using one’s hands. The narrator explains that this sport can be played anywhere and can activate the whole body. Lastly, Chu demonstrates archery. He is shown standing 10 m away from a target while drawing a bow. The narrator explains that the sport involves one of the skills that is a compulsory part of Chinese traditional education and says it can strengthen the body and enhance the practical spirit of sports. To understand the content and the intentions of this film, it must be placed in the context of physical culture in China since the late nineteenth century. Modern physical education appeared in the new school system, which was introduced in 1903, alongside military training. This reform was intended to cultivate good soldiers and muscular bodies. Since that time, Chinese intellectuals intentionally contrasted traditional sports with Western sports and related the latter to a modern and healthy populace.111 In the 1910s and 1920s, radical reformers considered modern Western physical education to be a way of building a strong and powerful country, while traditional Chinese sports were seen as an unscientific remnant of feudal culture.112 Western sports became the main physical education programme in Chinese schools, especially after the 1922 introduction of a new education system based on the US model.113 At the same time, what Susannie Brownell defined as ‘a martial arts revival period’ occurred within the background of an increasingly nationalist atmosphere in China, in which traditional sports such as kung fu was reshaped to fit into a Western sports system (becoming a competitive sport) under the new name of ‘national art’ and won the support of traditionalists who considered it to be a means of strengthening China.114 When the first Chinese athlete to participate in the Olympics failed to qualify for the final heats in 1932, a debate ensued on which sports the Chinese were best suited to: traditional martial arts or modern Western sports.115 It was against this background that the ECSC shot the educational film Chinese Sports and aspired to showcase traditional sports within the international competition. Chu Minyi, the central figure in the film, had spent extensive periods of time living in Belgium and France, but was extremely enthusiastic about tai chi and took on an active role in the renaissance of traditional sports. Chu Minyi believed that guoshu (“national art”, the terminology for martial arts adopted by scholars at the time), especially tai

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chi, could become the best method of physical fitness if properly supported by scientific technology.116 From the perspective of strengthening the body and keeping fitness, he declared that guoshu should be popularised within China. Apart from the primary function of fitness, he attributed special cultural symbolism to traditional sports: We should organise the specialists of Chinese sports to use scientific methods to carry out research on traditional sports and understand their essence. Our aim is to turn Chinese sports into an organised, systematic, and theorised form of guoshu, and to make this our contribution to the world. We should help guoshu to occupy a prominent position in world sports, to become a perfect sport, and to take the place of gymnastics.117

As with recognising the geopolitical hierarchy in international relations, the words of Chu clearly indicated his acceptance that there was a corresponding cultural and physical hierarchy in sports, in which the West took centre stage. At the same time, the traditional Chinese view that China was at the centre of the world also influenced him. He hence advocated that guoshu could compete with gymnastics, replacing the influence of gymnastics and enjoying a central position within the world sports system, with the precondition of extensive reform and research that would enable it to become a sport which was both systematic and scientific. As the content of Chinese Sports showed, these three aspects of physical fitness, cultural symbolism, and the necessity for scientific reform are reflected in it. The film focuses on the traditional Chinese sports of tai chi, jianzi, and archery, despite the fact that Western athletics and sports were already extremely popular in Republican China. It stresses that the great advantage of Chinese traditional sports lies in the fact that they are movements that require the cooperation of the entire body and are also easy to practise. At the same time, the film tries to show how the traditional sport of tai chi is being improved with scientific tools. Just as in the film The Farmers’ Spring, this film demonstrates from another perspective how China is using modern scientific methods to improve its culture.

4.6   Conclusion Starting from 1931 with the visit of Sardi to China, the development of educational film in China entered into the international space established by the IECI. However, the ECSC and Chinese educators did not establish close and stable relations with the IECI, such that many acts of connection

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or cooperation were only one-offs. Rather than promoting the circulation of educational films and international understanding as advocated by the IECI, the transnational space constructed by the IECI for China was a channel for showing an image of China to the world and maintaining Chinese educational sovereignty. The gap between the ambition of the IECI to become the leader in the international development of educational film and its ability to realise this ambition was the main obstacle to maintaining sustainable and long-term cooperation between the IECI and China. Sending an educational expert to China in 1931 was a late decision with quite an ambitious goal. Rather than giving the expert great authority and flexibility to control the process, it was more accurate to say that the IECI had not yet formulated any practical plan to promote the universal development of educational film, especially for the countries that were at an early stage of development. Unlike those European countries that had established relatively well-­organised structures for organising educational films nationally, China at the beginning of the 1930s faced the problem of not only lacking educational films, but also lacking funding and people who had the capacity to use educational films for teaching. Yet though Sardi’s trip aroused great interest amongst Chinese scholars, and educational film became a popular medium for mass education in 1930s China, the IECI was absent in the further domestic development of educational film in the country. Due to Chinese domestic chaos, Sardi could not have further communication with Chinese officials, but the IECI nevertheless did not re-establish such connection when the Chinese domestic situation became relatively stable after 1932. What Chinese educators cared most about with regard to the IECI was the title of the national branch rather than its activities and position in the organisational structure of the IECI. Chinese scholars and educators believed that only an institute organised by Chinese people could represent China in international organisations, and considered replacing Bos’s Institute as an action that would maintain Chinese sovereignty and improve China’s international status. Such a belief and action were the continuation of the movement for recovering educational sovereignty in the 1920s in the international sphere. The establishment of Bos’s Institute in China was because Sardi felt the Chinese government could not sustain the role of supporting educational film development in China. However, rather than intentionally encroaching on Chinese national sovereignty, the IECI immediately replaced Bos’s institute with the ECSC when they received Chinese scholars’ protests.

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The most engaging activities of the IECI for China, and those with the most practical value, were the educational film competitions, which functioned as platforms for the exchange of knowledge, the convergence of the image of modernity, and, most importantly, for national cultural competition. Chinese scholars felt disappointed that China was not selected as a member of the committee for sports film competition, which indicated that they attributed a political meaning to those international educational film competitions, and considered the organisational structure of an educational competition to be decided by a national power. They then transferred it to nationalist discourses and encouraged Chinese film companies to produce better-quality educational films as a means to improve China’s international status. Different from the travelling films made by Westerners about China, which showed the backwardness of China or presented its strange customs, the educational films presented by Chinese scholars from the standpoint of China revealed an image or vision of modern China—that is, of the modern scientific methods and knowledge that were reviving the country.

Notes 1. 钟瑾, 民国电影检查研究 (北京: 中国电影出版社, 2012), 25–27. 2. After the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, scholars in China devoted themselves to teaching the mass and contended that the Chinese should be civilised and educated in order to save the nation. Since then, scholars in China organised many extracurricular programmes, such as giving public lectures, issuing vernacular newspapers, showing reformed operas, establishing half-day schools, and so on. After the establishment of the Republic of China, such activities were organised by the government within the framework of social education. Common education and mass education were synonyms for social education in the first half of the twentieth century. See Paul J. Bailey, Reform the People: Changing Attitudes Towards Popular Education in Early 20th Century China (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990). 李孝悌, 清末的下层社会启蒙运动1901–1911 (石家庄: 河北教育出版社, 2001). 3. 汪朝光, “民国电影检查制度之滥觞,” 近代史研究, no. 3 (2001): 211–212. 4. 肖朗 and李斌, “商务印书馆与近代中国教育电影,” 华中师范大学学报 (人文社会科学版) 55, no. 01 (2016): 174. 5. Before Sardi’s visit, educational film had been used rarely by scholars and missionaries for schooling. For more information on the two veins, namely the educational function of films and the educational films in

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1920s China, see Kaiyi Li, “Education, Entertainment, and Indoctrination,” Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society 12, no. 1 (2020): 24–28. 6. 肖朗, 李斌, “商务印书馆与近代中国教育电影,” 华中师范大学学报 (人文社会科学版): 168–176.; 张嘉楠, 刘万年, 张小红, “江苏早期教育 电影史料释义,” 现代教育技术 30, no. 4 (2020): 32–38. 7. Letter from Dufour-Feronce to Sardi, 27 October 1931, 5B/30440/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 8. Letter from Sao-Ke Alfred Sze to Eric Drummond, 1931.10.2, 5B/30440/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 9. Letter from Dufour-Feronce to Murray, 1931.10.1, 5B/30440/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 10. Very Urgent, 1931.10.26, 5B/30440/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 11. Letter from Montenach to Zilliacus, 9 October 1931, 5B/30440/28134, League of Nations Archive. 12. Letter from Dufour-Feronce to Sardi, 2 November 1931, 5B/30440/28134, League of Nations Archive. 13. Very Urgent, 5B/30440/28134. 14. Letter from Sardi to Dufour Feronce, 30 October 1931. 5B/30440/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 15. Baron Alessandro Sardi, China and Cinema (Rome: International Educational Cinematographic Institute, 1932), 1. 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid., 1–2. 18. Letter from Dufour-Feronce and Sardi, 2 November 1931, 5B/30440/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 19. Sardi, China and Cinema, 1–2. 20. Benjamin G. Martin, The Nazi-Fascist New Order for European Culture (Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2016), 53. 21. Zoë Druick, “The International Educational Cinematograph Institute, Reactionary Modernism, and the Formation of Film Studies,” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 16, no. 1 (2007): 90. 22. The 28 January Incident or Shanghai Incident was the conflict between China and Japan and took place in the Shanghai International Settlement. Due to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, students in Shanghai organised anti-Japanese demonstrations in the International District of Shanghai. The military conflicts between China and Japan later took off in Shanghai. China appealed to the League but without success. 23. 大公报, “沙地定十五日来津,” 12 January 1932, Num. 10226. 24. 大公报, “沙地今日可来津”, 15 January 1932, Num. 10229. 25. Sardi, China and Cinema, 7.

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26. 大公报, “沙地昨在南中演讲,” 21 January 1932, Num. 10235. 27. 河南教育日报, “国联教育委员沙地演讲电影与教育,” 22 January 1932. 28. “值得注意的电影教育,” 进修半月刊 1, no. 8 (1932): 30. 29. For example, in Chinese intellectual discourses, Poland was long constructed as the representative of a subjugated country. See Karl, Rebecca E. Staging the World: Chinese Nationalism at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. Asia-Pacific. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002), 27–53. 30. Sardi, China and Cinema, 12–13. 31. Ibid., 12. 32. Ibid., 17. 33. Ibid., 15–16. 34. Ibid., 16. 35. 黄德泉, 中国早期电影史事考证 (北京: 中国电影出版社, 2012), 153–154. 36. Sardi, China and Cinema, 5. 37. 大公报 “沙地今日公开演讲,” 18 January 1932. Num. 10232. 38. For the list of educational films Sardi took to China, see Sardi, China and Cinema, 20–22. 39. Ibid., 6. 40. Ibid. 41. C. Bos Delegate for China, International Educational Cinematographic Institute League of Nations, 9 February 1932. U1-3-4223, Shanghai: Shanghai Archive. 42. Baron Alessandro Sardi, League of Nations International Educational Cinematographic Institute, 1932.2.1, U1-3-4223, Shanghai: Shanghai Archive. 43. Ibid. 44. The Bos’s Institute was composed of the following persons: G. S. Foster Kemp, the superintendent at the Department of Public Education of the Municipal Council of the International Concession; Hung Liu, the Chinese Minister of Public Health; Chu Kung, the president of the University of Hunan; Herman Liu, the president of Shanghai; Chen Heqin, the president of the educational section of the French Municipal Council of Shanghai; C. H. Grosbois, the rector of the French University of Shanghai; and Paul H.  Hsu, the commissioner for education at the Chinese municipality of Shanghai. The other members of Bos’s Institute included John Y.  Lee, Jane Shaw Ward, G.  A. Fithch, John S.  Barr, R. E. O’Bolger, S. C. Leung, and V. Rusconi. See Editor, “The Chinese Committee of the I.I.E.C.,” International Review of Educational Cinematography, no. 6 (1932): 49–50. 45. Letter from de Feo to the Chairman of Shanghai Municipality, 1 April 1932, U1-3-4223, Shanghai: Shanghai Archive.

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46. C.  Bos, “The Condition of Cinematography in China,” International Review of Educational Cinematography, no. 5 (1932): 389. 47. Editor, “The Chinese Committee of the I.I.E.C.,” International Review of Educational Cinematography, 467–468. 48. Acting superintendent Education Department, The Secretary, 26 April 1932, U1-3-4223, Shanghai: Shanghai Archive. 49. Letter from J. R. Jones to Luciano de Feo, 27 April 1932, U1-3-4223, Shanghai: Shanghai Archive. 50. The China Press (1925–1938), “Education Films Exhibited Here,” 1 June 1932. 51. International Educational Cinematographic Institute, Organic Statute, 27 September 1928, C. 63(1). 1928. XII., Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 52. International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Minutes of the Third Session, 1 January 1924, C-3-M-3-1924-XII, Geneva: League of Nations Archive: 34. 53. 郭有守, “记忆中的中国教育电影运动,” 电影与播音4, no. 5 (1945): 107. 54. Ibid. 55. Ibid. 56. Translation of Letter to Council from the National Educational Cinematographic Society of China Nanking, 29 October 1934, U1-4-13, Shanghai Archive. 57. Commissioner of police, the secretary, 16 November 1934, U1-4-3, Shanghai Archive. 58. Ibid. 59. Translation of Letter to Council, U1-4-13. 60. Letter from Superintendent of education to the Secretary, 19 November 1934, U1-4-13, Shanghai Archive. 61. Letter from J.M.  Mckee to Mr. Zeng Lin-fu, 23 November 1934, U1-4-13, Shanghai Archive. 62. Editor, “China and the I.I.E.C.,” International Review of Educational Cinematography, no. 1 (1932): 50. But the accuracy of the article was questionable. The article asserted that they got information about Chinese cinema from the Chinese Foreign Office. However, the article falsely said that it was in January 1931 that the ICIC decided an educational expert should be appointed to China. As the monograph shows, it was in May 1931 that the Chinese government put forward the proposal wishing that the League of Nations could provide assistance to Chinese educational reform. Also appointing an educational expert to China was a late decision made by the ICIC. 63. 顾倩 “中国教育电影协会的身份认定和作用探讨,” 当代电影, no. 5 (2013): 110. 64. “中国教育电影协会成立,” 民众教育通讯 2, no. 6 (1932): 148–149.

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65. Ibid., 149. 66. Ibid., 150–151. 67. 总务组, ed., 中国教育电影协会会务报告: 二十一年度 (南京: 中国教育 电影协会, 1932), 3. 68. 总务组, ed., 中国教育电影协会会务报告: 二十二年度 (南京: 中国教育 电影协会, 1933), 63. 69. Ibid. 70. “中国教育电影协会上海分会近讯一束,” 民众教育通讯 3, no. 6 (1933): 17. 71. “国联教育影片来华,” 民众教育通讯 3, no. 10 (1934): 14. 72. Some films could be searched in the online archive of the Instituto Luce. The website of the Instituto Luce: https://www.archivioluce.com/ 73. 1 Yuan equalled 1 shilling 2.5 penny in the 1930s before the outbreak of the Second Sino–Japanese War. 74. 总务组, ed., 中国教育电影协会会务报告: 24 年 4 月 至 25年 3月 (南京: 中国教育电影协会, 1936), 81. 75. Ibid. 76. From 1926 to 1941, Germany and China established a cooperation relationship for Germany to help China in modernising industry and the armed force. There were at least 46 German officers appointed to advise and train the national force for the KMT since 1926. The German person who tried to persuade the Chinese government to buy German educational films was Wangenheim (transliteration). 77. 张乃燕, “训令: 印发教育影片说明书仰知照由,” 国立中央大学教育行政 周刊, no. 103 (1929): 1–5. 78. 申报, “教育电影分会昨晨首次开映教育影片,” 18 September 1933, Num. 21708. 79. 周凯旋, “柯达教育影片评述,” 浙江省民众教育辅导半月刊 3, no. 2 (1936): 94. 80. 江苏省镇江民众教育馆, ed., 教育电影简易设施法 (上海柯达公 司, 1935). 81. 彭百川 and 张培溁, “意大利国立教育电影馆概况,” 教育与民众 4, no. 2 (1932): 294. 82. “订定代征各电影院附加教育电影费办法案,” 南京市政府公报 no. 150 (1935): 88–89. 83. Li, Fen, Jiao, Yuan are currency unit in China. 10 li = 1 fen; 10 fen = 1 jiao; 10 jiao = 1 yuan. 84. “代征教育电影费法案” 南京市政府公报, no. 151 (1935): 92–94. 85. 总务组, 教育电影协会会务报告: 二十四年四月至二十五年三月, 80–82. 86. The Chinese government made great efforts to nominate Wu Zhihui as the Committee member of the ICIC. See 张力, 国际合作在中国: 国际联 盟角色的考察, 1919–1946 (台北: 中央研究院近代史研究所, 1999).

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87. 维德, “国际教育电影会议纪要,” 电声 (上海) 3, no. 23 (1934): 444. 88. Martina Hessler and Clemens Zimmermann, Creative Urban Milieus: Historical Perspectives on Culture, Economy, and the City (Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2008), 222. 89. 总务组, 教育电影协会会务报告:二十四年四月至二十五年三月, 40. 90. “再论国际农村电影展览的重要性,” 电声 (上海) 4, no. 12 (1935): 235. 91. 心玺, “送出席国际农村电影竞赛会代表,” 电声 (上海), no. 25 (1935): 495. 92. 中国教育电影协会会务报告, 1936, 5-12120, 南京:中国第二历史档案馆. 93. “摄制农村建设影片经费之补助,” 中国国民党指导下之政治成绩统计, no. 8 (1935): 37–38. 94. 陈智, 中国第一部国际奖电影农人之春逸史 (香港: 中国国际文化出版 社, 2009), 11. 95. 申报, “运动影片国际比赛会,” 15 March 1935, Num. 22229. 96. 王奇生, “亡国、亡省、亡人:1915–1925年中国民族主义运动之演进,” in第三届近代中国与世界国际学术研讨会论文集第一卷政治外交上, ed. 中国社会科学院近代史研究所 (北京: 社会科学文献出版社, 2015), 548. 97. Joyce Goodman, “The Buddhist Institute at Phnom Penh, the International Council of Women, and the Rome International Institute for Educational Cinematography: Intersections of Internationalism and Imperialism, 1931–1934,” History of Education 47, no. 3 (2018): 9. 98. Editor. “Film Censorship and Educational Films in China,” International Review of Educational Cinematography 4, no. 1 (1932): 53. 99. 中国教育电影协会会务报告, 5-12120. 100. Xiaorong Han, Chinese Discourses on the Peasant, 1900–1949 (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2005), 37–38. In fact, in 1930s China, educational film was a cultural response to the rural crisis. See Kaiyi Li, “A Cultural Response to a Rural Crisis: Educational Films for Rural Society in Interwar China,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (2021): 1–19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685. 2021.1907678 101. Kate Merkel-Hess, The Rural Modern: Reconstructing the Self and the State in Republican China (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2017), 76. 102. 中国教育电影协会会务报告, 5-12120, 103. “Men plough, while women weave” is a Chinese vision of an idealised traditional lifestyle captured by the idiom 男耕女织. It describes the division of work in traditional agricultural society, whereby men undertake farm work in the fields and women undertake needlecraft at home. 104. The four characters “poor, ignorant, weak, and selfish” known in Chinese as “Pin Yu Ruo Si”, were concluded by Y.C. James Yen during the 1920s

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and the 1930s and have been widely accepted by Chinese scholars since then. See Han, Chinese Discourses on the Peasant, 71. 105. 金陵大学, 乡村建设运动, 1935, 北京: 中国电影档案馆. 106. 陈智, 中国第一部国际奖电影, 164. 107. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, many Western travellers and explorers came to China and produced travel films and documentary films. The Chinese image in these films was always negative and emphasised the apparent backwardness of Chinese society. A representative film of this kind was La Croisière Iaune, which was produced in 1932 by the Citroën Company. The film shows the traditional practice of foot binding with the subtitle “These are the real people of China”. The film also shows civil wars in China with a subtitle reading “In China people can be killed at any place and at any time”. Most strikingly, when the film shows the Shanghai Incident which took place on 28 January 1932, the subtitle reads “the barbaric Chinese have been conquered by Japan”. See 小孟, “ 黄人巡察与来华摄片,” 斗报 4, no. 18 (1934): 273–275. 108. 陈智, 中国第一部国际奖电影, 164. 109. Chinese Film Archive, “Chu Minyi Boshi Biaoyan Zhongguo Tiyu”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5PZ7PX49DY (accessed 20 August 2018). 110. Qi is a traditional Chinese concept. It is believed that Qi is vital energy forming any living entity. 111. Andrew D. Morris, Marrow of the Nation: A History of Sport and Physical Culture in a History of Sport and Physical Culture in Republican China (Berkeley, Calif., London: University of California Press, 2004), 3. 112. Fan Hong and Tan Hua, “Sport in China: Conflict Between Tradition and Modernity, 1840s to 1930s,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 19, 2–3 (2002): 191. 113. Susan E. Brownell, “Sport,” in Handbook of Chinese Popular Culture, ed. Dingbo Wu and Patrick D.  Murphy (Westport, London: Greenwood, 1994), 122. 114. Susan E.  Brownell, “Sports in Britain and China, 1850–1920: An Explanatory Overview,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 8, no. 2 (1991): 288. 115. Hong and Hua, “Sport in China,” The International Journal of the History of Sport, 203–204. 116. 褚民谊, “太极操与国民健康,” 现代学生 (上海 1930) 3, no. 1 (1933): 1–15. 117. 褚民谊, “国术与体育” in 民国时期武术运动文选 ed. 林小美 (杭州: 浙江 大学出版社, 2012), 208–209.

CHAPTER 5

The League of Nations’ Education Mission to China

In September 1931, the League, as required by the Chinese government, dispatched an education mission to China to assist Chinese educational reform. The mission stayed in China for almost three months, visiting ten cities in eastern China. During these journeys, the Chinese government arranged a series of visits to educational institutions and discussions with Chinese educators and educational officials. After returning to Europe, they wrote a report titled The Reorganisation of Education in China. The education mission was invited by the Nanjing government at a time when it was trying to establish the legality of its rule over China. The Nanjing government unified China nominally in 1928 and began a number of reforms intended to revive the nation. In the development of national education, it tried to centralise its control. Simultaneously, in international relations, it tried to win recognition and improve China’s international status. Hence, the government’s proposals that the League of Nations appoint an education mission to China at that time should not be considered merely as a means to receive technical advice for education reform, but should also be considered an action with both international and domestic political implications. However, this chapter will prove that the educational report produced by the mission did not function as an important point of reference for Chinese educational reform but instead gave rise to extensive debates in China. To understand this, it is necessary

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. Li, Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China, Global Histories of Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82442-6_5

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to look at the questions of what the Chinese government wanted to present to the education mission and how the mission produced its report. At the same time, as part of China’s technical cooperation with the League, providing international assistance on educational problems was a chance for the League to prove its non-imperial character in dealing with international affairs and increase its influence outside Europe. It was the very first attempt of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) to provide such kind of international assistance, in which it had direct communication with a government rather than non-­ governmental organisations and scholars. Such a project would certainly expand their influence in East Asia, where they had for a long time considered extending their work. At the same time, such a project could easily affect subjects belonging to national sovereignty, which they tried to avoid in the process, as Chap. 2 has disclosed. Hence, this chapter describes the kinds of roles the League played in the programme and how its organs conducted these functions. To answer these questions, this chapter centres on the experts appointed by the League to China. It firstly analyses how the mission was formed and how the League managed the programme following the principle of avoiding criticism for intervening in national sovereignty. It then considers how the four experts prepared themselves for the mission, focusing on their understandings of Chinese educational problems. Following this, the chapter then analyses the journeys of the mission in China and how these journeys forged their impression of Chinese education and the potential methods to improve it in the final report. Finally, the chapter analyses the proposals presented to China and the influence of the mission both in China and in international society.

5.1   The League and the Formation of the Mission On 15 May 1931, the Secretary General of the League assigned the ICIC to appoint an education mission for the reorganisation of education in China. The ICIC and its executive institute, the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC), followed the proposal of the Nanjing government in their efforts to appoint suitable candidates for the educational mission to China: 4 experts of different nationalities who would respectively represent some special branch of study: one of them, the organisation of public education in

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general, one the organisation of scientific and technical teaching, one elementary education (more particularly the education for the illiterate) and one the organisation of university and secondary education.1

The committee members of the ICIC and IIIC created a shortlist of potential candidates for the four fields: 1. Experts who could provide instruction in the field of education organisation in general: • Carl Heinrich Becker, the professor of Berlin University and the former Minister of Education of Prussia 2. Experts who could provide guidance on the organisation of scientific and technical education: • Paul Langevin, a professor from [the] Collège de France • André Mayer, a professor from [the] Collège de France 3. Experts for the organisation of elementary education: • José Castillejo, [a] professor [at the] Roman Law Institute of Madrid University • Mikulowski-Pomorski, the former minister of Public Education of Poland • Marian Falski, director of the department of the Ministry of Public Education • Koewka, inspector of the Ministry of Public Affairs and Head of the Warsaw Municipality Section for Adult Education in Poland • Kornilowicz, organiser of further education in Poland • Padwan, organiser of new schools in Poland 4. Experts for university and secondary education: • Tawney, [a] professor [at] London University • Zimmern, [a] professor [at] Oxford University, former secretary of International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation2

Regarding the process of the formation of the mission, Ernst Neugebauer’s research has offered a detailed description.3 It should be remarked that it was not easy for the ICIC and IIIC to find experts who would both be available to travel to China for an extended trip, and who were suitable for the purpose of the mission. Becker was the only one who accepted the task very early. Acting as the leader of the mission, before 4

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June he had already put together a general outline for the mission and was carefully considering how to draw up his memorandum and fit it with the particular role of the League, according to a letter sent from a member of the IIIC to Dufour-Feronce.4 Regarding the Polish experts in literacy education, the ICIC first contacted Mikulowski-Pomorski, who rejected the role because of a conflict of schedule. The League later got in touch with Marian Falski, who, although he accepted the task, initially found it difficult to make time to participate in preparatory meetings for the mission.5 In their attempt to find an English expert on secondary and university education, the ICIC contacted Tawney and Alfred Eckhard Zimmern simultaneously. However, on 20 June they received word that Zimmern was unable to accept the offer because he had recently been appointed to a chair position, and Oxford University would not permit him to be absent for several months so soon after his appointment.6 Tawney was initially also reluctant to join the mission because of concerns about finances and the length of time the trip would take. Although the London School of Economics would permit him to travel to China, it refused to pay him any salary during his absence. He also had to return to the United Kingdom by Christmas due to family reasons.7 On 24 July Tawney wrote to his friend Bishop Bell that he had begged the ICIC several times to find another person to join the mission, but thought that he would be unable to avoid the trip.8 The experience of Tawney indicated that it was not easy for the ICIC and IIIC to find more suitable candidates. The busy schedules of the four experts further constrained the possibility of prolonging their stay in China. As the chapter later shows, Becker was thus the only person who visited Canton, after the others had gone back to Europe. What is worth special attention is how the ICIC tried to keep the balance between internationalism, which was upheld by the ICIC, and the national competition contained in the process. It is no coincidence that (except the one Spanish candidate for elementary schooling) all the candidates listed in each field were drawn from the same few nations. It would be possible to think that this reflected how the League’s officials understood or evaluated the merits of the educational performances of different European countries. However, a degree of national competition between the various national educational influences that would be represented by the mission did exist. A letter written in June 1931 from a member of the IIIC to Dufour-Feronce shows that they wished to find a French expert who was particularly familiar with scientific and technical points, and who was of equal status to Becker himself. This letter also recounts that,

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according to the information from Geneva, a Polish expert on the education of the illiterate should also be appointed.9 In a separate letter from Gilbert Murray to Jean-Daniel de Montenach, Murray said that he accepted that the mission should include an English expert to provide advice about secondary and university education.10 Alfred Rocco, the Italian member of the ICIC and the chairman of the governing body of the International Educational Cinematographic Institute (IECI), also proposed that the mission should include an Italian member because Italian culture was of equal importance to that of France and Germany.11 Although the ICIC did not stipulate any particular criteria for selection, the shortlist shows that an essential requirement for a suitable candidate was an experience of educational administration and organisation. In the letter written by Dufour-Feronce to Becker to invite him to be the leader of the mission, the writer emphasised the importance of Becker’s experiences as a Minister of Education (Kulturminister) for the mission.12 Such consideration is well demonstrated by the discussions around the qualifications of Tawney. Murray suggested that Tawney was not a proper candidate to undertake the mission, because “he is an inspiring speaker and a brilliant writer, but I doubt if he knows much about organisation”.13 For Murray, administrative capability and knowledge of the organisation of national education were the most important characteristics of any potential candidate. The backgrounds of the four experts in the mission all show experience in designing national educational systems and policies. Becker was the former Minister of the Cultural Department (Kultursminister) of the Weimar Republic and a German higher education reform designer. Falski was an expert on education for the illiterate and was one of the pioneers who devoted themselves to designing the national education system after the First World War in Poland. Although Paul Langevin is popularly known as a physician, he also actively participated in the design of the educational system in France in the interwar period and was the designer of Plan Langevin-Wallon, which was a framework for educational development in France after the Second World War. Tawney was a booster of adult education and the generalisation of secondary education in the interwar period in the United Kingdom. He also served on the Labour Party’s Advisory Committee on Education, and the Board of Education’s Consultative Committee on Education during the 1920s and 1930s. Besides the requirements of nationality and familiarity with the organisation of education systems, the ICIC also wished to appoint mission members who would uphold its international character and follow the

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principle of avoiding criticism for intervening in national sovereignty. In a letter to Dufour-Feronce, Becker said that the mission must cultivate a shared spirit and that it would be frustrating if the mission faced internal divisions over the merits of different national educational models.14 This requirement was accepted by the ICIC. This implies that it was agreed that the mission members should maintain solidarity, and not sacrifice the value and function of the mission as an element of the broader work of the League for the sake of their national interests. Such deliberations were again reflected in the discussion about the suitability of Tawney to join the mission. Konni Zilliacus wrote a reply to de Montenach that responded to the concerns Murray had raised about Tawney’s appointment. In his letter Zilliacus emphasised that, apart from Tawney’s exceptional educational knowledge and position on the Advisory Committee of the Broad of Education, he also held advantageous political status: Not only is his personal acquaintance with China valuable, but he has a very strong position with the Chinese, who trust him, like him and admire him. In this respect, his personal position is almost as strong as was that of Bertrand Russell and for much the same reason—they know he is a prominent intellectual on the Left Wing of the Labour Party, and therefore acquit him of any imperialist tendencies or racial snobbery.15

For Zilliacus, Tawney was especially appropriate because his left-wing political background would avoid giving the impression of imperialism. As Chap. 1 shows, Chinese society since the late 1910s has been characterised by a strong anti-imperialist sentiment, so it was felt that Tawney’s political inclination would make the mission more trustworthy. The caution around the issue of imperialism and avoiding explicitly representing any national interests was further reflected in their selection of documents on China for the experts and the management of their social activities. As most of the appointed experts had no specialist knowledge of China, Tawney, the only person who had been to China before, advised the ICIC and IIIC to start collecting relevant material about Chinese history and the current state of education, even though he did not think most documents worth reading.16 With the help of Margaret E. Cleeve, the secretary for library and publication at the Royal Institute of International Affairs based in London, the ICIC and IIIC prepared some reference documents for the mission members.17 In their selection of the pamphlet Cultural Relations between China and Occidental Countries,

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both Henri Bonnet and Werner Picht, the German representative at the IIIC, considered that it would be necessary to make some alterations to the text. The first change was to omit any reference to the “Chinese Association, London”, whose intention was to promote and protect British interests in China. Secondly, they decided that it was necessary to add a few remarks on work done by the Catholic missionaries in China, in order to avoid the impression that “a preponderance has been given to protestant undertaking”.18 These prudent actions by the ICIC and IIIC indicated that they sought to avoid any dispute in selecting materials. Another episode, which occurred when the mission was crossing the Pacific Ocean, likewise demonstrated the circumspect attitude adopted by the ICIC and IIIC. The mission was travelling on a ship that was also carrying delegates for a conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR). The members of the mission joined in with their meetings on several occasions. When they reached Honolulu, the delegates of the IPR organised a large dinner and invited the members of the mission to attend. However, Geneva sent them a message by telegraph instructing them that, because of the political character of the IPR, they must not attend the dinner.19

5.2   Learning About China Before Arrival Although the four experts, except for Tawney, had no experience of China and indeed had little knowledge about China, they did not come to China entirely unprepared. Not only had the League, as well as the four experts themselves, prepared many documents in order to give them better comprehension of the Chinese situation, but there were also at least two meetings held to discuss Chinese education before the mission left Europe. On the ship to China, the mission members exchanged and discussed materials they had gathered, and held meetings regularly to discuss various Chinese educational problems and to which aspects their investigation should pay attention.20 Although most of these documents prepared by the League were only news items about the Chinese domestic situation and the major issues under discussion in contemporary China, there was one article specifically about Chinese education written by Reginald Johnston, a British diplomat who served as the tutor of last Emperor of China, worth special attention. In this article, he explained the paradoxical situation of Chinese education. He pointed out that the condition of Chinese education was largely miserable and turbulent, exemplified by anarchy in schools, prevailing political

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confusion in the scholastic sphere, the miserable salary enjoyed by primary teachers, the insufficient qualifications of primary teachers (especially in villages), and insufficient middle schools.21 The phenomena that Johnston discovered, as the introductory chapter shows, were the same as those at which Chinese educators felt discontent at the time, and which the members of the Chinese educational mission to Europe (Chap. 7) also pointed out. Johnston also provided an update on several much-discussed topics in Chinese education. One of the problems Johnston especially discussed was the anti-Christian movement in China. This was mentioned when he described primary education in China. Although the situation was unsatisfactory, Johnston deemed that the Chinese government did assume its responsibility for providing primary education. Following this, he wrote that the Chinese authorities opposed allowing Christian missionaries to control Chinese primary education because they felt that doing so was the necessary foundation for cultivating patriotism.22 The comments made by Johnston on the recovery of educational sovereignty, which was a part of the anti-Christian movement in China at the time, reminded readers of two essential aspects. The first was that national education in China was closely interrelated with forging national identity and patriotism. The second was that the recovering of educational sovereignty was an activity that won the support of the Nanjing government, which intended to enhance the governmental control of education. Regarding secondary education, he argued that statistics showed that the number of middle schools in China was insufficient; however, most graduates of middle school could not find proper jobs in society. Since 1931 the Chinese government had started to turn more general middle schools into vocational schools.23 This indicates that Johnston identified the phenomenon that what was produced by modern education could not meet the demands of society. While travelling to China, the mission met Johnston, who was also on a journey to China for the IPR conference, and listened to him give a speech about Chinese foreign policy since 1900.24 It is likely that the mission members discussed Chinese education with Johnston in person, although to what extent his views influenced the mission is difficult to evaluate because no documents recounted their conversations. Amongst these documents gathered by the experts was a German report about Chinese universities written by an anonymous scholar at Yencheng University, who asserted they had a personal connection with the members of the Laymen’s Foreign Missions Inquiry to China in 1931,25 which proved pivotal.

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This report first pointed out that the chaos in Chinese universities was related to political conflicts within the Kuomintang (KMT). It then argued that missionary universities were of a better financial and scientific standard than Chinese universities, but they were currently in a difficult situation because of the anti-Christian movement in China. The most crucial judgement made by the report was that Chinese education was overly influenced by American education. The author was of the opinion that, according to his observations in various cities, Chinese educational institutions were “Americanised” (美国化). The article criticised Chinese schools for adopting the course credit system and using similar textbooks to those in the United States, and claimed that the influence of John Dewey overwhelmed that of any European pedagogical ideology. The report further condemned American returnee students who imported the American education system into China while having little knowledge of the Chinese situation.26 In asserting that the influence of John Dewey overwhelmed that of any European pedagogical ideology, the report was clearly anxious about the dominance of the US influence on Chinese education. As collected documents were shared by the experts, this dominant influence of the United States in China must have been discussed before they arrived in China. The report had a far-reaching impact on Becker. Not only did he write a large number of comments regarding the influence of American education when he was in China, but he had already on 1 June 1931 expressed concern about foreign influence on Chinese education and deemed that the solution to that problem—namely, achieving the substantial uniformity of Chinese education—was that Chinese education could only be established on and spring from its own tradition.27 Such an idea was deeply rooted in Becker’s grasp of national education’s function as a result of German experiences. As the Minister of Science, Culture, and Education in Prussia in 1920, then from 1925 to 1930, Becker designed the cultural and educational policy system in the Weimar Republic. Becker highlighted the role of culture in forming national consciousness, especially in a country like Germany, in which, in his opinion, the old empire was dissolved while people had not yet constructed the identity of the new republic.28 He emphasised the role of education in achieving cultural unification. He argued that true German educational unification would not exist in organisational forms, but rather in education’s cultural aims, which would be achieved by returning to Johann Gottlieb Fichte.29 To some extent, as Becker learned from reading, the Chinese situation might be identical to

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the German situation for him. On the one hand, China had experienced decades of domestic chaos and faced Japanese aggression, which might have resonated with Becker’s experiences in and understanding of Germany—lacking centralisation and unification, while both the economy and the military were in poor condition, which constrained the formation of national consciousness.30 On the other hand, the KMT likewise considered the ideological conformity and cultivation of nationalism to be the primary tasks of national education. In New York, the mission had formal conversations with some experts on China and gathered further information about China. They attended a dinner at the invitation of Paul Monroe, which was also attended by the General Consul of China Yan Huiqing and two other Chinese scholars (Zhang Pengchun, the brother of Zhang Boling, the Chancellor of Nankai University, who also worked at the University of Chicago, and Lin Yutang, a linguist), as well as George Ephraim Sokolsky, a journalist and an expert on China. Monroe had travelled to China in 1921 and 1922 and had acted as a technical adviser for the adoption of the American education system in China. During the dinner, the members of the mission (especially Tawney) mainly asked questions, while the Chinese delegates and Sokolsky mainly answered them. In a letter, Becker recorded that the two Chinese scholars were quite pessimistic about the future of China. The mission was informed about the political conflicts in China and faced a dilemma because the new opposition from Canton31 had emerged partly because of the Nanjing government’s cooperation with the League.32 Based on this conversation, Becker recorded that the strongest impression he received was regarding primary education. It prompted him to write down his thoughts on Chinese education in his letters for the first time: This evening was anyway a good first introduction, especially primary education was recommended to us, which would not have been necessary at all; because all our reading, all our material and many conversations result in the fact that universities and schools [in China] have been created without a foundation up to now, but that this foundation—just think of the current discussions about the salaries of the elementary school teachers here—costs more money than China has, even if one only reckons with 50 $ maximum per year. Of course, the young European-educated Chinese do not think about becoming elementary school teachers in countless small villages. The people have the impression that all disposable money is spent on universities and secondary schools, but the graduates of these institutes are of no use

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because they have lost contact with the people; they sit around as journalists, politicians and unemployed people, forming the infamous academic proletariat, while the masses sink into ever greater poverty. How do we make elementary school and the teaching training really beneficial for the Chinese people? This will be one of the main tasks of our studies. The question is far too complicated to even touch on here. Sometimes we are scared and tied down by the great responsibility, because we do not just want to deliver printed paper [to Chinese scholars and the government].33

From these words, it can be concluded that another important impression that Becker formed before arriving in China, aside from the overwhelming influence of American education, was that Chinese education had not established an efficient connection with society, and cultivated students who did not meet social demands. He realised that if they genuinely wanted to make a change in Chinese education, and not merely put forward idealised suggestions that were impossible to carry out, it would not be an easy task. Thus, in his opinion, the purpose of the mission was to help Chinese education establish a relationship with the broader society and the demands of the people.

5.3   The Educational Tour Arranged by the Chinese Government At the end of September 1931, after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the United States, the Pacific Ocean, and Japan, the mission arrived in Shanghai. The Chinese government first arranged a 63-day trip that would take in Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Wuxi, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Jinan, Tianjin, Beijing, Kaifeng, Hankou, and probably Baoding.34 However, ultimately, the mission did not visit the central Chinese cities of Hankou and Kaifeng; nor did it visit Jinan. Instead, all the cities visited by the mission were located in eastern China. The reason for the cancellation of visits to these cities is not explained in official documents. In fact, the schedule was constantly changing right up to the final days of the trip. For example, it was planned that Tawney and Becker would go to Canton (which was not in the original schedule for the mission) together, but in fact, only Becker did so. Langevin spent another few weeks in China after the others had departed. Several facts could have influenced the uncertainty of the schedule. The direct reason might be that there was severe flooding in China. Wuhan and Kaifeng in particular suffered severe floods in the summer of 1931,

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which might have made it difficult for the mission to carry out their investigation. The other primary consideration should be the chaotic political situation in China. On 18 September that year, the Mukden Incident occurred in north-eastern China, and actions against Japanese aggression became the most urgent task for China. After that, student protests occurred in many cities. In December, students in Nanjing were joined by student protestors from Beijing, Jinan, and Shanghai. On 15 December, Chiang Kai-shek had to resign again due to the intensity of opposition to his rule. All these events made everything other than political upheaval and Sino–Japanese relations of secondary importance. As Tawney wrote in his letter, “it is difficult for the Chinese to think much of other things”.35 The third reason for the change in schedule might be the weak control of the Nanjing government. Although Becker finally visited Canton on behalf of the mission, he did so through a private arrangement between Dai Jitao, the Minister of Examination Yuan (考试院), and the governors of Canton, rather than through the instruments of the central government.36 For these reasons, it is possible that the Nanjing government wished for the mission to stay only in the regions that were totally under its control. In this way, they could control what kind of information was delivered to the mission, especially regarding Chinese domestic politics. Undoubtedly, it was not an opportune time for the mission to visit China. However, the Nanjing government and the educators in the cities they visited made efforts to arrange the investigative visits and meetings, and to schedule what the mission required. Becker wrote in his letter that his friends in Germany were astonished that despite the political situation they were still able to carry out such a good job.37 As such words were written in his travelling letters to his family, it could not be considered merely a compliment but rather an indication that the mission had a relatively low expectation of what they could do in China. To provide the experts with an intuitive impression of Chinese education, the government arranged a series of visits to educational institutions. Table 5.1 shows that the Chinese government arranged visits to different kinds of educational institutions for the mission. However, it is questionable as to what extent the experts could gain a panoramic view of the general educational situation in China from this itinerary. Firstly, all of the educational institutions they visited were far above the average standard in China. This is exemplified by the higher education institutions that the mission visited. The table shows that the mission

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Table 5.1  The journeys of the mission in Chinaa Time and place

Educational institutions

29 September–3 October 1931, Shanghai 4–6 October, Nanjing

A “very good private school”; a public primary school

Academia Sinica, especially the Meteorology Institute and the building plot of the Observatory; National Central University; other universities and schools 7–10th October, Nankai University and its attached middle and elementary schools; Tianjin National Peiyang Technical University; Hebei Female Normal College; The First Female Model Primary School; Chengda Normal School (a Muslim school) 11–29 October Beijing National Library; the Institute of History and Philology; 1931, Beijing National University of Peking; The Fourth Middle School; National Normal University and its attached middle and elementary schools; Yenching University; No. 18 City Public School; Tsinghua University; L’Université Franco-Chinoise 26–28 October, The experimental village construction movement implemented by Dingxian (only Falski Y. C. James Yen and Langevin) 3−8November, Provincial Educational Department; Provincial Village Normal Hangzhou School; Xiaoshan District Model Primary School; Zhejiang University; the Model Farmland of the Agriculture College of Zhejiang University in Xiaoshan; Provincial Higher Middle School; Provincial Mass Education Experimental School; Private Muxing Middle and Primary School (a Muslim school)b; Hangchow University 8–11November, Wuben Female School; Shanghai Middle School; Zhonghua Shanghai (only Vocational School; the Municipal Educational Bureau; Xicheng Becker and Primary School; Tongji University; Shanghai Communication Langevin) University; Sinica Academia 12 November, Suzhou Province Agricultural School; Soochow University Suzhou 13–15 November, Jiangsu Province Mass Education College, Huanggang Wuxi (only Becker Experimental District; Provincial Wuxi Middle School; Provincial and Langevin) Wuxi Primary schools; Mass Education Institution; Achievement Exhibition; A Female Evening school; Wuxi Chinese Study Special College (无锡国学专修科学校) 3–4December, Research Institute for Silk; Mass Education Institution; Museum Zhenjiang for the Mass (continued)

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Table 5.1  (continued) Time and place

Educational institutions

7–15 December, Shanghai

Writing. Falski and Tawney left on the 9th. Becker stayed until the 15th, during which he visited Paulun Hospital, the Medical Faculty of Tongji University, and also a cinema with Sardi. Langevin was in Beijing 18 December, Hong Hong Kong University Kong (only Becker) 18–21 December, Sun Yat-sen University and its attached primary school and Canton (only kindergarten; Mass Education Museum; a Female Normal School; Becker) the Agricultural Department of Sun Yat-sen University and its experimental fields a The sources for the table include Becker and Kuss. Carl Heinrich Becker in China; 大公报 1931.10.9; Programm über den Aufenthalt in Nanking u.a. Orte in China, 1931; Editor, “国联教育考察团到浙后种 种,” 浙江教育行政月刊 2, no. 11 (1931): 1; 申报 1931.11.14; 11.16; 11.30; 12.03; 12.04; 12.09; 12.11. Besides these educational institutions, the Chinese government also arranged visits to a series of cultural attractions. These included Sun Yet-san’s Mausoleum, Jade Buddha, the Winter Palace, the Temple of Heaven, the Central Park in Beijing, the Middle and South Lakes, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, the Lama Temple, the Ming Tombs, the Confucius Temple, the Hall of Classics (possibly referring to the Imperial College), two Buddhist Temples, the West Lake, the cotton mill at Qiantang River Fuxing (in addition to other cotton mills), the Minfeng skill mill b

Muslim educational institutions were specially arranged because Becker was an expert in Orient studies

visited mostly universities, but not colleges, the standard of which was lower than that of universities. Another good example is the Zhonghua Vocational School, which was difficult for other Chinese vocational schools to duplicate. According to the study of Barbara Schulte, in the 1920s, most vocational schools in China were of low quality and still faced strong discrimination from the population, which drew negative responses from parents and students, who refused to attend vocational schools or tried to transform vocational schools into comprehensive middle schools.38 However, the Zhonghua Vocational School, operated and supported by Huang Yanpei and the Chinese Association for Vocational Education, had relatively adequate funding (much of which sprang from donations) to build factories where pupils could not only practise what they learned but also produce products, which were subsequently sold to maintain the operation of the school.39 Such schools left a deep impression on the experts. Becker considered the Zhonghua Vocational School to be striking, and wrote the following:

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The craftsmen here are not taught in Salons like that in the US, but at popular repairing and assembling workshops, just like one sees in the streets everyday. (The school has) almost 1,000 pupils, 2/3 among whom were resident, and 61 teachers and school administration people with 91,000$ mex. (=RM) expenditure. More than 80,000 ($ mex.) are covered by their own earning!40

Considering the impression Becker developed of Chinese education before arriving in China—that is, that it had not formed an efficient connection with society—it is not difficult to grasp why Becker appreciated the Zhonghua Vocational School. First of all, the school trained pupils in a workplace other than the classroom or emulated locations. It meant the school was able to cultivate pupils who could meet industrial demands and find jobs after leaving school. Secondly, the school could also cover its costs through the money the pupils earned through working or producing products; hence pupils who attended the school would not be under great financial pressure. Later in their trip, they continued to visit the most advanced institutions, some of which were of comparable quality to European institutions. After visiting a kindergarten that was affiliated to a normal school in Tianjin, Becker wrote in a letter: Many educational institutions in the cultural centre [here meaning Tianjin] have achieved the same heights as those in Europe, especially the experimental kindergartens of normal schools. The newest methods are being tried there, and of course, they all have moveable tables and chairs, and all the best teaching materials only from America.41

Becker noticed that the updated Western educational methods were being experimented with in China—Chinese scholars caught up with the international tendency and had the ability to operate the most advanced education by themselves. Meanwhile, his words also expressed his dissatisfaction about the dominance of American influence in China. Of course, the experts were aware that the places they visited were not typical educational institutions. In his letters, Becker recorded that many of the schools they visited were obviously exceptional and not representative of the broader situation. After visiting two schools in Shanghai, he wrote: “People took us across the whole city and showed us two schools. One is an outstanding private school, and the other is a public primary

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school. If in China were such schools everywhere, our mission would be superfluous.”42 Similarly, in a letter to his wife, Tawney expressed his doubts about the choice of schools they visited in Shanghai. He described both schools as being surprisingly good and noted: “I suspect the Chinese of showing us their best.”43 Secondly, the Chinese government consciously hid some less impressive (but nonetheless pervasive) types of educational institutions from the view of the mission. One such example was the old-style private school. When they visited Xiaoshan District Model Primary School (in Zhejiang province), the members of the mission were given information about the provision of primary education in the area: There are 45,000 school-age children in this district, 11,000 among them study in public or (official) acknowledged private primary schools, there are no higher schools. Only one-quarter of school-age children attended school here, making it a model within the province. After further consultation, we got the following information: there are besides 400 unrecognised old-style private schools. More children received an education there than at the public schools, yet until now we have not visited such schools because people felt ashamed of them. But we will try to persuade them [to show them to us].44

From Becker’s words, we can understand that in a model district in Zhejiang province, the old-style private schools were still prevalent and were more welcoming than public schools for pupils. However, the mission did not visit any of those kinds of schools during their trip. It is unknown whether Chinese educators were ashamed of showing those kinds of educational institutions to the mission. However, it is true that during the 1920s, especially after the KMT had united China, the radical reform and prohibition of old-style private schools was carried out in the name of modernisation and renewing the nation.45 Another example is missionary schools. Apart from some universities that were operated by religious denominations, no missionary schools were included in the trip’s programme (at least in the official schedule and the articles in Chinese newspapers), even though there were a large number of religion-supported middle and primary schools, and some were of good quality. One example that stood out was Saint John’s University in Shanghai. The university was one of the oldest and best-organised universities in China, yet it was not on the visiting list because, according to Becker’s understanding, the university refused to register with the Chinese

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government.46 The mission visited Yencheng University, Hangchow University, and Soochow University, three universities that had been sponsored by Christian denominations but all of which were registered with the Ministry of Education. Clearly, the Chinese government intended to show educational institutions operated by the Chinese or under the supervision of the Chinese government. A demonstration of sovereignty was contained in the arrangement of their journeys in China. It can be concluded that the Chinese government consciously worked to present the better sides of Chinese education to the mission. Thus, the situation seems contradictory because the Chinese government wanted the experts to give them advice on the reorganisation of national education. However, if we understand the mission to be an element of diplomatic activity that would help shape China’s international image, and show off Chinese progress to the world, then the government’s approach is explicable. As demonstrated in Chap. 2, when it came to technical cooperation with the League of Nations, Chinese diplomats were worried that foreign experts might view China as somewhat backward, and portray China in a negative light when they returned to Europe. Consequently, the influence of these experts was similarly not limited to the Chinese domestic situation but was also understood to extend beyond China. Taking the modern school model as a standard, it was evident that the old-­style private schools were an aberration, and by avoiding presenting such schools to the mission, the Chinese government hoped to avoid any possibility that the experts would contribute to the stereotypical image of China and spread negative propaganda about the country when they returned to Europe. Besides that, the mission was an opportunity for the Chinese government to show their ability to effectively organise and administer the nation, through the example of these well-managed educational institutions. From a cultural perspective, this showed that China had the capacity to organise itself independently, and was of equal standing to European imperialist powers. At the outset of the 1920s, some Western diplomats called for China to be placed under the mandate of the League because of the extent of its domestic chaos.47 Showing off the most advanced educational institutions would implicitly prove that the Chinese people had the ability to self-govern and to progress under the leadership of the KMT. Becker recognised this, and in a letter that he wrote after visiting Shanghai again48 stated:

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Of course, will people say, the rich Shanghai, Shanghai is not China. This is of course true, but these things are still made by the Chinese, and are made well. […] And now there are elite people such as Chiang Kaishek and Song Tve-ven, who live almost ascetically and do not just want to change China for the sake of hedonism. […] China will [get] success by itself, without the League of Nations, and in spite of Japan and the US.49

The emotional words of Becker indicate that, at the very least, the attempt to present only the best educational institutions to the mission served to persuade him, as a firm believer in the importance of national culture, that the Chinese people and the KMT had the ability to organise good educational performance, and further the whole country independently. Also, the almost complete absence of missionary schools from the itinerary reflected the fact that the Chinese government emphasised national sovereignty in their organisation of education, and wished to present a picture of a modernising national education system operated by and for the Chinese people. However, the mission members still felt that even the select few educational institutions they visited did not match up to their perceptions of an excellent educational institution. This was exemplified by the universities they visited. Yenching University was judged to be one of the best missionary universities in Asia,50 and had a beautiful campus laid out according to American design principles. Becker nonetheless evaluated the university as exemplary only in terms of its buildings and remarked that the university’s library was only of the quality of a seminary library in Germany; he also considered the teachers in universities as lacking competence.51 Becker also mentioned that Langevin had visited some technical universities in Shanghai and found that they lacked a sufficient foundation in and equipment for the natural sciences.52 A general impression Becker received from these observations, and which was emphasised several times in his letters, was that Chinese education was overly influenced by foreign education methods, primarily those that were used in the United States. Such an opinion was in accordance with the outlook of the documents that Becker had read before beginning the trip. After visiting Shanghai and Nanjing, just four days into the trip, Becker was already of the opinion that the American influence in Chinese education was overwhelming and widespread.53 Later, he elaborated on his criticism of teacher training, the course credit system, and textbook-­ based teaching, all of which were phenomena mentioned in the article written by the scholar from Yenching University he read before departing

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Europe. He was critical of the way that in the Chinese normal schools and universities, pedagogy is conflated with other specialisms (namely psychology, sociology, and administration) and understood as a profession of its own for people who are trained to be future teachers, which in his opinion was a grave mistake.54 He asserted that the only group who benefitted from this system of teacher cultivation was the American-educated Chinese students who returned to China and could start teaching without any background knowledge. Conversely, subjects such as physics, chemistry, and many others required vast amounts of background information.55 The only university Becker evaluated highly was the teacher training institute at Jinling College, where pedagogy did not exist as an independent profession, but instead was an additional major that students could study alongside natural or social sciences.56

5.4   Conversations with Chinese Educators Arranged by the Chinese Government Alongside visits to educational institutions, the Chinese government arranged for the mission to meet with Chinese teachers, educators, and officials, in order to deepen their understanding of Chinese education. Figure 5.157 shows the meetings the mission had held in China. The people that the mission met with can be divided into three types. The first type is famous scholars, who held important positions at various kinds of educational institutions. One group of such scholars consisted of university professors and chancellors. This included Zhu Jiahua; Zhang Boling, the Chancellor of Nankai University; Mei Yiqi, the Chancellor of Tsinghua University; and Tang Wenzhi, the Chancellor of the Wuxi Chinese Study Special College. They were not only skilled university administrators but also influential figures in Chinese educational reform. Becker described their conversation with Zhang Boling as “especially successful and interesting”.58 The other group of scholars the mission met with were educational experts in specific fields. For example, in Dingxian, they met Y. C. James Yen, a prominent intellectual of Republic-era China who implemented experimental mass literacy and rural construction projects. The mission also met with a group of scholars who were advocates of government-led mass education, including Gao Jiansi, Cheng Lijiang, and Lei Binnan. A topic Becker highlighted in his letters after the mission’s discussions with famous scholars was the lack of sufficient funding for education in

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Fig. 5.1  The networks of the education mission appointed by the League of Nations in China

China. After talking to a professor whose family name is Teng (the Dean of Architecture of Beiyang University), Becker wrote in a letter that the disposable income [of his laboratory] every month is 18,000 RM, which equals to 32,727 $ mex. 13,000 is spent on the salary of professors, 4,000 on the administration department, 600 on [equipment] repairs, leaving 400 for operating the entire laboratory. It is clear that this is not workable; besides, the salary of professors stopped every three months.59

In Beijing, Becker also learned that many university teachers struggled financially. Due to insufficient salaries, many professors had to work at several jobs in different universities in order to survive, and hence had no time to prepare their classes. The schedules of these multiple jobs sometimes conflicted with one another; consequently, professors and lecturers sometimes paid $1–2 to others to read the professors and lecturers’ manuscripts or textbooks for them. Then professors and lecturers got the remaining payment of $5.128 for their unpresented lectures. Because of

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the inferior quality of teaching, students in Beijing held several protest movements. To solve this problem, some of the prominent universities in Beijing introduced regulations stating that teaching staff could not work at other institutions for more than four hours per week. However, the problem of insufficient salaries and back pay remained outstanding, so these regulations were not enforced as they would have made it impossible for teaching staff to survive.60 The reporting of the words of those professors in Beijing revealed Becker’s sympathy towards the helpless choice made by professors in China—lacking money to maintain basic material conditions led to the poor performance of Chinese education. The problem, as the next chapter will show, was also recognised by the Chinese experts who went to Europe. The second type of people the mission met with was teaching staff in local educational institutions. This included both teachers at the institutions visited by the mission and other teachers invited by the local education bureau to participate in particular conversations. The Chinese government’s arrangements in these meetings indicated some pressing questions about education that they wished to discuss with the experts of the mission. For example, in Zhejiang Province, the provincial Ministry of Education arranged a conference between the mission and local teachers, including the dean of the Provincial Hangzhou Normal School and the dean of the Provincial Higher Middle School Normal Education Department.61 The coexistence of these two kinds of educational institution for training teachers was due to a reform implemented in June 1931, which separated teacher training projects from middle schools and established independent normal schools that existed at the same level as senior middle schools. However, it is hard to evaluate the extent to which these conversations ultimately impacted the mission, because Becker expressed more than once his dissatisfaction with such conversations. He complained that most of these discussions were like the one in a village school in Zhejiang, where the teachers they spoke to only answered questions orally and provided limited useful information for the mission.62 It was only in Wuxi that he was quite impressed that people used a writing machine to prepare a memorandum, in which were answers to the possible questions the mission might ask, and prepared English documents for the mission.63 The third type of people whom the mission met with was educational officials. After they had visited Song Tse-ven, Li Shuhua, and other educational officials, Becker expressed his affection towards the Chinese people, whom he described as possessing the characteristics of prudence and

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benevolence.64 Li Zheng, the Departmental Chief of Social Education in the Ministry of Education, was appointed by the ministry to accompany the mission. Li Zheng left a particularly good impression on the mission members. Falski described Li Zheng as being the person best suited to investigate European primary education, amongst those they had met in China.65 The ministry also appointed Wang Shenming, an inspector from the ministry, to accompany the mission while it was in Jiangsu province. In the week of 15 November 1931, the mission held several meetings with officials from the Ministry of Education. In every city that the mission visited, local educational officials organised banquets and held conversations with the mission. Amongst those local officials, Becker also seemed impressed by Chen Hexian, the Dean of Ministry of Education of Jiangsu Province, who shared his views on the reorganisation of Chinese education. Becker noted that “[Chen Hexian] wished he could shut down all universities and senior middle schools [in his region] and only preserve primary schools and vocational schools”,66 which was in accordance with his own thoughts. Through such conversations, a problem that Becker in his letters considered as preventing the educational reform in China was the ongoing political conflict. Such conversations verified his reading about how politics influenced Chinese education. He described the ideology of Sun Yat-sen as being treated like the “Qoran”,67 indicating that Chinese education would develop under the dominant influence of KMT ideology. After visiting Academia Sinica and holding conversations with Yang Xingfu, Becker considered politics (especially the conflicts within the KMT) to be of the utmost importance in China, not least for understanding the relationships between different educational institutions.68 Later, he worried that Chinese educational reform would be difficult to realise because of political factors. The example he gave was that it was widely acknowledged by many people the mission had spoken to that there was only the need for a single university in Beijing,69 but this would never happen due to political reasons.70

5.5   Non-official Activities of the Mission Besides meetings with educators arranged by the Chinese government, the mission also had extensive private networks in China. For example, Becker kept in close contact with Eduard Birt (the Dean of Pharmacy Institute of Tongji University), Oskar Trautmann, and other German diplomats in China. Tawney likewise met with many of the British delegates

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who were in China to attend the conference of the IPR. Langevin had many students in China and invited the mission for dinner several times. Amongst these non-official activities, one needing special attention was that on 8 December, when some of the members of the mission71 attended a missionary education conference in Shanghai. The records made by Becker about the conference reveal his sympathetic attitudes towards the Chinese in the anti-Christian movement. At the conference, they listened to a presentation entitled Some Aspects of Christian Education in China which asserted that there was political interference in education in contemporary China. It argued that Christian education should have a place in the Chinese education system because the Provisional Constitution recognised religious freedom, because mission schools had pioneered modern Chinese education, and because mission schools were numerous and of good quality.72 Becker took this chance to express his opinions on Christian education in China. He condemned the politicisation of education but felt that this did not apply to missionary schools in China. He argued that missionary schools were instruments of other countries’ foreign policies, and so he was sympathetic to the sceptical and oppositional attitude the Chinese government took towards missionary educational institutions.73 In addition, both Becker and Tawney expressed their concerns about Sino–Japanese relations and their influence on Chinese education. Having experienced the anti-Japanese atmosphere at the Chinese educational institutions he had visited, almost all of which (even the village night schools) were decorated with slogans and organised lectures to condemn Japan’s actions in the Mukden Incident, Becker wrote in a letter that Europe and the United States should recognise “what a stupid war that Japanese militarism has carried out, against the interests of the whole world”.74 In letters to his wife, Tawney wrote a great deal about the Mukden Incident. He expressed the worry that if the situation in China got worse, it would be difficult to say what would happen next.75 This demonstrated that he had the impression that the Mukden Incident was disturbing the order of everything in China, and the extent to which education and their works in China could progress against this background was also questionable. In his letters, Becker also recorded how the students protesting in Nanjing destroyed railways, refused to follow the instructions of the central government and Chiang Kai-shek, and paralysed the social order. He felt resigned that the Chinese central government and the Ministry of Education could only exercise weak control over

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the students through the education system and deemed that such student protests were manipulated by politicians.76 These experiences, which were definitely not arranged by the Chinese government, reinforced the impression that political chaos in China leads to the disorder of Chinese education and the unsystematic nature of Chinese education administration. Thus, unsatisfactory educational performances in China were not merely produced by the educational system but also part of complicated social and political problems.

5.6   Formation of the Report On 18 November, before Becker and Langevin travelled to Shanghai again, the four experts of the mission held a three-hour-long discussion which laid out the structure and theoretical foundation of the report.77 Becker described the discussion as difficult, not because of the different national interests but because of their different social backgrounds: Falski is a trained dean of the Ministry of Education, with the completed Polish schemes [for organising national education] and newfangled pedagogical concepts, but sometimes he lost himself in utopia, and in a dictatorial requirement that all issues would be solved. […] Langevin keeps himself reserved, but without a doubt is a significant person in his field.78

Despite the different training backgrounds and understandings of how to organise national education, Becker in the final report and his letters emphasised that it did not matter who wrote which part of the report because they worked on each of the problems together and without compromise. However, in practice, the process of writing the report and the attitudes of mission members towards the disputes aroused by the report show that, at least in terms of concrete reform proposals, the four experts may have had different opinions, and the proposals might not have met with universal agreement. The first indication of this comes from Tawney. On 16 November, Tawney wrote in a letter to his wife that he did not think he would have much to do with the report, because he had the impression that Becker wanted to finish most of it by himself.79 In the final report, Tawney only wrote the section concerning university education, while Becker wrote most parts of the report.80 The attitude of Tawney towards the disputes aroused by the report also proved that it did not meet the agreement of

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the four experts. In 1933, the ICIC received two protests regarding the report. One was from Y.C. James Yen, about the evaluation of adult education and the rural construction movement in Dingxian given by the report. The other was about the criticism made by the report on the American influence and the rural construction movement from Roger S. Greene, an American expert in China. As a response to those criticisms, Tawney said that he did not receive the whole text of the report before its publication, so he could only be responsible for his part of it. Furthermore, he said he would not sign the report if had read the contents about the works in Dingxian, as he gave a high evaluation of it.81 The other indication is a letter Becker received, which disagreed with his views on teacher training. The author of this letter suggested that teaching educational methods to primary school teachers was more important than improving their knowledge on specific subjects.82 However, no further reply to this correspondence could be found. In the final report, Becker incorporated the opinion of the letter. He firstly emphasised that teachers should be taught not merely the methods of general pedagogy, but also a thorough knowledge of different subjects in primary schools. He further argued that for primary teachers, however, knowledge of the science of pedagogy was more important than the knowledge of different subjects.83 It was likely that Becker juxtaposed his view on training primary school teachers with the proposals of the letter he received. The final report emphasised that although the four experts involved in the mission each wrote different parts of the report, it was the case that “the final text is the work of one person”,84 and that person was Becker. Moreover, the report did not merely consist of the ideas and opinions of the four European experts, but also reflected Chinese educators’ opinions, because the report claimed that it was not merely presenting the observations of the mission members, but was also a collection of other opinions.85 However, the report, as the following section will show, caused huge debates and incurred criticism from Chinese scholars, and could only present a certain group of Chinese scholars’ opinions—namely, the ideas of Li Shizeng, one of the designers of the University District System—for the following reasons. The first piece of evidence was that Becker in his letters asserted that many people in China believed it needed only one university in Peking. However, as the introduction shows, Li Shizeng was the main advocate for establishing the Beijing University District, by means of which he planned to merge all universities into one single Beijing University; this plan failed

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due to students’ and professors’ protests, which could not be explained as being only for political reasons. Hence, if Becker’s record was accurate that many people believed only one university was needed in Beijing, then it was a high possibility that the mission had only communicated on this topic with people such as Li Shizeng, or that Chinese educators who held different opinions did not express their true judgements. The conversations held between the mission and the Education Special Committee of the CNEC86 (全国经济委员会教育特别委员会) on 6 December is another piece of plausible evidence. The meeting was designed to provide in-depth communication between the mission and Chinese scholars who had considerable influence on national educational policies and to allow discussion on the report’s basic structure and arguments. However, the meeting was held in an embarrassing atmosphere. Though the Education Special Committee contained 13 people, Li Shizeng, Li Shuhua, and Li Zheng and Gu Shusen  were the only committee members and secretaries  who were able to attend.87 Certainly, it was taking place at a time when students had organised strikes in every city in China, which prevented other educators and politicians from attending the conference. However, what could not be ignored was that scholars such as Jiang Menglin and Hu Shi were in tension with Li Shizeng; thus, even though they both had the time, it was doubtful that they would attend a meeting led by Li Shizeng. This is supported by the fact that, at the later meetings of the CNEC, Jiang Menglin and Hu Shi never appeared.88 Because Li Shuhua and Li Shizeng could only speak French (and not English), Langevin translated the draft report into French and led the discussion at the conference. However, although Li Zheng and Gu Shusen were provided with an English draft of the report, they remained silent during the whole discussion.89 The reason why Li Zheng and Gu Shusen remained silent during the whole process is unknown. It at least showed that Li Shizeng and Li Shuhua, the two French-educated scholars, played dominant roles in the conference, at which the basic arguments and structure of the report were discussed and agreed. Also, it was Li Shizeng, as Chap. 7 will present, who discussed with the mission that a Chinese educational mission should be sent to Europe. From this perspective, it was confirmed that the mission did not have conflicts over their suggestions for China due to national interests, but it was also the case that they had different opinions on concrete suggestions. It was the opinions of Becker that were laid as the foundation of the report. Simultaneously, the report represented a group of Chinse scholars’ opinions, but this was not the group that studied in the United States.

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5.7   The Basic Principles and Diagnosis of Chinese Educational Problems Finally, in 1932 the report was finished and printed in both English and France, and it was then circulated amongst the members of the League. The report included all the problems outlined in Becker’s letters, except for the thoughts on how political conflicts, especially the factional conflicts within the KMT, influenced Chinese education. Hence, this part will not repeat the report’s contents but will focus instead on the logical clues based on which the report was written, and its core arguments, which caused considerable debate in China. First of all, the experts did not think that the problems China faced in the process of modernisation were unique, but instead considered them to be universal problems also faced by other countries.90 Because of the universal nature of these challenges, it was reasonable for the mission to argue that the experiences of European countries could serve as a reference point, and the mission members put forward advice based on their own experiences as well as the Chinese social situation. Secondly, the report was written from a point of view that believed that school education’s primary function was usefulness to society. The experts believed in the importance of the creation of “an organised system of public education related to immediate social problems”.91 This meant that school education should be an organic part of society and fulfil social and national demands. Thirdly, the report emphasised that it was essential to preserve the unique qualities of national culture in the process of modernisation. The report took the view that every country’s civilisation springs from its own particular conditions and its ancient national literature and history.92 However, this did not mean that modernisation should be rejected and tradition should always be adhered to. The authors maintained that the development of modern scientific and industrial society produced new cultures and new demands upon education.93 In this sense, they felt that each country should renew its culture based on its own traditions, and thus create something unique. A good example, the report argues, was provided by American culture, which Chinese scholars admired. The authors stated: American culture obviously has its source in the culture of Europe, but with the cultural wealth borrowed from Europe, the Americans produced some-

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thing absolutely and especially American. The great task undertaken by the people of America in [the] process of evolution was the fusing into a new culture of the old world.94

This indicates that the report held the opinion that transnational cultural influence was inevitable, and that real cultural progress in a country was not based on imitating the outcomes of a particular nation’s culture, but instead on how it modernised its own national and historical characteristics. Based on these three foundations, the report identified the crux of problems faced by education in China: the discrepancy between Chinese education and Chinese society. It argued that educational institutions (both traditional and modern) were developing as independent organisms because they only cultivated an elite while ignoring the needs of the masses; correspondingly, the masses did not understand their country’s needs.95 Hence, in China, modern education was a luxury reserved for children from wealthy families and was beyond the remit of those whose economic situation was less favourable. The report reasoned that the locations, the system of entrance examinations, and the fees charged for receiving education all constrained the possibility of people from less privileged backgrounds receiving school education.96 The report argued that these phenomena violated the principles and the aims of modern national education. For example, public kindergarten’s function ought to be providing education to those in poverty who cannot organise private education.97 For Becker, who emphasised national education’s role in laying the foundation of national unification, such a situation in China was unacceptable. The report further argued that such a discrepancy between Chinese education and Chinese society was also due to schools’ teaching methods and curricula which the experts felt could not contribute to pupils’ life in broader society. The report described classroom teaching in China as being, in most schools, teachers imparting knowledge to a silent class who were busy taking notes.98 The experts deemed that such teaching methods could not cultivate capable citizens who possessed their own initiative and curiosity to solve problems, and such a citizenry was indispensable for the reconstruction of the country as a whole and meeting the demands of nature and society.99 As a consequence, the experts commented that the education system supplied “an unnecessarily large number of men” to Chinese society.100

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The report finally pointed out that the Chinese education system suffered from the overwhelming influence of foreign education systems, especially that of the United States. In this respect, the report considered middle school education and teacher training (the two topics were written by Becker) to be the most problematic parts of Chinese education. The report considered the American comprehensive middle school to be unsuitable for the Chinese context because such an approach was relatively expensive and required highly qualified teachers, which China could not provide at that time.101 The superficial imitation of American education, without giving due consideration to the national situation in China, had led to the situation in which Chinese secondary schools nominally provided varied curricula like those in the United States, but, in practice, were focused only on preparing students for university. The criticisms that the report made of teacher training102 were identical to those already described in Becker’s letters: that it focused on educational methods, psychology, and other forms of pedagogical knowledge but ignored the knowledge of individual subjects. Why did Chinese education mechanically imitate the American model? The report explained that Chinese educators were too eager to compete with the West and attain the same levels of achievement as Western countries: The justifiable conviction held by the Chinese that they are intellectually equal to any other nation led them, at the beginning of this process of evolution, to mistake the mere equivalence for an absolute identity, and also to adopt for China those institutions and methods which, in Europe and America, were intimately associated with the temperament peculiar to the several countries, nations and peoples.103

The cultural explanation of Chinese imitation of other educational systems was in accordance with Becker’s sympathy towards the difficult situation faced by China, and his belief that China had the ability to achieve the same level of advancement as the West. However, this explanation largely ignored the fact that Chinese educators considered education to be a means to save the country, and believed that Western education had led directly to the West being powerful. The imitation of Western (primarily American) educational systems since the middle of the 1910s in fact reflected Chinese educators’ understanding of how China would become

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a powerful country and what kind of great power it wanted to be—shifting from Japanese and German ways to American ways after the end of the First World War. The report also outlined the chaotic nature of educational administration in China. The report criticised the Chinese central government for failing to fulfil their administrative and financial responsibility for national education development. From a financial perspective, the report pointed out that the spending on education by the Chinese government was lower than that in most other countries, and criticised the lack of a well-designed tax system for funding education.104 The report argued that there were unreasonable discrepancies between the central, provincial, and prefectural education budgets, which were respectively responsible for funding universities, secondary schools, and primary schools. The gulf in proportional spending between the amount spent on a pupil in primary school and the amount spent on a student in university was 1:200.105 In terms of administrative problems, the report pointed out that school administration in China suffered due to an excess of staff in local government, and because staff were insufficiently equipped to deal with the problems they faced and lacked initiative.106 The report also considered that authority in the administration was not equitably distributed between different offices. For example, school headmasters possessed excessive powers, with the report noting that the headmaster “alone receives money from the public funding for the maintenance of school and payments of teachers, he alone nominates and dismisses teachers and other school functionaries”.107 To solve these problems, the report gave many concrete suggestions and also put forward a cultural solution as the guideline. The report’s essential idea was that Chinese education must not aim to develop an American or European form of education but to modernise Chinese education based on its own national and historical individuality. Hence it was not the American education system itself, but the way America absorbed European influences to establish its own education system that was worth Chinese attention. Also believing that both China and Europe have a long history and tradition, the report argued that Chinese educators should go to European countries to learn how they produced a modern education system based on their own traditions.108

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5.8   Disputes over the Value of the Report in China In 1932 the report was translated into Chinese, and aroused some discussion amongst Chinese scholars. The attitudes of Chinese educators towards the report were divergent. Initially, debates focused on the reliability and value of the report. Zhu Jiahua and Dai Jitao, the two politicians who wrote the preface to the Chinese translation, spoke highly of the report. Dai Jitao stated that the report provided an in-depth examination of China’s educational problems. It impressed him to such an extent that he could not believe the report was written by foreigners, and he felt that this fact demonstrated that the authors held a great love for China, which in itself was totally different from previous investigation reports written by foreigners about China.109 Such a compliment indicated that he considered the report did not contain any of the implications of cultural imperialism that the ICIC had tried to avoid. Zhu Jiahua appreciated that the report served to diagnose the weakness and sickness of Chinese education, and to figure out the essence of the problems in China.110 In contrast to this praise, it is striking that some other scholars questioned the quality of the report. Several scholars cast doubt upon the qualifications of the four experts. Luo Yanguang, a graduate of the Teaching College of Columbia University and the chancellor of Hubei Education College, expressed his concerns that, since none of the four experts could speak Chinese and since they all had minimal real knowledge and experience of China, it was questionable whether they could really communicate effectively with Chinese educators. Accordingly, he argued that the Chinese should not place high expectations on the function and value of the report.111 Li Jianxun, a professor from Beijing Normal University and also a graduate of the Teaching College of Columbia University, agreed with some of the report’s recommendations, but still expressed concern that the four experts were not prominent in the field of pedagogy, and that there was no American expert involved in the mission.112 The other question raised about the value of the report was based on the notion that most of the problems and recommendations contained in the report were not new, having already been identified by Chinese scholars. Xu Keshi, a pedagogical scholar with a German academic background, wrote that

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the educational reform advice they give is mostly consistent with Chinese people’s opinions. For instance, secondary education should emphasise vocational education; the number of universities should no longer increase, but their quality should be improved, and science education should be improved. […] Advice such as this has not only already been expressed by Chinese people, but is already being put into effect.113

From Xu’s words, it is apparent that, in his opinion, the report did not contain any innovations and just repeated the policies of ongoing educational reform. More radical attitudes were apparent amongst some scholars, who felt that the Chinese people had lost their national spirit and self-confidence, and so blindly put their trust in foreigners. For example, the educator Fan Yitian, who was studying at the Education Department of Yunnan University, satirised the mission by remarking that it came to China and wrote the report because the Chinese people lacked self-confidence and so needed “foreigners who have privileges” (洋大人) to speak for them.114 Shang Zhongyi, a graduate from the Teaching College of Columbia University, made the criticism that the four experts were spokesmen for imperialism and had only spent a short amount of time in China, and were therefore not able to produce anything helpful.115 Only Tan Tiankai, an expert in foreign affairs who had published widely on educational problems in China, made a defence of the mission. He thought that it was impossible for them to travel across China given the poor state of transport, and noted that most educational and social investigations undertaken in China by foreigners followed a similar methodology to that adopted by the mission, and focused on visiting representative cities and villages.116 In Tan Tiankai’s opinion, it was overly harsh to blame the four experts for failing to travel to central and western China. However, without doubt, his response indicated that he also did not think a report written by foreigners could really help China because the method through which the mission compiled the report was nothing different from previous methods adopted by foreigners in China and did not make an in-­ depth study of the Chinese situation. This chapter does not seek to reach a judgement on the discussions concerning the appropriateness of the four experts, or on the value of the report itself. Most scholars who criticised the report were scholars without experience in organising national education, and most of them had studied at the Teachers College of Columbia University. The report itself had

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criticised the weight of influence that American education had in China, and especially that of the Teachers College of Columbia University. In fact, it was rather too harsh for these educators to blame the mission from this standpoint. In the 1910s and 1920s, Chinese scholars had also invited John Dewey, Paul Monroe, and other American pedagogical experts to visit China to undertake educational reform. These visitors were also unable to speak Chinese and were not experts in Chinese studies. Chinese educators’ attitude towards the League’s experts, who had experience in designing and organising national education but were not famous in pedagogical theories, clearly demonstrated their prejudice.

5.9   Disputes over the Cultural Basis of the Report in China The other debate that the report prompted in China focused on the cultural basis of the report, namely the relationship between tradition and modernisation in the Chinese education system and the influence of the United States. A disagreement that Chinese scholars held was over the claim that Chinese education was overly influenced by the American system. Jiang Menglin suggested that this criticism was unfair when one took into account the broader history of China’s modern education. He asserted that the apparent problems pointed out by the report, such as a curriculum which overburdened students, were the legacies of the influence of Japanese and traditional education models.117 Luo Yanguang also held a similar perspective. He pointed out the differences between the American and Chinese education systems and argued that the latter had been influenced by many different countries. It was thus impossible to blame the influence of American education alone for the problems the report had identified. Luo Yanguang further pointed out that modern educational systems and ideologies in different countries tended to flow across national boundaries, and could not be clearly delineated into different national models.118 Even Ren Shuyong, who had agreed with most parts of the report, thought that Chinese education was not overly influenced by foreign education. He thought that the so-called new education119 in China was only superficially new, and that it was, in essence, still based on an anti-modern ideology. To illustrate this point, Ren noted that old-style private schools were still in operation throughout inner China, teaching

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methods had not been updated, and the spirit of learning and teaching in China was still “cultivating experts in foreign eight-legged essay (洋八 股)”.120,121 The core criticism of Ren Shuyong was, in fact, the same as that of the report. They both found fault with the way in which Chinese education merely superficially imitated education in the United States—that is to say, it simply transplanted the outcomes of American education. Although these Chinese educators expressed different opinions in their articles, the dissatisfactions with modern education in China expressed by those scholars and the mission, as mentioned earlier, were the same. Their disagreement about the nature of American influence on Chinese education represented different understandings of how modern education had developed in China, and what could and could not be accommodated by this development. The report was based on the perception that the American model did not meet the particular problems faced by the Chinese education system, while Chinese scholars understood these problems to be due to the influence of the traditional education system and the mismatching of multinational influences. To improve the situation, the report’s general advice was that China should develop an innovative education system springing from its own tradition but at the same time absorbing foreign influence. In response to this suggestion, the second dimension of the dispute on the cultural basis of the report appeared and three questions can be drawn out from the discussions undertaken by Chinese scholars in response to the report. Firstly, what is Chinese traditional culture? Secondly, could Chinese culture produce modernity? Thirdly, what is the difference between indigenisation and imitation? Some Chinese scholars deemed that the report’s general advice was no different from that given by Zhang Zhidong, a reformer and politician in late Qing, who advocated ‘Chinese learning as substance, western learning for application’(中学为体, 西学为用).122 Liao Shicheng argued that this approach had already been put forward by Chinese scholars, and applied in Japan and Late Qing China. He suggested that in both of these instances the results had not been entirely positive. Liao Shicheng also contended that so-called traditional culture was a vague and empty concept which needed to be re-evaluated from a modern perspective, and so he strongly opposed the suggestion, which he considered to be inane, that China ought to preserve traditional culture.123 The socialist educator Zhang Guangtao shared a similar opinion. He reasoned that there was no lack of people in China willing to follow the suggestions laid out by Zhang

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Zhidong. He had expected that the experts would provide a comprehensive analysis and classification of Chinese culture, which was not merely a combination of Chinese and Western elements, but rather a new culture born out of an old epoch. He expressed his disappointment and frustration that the experts had failed in providing concrete methods, and attributed this failure not to their lack of ability, but to the imperialist character of the mission—they were unwilling to share their suggestions with China.124 The two scholars considered the suggestion made by the report to be a form of cultural conservatism and expressed their strong opposition. Other Chinese scholars offered a completely different opinion and concluded that the report’s general advice was meaningful. Jiang Menglin pointed out that the principle of the report was to advocate for China to neither return to the ancients nor totally imitate the West, but rather to adopt a creative consciousness. Regarding the question of how to modernise education against the background of traditional culture, Jiang Menglin showed that some contemporary researchers had already used scientific methods and tools to investigate China’s own nature, history, and culture. For him, such efforts were the necessary and appropriate steps towards creating China’s own modernity.125 Tan Tiankai similarly said that merely learning Western science and technology could not make China rich and powerful, because science was rooted in their spirit of suspicion and altruism. Tan argued that in the process of learning from the West, China had failed to form a concept of altruism and had lost its traditional virtues.126 Despite their different understandings of the recommendations given by the report, a point of commonality between these Chinese scholars and the mission was that they all agreed that China should resolve the relationship between tradition and modernity. The debate around the report’s recommendations also revealed a clear gap between the expectations of some Chinese scholars and those of the mission itself. The former wanted to identify concrete and practical methods, while the latter could only provide theoretical advice, and argued that the Chinese themselves should be the ones who discovered the right methods. From this perspective, Chinese educators had good reason to feel disappointed with a report which identified urgent problems that they were already aware of and failed to provide any practical suggestions for resolving them. However, those Chinese educators who were eager to identify concrete methods for solving the maladjustment of modern education in China were of the opinion that sending a Chinese mission to study European

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education, as suggested by the League of Nations’ mission, would not solve any of the pressing issues. Shang Zhongyi argued that the European educational model was characterised by the heritage of feudalism, and stated that learning from Europe would only hamper Chinese educational reform, which was struggling to overcome its own legacies of feudalism.127 Zhang Guangtao also thought the report’s rejection of the American “model” and advocacy of China finding their own path to modernity were just a tactic by which to sell the European educational “model” to China.128 Xu Keshi also intimated that the report represented an attempt to persuade China to adopt the European “model”, despite its advocacy for reforming traditional culture.129

5.10   Influence of the Report on National Educational Policies In contrast to the scholars who discussed the report from an academic perspective, the Chinese government urgently wished to unify the country and establish an effective education system, and so cared more about the concrete suggestions that the mission could contribute to ongoing educational reform. After the four experts had returned to Europe, the Ministry of Education sent them many practical questions about the design of the school system,130 most of which had been answered in the report. However, insisting that establishing an educational administration system was not a pure educational problem but a complicated political decision, the report refused to give any particular suggestion; instead, it provided general pieces of advice and did not insist on any particular form for organising education. This is well reflected in the advice they gave on whether China should adopt centralisation or decentralisation for educational administration. The report declared that it was not their task to come to a conclusion on behalf of the Chinese people as to whether they should adopt a unified or federative approach. But the report considered that China showed “an astonishing cultural unity” in history and hence for China it would be better to adopt a centralised administrative system. The report takes the idea of centralisation as a starting point to make proposals; however, it still stresses that those proposals could also be brought into operation if the authority were left to the provincial government.131 Other examples can be found in the various suggestions for how to organise the teacher training education system in China. The report

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considered it was feasible to keep the independent normal universities and normal colleges that had been widely established in China if more emphasis could be laid on knowledge of the subject. Similarly, both independent normal schools (equivalent to senior middle school) and teacher training groups that were attached to senior middle school made no significant difference.132 Thus it implied that the form of political system had little impact on the performance of national education. Current studies tend to highlight the influence of the report on Chinese educational reform in the 1930s.133 However, this chapter argues that the report was never mentioned in later Chinese educational reforms by Chinese administrators and could not be considered to have a significant impact on Chinese education reform from a practical standpoint. It was true that many proposals in the report were reflected in the later reform, just as Lin Zhengzhen and Lin Hongjun indicated in their article that at least 12 proposals put forward by the report were reflected in the educational reforms in 1932 and 1933.134 But the analysis of the ongoing educational reform in China showed that most educational reforms had already been under way since 1928 and had been incorporated in the 1931 educational reform. For example, the report argues that educational administration should be more independent of the general administration, and the influence of the Ministry of Education on the appointment of officials of education administration ought to be expanded.135 In fact, since the issuing of the Law of Ministry of Education Organisation (教育 部组织法) in 1928, a clear centralisation of education administration could be observed. For example, it was stated that if the Ministry of Education found that the regulations issued by the provincial governor violated regulations issued by the Ministry of Education or local officials exceeded their purview, the ministry had the right to request that the Executive Yuan abolish the stipulations of local administrators.136 The opinion that the suggestions given by the report had already been put forward by Chinese educators and was being carried out by the government, as the previous analysis has shown, was widely held by Chinese scholars at that time. It was uncertain why the report was seldom mentioned by Chinese reformers; however, it was without doubt that the direction of the suggestions contained in the report was the same as that of the ongoing educational reform. As the preceding paragraphs have shown, the report itself absorbed many ideas from Chinese officials and scholars, and to some extent could be seen as the spokesman of Chinese officials for educational reform.

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5.11   Discussion of the Report at the ICIC The Committee of the ICIC also discussed the report during its 14th session in 1932. On 20 July 1932, in the fifth meeting of this session, Becker and Langevin each gave a speech about their trip to China, and shared their opinions on China’s educational problems. The committee members then commented on the recommendations they proposed. Becker firstly expressed that he was surprised by the development of Chinese education in two respects: the number of modern schools and the establishment of similar quality institutions to those of Europe had both been achieved despite China’s difficult domestic situation and conflict with Japan in recent decades.137 In this sense, the mission’s visit had to some extent realised the intentions of the Chinese government to show off the best aspects of Chinese education, and thus prove that China had the ability to perform as well as the West. Nonetheless, Becker also identified a grave problem in China’s ability to execute the plans it had drawn up. He stated that “the general conference on education had drawn up programmes, which, however, remained theoretical, since their application would be unduly burdensome”.138 If those plans could have actually been applied, Becker argued, then China would have solved, for example, the problem of illiteracy.139 The implication was that the most important task for the Chinese government was no longer to figure out what should be done, but rather to realise their plans. From this perspective, the dissatisfaction with modern education in China was not purely an educational issue, but more about the capacity of the government to carry out their intended policies. Becker further emphasised that a failure to adapt multinational influences in education had led to a lack of uniformity in China. He found that Chinese educators had imported other countries’ educational systems, but still had been unable to find a proper one for their own nation. Becker considered the problem to be not unique to China, but rather to be part of a global problem: Asian countries were facing the loss of their traditional cultures and civilisations in their encounter with Western influences.140 This phenomenon, which Becker termed “unification” was in fact about the role of those non-Western cultures and countries in the process of globalisation, namely, the way that expansion of the modern education system and the Western-dominated modernisation process marginalised the non-Western countries.

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After Becker’s speech, Langevin expressed his opinions on Chinese education. He agreed with Becker’s outlook, and further put forward a suggestion that the educational problems China faced could be seen as the consequences of the industrial revolution that had already taken place in Western countries. The essential problem was that the knowledge learned in schools was not connected to practical experiences.141 As a natural scientist, he further pointed out the language problem associated with science education in China; the reliance on using English textbooks for scientific education would lead to the isolation of science from everyday life and national culture.142 In this session, the two scholars did not discuss in detail the concrete problems of Chinese education, but considered the challenges China faced as a whole to epitomise a global phenomenon, and act as a case study for international cooperation. They turned China’s educational problems into cultural problems and considered them against the background of the encounter between the West and the East. The further discussion focused on these two issues. Except for Jose Castillejo, who considered the report’s suggestion that China should undertake centralisation to organise its education as a dangerous idea and argued instead that consideration must be given to the Chinese government, no other members of the ICIC put forward disagreement on the report and the speech delivered by Becker and Langevin. They considered the cooperation between China and the League of Nations as a model of international cooperation. M. Gallie said that the fact that the Chinese government had sought assistance from different cultures demonstrated the ways in which a genuinely humanitarian form of cooperation could arise. De Reynold expressed a similar opinion, saying that the work was “important both for intellectual cooperation and for the League of Nations” and that “it marked the starting point of a long and difficult task of reconstruction which concerned humanity as a whole”.143 Pilotti argued that the mission’s success indicated the spread of intellectual cooperation across the world, especially amongst the ancient civilisations of Asia. Oprescu suggested that the mission was an admirable example of intellectual cooperation.144 As analysed in Chap. 2, the ICIC was initially reluctant to become involved in educational problems, because it wanted to avoid the condemnation of interfering with sovereign affairs. The success of the mission, for the members of the ICIC, demonstrated a practical method for intellectual cooperation on educational problems—giving advice but leaving the

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decision in the hands of the Chinese government. Just as Oprescu had stressed, the Chinese government was free to accept or reject the report, and a counterpart Chinese mission would travel to Europe to examine all aspects of education there. The mission would only function as a reference and not force the Chinese government to undertake any actions. The discussion of Committee members shows their humanist concern about the necessity of achieving harmony between Western and Eastern culture, and between culture and material development.

5.12   Conclusion Because it was the first time that the ICIC had sent an educational mission to a sovereign state to promote national educational reform, the mission to China carried particular significance. The meaning of the trip was threefold. From the perspective of the League, the mission gave the ICIC a chance to practice dealing with national educational problems. There were no written principles to determine how mission members would be selected, and the experiences of the ICIC and IIIC show that they largely relied on the personal networks of Committee members. Although the four scholars assigned to the mission came from different cultural and political backgrounds, they nonetheless had enjoyed similar experiences of working on national educational reform, and all showed sympathy towards China’s situation, without any imperialist intentions. During the whole process, the ICIC worked like a third-party service provider whose function was only to provide experts and make the necessary arrangements for the mission’s travel in China. From the perspective of how educational ideas and practices flowed across national boundaries, the mission provided an example through which to explore this complex situation. The four experts were the intermediaries, who decided what kind of ideas and practices would be introduced to China. As they were not experts in Chinese education, the final report, mainly written by Becker, was deeply influenced by their previous reading about China and the communication they had in China. Hence the report, as this chapter has revealed, was the combination of the experts’ opinions and Chinese scholars’ and government’s opinions. Rather than advocating transfer of their individual national education system to China, the four experts considered the problems China faced were similar to those European countries had experienced and argued from a cultural

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perspective that only the Chinese could find a way to modernise education on the basis of its own tradition and culture. From the perspective of the Chinese government, the mission provided a chance to demonstrate Chinese development to the world, and to participate in international intellectual cooperation. Through the mission, the Chinese government showed off the best sides of their education system, which demonstrated to the wider world that China was modernising and also improved international understanding. From the perspective of diplomacy and shaping China’s international image, it was also a chance for the Chinese government to promote their favoured image of China amongst international society.

Notes 1. Letter from Montenach to Murray, 12 June 1931, 5B/28134/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 2. Liste des personnalitée dont les noms ont été cités en relation avec la préparation de la mission d’experts en matière d’enseignement demandée par le Gouvernement chinois, 1931, 5B/28134/28135, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 3. Ernst Neugebauer, Anfänge Pädagogischer Entwicklungshilfe Unter Dem Völkerbund in China, 1931 Bis 1935 (Hamburg: Institut für Asienkunde, 1971), 109–118. 4. Letter to Dufour, 4 June 1931, 5B/28134/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 5. Note à M. Rajchman, 13 July 1931, 5B/29694/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 6. Letter from Bonnet to Dufour, 20 June 1931, 5B/28134/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 7. Letter from Tawney to ICIC, 8 July 1931, 5B/29547/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 8. Lawrence Goldman, The Life of R.H.  Tawney: Socialism and History (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), 148. 9. Letter to Dufour, 4 June 1931, 5B/28134/28134. 10. Letter from Murray to Montenach, 15 June 1931, 5B/28134/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 11. Takashi Saikawa, “From Intellectual Co-Operation to International Cultural Exchange: Japan and China in the International Committee on Intellectual Co-Operation of the League of Nations, 1922–1939” (Philosophischen Fakulät der Universität Heidelberg, 2014), 189. 12. Neugebauer. Anfänge Pädagogischer, 112.

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13. Letter from Murray to Montenach, 15 June 1931. 14. Neugebauer, Anfänge Pädagogischer, 112. 15. Letter from K.  Zilliacus to de Montenach, 18 June 1931, 5B/29547/29547, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 16. Neugebauer, Anfänge Pädagogischer, 115. 17. Letter from Cleeve to Kullmann, 17 August 1931, 5B/30348/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 18. Letter from Picht to ICIC, 10 August 1931, 5B/30348/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 19. Carl H.  Becker, and Susanne Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China: Reisebriefe Des Ehemaligen Peussischen Kultusministers 1931/32 (Münster: Lit, 2004), 68. 20. Ibid., 67. 21. Letter from Cleeve to Kullmann, 17 August, 5B/30348/28134. 22. Ibid. 23. Ibid. 24. Becker and Kuss. Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 67. 25. In 1930, five representatives of Baptist laymen from the United States made a trip to India, China, and Japan to collect data on missionary work and local conditions. This inquiry was known as the Laymen’s Foreign Missions Inquiry. The mission also investigated the education organised by missionaries in China. In the report, the authors criticised seminaries in China for imitating the different dominations of American seminaries and failing both to indigenise local culture and circumstances, and to adapt to the modern spirit. See Yihua Xu, Jiaohui Daxue Yu Shenxue Jiaoyu (Fuzhou: Fujian Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1999). 26. Bericht Über einige chinesiche Universitäten, 1931, VI.HA NI Carl Heinrich Bercker Nr. 8212, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. 27. Neugebauer, Anfänge Pädagogischer, 113. 28. Cornelia Essnerand Gerd Winkelhane, “Carl Heinrich Becker (1876–1933), Orientalist Und Kulturpolitiker,” Die Welt des Islams 28, 1/4 (1988): 154. 29. Erich Wende, C.  H. Becker: Mensch Und Politiker (Deutsche Verlags-­ Anstalt, 1959), 164. 30. Carl H.  Becker, Die Pädagogische Akademie im Aufbau Unseres Nationalen Bildungswesens (Leipzig: Veroag Quelle & Meyer In Leipzig, 1926), 10–11. 31. In February 1931, Chiang Kai-shek arrested Hu Hanmin, the Ministry of Legislative Yuan. As a response to this incident, Li Zongren, Wang Jingwei, and Sun Ke and other factions of KMT called up a special conference of the KMT Central Supervisory Commission in Canton and

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announced the establishment of Canton National Government, which was in a hostile relationship with the Nanjing National Government. Here Becker meant the opposition from the newly established Canton National Government. As Chap. 2 shows, Sun Ke and other members of KMT had already expressed distrust of technical cooperation with the League of Nations. 32. Becker and Kuss. Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 61–62. 33. Ibid, 62. 34. Programm über den Aufenthalt in Nanking u.a. Orte in China, 1931, VI.  HA NI Carl Heinrich Becker Nr. 8307, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. 35. Letter from R.H. Tawney to Jeanette, 5 October 1931, BEVERIDGE/2A, London School of Economic Archive, London. 36. Becker and Kuss. Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 158. 37. Ibid. 38. Barbara Schulte, “Unwelcome Stranger to the System: Vocational Education in Early Twentieth-Century China,” Comparative Education 49, no. 2 (2013): 226–241. 39. 唐威, 中华职校学校校史 (1918–2013) (上海: 上海社会科学院出版 社, 2013). 40. Becker and Kuss. Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 139. 41. Ibid., 101. 42. Ibid., 94. 43. From R.H.  Tawney to Jeanette, 4 October 1931, BEVERIDGE/2A, London School of Economics Archive, London. 44. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 118. 45. Peng Deng, Private Education in Modern China (London: Praeger, 1997), 39–66. 46. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 171. 47. 唐启华, 北京政府与国际联盟, 1919–1928 (台北: 东大图书出版社 1998), 114. 48. Becker compared schools in the Chinese region of Shanghai and those for the Chinese in the international concession. In this letter Becker wrote that in the Chinese city of Shanghai there were 184 public and private primary schools, five public and private middle schools, two national universities, and 22 private colleges and universities. By contrast, in the French concession there was only one primary school for 422,000 Chinese people, and in the international concessions as a whole there were only four primary schools for 972,000 Chinese people. See Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 138–139. 49. Ibid., 139–140.

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50. According to the research of Chen Yuan, in 1928, California University made an evaluation of Asian countries and considered Yenching University as one of the top two Christian universities and colleges in Asia. The graduates from Yenching University can apply for graduate colleges of American Universities without entrance examination. For more about Yenching University, see 陈远, 燕京大学: 1919–1952 (杭州:浙江人民出 版社, 2013). 51. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 122. 52. Ibid., 135. 53. Ibid., 101. 54. Ibid., 151. 55. Ibid. 56. Ibid. 57. This figure has been made according to information in the letters of Becker and Tawney, and news article coverage of the mission. The red indicates Chinese educators and officials who were mentioned both in the experts’ private letters and in the Chinese documents; the black indicates Chinese educators and officials who were mentioned in Chinese documents but not in experts’ private letters; the orange indicates the private relations of the experts which were mentioned in their private letters but not in Chinese documents. It is reasonable to speculate that the names mentioned in private letters might have been particularly important in providing the experts with a profound impression or resonant insight into Chinese education, because the mission met with hundreds of people, but only certain scholars were mentioned in private letters. However, this does not mean that the names in black (i.e. educators and officials mentioned in Chinese documents but not private letters) are unimportant. As will be demonstrated later, these educators at least serve to illustrate the intentions of the Chinese government to deal with some particular issues in education. 58. Unfortunately the contents of the conversations with Zhang Bolin were documented neither in Becker and Tawney’s letters nor by Zhang Bolin, according to the files of Zhang Bolin that were published in 2009. See Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 104. 59. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 104. 60. Ibid., 122. 61. “国联教育考察团,” 浙江教育行政周刊, 1. 62. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 118. 63. Ibid., 164. 64. Ibid., 98. 65. Letter from Falski to Zilliacus, 8 October 1932, 5B/30137/28134. Geneva: League of Nations Archive.

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66. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 164. 67. Ibid., 187. 68. Ibid., 101. 69. In 1928 the Chinese government adopted the University District system that had sought to merge all universities in Beijing into one had incurred considerable opposition and finally failed. The reasons for the failure of the University System included not merely political ones, but also considerations of practical situations and protests from students and teachers. It is questionable whether all the people had really agreed on this point or whether the mission had no chance to talk with the people who held opposite opinions. It might be the case that Chinese educators simply did not express their disagreement with Becker’s views, as he recorded that he was often met with silence during his conversations. 70. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 121. 71. The conference was not a part of the official schedule. On 8 December all four experts were in Shanghai. Becker in his letters did not express clearly with whom he attended the conference. But he used the word “we”, which indicates that he was not the only one who attended the conference. 72. Some aspects of Christian Education in China, 1932, VI.HA.NI Carl Heinrich Becker Nr. 8208, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. 73. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 173. 74. Ibid., 132. 75. Letter from R.H.  Tawney to Jeanette Tawney, 23 November 1931, BEVERIDGE/2A, London School of Economic Archive, London. 76. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 161. 77. Ibid., 130. 78. Ibid., 131. 79. R.H. Tawney, 16 November 1931, BEVERIDGE/2A, London: London School of Economic Archive. 80. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 147. 81. Neugebauer. Anfänge Pädagogischer, 192–193. 82. Notizen zu Teacher training in China, 1932, VI. HA NI Carl Heinrich Becker Nr. 8322, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. 83. Carl H. Becker, Marian Falski, Richard H. Tawney, and Paul Langevin, Reorganisation of Education in China (Paris: League of Nations’ Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, 1932), 118–119. 84. Ibid., 15. 85. Becker et al., Reorganisation of Education in China, 14–15. 86. The Education Special Committee was organised specially to implement national educational reform. The role of this Committee included the creation of plans for educational reform, study of the educational prob-

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lems in China, investigations into matters related to education, and taking on other tasks as they were appointed by the National Economic Council. The Education Special Committee was thus designed to function as an advisory committee for the National Economic Council, and to outline a programme for national educational reform. This committee was similar to the ICIC, in that its members formally belonged to different departments, and the chairman of the committee called up the conferences when necessary. The Committee included 11 members  and 2 secretaries. They were Li Yuying, Zhu Jiahua, Jiang Menglin, Gu Mengyu, Yang Xingfu, Hu Shi, Li Shuhua, Chen Hexian, Zhang Daofan, Peng Jiqun, Zhang Bolin, Li Zheng and Gu Shusen. In subsequent years the committee only organised a limited number of conferences. Moreover, some members (namely Hu Shi, Jiang Menglin, and Zhang Bolin) never attended any of the committee’s meetings. The Education Special Committee thus had little influence on Chinese educational reform. See 中国第二历史档案馆, eds. 全国经济委员会会议录 6 (桂林: 广西师范大 学出版社, 2005), 419–427. 87. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 162. 88. For example, in 1934 the CNEC held a meeting, which both Jiang Menglin and Hu Shi did not attend. See申报, 召集教育专委会议, 27 May 1934, Num. 21888. 89. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China, 162. 90. Becker et al., Reorganisation of Education in China, 30. 91. Ibid., 19. 92. Ibid., 24. 93. Ibid., 31. 94. Ibid., 24. 95. Ibid., 20–21. 96. Ibid., 65. 97. Ibid., 65–66. 98. Ibid., 85; 111. 99. Ibid., 96; 111. 100. Ibid., 109. 101. Ibid., 99. 102. Ibid., 31–32. 103. Ibid., 23. 104. Ibid., 50. 105. Ibid., 51. 106. Ibid., 46. 107. Ibid, 56. 108. Ibid., 200.

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109. Carl H., Becker, Marian Falski, Richard H. Tawney, and Paul Langevin, 中国教育之改进 (南京: 国立编译馆, 1932), 1. 110. Ibid. 111. 罗廷光, “评国联教育考察团报告书 “中国教育之改造”,” 中华教育界20, no. 11, (1933): 9–10. 112. 李建勋, “国联教育考察团报告书之批评,” 师大月刊 4, no. 7 (1933): 7–8. 113. 许恪士, “从国联教育考察团报告书说到中国需要的到底是那一种教育,” 时代公论 (南京) 20, no. 11 (1933): 47–48. 114. 郭一苓, 范义田, “中国教育病态的诊断: 读了中国教育之改进以后,” 东 方杂志31, no. 10 (1934): 1. 115. 尚仲衣, “国联教育考察团建议书的批判,” 中华教育界 20, no. 11 (1933): 19. 116. 谭天凯, “国联教育考察团报告书 “中国教育之改进” 评议,” 青岛教育 1, no. 3 (1933): 3. 117. 蒋梦麟, “国联中国教育考察团报告书中几个基本原则的讨论 (未完),” 独立评论no. 40, (1933): 10–11. 118. 罗廷光, “评国联教育考察团报告书 “中国教育之改造”” 中华教育界, 11. 119. Here, the new education is different from the New Education movement at that time in Europe. Here the new education means the modern (Western) education, which is different from traditional Chinese education. 120. Eight-legged Essay is a style of essay that imperial exam-takers wrote to pass the national examination in the Ming and Qing dynasty. This style of essay came under extreme criticism from the end of the nineteenth century after China lost wars with Western countries and was starting to reform. Critics argued that the eight-legged Essay did not allow for any personal opinion and led to the narrowing of people’s innovative thinking. Since the twentieth century, the eight-legged Essay has been used to describe stylised and very strict constraining ideological concepts. The foreign eight-legged Essay thus means imitating or implanting Western models or ideologies or concepts without any innovation. 121. 叔永, “评国联教育考察团报告,” 独立评论, no. 39 (1933): 18. 122. ‘Chines learning as substance, [W]estern learning for application’ is a social reform proposal first put forward by Feng Guifen and later elaborated by Zhang Zhidong in his work Exhortation to Study (劝学篇) at the end of nineteenth century as a way to improve the Chinese situation. Zhang Zhidong argued that reform in China should target maintaining the Qing government. Confucian ethnicity, which was representative of Chinese learning, should still be the core of social value and contents in education. At the same time, Western technology, tax system, and military system, which were representative of Western learning, should also be taught to pupils at the same time. It is important to notice that Zhang

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Zhidong did not mention any political system reform in his work and did not decrease the value and importance of classical learning in China. See 赵厚勰 and陈竞蓉, eds., 中国教育史教程第2版 (武汉:华中科技大学出版 社, 2018), 167–168. 123. 廖世承, “评国联教育考察团报告,” 中华教育界 20, no. 11 (1933): 2. 124. 章光涛, “国联教育考察团报告书之批评:从中国现社会的观点,” 东方杂 志 30, no. 8 (1933): 4. 125. 蒋梦麟, “国联中国教育考察团报告书中几个基本原则的讨论 (续),” 独 立评论 no. 41, (1933): 17. 126. 谭天凯, “国联教育,” 青岛教育, 3–13. 127. 尚仲衣, “国联教育,” 中华教育界, 21. 128. 章光涛, “国联教育,” 东方杂志, 3. 129. 许恪士, “从国联教育,” 时代公论 (南京), 48–49. 130. Problems Concerning Elementary Schools, Vocational, Middle and Normal Schools, 1932, VI.  HA NI Carl Heinrich Becker, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. 131. Carl H Becker et al. Reorganisation of Education in China, 43. 132. Ibid., 57. 133. 林正珍 and 林鸿均, “国联中国教育考察团与一九三零,” 兴大人文学报, no. 32 (2002): 835–862; 邓小泉, “国联教育考察团来华考察述评,” 南 通大学学报 (教育科学版), no. 3 (2006): 60–63.; 刘艳, “1931年国联教 育考察团对华教育考察概述,” 历史教学, no. 6 (2010): 48–50; 覃丽君 and 王建梁, “国联教育考察团报告之职业教育的主张、建议及影响,” 河 北师范大学学报 (教育科学版) 14, no. 9 (2012): 88–92.; 张学强, “1930年代国联教育考察团对民国中等教育改进的影响,” 社会科学战线 no. 12 (2017): 244–251. 134. 林正珍 and 林鸿均, “国联中国,”, 835–862. 135. Becker et al., Reorganisation of Education in China, 48. 136. “民国教育部组织法,” 行政公报, no. 8 (1928): 4. 137. League of Nations Intellectual Cooperation Organisation International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation Fourteenth Session Minutes of the Sixth Meeting, VI. HA NI Carl Heinrich Becker Nr. 8261, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. 138. Ibid. 139. Ibid. 140. Ibid. 141. Ibid. 142. Ibid. 143. Ibid. 144. Ibid.

CHAPTER 6

The Chinese Educational Mission to Europe

In December 1931, before leaving China, the League’s education mission invited the Chinese government to appoint an education mission to European countries to investigate educational administration for Chinese educational reform. As a response to the suggestion, in August 1932, a Chinese education mission consisting of five educators appointed by the Chinese government started their eight-month-long trip to various European countries. The mission visited Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, Poland, Denmark, Soviet Russia, and Austria. After returning to China, they produced reports on primary education, middle school education, vocational education, social education, and higher education. As one instance of the broader phenomenon of educators travelling across national boundaries for educational purposes in the first half of the twentieth century, either subsidised by the government or self-funded, such a mission was nothing new. However, it was the first time that the Chinese government cooperated with an international organisation to arrange an educational visit to foreign countries. Hence, just as Chap. 6 shows that the trip of the League’s education mission to China should be considered as a diplomatic activity, the Chinese mission to European countries should also be considered in the same way. For this reason, it is not an event that should merely be considered from a Chinese perspective, that is, in terms of what the mission brought to China, but also as a case that is worth special attention in order to understand how the League © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. Li, Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China, Global Histories of Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82442-6_6

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acted as a pioneer of international educational assistance projects. Although the League invited the Chinese mission to Europe, as this chapter will prove, it was the individual countries that hosted receptions to the Chinese education mission. It hence figured into the networks between the League, the Chinese education mission (also the Chinese government), and the individual nations the Chinese mission visited, which are crucial to understand the mechanism of the League and other international organisations in implementing educational programmes. Although the mission was appointed by the Chinese central government and entailed significant diplomatic implications, as Cheng Qibao recalled in his memoir, its influence was quite limited. The evaluation provided by Cheng Qibao was not a kind of humble expression—there is no evidence to prove those reports were used as an essential reference, or that the experts in the mission acted as advisers for the ongoing educational reform. The question as to why the mission failed to produce any substantial influence on educational development in China, or, put another way, what factors impeded the embodiment of their proposals, is crucial to understand the role the mission played in the context of ongoing educational reform and the indigenisation of transnational influence on Chinese education. Such a question is one of the central tasks of transnational history study—how the circulation across national boundaries is made or unmade. Consistent with the structure of Chap. 6, in order to answer the questions mentioned earlier, this chapter takes the experts appointed by the Chinese government to European countries as its major clue. It first analyses how the mission was called up in order to reveal the possible tasks imposed on the mission members. It moves on to explore how they understood their tasks and the problems of Chinese education—that is, what they hoped to learn from European countries. In the third step, it investigates the networks through which the League arranged the journeys and what kind of role each actor assumed. In the fourth step, the chapter analyses which aspects of education in Europe the mission members presented in their articles, speeches, and reports, and indicates its relationship with their previous understanding of Chinese education. Finally, the chapter discusses the proposals the mission members made and the factors that prevented them from producing a concrete influence on Chinese education.

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6.1   The Formation of the Mission In 1932, at the invitation of the League’s education mission to China, the Chinese government delegated an education mission of five educators to European countries to investigate educational situations. Chen Qibao, the mission leader, recalled in his memoirs that before the final formation of the mission, Zhu Jiahua held several negotiations and consultations with different people in order to find proper candidates to send to Europe.1 This indicates that the mission was not set up according to a formal selection process and that Zhu Jiahua was not the only decision-maker involved in appointing people to the mission. Although lacking governmental documents to show what standards and decisions underlay the ultimate choice of the five educators who formed the mission, analysis of their career trajectories reveals some similarities and indicates the potential intentions behind the mission. Cheng Qibao (1895–1975) was a typical Chinese educationalist who had been educated in the United States. At the age of 23, he won the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship to study in the United States and completed a PhD at the Teachers College of Columbia University. After the end of the First World War, he moved to France for a year to provide literacy education for Chinese workers. In 1923, he was offered a professorship at National Southeastern University, at the invitation of the chancellor Guo Bingwen, who also received his PhD, in 1914, from the Teachers College of Columbia University. In 1928, he began to teach educational administration at National Central University, and later became the dean of the Education Department during Zhu Jiahua’s chancellorship. Following tensions with student activists,2 Zhu Jiahua resigned as the chancellor of National Central University at the end of 1931 and subsequently was nominated as the Minister of Education. For unknown reasons, Cheng left National Central University after Zhu’s resignation. When Zhu set up the mission in 1932, he invited Cheng to be its leader.3 Yang Lian (1895–1938) majored in pedagogy at the Philosophy Department of Peking University. In October 1922, some students at Peking University shattered the order of the university and threatened chancellor Cai Yuanpei and other professors because of fees charged for teaching materials. In response to the students’ behaviour, Cai Yuanpei decided to resign. Jiang Menglin had to take responsibility for maintaining the operation of the university. Yang Lian emerged as the leader of a group of students who wanted to persuade Cai Yuanpei not to resign. Not only

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did he organise other students who agreed with him to oppose the students who had encouraged the resignation of Cai Yuanpei, but they also visited Cai Yuanpei’s private apartment to try to persuade him to stay.4 This incident thus allowed him to establish a direct connection with Cai Yuanpei and Jiang Menglin. Later in the same year, he and other students inaugurated the Education Research Association (教育研究会) with the backing of Jiang Menglin at Peking University, two years before the formal establishment of the university’s Education Department.5 From 1923 he began to translate some English pedagogical books into Chinese. After graduating from Peking University, his career followed that of Jiang Menglin. When Jiang Menglin became the Minister of Education in Zhejiang province in 1927, Yang Lian took up a job as secretary to the Minister of Education in Zhejiang. The following year, Jiang Menglin appointed Yang Lian and Liu Dabai as representatives of Zhejiang Province at the First National Education Conference.6 After that date, Yang began to enter the upper echelons of educators in China and make his voice heard with regard to educational reform on occasions of national policy planning. In 1929, Jiang Menglin advised Yang Lian to pursue further education at Columbia University.7 When Yang Lian returned from the United States in November 1930, he was nominated to be the director of the Social Education Department of the Ministry of Education, during the last days of Jiang Menglin’s tenure as Minister of Education.8 After Jiang Menglin was forced to quit at the end of the year, Yang Lian was also sacked from his position in January 1931.9 Later in the same year, Yang Lian became a professor at Peking University, where Jiang Menglin was chancellor.10 Li Jiaxiang (1896–1970) was a scholar educated in Germany. He was born in Hangzhou with a prestigious family background. His eldest brother, Li Suizhi, was the founder of Zhejiang Special Medical College. His second brother, Li Erkang, participated in the 1911 Revolution and was made a Lieutenant General in the national army in 1930. This eminent family background provided Li Jiaxiang with networks that accelerated the progress of his career. He graduated from Tongji University in 1915, so it is possible that he already knew Zhu Jiahua as a student and was also from the same province. He went on to study pedagogy at Sophia University in Japan for four years. In 1919 he won an official scholarship to study philosophy and pedagogy at Heidelberg University.11 He returned to China in 1930 and was appointed to work in the Ministry of Education

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as an expert on education problems, on the recommendation of Chiang Kai-shek. Guo Youshou (1901–1978) was a French-educated scholar. He began his studies at Peking University in 1918, and his brother later funded his further education in France. While studying in Paris, he established a close relationship with Zhang Daofan, the designer of the Kuomintang’s (KMT’s) cultural policy, and other French-educated scholars, who were closely related to the Sino–French University. In 1929, Guo Youshou completed his studies in France and returned to China. In contrast to the other scholars of the mission whose careers began at university level or in the central educational administration, Guo Youshou spent the first year of his career in his hometown Zizhong in Sichuan, where he worked as the temporary director of the Academic Affairs Department of Sichuan No. 6 Middle School. In the academic year 1929–1930, he moved to Nanjing to work in the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education and was responsible for film censorship.12 It is unknown whether this promotion was due to the direct intervention of Zhang Daofan, who was then the secretary of the Organisation Department of the KMT. Guo Youshou also established a good relationship with Cai Yuanpei, who was Guo Youshou’s marriage witness. However, it is doubtless the case that Guo’s relationship with other French-educated politicians and Cai Yuanpei would have helped him advance his career and allowed him to survive the inter-clique conflicts in the Ministry of Education in 1930 and 1931. Li Ximou (1896–1975) was an engineer. He won an official scholarship in 1918 to study at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and later at Harvard University. In 1923 he returned to China, and in 1926 he organised educators in Zhejiang to support the Northern Expedition and travelled to Guangzhou to report on the situation in Zhejiang.13 In 1927 he was appointed as the dean of the Engineering College of Zhejiang, at the time when Jiang Menglin was the chancellor of Zhejiang University District. Zhang Jingjiang, the governor of Zhejiang Province, as well as an old friend of Li Shizeng and Cai Yuanpei, commended Li Ximou’s work and later nominated him as the dean of the Telephone Bureau of Zhejiang, in charge of organising the broadcasting system in the province.14 Lloyd E.  Eastman argued that “the only way to attain government office was to win the backing of some powerful figure already in the bureaucracy, who could use his connections to find a place for the aspiring bureaucrat”.15 Family ties, teacher–student and patron–protégé relationships, shared provincial or local origins, friendships, and academic ties are

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crucial factors in the formation of a clique or faction in China.16 The life trajectories of the five experts appointed to the mission indicate that they had all established firm connections with prominent scholars and officials whose opinions might influence the decisions made by the Minister of Education. When the League’s education mission was in China, Li Shizeng played an active role in discussing the fundamental suggestions of the report the mission would write. It was also with Li Shizeng and Li Shuhua that the League’s mission discussed the cost for an education mission to Europe and how to prepare such a mission.17 However, as the introduction shows, balancing the influence of Li Shizeng and the French-taught educators with that of Jiang Menglin and the largely American-taught educators still influenced the works of the Ministry of Education. Also, the KMT had already started to instil its control over educational administration by appointing people who were deemed to be loyal to the KMT. Against this background, Cheng Qibao had a patron–protégé relationship with Zhu Jiahua, his immediate superior in the university. Yang Lian’s career closely followed that of Jiang Menglin. Li Ximou worked together with Jiang Menglin and Zhang Jingjiang. Guo Youshou was a friend of other French-­ educated scholars, who formed an influential clique in education administration. Li Jiaxiang had school ties with Zhu Jiahua and had family ties with Chiang Kai-shek, as shown earlier. However, connections with influential scholars and officials only provided these experts with the opportunity to become candidates for the mission. Their professional qualities were also essential factors in their appointment. The five members of the Chinese mission were specialists in different areas, so they could focus on different topics of European education. Cheng Qibao and Yang Lian both studied pedagogy in the United States and had experience in theoretical research as well as education administration. Guo Youshou was an official involved in film censorship and higher education. Li Jiaxiang was an expert on education problems and had good knowledge of the German education system, as well as being able to speak German fluently. Li Ximou was a scientist with experience of organising university education. The structure of the mission was similar to that previously appointed by the League. Besides their academic focuses, the five educators moreover displayed some similarity in their career paths. They were all under 40 years old, all had experience of studying in foreign countries, and all could speak at least one foreign language.18 Before they went to Europe, they already had

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some experience with education administration at different levels but were not core figures in education administration, as none of them had worked as a provincial minister of education. The experts who went to Europe were expected afterwards to be the leaders of Chinese education reorganisation.19 This is verified by the career of these experts after they had returned to China. As soon as the mission came back from Europe, Chiang Kai-shek received them.20 On 13 May 1933, Chiang Kai-shek instructed Qian Changzhao, the Deputy Secretary of the National Resources Commission (NRC, 全国资源委员会)21 and the Deputy Minister of Education, to arrange future positions for the five educators. Chiang Kaishek further indicated that the NRC should invite the members of the mission to assist in their work, or even appoint them to positions in the educational group of the NRC.22 Although they did not in fact join the educational group of the NRC, after the trip, the members of the mission were candidates for the position of minister of education in some provinces. Besides, in 1933, there was news that the five educators would continue to investigate Chinese educational situations in China, especially in inland and rural China, combining the domestic situation and foreign experience, and write specific reform policies for the Ministry of Education.23 Even though such an investigation was never carried out, it was clear that the five educators were intended to enjoy particular importance in the educational reform and educational administration.

6.2   A Diagnosis of Chinese Educational Problems and the Aims of the Mission To understand what the mission members wanted to learn from Europe, and which aspects of education they would pay attention to when they were in Europe, it is necessary to analyse their educational ideology, evaluation of Chinese education, and knowledge about education in European countries. Those are the factors that influenced their motivation to learn from Europe. Because amongst the five only Cheng Qibao and Yang Lian published many articles discussing educational problems in China, the following pages will focus on these two educators. Although they had different research focuses and work experiences, they showed similarities in their understanding of national education. Foremost, they both displayed a nationalist ideology when considering the function of national education,

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arguing that national education should be in accordance with national political aims and contribute to unifying and reviving the nation—enabling China to become a powerful country.24 As the following paragraphs will show, all their understanding of organising national education is based on this nationalist ideology. They further expressed great enthusiasm for progressive education and had already designed methods to improve national education. The ideology of progressive education, despite its wide application, included a contradictory range of ideas and reforms: in particular, those of pedagogical progressive education and administrative progressive education.25 The pedagogical progressive approach, exemplified by John Dewey, was characterised by a child-centred approach, in which the design of the curriculum and improvement of teaching methods were intended to meet the individual needs of the children.26 The administrative progressive approach, exemplified by Edward Thorndike, was based on the ‘science’ of educational testing27 (especially the IQ test) and focused on “fulfilling […] goals of social efficiency and social control through the system of public education”.28 Many scholars emphasise the impact of John Dewey on Chinese educational reform in the 1920s29; however, the two educators demonstrate, similar to what happened in the United States at the same time, that pedagogical progressives had the most impact on educational rhetoric, whereas the administrative progressives had the most impact on the structure and practices of education in school.30 Cheng Qibao strongly advocated educational equality and claimed that such equality should be based upon the intelligence quotient (IQ) test, which was a scientific and pragmatic choice for China. At the same time, he believed that organising national education should put social efficiency in the first place. In his book, Cheng Qibao approvingly quoted the work of Shu Xincheng, who argued that the problems with the existing school system were due to an unfortunate economic situation, which restricted equal access to education. Drawing on his work, Cheng suggested an idealised situation where, if it were not for the realities of the present social and economic situation, all people should receive whatever education they wished.31 However, in practical terms, Cheng Qibao firmly believed in IQ testing as the foundation of an education system. He argued that equality in education did not mean that everyone should learn the same content but rather meant equality of opportunity—this was the case because scientific research had shown that the difference in IQ was inborn, and could not be improved by education.32 Although he advocated a diverse

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curriculum with different options for different children, this diversity was not based on the interests of children or what they want to learn but rather on the differences revealed by IQ testing—the ‘objective’ scientific outcome which decided the potential opportunities and particular educational content available to individual children. Based on this understanding, Cheng Qibao judged education in European countries to be hierarchical, resulting in the segmentation of education for the poor and wealthy. Cheng Qibao upheld that the conventional multitrack systems in European countries were based on the divisions of social class and wealth, and were different from his impression of the education system in the United States, where students were trained to choose different future vocations.33 However, Cheng Qibao did not think the multitrack system itself should be blamed; rather, he considered it to be appliable in China, with the precondition that not family background but the IQ test decided the access to different tracks for children. When it came to China’s specific situation, he compromised and argued that there was no choice but to settle for multitrack systems based on family wealth. He looked to Germany as an example, where, as he described it, if parents realised that they were not rich enough to provide their children with education beyond the primary level, they would be able to send them to a Volksschule, at which children could receive vocational education, and give up on the aspiration of sending their children to university.34 He considered the German example to offer a reliable model for China, in which, because of the impossibility of improving the economic situation, primary schools should also provide multiple options for pupils who would otherwise be unable to continue receiving education due to economic problems.35 This compromise indicated that Cheng Qibao understood there was a gap between the idealised educational situation—that is, what should in principle be done with respect to Chinese education—and what could actually be achieved if the situation in China could not be improved. He showed a pragmatic attitude when designing the organisation of the national education system. Similarly, Yang Lian contended that educational equality should be based on the intelligence test, and argued that this was true equality, citing the words of Sun Yat-sen that “true equality should start from inborn intelligence”36 to support his view. With regard to the different educational systems in the United States and European countries, he considered it to represent an essential spiritual difference between America and Europe: the former was extremely democratic, while the latter considered

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full democracy to be impossible at least from an intellectual standpoint.37 Yang Lian explained that this was because European countries were not in as good an economic situation as that of the United States, so European countries did not operate middle school education as including different vocational subjects; following this logic, he argued that China following the United States was obviously wrong and middle school in China should be organised the same as that in the European countries—increasing the standards of middle school and enhancing the training of students.38 It was clear that Yang Lian also started from a standpoint of social efficiency when designing the national educational structure. Like Cheng Qibao, Yang Lian also emphasised that the economic situation largely constrained Chinese educational development and hence China should organise its national education based on the specifics of its situation—especially the economic situation. In fact, he had on many occasions explained the advantage of a secondary education system based on the results of IQ distribution testing for China: “According to research in psychology, the number of highly-­ talented citizens is not large—no more than 25 per cent of people belong to this group. The medium-talented are the largest group in society and occupy 50 per cent.”39 Thus, a secondary education system that included separated middle schools for the 25 per cent of highly talented citizens and vocational schools for the 50 per cent of medium-talented was, in his opinion, both scientific and efficient for China. Meanwhile, he also emphasised that an education system should have channels via which people can transfer between different tracks for the sake of social equality.40 On the topic of primary education, which would be his chief task on the trip, Cheng Qibao had already written articles on two problems. The first was the pedagogical skills of primary teachers in China. He felt that primary school teacher training in China was inadequate. He noted that primary school teachers received only secondary-level education; even worse, many Chinese primary teachers received education in seminars (传 习所) and special training institutes (专修科), which provided only crash courses for those who had finished primary education. Hence most primary teachers in China lacked sufficient training in both knowledge and teaching methods. Moreover, he explained that primary school teachers seldom had the chance to undertake further education or receive promotions, and as a result they could not provide the required degree of professional literacy or professional spirit.41

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He also showed much concern about the welfare of teachers and the associated protests. He argued that the poor quality of teachers in China was partly a result of their precarious living conditions, which, as Chap. 6 shows, the members of the League’s education mission also considered to be a parlous issue that impeded the successful development of Chinese education. In a public letter supporting teachers fighting for fundamental rights, Cheng Qibao and other scholars highlighted the miserable life that teachers in China enjoyed: “Everybody knows the salary of primary school teachers is not enough to cover the cost of a family.”42 They urged the government to improve teachers’ salaries and living standards and to support them in maintaining their social status and continuing their professional careers. In this respect, Cheng showed great sympathy for teachers in China. However, he did not go so far as to back teachers who used strikes to fight for their rights. In 1932, he wrote an article discussing the resignation of teachers in China. In the article, he suggested that teachers should not adopt such a negative approach to the problem, because the resignation of teachers would encumber the educational development of China, and because such protests had almost no effect since the government always failed to offer any solution in response. He further encouraged teachers to fulfil their obligation of loyalty to Chinese society and the Chinese people by maintaining an indomitable character and making sacrifices.43 Clearly, although Cheng Qibao expressed sympathy for teachers in China, his main standpoints were collectivism and nationalism—individuals should sacrifice themselves for the sake of the whole nation. Compared with fighting to improve teachers’ situation, he worried more that teachers protesting would hinder the order of schooling and hence influence the stability of national education. Regarding the other problem, namely the financial problems of Chinese education, he suggested that China should follow the global trend towards the central government gradually supporting more and more primary school education expenditure. One reason for this was that because primary education was the foundation of national education, its standards and infrastructures could not be effectively maintained without direct management by the government. Another reason was that primary education should be the same across the whole country. By supporting increased financial expenditure on primary school education, the national government could prevent the unbalanced development of pupils in different regions, and cultivate the foundation for national unification.44 Primary

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education, according to the understanding of Cheng Qibao, firstly served national purposes. Through unified primary education, national identity and national ideology could establish a stable foundation. However, he also had to admit that in contemporary China, it was difficult for the central government to increase the appropriation for primary education, and thus its development still had to rely on local government.45 Yang Lian made a comprehensive diagnosis of Chinese middle school education, which was to be his specific focus when he went to Europe, in a speech given at the Beijing Secondary Education Development Association (BSEDA, 北平中等教育协进会) on 24 July 1932. The discussion was organised to allow the mission to exchange ideas with Chinese educators in order to gather together the burning problems related to Chinese middle school education, to which the mission should pay special attention when they were in Europe. Hence, the speech was significant for understanding how Yang Lian conceived the problems of Chinese middle school education and what he hoped to learn from Europe. Yang Lian concluded that there were four Chinese middle school education problems, based on other educators’ opinions and his own observations. He cited the words of Paul Monroe, who visited China in 1922, that “secondary education was the most important but the worst operated part of Chinese education”46 to increase the credibility of his conclusion that secondary education in China needed in-depth reform. The first problem he identified was the unhealthy teaching methods that resulted from teachers’ insufficient pedagogical skills—teachers only focused on textbooks and gave oral instruction. He argued that Paul Monroe had already criticised the problem more than ten years ago and G.R. Twiss, an American scholar, had already designed suggestions for Chinese educators on how to solve this issue which were never carried out.47 Nor was it only Paul Monroe and G.R. Twiss who had noticed this: the issue had also been ascertained by the League’s mission. For Yang Lian, most urgent for China, and thus for the mission, was not that Chinese educators did not know what problems China faced and what should be done, but rather how to transfer those existing suggestions and theories into practice. The second problem was the poor quality of middle school students. Yang Lian offered a poignant criticism of current graduates of middle schools who could only be considered incompetent by comparison with foreign students and Chinese students in the 1910s. When presenting this point, Yang Lian evaluated the standard of knowledge of students who graduated from middle school education in Europe, especially Germany

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and France, as being the best, with the knowledge of students in Europe being equivalent to the performance of grade two students of universities in the United States. He stated that not only were Chinese middle school students not comparable with students in Europe (which was acceptable) but they were also not comparable with those in the United States, who at least learnt some skills and were able to find a job after leaving school.48 Because middle school students would be future leaders of China according to the designs of Yang Lian, their unsatisfying performance, he claimed, exposed China to an unpromising future in which they still could not compete with Western countries. The third (and most dangerous) was the challenge of too many student protests organised in middle schools by radical students, alongside the shameful living habits of students. He particularly emphasised his opinions on why such a phenomenon had appeared in China. He argued that Chinese students had craftily misinterpreted child-centred education and equated it with the notion that they should enjoy extreme freedom and that teachers should not intervene in their actions. Because teachers and headmasters were afraid of students’ protests, they took a laissez-faire attitude towards them. As a result, Yang Lian deemed that a few cunning and well-organised students controlled school administration.49 The fourth problem was that graduates could not meet social demands so that even those students who had received vocational training could not find proper work.50 The problems Yang Lian presented were closely related to the question of how to most efficiently organise national education with limited social resources. In the discourse of Yang Lian, the narrative of the role of education for individual development was swallowed up by that of national development. After articulating these problems, Yang Lian put forward his solutions. The first was that the aim of middle school education should be revised. Rather than establishing comprehensive schools, he argued that in the secondary education stage, middle school, vocational school, and teacher training school should be established separately. He indicated that current middle school education encompassed vocational training and preparation for universities and had a very comprehensive but ambiguous aim to provide general education and cultivate a healthy personality; however, these contributed little towards improving students’ vocational skills and reducing unemployment. Thus, the aim of middle school should be changed, to

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concentrate on preparing pupils for further education and cultivating future leaders of China.51 Secondly, as a response to the misunderstanding of child-centred education and the democratic education theory of John Dewey in China, he emphasised that students must learn school discipline and guidance.52 His considerations on how to improve school discipline and guidance were well expressed in some of his articles. He criticised school discipline and guidance in China as merely cramming children while ignoring practical training. He advised that Chinese educators should try to find methods for putting the study of moral disciplines into practice and improving students’ habits and characters.53 Such considerations revealed again that, in his opinion, it was not what should be done but how to carry out those suggestions that should be the most urgent question for educators. Meanwhile, he reminded readers that this did not mean constraining students’ liberty, but that middle school students should themselves design regulations to improve and standardise their behaviour and cultivate good character with the precondition that such activities were carried out under the guidance and supervision of teachers.54 It demonstrates that Yang Lian was considering the negative influence of child-centred education (and its misinterpretation) on the relation of teacher and student and the orderly performance of education in China. His method of correcting this problem was rebalancing the role of teachers and students. Both Yang Lian and Cheng Qibao showed their preference for administrative progress and organising the Chinese education system based on the specificity of the Chinese situation, rather than on an ideal educational philosophy. Education in European countries was, for them, not the most ideal from the perspective of democracy, but was a more realisable choice considering the economic situation in China. Besides that, the two educators had clear ideas about how to amend the Chinese educational system—social efficiency in the first place. The question is, then, what functions they considered the mission should sustain and what they wanted to learn from European countries. An article written by Cheng Qibao explains their intentions: Last winter, the experts from the League criticised our approach to education, accusing us of excessively imitating the US, and particularly being under the influence of Columbia University. So, they proposed that our nation should appoint an education mission to European countries, to learn their education systems.55

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The words of Cheng Qibao, which explains his understanding of why the League of Nation’s mission invited them to Europe, somehow deviate from the original cultural implication of the League’s mission—that Chinese scholars should learn how to modernise their education system by adapting their own tradition to incorporate ideas from other countries (see Chap. 5). In this article, Cheng Qibao simplifies it to merely learning about European education systems, which contained the implication of plagiarising European system and replacing the existing education system based on the US model. Cheng Qibao rejected the idea that the goal was to “simply take European educational models back to China and make Chinese education follow (the) European model”.56 Instead, he described the intention of their trip to Europe as follows: “Our aim is to learn from the strengths of others in order to improve upon our weaknesses. We will bring these two aspects together to create an education system which is genuinely new, and which will meet our national demands.”57 Such a manifesto was in accordance with what the League’s education mission asserted—China should establish an educational system based on its own culture and social reality. Cheng Qibao’s way of articulating the stated aims of the trip indicates that he was not enthusiastic about European education. He did not regard European educational systems and methods as a panacea for the problems faced by the Chinese education system and proclaimed that the mission should not seek to transplant European systems and methods wholesale into China. His article further implied that Chinese educational reform should maintain the existing structure it had already developed and that European models would only serve as possible supplementary additions to this structure. This suggests that Cheng had already given much thought to the challenges of indigenising foreign educational influence, an approach which was in fact followed the League’s mission. In preparing the trip to Europe, two conferences were convened at the Ministry of Education to discuss the scope of the investigation the mission would undertake and the key points of the trip. Discussions were also held with educators at Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Jinan. After these were completed, the mission set out for Europe in August 1932 with five stated aims: 1. To investigate the education systems and contemporary situations of individual countries

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2. To collect foreign materials and documents which would assist in solving the educational problems faced by China 3. To establish channels of international communication amongst educators for the purpose of academic research and the promotion of international understanding 4. To collect materials for education research 5. To pay attention to the most recent trends and tendencies in education in each country58

6.3   The Networks of the ICIC and the Arrangement of the Journeys Henri Bonnet was informed on 25 January 1932 that the Chinese government proposed to send a mission to European countries to study public education systems in April of the same year.59 He passed on the news to Eric Drummond, Gillber Murray, and de Montenach, who would make arrangements for the Chinese mission. The Chinese government quickly received a positive reply from the League. Poland, Germany, and France were the first three countries to be visited in the initial plan for the mission.60 At the beginning of February, Murray replied to Bonnet and authorised him to “take whatever steps are necessary to facilitate their tour and make it useful” and invited the mission to visit England.61 This choice of countries reflected the nationalities of those members of the mission previously appointed by the League to visit China. According to the initial schedule, the mission would arrive in May and spend 20 days in Poland, 20 days in Germany, and almost a whole month in France. However, the departure of the mission was delayed, and the Italian government contacted the Chinese Minister of Education and invited them to visit Italy as well.62 When they finally left in August, a second plan had been decided which allowed them to visit more countries over an extended period, planning to return at the end of November.63 The mission then added Austria, Denmark, Geneva in Switzerland, and Russia to their schedule after arriving in Europe. The ICIC and IIIC continued to follow their previous approaches— avoiding the criticism that they were intervening in other countries’ sovereignty by coordinating between the Chinese mission and the countries they wished to visit. The correspondence between the Chinese mission,

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the coordinators of the IIIC and ICIC, and the representatives of other nations in Paris provides a picture of how the IIIC and ICIC made arrangements for the Chinese mission (see Fig. 6.1).64 This figure shows that Rajchman, the scholar who promoted the establishment of the technical cooperation between the League and China, was a significant person in facilitating communication between the representatives of the Chinese government, the members of the mission, and the League itself. He assisted the correspondence from the very beginning until the mission left Poland. On 7 June, the Chinese Ministry of Education sent a telegraph listing the names of the mission members to Rajchman, who subsequently transferred it to the IIIC.65 He also provided assistance to the mission when they were in Poland and advised them on the schedule of their visits. Rajchman communicated several times with de Montenach and the Chinese mission to keep each party informed about the others’ agendas. On 6 September, de Montenach sent a letter to Rajchman to confirm the date on which the mission planned to travel to Denmark.66 In a letter Cheng Qibao wrote to de Montenach requesting approval of the proposed schedule for visiting Austria, Italy, and Denmark, he also mentioned that the mission had convened a conference and Eric Drummond Franz Hilker Alfons Doosch Marian Falksi

Henri Bonnet

Carl Heinrich Becker

Ludwik Raichman

Kullmann Zhu Jiahua

Jean-Daniel de Montenach

Laiti

Cheng Qibao

Werner Picht

Stafford Konni Zilliacus

Ludwig Thorwald de Krabbe

Fig. 6.1  The correspondence between the Chinese mission, IIIC, and ICIC (The network is described according to the documents from the League of Nations Archive, 5B/34328/28134)

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discussed with Rajchman the planned programme after visiting Poland, and stated that Rajchman had informed the mission that arrangements were being made for their trip.67 Working for the ICIC and IIIC, Bonnet and de Montenach also had direct communication with the mission, especially after the mission had left Poland, and fulfilled two functions: they transferred news from the countries on the mission’s schedule to the mission itself; they also transmitted the requests made by the mission to other countries. For example, on 18 October, the Chinese mission wrote a letter to de Montenach to state their requirements for their upcoming travel. After carrying out investigations in Poland, Denmark, and Germany, they stated that they wished to visit fewer institutions in the next countries they would visit, in order to have time to summarise their observations. They also expressed their wish to conduct more interviews and meetings with qualified experts with whom they could discuss concrete questions. When the ICIC and IIIC received this request, they transmitted it onwards to relevant organisers in the United Kingdom and also informed the relevant Italian and Austrian delegates.68 In arranging the mission’s trip to each individual country, the ICIC and IIIC mainly relied on the national delegates in the IIIC, who generally enjoyed good personal relationships with relevant intellectuals in their respective countries and had networks of contacts for national authorities. For the trip in Denmark, the IIIC carried out this negotiation by contacting the Danish Legation in Paris, Ludwig Thorwald de Krabbe. They asked Krabbe “to get into touch with the people of his country in order to draw their attention to the importance of the visit and to try to get some facilities in travelling and hospitality for the members of the mission”.69 The mission planned to visit folk schools in Denmark, but these happened to be closed at the time their visit was scheduled to take place. However, Krabbe intervened to assist them, and the ICIC was able to inform the mission that the Danish authorities would arrange for the director of a well-known folk school in Copenhagen named Mr. Rosenkjaer to accompany the mission, and that the Danish Ministry of Education would facilitate their collection of information in every possible way.70 For the trip to Soviet Russia, de Montenach also communicated with Boris Stein, the Soviet delegate to the IIIC, to facilitate contact with the Soviet Government, and passed on the necessary information to the Chinese mission.71 By leaving communication with national authorities and educational institutions to the national delegates at the ICIC and IIIC, the

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ICIC and IIIC avoided direct communication with any national governments and so prevented any potential intrusion into national sovereignty. Yang Lian, in his speech after coming back to China, said that their trips in Europe were designed by the ICIC and IIIC.72 Although the ICIC invited the Chinese mission to visit Europe and made contact with representatives of each nation in Paris, the programme within each country was left to be decided by the government or educators of the individual countries. The educational authority of Soviet Russia established the programme for the mission’s visit to Soviet Russia73; the programme in France was likewise determined by the French Ministry of Education74; Carl Heinrich Becker designed the mission’s programme of activities in Germany75; and the German Foreign Education Department (paedagogischen Auslandstelle) facilitated their trip to Germany.76 The Austrian League delegate Alfons Dopsch wrote to Bonnet asking for details of the arrangements made by other countries to prepare to receive the Chinese mission.77 By referring to the arrangements made by other nations, it is apparent that the Austrian authorities could keep up with the provisions made by other countries and ensure a similar standard of arrangements could be made. Throughout this whole process, the ICIC and IIIC followed their methods used in other educational programmes, namely relying on other organisations or educators who enjoyed influence within a nation and showing a disinterested attitude towards the concrete activities in each nation. They never attempted to interfere in the mission’s programme, and functioned only as a liaison between different actors.

6.4   Education in European Countries and International Tendencies Ernst Neugebauer has well described the activities of the mission in European countries.78 The routes taken by the Chinese educational mission reveal some similarities, which can be understood to demonstrate the collective intentions of the arrangements undertaken by different nations. Firstly, all countries invited experts in different fields to meet with the mission. These ranged from authorities in educational administration at the central and local levels to professors in various fields of research. All countries tried to satisfy the Chinese mission’s requests to hold more conversations with professional educational experts. Secondly, all countries wanted to show their best sides to the visiting Chinese educationalists and intended

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to display a degree of national competition. For example, in Italy, the Pope reminded the mission members that Mussolini intentionally only showed the most advanced parts of Italian education to them.79 Thirdly, all countries enabled the mission to visit different levels of schools and educational administration, but each emphasised a different element of education. For example, the authorities in Germany arranged many visits to technical and vocational schools. Teacher education was also a prominent theme of the trip to Germany.80 This might be related to the impression of Chinese education Becker had received as part of the League’s education mission to China, since their report criticised the state of Chinese teacher training. The key findings derived from the mission’s investigations in Poland were how to generalise primary education, combat illiteracy, and provide vocational education.81 This might be related to the specialist interest of Falski in primary education and combatting illiteracy. In Great Britain, the mission visited top universities and focused particularly on the relationship between education and agriculture.82 This might be because Tawney wrote the section on university education in the report and considered China to be an agricultural country. The mission returned to China in 1933 with several boxes full of material gathered during the trip, including copies of education regulations, education publications, and student reports, in addition to other documents.83 This material provided them with the authority to construct a trustworthy and detailed image of European education for the benefit of Chinese scholars. Their descriptions undoubtedly followed closely the observations they had made and documents they had collected while in Europe—especially how national education was organised in each country and their educational policies. However, the extent to which the observations the mission made could represent the general situation in Europe was questionable—a doubt similar to that which the League’s mission had about China after visiting only the country’s most impressive educational institutions. Nevertheless, for Chinese educators, whether they had observed the general situation in Europe or not was not an issue. When the Pope reminded them that what they saw could not represent the whole Italian education and suggested that there were many unsatisfactory aspects of Italian education, they said that they did not care about that and they only wanted to learn the most advanced aspect of Italian education.84 Cheng Qibao explicitly stated that his report was based on the impression he got from the trip, which in his opinion was more important than the facts,85 namely the universal situation in Europe.

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Hence, rather than considering the two reports and the speeches they gave to be literally describing the educational performances of different European countries, the following paragraphs reveal that, when constructing their depictions of the educational development in European countries, the two educators reframed the narrative, locating the situation of educational development in Europe within the overarching framework of Chinese modernisation of education and the international educational tendency. It can thus be seen as a mirror that reflected the apparent backwardness of Chinese education and endorsed their existing proposals for how education should be reformed in China. Despite the differences in educational administration, school organisation, and educational achievement levels in every country they visited, the education mission identified several shared new common characteristics. Though education in Europe—including the most impressive system of German education—could not compete with that of the United States in the eyes of Cheng Qibao and Yang Lian, it nevertheless showed many signs of progress. Firstly, the Chinese educationalists who made up the mission argued that all countries had made attempts to universalise and improve education. One example they used to evidence this was the radical secularisation of education in Europe after the First World War. Yang Lian stated the following in a presentation: [E]ven in the countries that have a long catholic tradition such as Great Britain and Austria, where at one time the Christian denominations provided education, the governments have now begun to gradually forbid the Christian denominations from managing schools, and to forbid priests from working as teachers. Italy also now disallows church education. The agreement reached between the Pope and Mussolini is that priests can only teach the religious elements of the school curriculum.86

In presenting this picture of European education, Yang Lian gave his audience the impression that religious groups had been gradually excluded from public education by governments who had the sole authority to organise education. Cheng Qibao also admired the secularisation of education in European countries. Taking Germany as an example, he wrote:

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After the European War […] the first government in Germany was formed by the Social Democratic Party. The first Minister of Education in Prussia declared that one of their ambitions was the abolition of religious teaching. […] The constitution stipulates the principles of education. The main points include […] that the choice between sending a child to a school which followed a religious curriculum or not should be the decision of the parents.87

Without further explanation, this information could mislead readers into believing that the number of confessional schools in Germany was strictly limited and that the conflicts and debates over the place of religious education in the school system were already resolved. However, the research of Marjorie Lamberti has shown that in fact the Social Democrats failed to establish a secular school system for the whole nation, and during the Weimar Republic period confessional schools remained dominant— only 4 per cent of schools in Prussia were non-confessional by 1931.88 It is true that the tendency towards secularisation in European education was progressing during the interwar period. Nonetheless, the statements made by Chinese experts can be seen to exaggerate the extent of it. However, if we consider these writers’ standpoints on religious education in China, it becomes apparent why they sought to emphasise the degree of secularisation of education in European countries. The 1920s witnessed many educators in China organising themselves into an anti-Christian movement and demanding that the Chinese government take on the role of administering education in a pushback against the influence of missionary groups. The emphasis placed on the secularisation of education in European countries could be seen to some extent to prove the necessity of an anti-Christian stance in education, by portraying such a stance as an international tendency. The unstated implication of this evidence gathered from their survey of European education was that if even European countries (where the religious groups organising education had actually originated) were attempting to exclude religious groups from public education, then China should likewise take a tough approach towards the influence of such groups in Chinese education. The other piece of evidence that the mission presented was the increase of state fiscal expenditure on education. Cheng Qibao wrote that in European countries spending on education constituted a large share of national government expenditure, and consequently even the poor and remote villages in such countries had well-equipped schools.89 Yang Lian

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demonstrated this point by displaying concrete examples, such as the case of Germany: The headmaster of a primary school [in Germany] told us that the school buildings that we visited were finished in recent years and cost 7 million marks. […] What a remarkable number! That is equal to 8 million Chinese yuan. And that is the amount spent on only a single primary school and a single middle school in a village!90

Moreover, Yang Lian argued that Germany was not an exception. Austria, in his eyes, was a poor country that, despite having been on the losing side in the First World War, nevertheless established many new schools with excellent equipment, which only a few years previously he had thought could only be found in the United States. Poland was a country which he regarded as being in great economic danger, given that it had suffered badly after the war with Russia in 1920, experienced currency devaluation from 1922 to 1925, and the international depression in 1929. Yet, he argued, Poland had never been frugal in education. At the end, he pointedly asked: “Does China have such courage to invest in education?”91 This frustrated and helpless rhetorical question was a direct response to the Chinese situation in which fiscal shortages were always the excuse given by the government for justifying the stagnation and lack of progress in education. In the mission’s description, European countries were constructed as model examples of countries that did their best to develop investment in education in spite of severe financial shortages—this investment in education promoted, in return, national development, again demonstrating that the supposed financial problems claimed by the Chinese government were just an excuse for a state unwilling to invest sufficient money in education. However, it should not be forgotten that Becker in his travelling letters described how the Chinese showed them the best educational institutions, some of which were even above the situation in Germany, and admired the fact that educational experiments could be conducted in China. In this case, Cheng Qibao and Yang Lian intentionally constructed an image of education in European countries that took the most developed part to be the universal situation. They used such an image to push the government and motivate society to improve education. The second tendency, which was closely related to the universalism of education in European countries as constructed by the mission members,

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was the increasing educational equality—the elimination of segmentation in European school systems. France used to be the country with the most conservative approach to social inequality in the eyes of Cheng Qibao. However, he noted that after the First World War, French educators had issued a journal named Ecole Et La Vie which nonetheless advocated cooperation between different classes and equality of access to education regardless of background.92 He went on to say that France was also planning to establish an Ecole Unique that would entitle all children between the ages of 6 and 12 to access the same education, after which they could choose different types of schools according to their capacities.93 He also surprisingly found that the multitrack education system in Germany, a stereotype Cheng Qibao had encountered and which he had considered could be a practical method for China, had been replaced by a unified education system, in which all children attended indiscriminately a four-­ year primary school and then continued compulsory education in different types of secondary school strictly according to the child’s capacity.94 Yang Lian especially appreciated educational equality in Germany. He compared the situation in China and Germany, using the word ‘extremely’ several times to introduce the situation in Germany: In Germany, the selection of middle school students is extremely strict. Even headmasters and teachers of primary schools can decide whether a student can go to a middle school. The entrance examination of middle school in Germany is extremely strict. The entrance standards are based neither on the economic situation of a family nor the social status of parents, but on the intelligence of a student. Germany considers that intelligence of a people could be classified into the three types of high, middle or low intelligence, hence they designed schools correspondingly. Middle School in Germany is prepared for those youth who belong to the group of wise in intelligence. This kind of theory is firmly believed by scholars, hence was extremely strictly carried out.95

It is not surprising that the German middle school was attractive to them. As mentioned before, the secondary education system Yang Lian advocated for China was based on the distribution of IQ test outcomes, and the middle school sustained the task of preparing students to go to universities and cultivating future leaders in China. Similarly, Cheng Qibao also considered the IQ test should be the foundation of the national educational system. Except for Germany, Yang Lian in his report described the

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way that Italy, Austria, and Poland had all successfully reformed their educational systems and connected primary education with secondary education—examination results rather than social background decided what type of secondary schools a child could attend.96 This description reshaped the Chinese stereotype of European education from one characterised by hierarchical divisions to one characterised by equality of access. The implication was that if not only the United States, but even Europe, a continent with a long tradition of hierarchical organisation, had successfully transformed the spirit of their educational systems to a democratic one, then equality of access to education based on differential IQ distribution— rather than social class—was the correct course to take internationally; thus, China should also embrace equality of access in education in order to catch up with other countries. The third tendency identified by the educationalists of the Chinese mission as characteristic of contemporary European education was that the contents of schooling were becoming evermore practical and, as a result, stressed scientific and technical knowledge and vocational training. In a speech, Li Ximou identified “practical” as a critical term to describe the European approach to education: “European education is practical, because their education acclimatises students to real life. This means education has a close relationship with the nation, society, and the individual.”97 Yang Lian also declared, in a speech that introduced his impressions of education in European countries, that middle school curricula had become increasingly related to social demands. He illustrated that in the United Kingdom, although the traditional education of gentlemen continued, newly established schools simultaneously provided essential training in the use of equipment and technology and in helping students to find proper jobs. Similarly, he claimed that Latin language learning was not as popular in German and French schools as previously—the new focal point of education was the application of technology.98 Cheng Qibao likewise wrote in his report that the function of education in European countries increasingly leaned towards ‘productivisation’ (生产化). He asserted that “the notion that education is a means of production is becoming popular, and indeed is now the main aim of education in Europe. The development[s] of vocational education in every country, in addition to labour education in Soviet Russia, are manifestations of this tendency”.99 Such a tendency was in accordance with the propositions of Cheng Qibao and the other members of the mission that Chinese education should put more emphasis on vocational training and cultivate students who meet the

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demands of society. The description of this tendency in Europe served to construct Europe as an example that had made great efforts to improve national education to meet the requirements of modern society. The fourth tendency identified by the educationalists of the Chinese mission as characteristic of contemporary European education was the increasingly nationalist character of national education, and the popularity of military education and physical training in many of the countries that the mission had visited. As already mentioned in Chap. 4, Yang Lian expressed his opinion that the so-called ‘disarmament’ many European countries had undertaken was only an empty promise, and that in fact all countries in Europe were endeavouring to recover their military capabilities after the war. He identified the fact that countries like Germany, Austria, and Italy had all developed specialised youth movements which aimed to train the bodies of the youth and encourage outdoor activities, and argued that such programmes were laying the foundation for military development.100 Yang Lian thought that further wars between European countries were inevitable and, as a result, such training was necessary. The situation in Europe reminded him of the situation in East Asia, where Japan had provoked several conflicts and outright wars with China—as a result, he wished for Chinese education, social life, and national defence to be more closely integrated together.101 Cheng Qibao similarly noted the development of the military education of citizens in Germany, and argued that the whole German nation considered this approach to be the only way that Germany’s national spirit could be recovered—to him this contrasted sharply with the lethargic atmosphere which predominated in Chinese education.102 It is evident that Cheng Qibao also thought that China should follow Germany’s example and cultivate a strong national spirit in education. He further expressed his concerns by drawing a comparison between the youth and children of China and those of Europe. The former, he argued, were unhealthy, according to recent investigations by the Shanghai Hygiene Association, only 1–2 per cent of Chinese youths were healthy.103 In contrast, he praised European youths, stating that we get the feeling that pupils and students in European schools are brimming with energy; they are lively and have strong bodies. From this we must know that the foundation of a powerful nation is not advanced weaponry, but rather a strong and sound citizenry.104

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He expressed his appreciation of the Italian approach to physical education, and argued that even the grandiose stadiums constructed by Italy could assist in cultivating a reinvigorated national spirit.105 During the 1920s, China had experienced a short period when the ideal of the free development of competitive sports was in ascendency. However, the beginning of the 1930s witnessed the revival of a culture of military gymnastics that had been popular since the late Qing period. It is not hard to see why the European revival of militaristic and physical education would have been relevant to China, where the memory of war remained fresh. The image of European education as being characterised by a strong military tendency in fact provided Chinese educationalists with a firm demonstration that education could and should serve to enhance the solidity of the nation. Such representations of European education also aimed to arouse in the people of China a crisis of awareness that even European countries that were stronger than China emphasised the military role of education.

6.5   Primary Education in Europe Cheng Qibao described every aspect of primary education in Europe. As a response to his previous writing about primary teachers, this part especially focuses on that topic. Cheng Qibao gave a high assessment of the primary teacher training system in European countries. He argued that teachers in Europe were not merely the persons who imparted knowledge, but were also “philosophers of education” (教育哲学者) who possessed the spirit of dedication and a keen interest in learning.106 He argued that the spiritual outlook of European teachers and that of Chinese teachers was totally different, and asserted that China should consider placing the cultivation of the spirit of teachers (师道)107 at the centre of teacher training, so that they would love their pupils and be innovative in adopting new textbooks and teaching methods.108 Besides their professional skills, Cheng Qibao also remarked that teachers in Europe enjoyed a completely different social status compared to their Chinese counterparts. He revealed that teachers in European countries were civil servants; hence they assumed direct responsibility to the country and were able to maintain stability even through dramatic changes in government. In his report, Cheng described how after the First World War many European countries underwent far-reaching changes in their political systems or national ideologies; however, teachers would still

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continue the work of teaching and promoting national unification.109 Comparing the Chinese experience to the use of education in European countries as a tool to unify national ideology and identity, Cheng attributed the failure to inculcate the Three Principles of the People to two main reasons: teachers who were unable to assume the responsibilities required of them, and the government’s lack of appreciation for teachers.110 Obviously, Cheng Qibao had accepted the Three Principles of the People as the national ideology and the one-party government of the KMT as the future political system of China. His idea was that the government should maintain teachers’ welfare and salary. Simultaneously, teachers should be the indoctrinators of the Three Principles of the People and should not be involved in any potential future political conflicts. In this way, teachers and education keep their independence from politics in terms of factional conflicts, while at the same time being closely related to politics when it comes to using education to inculcate political ideology as the national ideology. Cheng Qibao further argued that although different countries’ methods and systems of teacher cultivation varied, one commonality was that they all knew very clearly what kind of teachers they wished to cultivate and provided continuing education for teachers.111 To support his opinion, he evaluated the different characters of teacher training in each country. In Germany, teacher training focused on curriculum-related knowledge training, so teachers in Germany were well equipped with knowledge; in Great Britain, teacher training focused on doing internships, so teachers in Great Britain had teaching experience; in France, teacher training focused on learning course and programme design, so teachers in France could carry out their work step by step; in Soviet Russia teacher training focused on cultivating teachers’ spirit and the ideology of the Communist Party, hence teachers in Soviet Russia had strong will and could sustain hardship; and in Austria, teacher training focused on teaching methods training, which was equal to that in the United States.112 Even though every country had its emphasis, they all nevertheless promoted the progress of national education.113 Hence he concluded that there did not exist any hegemonic method of organising national education, and deciding on a method depended on social demands.114 He compared teacher training in European countries to that in China, and described the Chinese situation as being “without organisation” and “without standards”, which finally led to a self-contradictory social

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phenomenon whereby, on the one hand, there were not enough teachers for Chinese schools while, on the other hand, there were many unemployed graduates from teacher training institutions.115

6.6   Middle School Education in Europe Yang Lian stated that European middle school education was particularly remarkable. He attributed the high quality of European middle school education to the fact that “the curriculum structures in European countries are consistent”.116 Because of this continuity, he argued, pupils in Europe could gain a coherent knowledge of a subject. Some subjects could then compose a more extensive study group, ensuring the integrity of knowledge.117 He also argued that the duration of middle school was longer in European countries than in China or the United States, so students in European countries received specialised and more in-depth training while pupils in the United States received a more general and common-sense education.118 Yang Lian ascribed the cause of these profoundly different approaches to differing aims for middle school education. He argued that in European countries, middle school education was concerned with preparing talented pupils for university, while in the United States middle school was treated as an extension of primary education and designed to increase the knowledge of citizens more generally.119 But he still considered that middle school in the United States was reasonable for that country because it was rich and could provide the same education for all and was extremely equal.120 This view contained the implication that the Chinese economy was in an even worse situation than that of European countries and should not follow the example set by the United States. Such an opinion, as this chapter has shown, he had already expressed in his articles. He advised that middle schools should serve only to prepare those pupils capable of going to university (and who planned to do so) into becoming part of social elites. Thus, the educational situation in Europe confirmed that his proposed reforms were correct and that China should divide their secondary education schools into separate vocational education schools and middle schools. Yang Lian paid further attention to the modes of school discipline and guidance in European education. He connected school discipline and guidance with students’ activism. He argued that European countries had almost no student activism, except those forms that aimed to promote the stability of the nation and society and to achieve favourable environments

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for studying and advocating rationality. He argued that the fundamental reason for this was that European countries had a proper method of school discipline and guidance.121 Amongst the different methods of school discipline and guidance, he thought that the British style (in which tutors lived together with students) was the most popular; however, he found the most attractive approach to be the German Youth Movement.122 In his report, Yang was highly appreciative of this movement as he understood it to be an apolitical but communal movement which could encourage students to develop a close relationship with nature, to strengthen their bodies, and rid themselves of the luxuries of modern life.123

6.7   Educational Reform Proposals for Primary Education In his report, Cheng Qibao restated his belief that China should not duplicate any other country’s education system, but should rather try to develop an innovative strategy based on the particular requirements of Chinese society.124 He argued that although China had a similar structure and curricula as Western countries, education in China did not produce as good an outcome as that in Western countries.125 He recommended three techniques to improve Chinese education. The first method was to reshape the educational administration. He argued that China should establish an Elementary Education Department in the Ministry of Education, separating it from the General Education Department, which was charged with affairs relating to primary and secondary education.126 This proposal was the same as that put forward by the League experts. But the reasoning behind his argument was that the mission to Europe had discovered that centralisation of authority was the underlying principle of educational administration in most countries, and was the prevailing tendency internationally.127 However, the situation in Europe was not the only reason for his suggestion. More important was that he considered that primary school and middle school were not well connected in the Chinese educational system. Since this situation could not be changed in a short time, administration of primary education and secondary education should be independent.128 The second meaningful way was to reform the primary school system in China. As described before, Cheng Qibao thought that national education should be developed to match social needs. In the report, he re-­emphasised

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his viewpoint once again. He put forward the proposition that the school age in China should be made more flexible. The experiences of the mission to Europe had told him that the school age necessarily differed between city and village, industrial area and agricultural area, because each region had differing social requirements.129 In China, children began school at age six, following the model of the United States. From a psychological standpoint, he thought this was reasonable. However, from the standpoint of China’s social development, he found that most children (especially those in rural areas) would only complete four years of the first stage of primary education. In his view, this was not sufficient schooling to provide them with basic general knowledge, or to provide them with vocational training, the result of which was undeveloped pupils going into adult society. He argued that this kind of primary education (also compulsory education) “has no benefit for pupils, lacks any real contribution to society, and amounts to nothing”.130 Given that the Chinese government were of the opinion that it would be impossible to prolong the duration of compulsory education, he advised instead that the age at which children started school should be pushed back to eight years. He argued that the Polish and English examples had already proven the possibility of implementing a flexible school age.131 The third way was for the Chinese government to add vocational training to primary school education. Although he insisted that primary education should be a general education intended to cultivate good citizens, he also admitted that in China it would be very difficult to implement four years of compulsory education. Accordingly, he argued it would be impossible for China to imitate European countries which provided supplementary vocational education after primary school. So instead, China would have to add vocational training in primary schools.132

6.8   Educational Reform Proposals for Middle School Education Yang Lian’s main opinion was that middle school, vocational school, and teacher training school should be established separately, and middle school should cultivate elites and be without any vocational education element. Because ongoing Chinese educational reform was already under way as he wished, he asserted that only some problems with the contemporary structure of secondary education needed to be solved. The first was the

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imbalance in number between middle schools and vocational schools, namely that the former was vastly more numerous, a trend which he considered to be unhealthy and unnecessary. He also argued that the situation in contemporary Europe revealed a growing international tendency for vocational schools to outnumber middle schools.133 The second was that Chinese middle schools should be organised along flexible lines. Because middle school education in China aimed to cultivate highly talented students, he proposed that a system of six-year middle schooling should be established to provide systematic education and continuity of knowledge, which would follow the model of European education and improve the fruits of middle schools. However, he also took into account the reality of the situation in contemporary China, which was that most students who finished primary school desired to go to middle school but would find it impossible to complete six years of middle school due to financial problems and the limited number of senior middle schools. By way of compromise, he suggested that an initial period of three-year junior middle schooling was also a necessity in China.134 Thirdly, he recommended establishing a kind of intermediate school which would lie between vocational schooling and general schooling and incorporate both vocational and general education. He argued that this kind of intermediate school was popular in Europe, and was necessary in China because it provided a channel through which students could transfer between different types of schools in order to meet their different needs.135 The other opinion he held was that Chinese educational bureaus should take on a larger role in the management of middle school administrations and constrain the power of individual headmasters. He argued that the headmasters of middle schools in European countries and the United States were chiefly concerned with dealing with affairs directly related to teaching.136 By contrast, he felt that headmasters in China had an oversized authority, as they personally hired teachers and oversaw school financial expenditures.137 Drawing on the European experience, he proposed that the recruitment of middle school teachers should be managed by provincial educational bureaus so that the government could safeguard teachers’ position and salary, and ensure the capability of all teachers hired.138 This idea was similar to the one emphasised by Cheng Qibao in his report concerning primary teacher training. He also proposed that the provincial government should take over the management and organisation of educational equipment, teaching materials, and school buildings, in

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order to avoid potential corruption, save money, and coordinate the development of schooling across the province.139 On the issue of school discipline and guidance in Chinese education, Yang Lian suggested that proper school discipline and guidance should not only eliminate the potential for student activism but should also focus on cultivating students’ personalities and training their bodies. So, he proposed that in the senior middle school, school discipline and guidance should be based on military training, while in junior middle school it should be based on the scouting movement, and draw on the principles of the New Life Movement. He also advised that the model of the German Youth Movement could be applied during school holidays in China, and that boarding schools should adopt the British methods for instilling discipline that he had previously witnessed.140

6.9   The Influence of the Report in China It is possible to identify some correlation between the reports that emerged from the Chinese mission to Europe and subsequent educational reform policies. For example, in February 1937 (only five months before the outbreak of the Second Sino–Japanese War) the Ministry of Education reorganised its departments and divided the General Education Department into two new bodies: the National Education Department and the Secondary Education Department.141 These policy changes were similar to the reforms put forward by Cheng Qibao. However, there is no evidence that these changes were a direct result of Cheng Qibao’s proposals. In fact, most of the proposals put forward by the mission members were in keeping with the general direction of China’s ongoing educational reform. In this sense, these proposals could be seen to prove that educational reform in China was not running counter to the prevailing international tendencies, and was proceeding in the right direction. For example, as early as 1931, the Ministry of Education had issued new educational regulations and laws intended to encourage the development of vocational education in the stage of secondary education.142 Those were some of the suggested educational reforms raised by the educationalists involved in the mission. Another example was that of school discipline and guidance. Both Yang Lian and Cheng Qibao wrote in their reports about the necessity of adopting new practices that went beyond the maintaining of school

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discipline and management through teaching theoretical disciplines. In fact, in October 1932, when the mission had just concluded its visit to Poland, the Ministry of Education in China issued the Primary School Curriculum Standard, which put an end to textbook-based citizenship education and distributed the knowledge learning to other subjects, and also stipulated that increased time should be spent on group training.143 By 1935, disciplinary education in China was increasingly focused on the principles of the New Life Movement, which drew on the values and methodologies of traditional neo-Confucian ideology, as well as drawing foreign inspiration from Italian and German fascism and Chiang Kaishek’s personal experiences in Japan.144 However, although both the disciplinary proposals raised by the mission to Europe in their reports and the form of disciplinary education pioneered by the New Life Movement emphasised a simple lifestyle, training strong bodies, and hygiene education, again there is no evidence to suggest that the mission’s reports directly influenced the New Life Movement. One reason for the limited influence of the Chinese mission to Europe’s proposals on national educational system reform was that they were made during a relatively stable phase in designing educational policy, rather than at the beginning of a period of educational reform. Before the cooperation in education between the League and China, the KMT had already formed a clear vision for how educational reform should proceed, in which the education system that had been established according to the American education system was structurally conserved. The suggestions the educationalists gave were mostly similar to the reform policies the KMT was carrying out. The other reason for the limited influence of the mission’s proposals was that the domestic situation in China also constrained them from being put into practice. The expenditure of the Chinese government on education was always insufficient. Yet at the same time, the government pursued overly ambitious education goals in a relatively short period of time. This is exemplified by the case of primary education, where the government considered meeting minimal education requirements to be very important. In 1935, the KMT Central Executive Committee admitted that it was impossible to realise the goal of four years of compulsory education because of the current economic hardship. Instead, they issued regulations that aimed to establish a minimum of one or two years of primary education for all children between 1935 and 1940, and then extend the duration of primary education from there.145 The aim was to provide primary literacy education, and the policy did not encompass any

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vocational training. This contrasted with Cheng Qibao’s recommendations, which had aimed to establish four years of compulsory education and include vocational training. Two years after that, in 1937, the outbreak of the Second Sino–Japanese War forced the Chinese government to again revise their educational development plan in order to meet the needs of the war and national construction. As a result, the proposals put forward by the mission itself were impossible to realise.

6.10   Conclusion Although the Chinese education mission invited by the League to European countries did not produce a huge impact on the ongoing educational reform in China, it was nevertheless an archetypal case that can be used to identify the tangled role of international governments, nation states, and educators in transnational educational activities. From the perspective of the ICIC and IIIC, arranging the journeys of the Chinese educational mission to different sovereign states, just like appointing an educational mission to provide advice for Chinese educational reform, was a new and challenging endeavour. The technique that the ICIC and IIIC adopted to arrange their trips relied on national representatives in the ICIC or IIIC, who negotiated with their respective governments, which scheduled the programmes themselves. The ICIC and IIIC never determined the value orientation of either the Chinese educational mission or the countries that received the mission. Despite that, the programme in every country showed that the educational institutions the mission visited were of a similar standard—the best performance of a nation. Moreover, the IECI and IIIC did not further discuss the reports written by Chinese educators as they had discussed the report written by the education mission to China. From the perspective of the mission and the trips they made, although the reports that were produced by the mission members did not have much weight in Chinese educational reform, the mission was nonetheless a good instance for illustrating why foreign models had at some point lost their ascendancy in a country that wished to improve its educational system and performance. The five educators, represented by Cheng Qibao and Yang Lian, conveyed insufficient interest in and affiliation towards the European model. On the contrary, they had already ascertained their view on Chinese educational problems and wrote articles or put forward proposals on improving education in China. Hence, even though they had

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great admiration for educational achievements in European countries, copying or imitating European education practices was never their first choice. The proposals that the mission made were quite similar to the already ongoing progress of educational reform, and because of the outbreak of the Second Sino–Japanese War in 1937, the reports of the mission were not under serious consideration. From the perspective of the Chinese government, delegating such a mission to Europe as a response to the mission appointed by the League, although it achieved limited influence on national educational reform, nevertheless was a good chance to introduce China to European countries and promote international exchange. The mission visited eight countries, some of which had not yet even established an official relationship with China. The mission brought back boxes of first-hand educational documents on the individual countries it visited. More importantly, the educationalists of the mission had the chance to discuss the Chinese educational situation with European officials, experts, and teachers, which served as an important chance to reshape the image of China.

Notes 1. 程其保, “赴欧考察教育: 回忆散记之一,” 传记文学 15, no. 2 (1969): 39. 2. Since November 1930, Zhu Jiahua was serving as the chancellor of National Central University. At the end of 1931, protests by students from National Central University in a series of student activities against the central government’s attitudes and policies towards the Mukden Incident resulted in the destruction of the Central Newspaper Station and the assault of the Minister of Foreign Affairs; Zhu Jiahua resigned from the position of chancellor of the University. 3. 程其保, “六十年教育生涯 (1): 回忆散记之二,” 传记文学 23, no. 2 (1973): 5–11; 程其保, “六十年教育生涯 (2): 回忆散记之二,” 传记文学 23, no. 3 (1973): 17–22. 4. 申报, “北京大学之轩然大波,” 23 October 1922, Num. 17841. 5. 北京大学日刊, “北大教育研究会启事,” 23 November 1922. 6. 陈于德, “刘大白事迹述要,” in 刘大白研究资料, ed. 萧斌如 (北京: 知识 产权出版社, 2010), 75. 7. 关于杨廉赵延炳等赴美国考察留学, 1929.07, 杭州: 浙江省档案馆. 8. “国民政府令: 十九年十月二十九日,” 教育部公报 2, no. 44 (1930): 3. 9. “国府令: 一月十五日,” 湖北教育厅公报 2, no. 2 (1931): 14. 10. 北京大学日刊, “注册组布告,” 20 February 1931. 11. “文坛消息: 厉家祥又将赴德,” 中国新书月报 1, no. 4 (1931): 19.

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12. 王志行, “毕生致力于教育事业的郭有守,” in 资中文史资料选辑第11辑: 纪念资中解放四十周年专辑, ed. 吴中杨 (成都: 政协四川省资中县委员 会文史资料委员会, 1989), 48–55. 13. 嘉善县志编委员会, eds., 嘉善县志 (上海: 三联出版社, 1995), 1060. 14. 贵州省遵义地方志编撰委员会, 浙江大学在遵义 (杭州: 浙江大学出版 社, 1990), 526. 15. E.  E Lloyd, The Abortive Revolution: China Under Nationalist Rule, 1927–1937 (Harvard University Press, 1990), 11. 16. Denis C.  Twitchett, John K.  Fairbank, and John W.  Chaffee, The Cambridge History of China: Republican China 1912–1949 Part 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 293. 17. Carl H.  Becker and Susanne Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China: Reisebriefe Des Ehemaligen Peussischen Kultusministers 1931/32 (Quellen und Dokumente 4. Münster: Lit, 2004), 162. 18. Those characters shown in the mission were not unique. In 1932 Chiang Kai-shek sent another educational mission to Europe to learn how to organise national education (guomin jiaoyu). He outlined the qualification of the candidates: “The candidates should be at the age of around 35, intelligent and with a strong body. If he could handle English, French and German it would be better.” See 蒋中正电催腾杰速选往德意考察国 民教育之人, 14 July 1932, 002-010200-00069-028, 台北: 国史馆. 19. Becker and Kuss, Carl Heinrich, 155. 20. 朱家骅电蒋中正转嘱程其保等五专员近期赴赣晋谒, May 4, 1933, 002-080200-00083-071, 台北: 国史馆. 21. The National Resource Committee was established in 1932 for studying the national defence economy. Chiang Kai-shek personally took the chairmanship of the Committee at its beginning years. 22. 蒋中正电示钱昌照设法任用赴欧教育考察团归国之五人, May 12, 1933, 002-010200-00083-063, 台北: 国史馆. 23. “考察欧洲教育专员将继续调查内地教育,” 江西教育旬刊 5, no. 8 (1933): 76. 24. Kaiyi Li, “The Use of Foreign Examples to Support Educational Policy Decisions: The Chinese Education Mission to Europe in 1932,” Peadagogical Historica, (2021): 1–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.108 0/00309230.2021.1888134 25. Davies Scott, “The Paradox of Progressive Education: A Frame Analysis,” Sociology of Education 75, no. 4 (2002): 269–286. 26. William G. Wraga, Progressive Pioneer: Alexander James Inglis (1879–1924) and American Secondary Education (New York, NY: Lang, 2007), 4. 27. Norman D.  Norris, The Promise and Failure of Progressive Education (Oxford: ScarecrowEducation, 2004), 34. 28. Wraga, Progressive Pioneer, 4.

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29. To know about the influence of John Dewey and child-centred education ideology in China, see 仲建维, 涂悦, “外来教育的杠杆:20世纪20年代中 国教育改革中的杜威,” 华东师范大学学报 (教育科学版) 37, no. 2 (2019): 37–44; 张华, “论杜威与中国教育改革,” 华东师范大学学报 (教 育科学版) 37, no. 2 (2019): 18–28. 30. David F Labaree, “Progressivism, Schools and Schools of Education: An American Romance,” Paedagogica Historica 41, 1–2 (2005): 280. 31. 程其保, 小学教育概论 (上海: 商务印书馆, 1929), 95. 32. 程其保, 教育原理 (上海: 商务印书馆, 1930), 73. 33. 程其保, “教师的训练问题,” 国立中央大学教育学院教育季刊 1, no. 4 (1931): 2. 34. 程其保, 小学教育概论, 96. 35. Ibid. 36. 杨廉, “改革中等教育之方针,” 明日之教育 1, no. 8 (1932): 17. 37. Ibid., 16. 38. Ibid., 17. 39. Ibid., 17–18. 40. Ibid. 41. 程其保, “教师的训练问题,” 国立中央大学教育学院教育季刊, 1. 42. “国内教育界提倡六六教师节,” in 中国近代师范教育史资料 第 2 册, ed. 李友芝 et al. (北京: 首都师范大学校友办), 722–724. 43. 程其保, “教育界之总辞职,” 时代公论 (南京), no. 3 (1932): 37–38. 44. 程其保, “教育经费问题之分析,” 国立中央大学教育学院教育季刊 1, no. 3 (1930): 1–23. 45. Ibid. 46. 杨廉, “改革中等教育之方针,” 明日之教育, 14. 47. Ibid. 48. Ibid. 49. Ibid., 14–15. 50. Ibid., 14. 51. Ibid., 17–19. 52. Ibid., 19–20. 53. 杨廉, “知行合一的人格教育,” 京报副刊, 20 February 1925. 54. Ibid. 55. 程其保, “我们考察的方针,” 时代公论 (南京), no. 21 (1932): 34. 56. Ibid. 57. Ibid. 58. “我国大可借镜欧洲教育之优点:杨廉郭有守返国谈话,” 湖北教育厅公 报4, no. 3 (1933): 2. 59. Letter from H.  Bonnet to le Secretaire général, 25 January 1932, 5B/34328/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive.

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60. Letter from H.  Bonnet to le Secretaire, 30 January 1932, 5B/34328/28134., Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 61. Letter from Gilbert Murray to Bonnet, 3 February 1932, 5B/34328/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 62. Letter from Cheng to Montenach, 5 September 1932, 5B/34328/28134., Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 63. “教育部二十一年六月份工作报告: (5) 派员赴欧洲考察教育,” 教育部二 十一年工作报告, no. 6 (1932): 12–13. 64. However, it should be kept in mind that due to the deficiencies of some official documents, it is possible that other channels of communication existed between these actors. Nonetheless, the communication network provided by the ICIC and IIIC was still the primary method by which connections between these actors were coordinated. 65. Letter from Zhu to Rajchman, 7 June 1932, 5B/34328/28134., League of Nations, Geneva. 66. Letter from de Montenach to Rajchman, 16 September 1932, 5B/34328/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 67. Letter from Qibao Cheng to Montenach, 11 September 1932, 5B.34328.28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 68. Letter from H.  Bonnet to le Secretaire, 21 October 1932, 5B/34328/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 69. Letter from de Montenach to Rajchman, 16 September 1932, 5B/34328/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 70. Letter from de Montenach to Cheng, 30 September 1932, 5B/34328/28134, League of Nations Archive. 71. Letter from de Montenach to Stein, 5B/34328/28134, League of Nations Archive. 72. 杨廉演讲, 陈迹记录, “考察欧洲教育后之感想,” 大夏周报 9, no. 19 (1933): 378. 73. Letter from K.  Zilliacus to de Montenach, 8 December 1932, 5B/34328/28134., Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 74. Letter from de Montenach to Cheng, 17 September 1932, 5B/34328/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 75. Letter from de Montenach to Stafford, 7 September 1932, 5B/38238/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 76. Letter from Lajti to kullmann, 9 September 1932, 5B/34328/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 77. Letter from A.  Dopsch to Herr Direktor, 15 October 1932, 5B/34328/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 78. Ernst Neugebauer, Anfänge Pädagogischer Entwicklungshilfe Unter Dem Völkerbund in China, 1931 Bis 1935 (Hamburg: Institut für Asienkunde, 1971), 227–233.

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79. 杨廉演讲, 陈迹记录, “考察欧洲,” 大夏周报, 378–382. 80. Programme de la Visite en Allemagne de la Mission d’éducateurs chinois, October 1932, 5B/34328/28134, Geneva: League of Nations Archive. 81. Ernst Neugebauer. Anfänge Pädagogischer, 227–233. 82. First Draft of Programme from Chinese Educationists, 1932, 5B/34328/28134, League of Nations Archive. 83. “我国大可,” 湖北教育厅公报, 4. 84. 杨 and 陈, “考察欧洲,” 大夏周报, 379. 85. 程其保, 教育部赴欧教育考察团初等教育报告书 (南京: 教育部, 1934), 1. 86. 杨and陈, “考察欧洲,” 大夏周报, 379. 87. 程, 教育部赴欧, 3. 88. Marjorie Lamberti, State, Society, and the Elementary School in Imperial Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 4. 89. “程其保谈考察欧洲教育感想,” 湖北教育厅公报 4, no. 6 (1933): 42–44. 90. 杨and陈, “考察欧洲,” 大夏周报, 379–380. 91. Ibid., 380. 92. 程, 教育部赴欧, 23. 93. Ibid. 94. Ibid., 75–77. 95. 杨廉, 中等教育报告书 (南京: 教育部, 1934), 71. 96. Ibid., 48; 103; 114–115. 97. 安徽大学周刊, “考察欧洲教育的几点感想,” 24 November 1933. 98. 杨 and 陈, “考察欧洲教育,” 大夏周报, 381. 99. 程, 教育部赴欧, 209. 100. 杨 and 陈, “考察欧洲教育,” 大夏周报, 381. 101. Ibid. 102. 大公报, 教育失败之症结, 12 April 1933. 103. 程, 教育部赴欧, 230 104. Ibid. 105. Ibid., 231. 106. Ibid., 212. 107. 师道 is a Chinese historical concept that describes the standards of being a teacher before teaching became a profession. 108. 程, 教育部赴欧, 213. 109. Ibid., 214. 110. Ibid. 111. Ibid. 112. Ibid., 215–216. 113. Ibid., 216. 114. Ibid. 115. Ibid., 214–215. 116. 杨廉, 中等教育报告书, 27.

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117. Ibid. 118. Ibid. 119. Ibid. 120. Ibid. 121. Ibid., 33. 122. The movement was “an apolitical form of opposition to a civilization that had little to offer the young generation, a protest against its lack of vitality, warmth, emotion and ideals”. See Walter Laqueur, Young Germany: History of the German Youth Movement (Routledge 2017). 123. 杨廉, 中等教育, 72–73. 124. 程, 教育部赴欧, 260. 125. Ibid. 126. Ibid., 267. 127. Ibid. 128. Ibid., 268. 129. Ibid., 278. 130. Ibid., 279. 131. Ibid. 132. Ibid. 133. 杨廉, 中等教育报告书, 147. 134. Ibid., 151–152. 135. Ibid., 153. 136. Ibid., 159. 137. Ibid., 158. 138. Ibid., 159. 139. Ibid., 160–161. 140. Ibid., 163–166. 141. 民国教育部教育年鉴编写委员会, eds, 第二次中国教育年鉴 (南京: 商务 印书馆, 1948), 41. 142. 王炳照eds., 中国教育思想通史: 第 7 卷 1927–1949 (长沙: 湖南教育出版 社, 1994), 211. 143. Ibid., 217. 144. Lloyd, E. E, The Abortive Revolution, 66–70; Arif Dirlik, “The Ideological Foundation of the New Life Movements: A Study in Counterrevolution,” Journal of Asian Studies 34, no. 4 (1975): 945. 145. 民国教育部教育年鉴编写委员会, eds. 第二次中国教育年鉴, 180.

CHAPTER 7

Conclusion

In 1969, Cheng Qibao, the leader of the Chinese mission to Europe in 1932, wrote a memoir about the trip to Europe. He recalled that, as a result of the trip, he established a good connection with Marin Falski, who was a member of the League of Nations’ mission to China in 1931, until the start of the Cold War, from which point they lost touch. He met Falski again in 1948 at the International Educational Conference in Geneva, where the two only dared to express their greeting with a nod, without saying a word in public, as Cheng Qibao understood the representatives of Poland monitored each other. Later, one day at lunchtime, when there were not so many people in the hall, Falski quickly walked up to him and looked around, making sure no one noticed them, and they both walked outside to a corner of the garden. They held each other’s hands, and Falski said his pet phrase “time is golden”, a phrase he always used when the Chinese mission was in Poland. The two did not spend too much time together, and Cheng Qibao wrote that he felt relieved that Falski was still alive after the Second World War. It was the last time Cheng Qibao met Falski. The connection between Cheng Qibao and Falski—which began with international cooperation and international communication but ended with their losing touch due to the cold war and isolation—was in retrospect an epitome of the cooperation between the League of Nations and China.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. Li, Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China, Global Histories of Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82442-6_7

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The study has analysed four cases: teaching about the League of Nations in China, the International Educational Cinematographic Institute (IECI) and educational film in China, the 1931 education mission appointed to China by the League, and the 1932 Chinese education mission to Europe assisted by the League. As the study has shown, all four cases had a significant and hopeful beginning as part of the technical cooperation between the League and China, with encouraging aims and tasks—promoting international understanding and helping Chinese educational reform. However, they all ended up deviating from what had been expected: the portrayal of the League in Chinese textbooks was negative, and Chinese educators seldom organised other activities to improve awareness of the League. Although Sardi’s trip directly promoted the popularity of using educational film as a medium for mass education, the IECI was absent in the further development of educational film in China. The reports written by the two educational missions were not used as important references by Chinese officials. If we put statism at the centre of historiography and follow the clues of domestic educational development, then the four cases seem insignificant due to their limited influence on the progress of Chinese education. However, the cooperation between the League and China was undertaken in special conditions of time and space. It was in the international space sponsored by the League’s intellectual organs that the Chinese educators understood and attended international educational competitions and learned the synchronic, multinational experiences of modernity in education—not merely those of the advanced imperialist countries but also those in newly established countries after the First World War. It was in this space and the process taking place across national boundaries that actors other than the Chinese government played decisive roles in promoting the dissemination of educational ideas and methods. For these special conditions of time and space, such inquiries—wherein what occurred within the national territory is always posed as the central problem of education programmes—have largely constrained the analysis to the process of globalisation of modern education and the circulation of education across national boundaries, and reduced and narrowed the complexity of transnational education cooperation in time and space into linear forms, constraining historical progress to a prior national space. As a consequence, the study has adopted a transnational perspective and focused mainly on three different types of actors: the League of Nations and its technical organs, the educational experts who moved

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transnationally, and the Chinese government. The questions that it has been concerned with hence move beyond what happened in China and what the consequences were for or what was brought by those programmes to China. Contrary to this, the educational cooperation between China and the League has been explored in this study by looking at how educational ideas, methods, systems, and policies flowed across national boundaries and the roles of different actors in the process—the nation as a range of social realities needing to be analysed, but not as the frame of the study itself. The findings of this book chiefly contribute to three fields: the transnational history of education, the history of the League of Nations, and the history of Chinese education. The study draws the conclusion that nation is a concept that cannot be deterritorialised when it comes to educational topics, especially those related to schooling and national educational reform. The ways in which the League organised those educational programmes reveal that it took national sovereignty as a precondition of all its actions and tried to define a clear line between what it can do and what should be left to the hands of national governments and scholars. Hence, it is unfair to diminish the value and the importance of the role of the Chinese government in the cooperation between the League and China. It was the Nanjing government that played a decisive role in commencing a programme of cooperation. It was also following the permission of the Chinese government that the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) and IECI started to look for experts in educational film to go to China. It was also the Chinese government and educational politicians who decided whether they would follow the proposals drawn by educational missions or not. The contributions of the study include the following three aspects. First, it has found other potential intentions of those actors participating in the education cooperation between the League and China, aside from the declared aims. The Nanjing government invited the mission to China without expressing any particular requirements, but generally talked about the need for educational reform in China. During the period of the cooperation, the Kuomintang (KMT) was in the process of centralising Chinese education, which previously was primarily influenced and organised by educators. Also, many educational reform projects had already been carried out even before the mission appointed by the League arrived in China. It is likely that the KMT wished to have an external, authoritative evaluation of Chinese education which could function to support their ongoing educational reforms and provide external legitimacy for the control exerted

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by the KMT over education. The report written by the League’s education mission also absorbed many of the opinions of Chinese educators and officials through conversations that were arranged by the Chinese government; it won high praise from Chinese politicians and hence can be considered as a representation of the Chinese government on educational reform. The symbolic meaning of inviting such a mission to China was not less important than the practical meaning. Similarly, the notion of sending an educational mission to Europe was initially put forward by the foreign educational experts who visited China, and the Chinese government responded to their suggestion. It was without a doubt the case that learning from foreign experiences was an important reason in the decision to send experts to foreign countries, but it is also possible that it happened because the proposal was made by the League and the Chinese government did not want to risk their reputation by turning down the suggestion. This is particularly the case because it was at exactly the same time that Chiang Kai-shek sent another education mission to Germany and Italy to study national education, which seemed to be superfluous considering the limited funding for education available from the Chinese government. Further, the study has detected different motivations that pushed various actors to go across national and international boundaries and shaped their behaviours in the process. Promoting international cooperation and understanding was the declared aim of all educational programmes of the League and shared by different actors who participated in those programmes. At the same time, national competition was deeply rooted in these international educational programmes. The study has proved that the actions and behaviours of governments, national organisations, and scholars in international educational programmes were connected with a nation’s international reputation, and such connection was always self-­ endowed. The Chinese government required Chinese textbooks to contain information about the League because they considered such actions to be tokens that would improve their reputation at an international level and serve their ambitions to have a Chinese committee member in the ICIC. The Educational Cinematography Society of China (ECSC) bought educational films from the IECI even though it was beyond their capacity to pay because they considered their behaviour represented China and if they declined to import the films due to financial problems, this would decrease China’s international reputation. Chinese scholars considered assuming a position on the committee for the sports educational films

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competition to be a symbol of international status. China was not a unique case in this regard: the Italian representative of the ICIC argued that the education mission to China should include an Italian member because Italian culture was at the same level as other Western European countries. International educational programmes were also considered by scholars and national governments as channels through which the national image was constructed. The Chinese educational institutions presented to the League’s experts indicated the importance the Chinese government ascribed to demonstrating national modernisation to external experts who would be expected to promote China on an international level and shape its international image. For this reason, the study has explained as reasonable the actions of the Chinese government in inviting the League to send educational experts to China for the purpose of improving Chinese education but showing them the best institutions. Similarly, Chinese scholars showed great interest in attending international educational film competitions because they provided a good chance to disseminate propaganda about Chinese development. Although Chinese scholars never declared such intentions, they nonetheless exerted the utmost efforts to win an award. The two educational films the book has analysed constructed a self-­ illustrated image, which was different from that constructed by Western travellers and filmmakers. In the two films, Chinese scholars unanimously articulated a modernising China in which traditional cultural elements went hand in hand with new scientific methods. A similar situation could be observed in the way that all European nations the mission visited showed their best-performing educational institutions to the Chinese educators. The process of educational cooperation was not as neutral and non-political as it appeared on the surface. The two characteristics summarised here were not new characteristics of transnational educational activities, but rather already existing characteristics that had been intentionally manipulated by many European educators before the outbreak of the First World War. But the end of the First World War witnessed the emergence of new countries, which were also involved in the international space constructed by the League. The study finds that China, a country not in the leading hierarchy of the international order, and which presented itself as a learner and borrower in those educational programmes, also elaborately displayed its modernity. These displays, instead of aiming to establish a leading role, as many Western educators and governments did, aimed rather to prove its capacity to

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organise national education independently and achieve outcomes as good as those in Western countries. Except for the case of teaching about the League, the other three cases were carried out by experts moving transnationally. Secondly, the study has disclosed that those educators played a decisive role as the intermediaries of the transnational process and provided a historiographical example revealing the transnational process. Focusing on the experts, the study has analysed their trips and knowledge backgrounds and revealed that the kind of knowledge that would be selected for transfer was decided by educators’ prior knowledge and transnational experiences. The former was extremely influential in shaping their understanding of the countries they visited and the potential proposals they would give. This is proven by the fact that the final report of the League’s mission agreed with the opinions of the previous documents Becker had collected, which had evidently influenced his evaluation of Chinese education. Cheng Qibao and Yang Lian, the two Chinese educators, had already shaped their evaluation of Chinese educational problems and how to solve them prior to their mission. The proposals they put forward based on their observations in Europe were highly similar to those they had already put forward in previous conferences and articles. Thus, the journey to Europe provided a chance for them to construct European education as offering support to their own educational reform proposals. The study also reveals that the kind of conclusions and actions an expert would draw or take are additionally decided by their personal characters. Although Sardi believed that educational film would be useful and popular in China, after his journey he did not have faith in the Chinese government’s capacity to organise it and entrusted the foreigners in China to establish an organisation for educational film. However, after his journey to China, Becker believed that the Chinese had the capacity to organise their own modern education system and considered that the Chinese should make decisions by themselves. Emphasising the importance of the prior knowledge of experts does not mean that transnational experiences are not important. This is because it was the workings of such tours which directly decided what kind of educational models and ideas might be transplanted into China. Almost all countries involved made an effort to exhibit the performance of their best qualities for the visitors. This meant that foreign examples were elaborately selected by countries that the educational experts visited. As the study has shown, the experts appointed by the League clearly knew that

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the Chinese government tried to show them the best performances and had deconstructed the images presented by the Chinese government. While Chinese scholars also clearly knew that each country showed them their best performance, they did not mind it, and they elaborately constructed leading images of education in European countries to support their reform arguments. Thirdly the study finds that even though the four cases took place in the same historical and social background, the micro-factors could produce different possibilities. The example of teaching about the League shows that the scholars on whom the actual implementation of such activities depended showed little interest in the programme, because the League of Nations was not welcomed by Chinese scholars, and in fact incurred much criticism. The programme was not implemented as the League of Nations had wished and could indeed be considered to have failed in China. Although the Chinese government originally had no awareness of the IECI and the decision to appoint an educational film expert to visit China was made late, Sardi’s trip to China in fact directly popularised the use of educational films in China, because Chinese scholars had already advocated the use of film for educational purposes and were already aware of the existence of educational films in other countries. However, the popularity of educational film in China did not necessarily result in a long and stable connection between the IECI and China. The two education missions were appointed at the time that the Chinese government had already begun implementing educational reforms. Accordingly, the reports written by the two missions dealing with national educational systems only functioned as references and not as grounds for reform. As a contribution to the history of the League of Nations, the study has figured out the existence of a clear distinction between international-level and national-level activities when carrying out educational programmes of the League of Nations. First of all, the technical organisations of the League of Nations limited their works to the international space. In the four cases, the ICIC and IECI carried out work through adapting pamphlets providing knowledge about the League of Nations, selecting educational experts to be sent to China, and assisting Chinese educational experts in arranging their visits to various countries. In the process, they avoided making direct connections with individual national governments, but relied instead on national organisations and national representatives in technical organisations of the League of Nations. The ICIC and IECI wanted the experts who were involved in the activities they assisted in

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organising to share their principles of internationalism and not be influenced by their respective national interests in the implementation of these activities. The reports written by the experts appointed by the League did avoid expressing any national prejudice, given that the proposals they recommended for national education reform were based on the prior experiences of the individual experts, and did not reflect the existing system in any particular country. The Reorganisation of Education in China, written by the League’s mission, criticised the influence of the United States in China, the motivation of which was queried by Chinese scholars at that time; however, this study has found no evidence that would indicate that such criticism was based on the prejudice of the American education system and its influence in China. Instead, the criticism was rooted in Becker’s understanding of the cultural role of education. Similarly, the proposals for how to develop educational films reflected multinational experiences, including those of the Soviet Union. However, the internationalist outlook of the final report cannot detract from the fact that the experts who authored the reports were engaged in some degree of national activity while they were in China. For example, although the report strongly criticised Chinese middle schools and universities for utilising foreign languages in their education, Becker nevertheless discussed with German professors and diplomats based in China about the use of German as a teaching language at Tongji University.1 He also expressed his disappointment that, unlike Germany, other countries had the Box Indemnity to support their educational and cultural enterprises in China, and considered Germany no longer to be competitive.2 Similarly, the activities of Sardi indicated that he acted as a representative of the Italian government and gave lectures to overseas soldiers. Also, the contents of educational films nonetheless had clear ideological meanings. Sardi organised screenings of educational films which praised Italy’s rapid development under the governance of the Fascist Party to Chinese officials, and this can be seen to some extent as a way of undertaking international propaganda for the fascist regime. Furthermore, at the national level (where international educational concepts and models were actually put into practice) the influence of the League of Nations and its role were actually quite limited. In the case of education about the League, the ICIC called upon scholars from different countries to formulate pamphlets and develop methods to guide teachers and educators on how to teach about the League. However, the ICIC did

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not have any power to influence the extent to which each respective country actually implemented the programme in question. Hence, during the interwar period, a successful international educational programme largely relied on the actions of the teachers and scholars who had the power or capacity to actually carry it out. The essential challenge of the programme for the League was thus the mobilisation of public opinion. In the case of the two educational missions, when arranging the visiting plans for each nation, the League neither provided any requirements nor guidance for the countries involved. The League acted only as a bridge, providing channels to assist China in accessing the international help that they wanted, but the details of what kind of educational institutions were presented to the mission itself and what kind of educational knowledge was circulated were left in the hands of national governments. Thus, the extent to which transnational circulation actually occurred, and the evaluation of the outcome of such activities, lay outside the scope of the work of the League. Adopting the transnational perspective, the study has discovered new implications of the educational cooperation between the League and China for the study of Chinese history of education. The educational cooperation between the League and China was not a simple ‘impact– reaction’ process and did not merely involve educational ideas and practices flowing from the West to China. Instead, as mentioned before, it was a process in which Chinese education went onto the world stage and shaped its own international image. Yet it is important to look at how educational ideas and methods were transferred to China; it is also meaningful to investigate how China stepped onto the world stage. The study further provides a new perspective from which to consider the modernisation of Chinese education in the context of globalisation by disintegrating the concept of the West. The study has revealed that even though the United States and its scholars did not participate in the education cooperation between the League of Nations and China, the figure of the United States was present yet hidden within the four cases studied. Knowledge of the League was always taught together with knowledge of the Washington Conference that was organised by the United States; Sardi’s trip directly promoted the popularisation of educational films in China, yet the most successful foreign educational film company during the interwar period in China was the American Kodak Company; the report written by the League’s experts criticised the American influence in China and caused disputes amongst Chinese scholars, especially those who

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had studied in the United States; the reports of the Chinese educational mission to Europe repeatedly used American education as a point of comparison against Europe and China. The distinction made between American education and European education demonstrates the fissures in Chinese educators’ perceptions of the West. The transnational experiences of the experts and multinational examples had already given Chinese educators the impression that the way to modernity was not hegemony. What does the story of the cooperation between the League of Nations and China tell us? The book ends by discussing two types of educational programmes analysed in the book that were continued by international organisations after the Second World War. The first is the role of international organisations and the internationalisation of educational concepts and methods. Teaching about the League of Nations in China reveals the fact that “they need to question how ‘world peace’ can be taught when so many people remain unrepresented, and when there is no global agreement about what would constitute lasting world peace”3 is not a new crisis in the education for peace movement that has appeared in recent decades. Although the aim of international understanding and peace seemed to be self-evident, the methods through which the League could contribute to this, and the evaluations of the League, just as the Sub-Committee of Experts admitted, are different in the eyes of different nations. Accordingly, teaching about the League was inherently political and value-laden. For Chinese society, protecting China from the threat of imperialists (especially Japan) was the fundamental value of the League’s existence. The League of Nations, which was originally understood by the Chinese to be the embodiment of the Confucian utopian society Datong, was ultimately criticised for being manipulated by imperial powers in Chinese discourse. This indicates that, in the opinion of the Chinese, the outward actions and inner values of the League were not integrated, which is significant to maintain the authenticity of a leadership position.4 Furthermore, in the structure of the programme for teaching about the League, although the Sub-Committee of Experts included scholars from Asia and South America, representatives from countries in peripheral positions, such as China, were not included. For contemporary international organisations, which uphold the aim of promoting international understanding and peace, it is necessary to think about how to make different voices, especially peripheral voices, heard. The second is the international assistance on educational issues. The reports written by the educators who were involved in the cooperation all agreed that the problems China faced were not unique but universal. This

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is further argued by Suzanne Pepper, who contended that the educational problems described by the League’s experts were highly comparable to those faced by many developing countries in the 1960s.5 Hence, what China experienced during the interwar period seemed to be an unavoidable process or stage in the modernisation of education for many latecomer undeveloped countries. However, it is interesting to note that educational experts found that the Chinese government had designed many educational policies, which were similar to those in the United States, but which could not be carried out. Clearly, for a nation like China in the 1930s, it was not what should be aimed for but how to reach the designed goals that was the pressing issue. Hence, as this book has revealed, international educational assistance for educational reform was not a technical issue that could be solved by educators alone, but a complex social– political issue that needed the coordination of various actors. Further, both the education missions showed cultural understanding with regard to education in other nations and suggested that China should not imitate any existing national education system but find its own methods for establishing modern education. The implication is clear that although the educational problems a country faces might appear universal, and the ways in which education is delivered are increasingly similar across national contexts, there is no immaculate model, and that the progress of education should be based on local situations and relate to national culture. Today, international educational aid and establishing international education standards are popular themes for many international organisations. However, these programmes, just as Euan Auld and his colleagues’ research in Cambodia has identified, encourage the common belief that national educational systems are increasingly attuned to global models but also give rise to the fear that “international aid agencies have become the ‘missionaries of our time’” and will remain characterised by national cultures in the shadow of new global architecture.6 The way that the League of Nations carried out international educational assistance may provide some inspiration as well as challenges to contemporary international organisations. The League provided technical guidance while emphasising local culture and left the final design to the hands of local people. Such methods then give weight to local actors, who are deemed to know local situations better. However, a paradox that the League’s experts and the Chinese experts left is that when the educational systems and educational knowledge in the contemporary world are becoming increasingly similar, what could those international experts really contribute, rather than merely figuring out problems that local educators had already known?

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Notes 1. Carl H. Becker, and Susanne Kuss, Carl Heinrich Becker in China: Reisebriefe Des Ehemaligen Peussischen Kultusministers 1931/32 (Münster: Lit, 2004), 165. 2. Ibid., 169. 3. Hilary Cremin, “Peace Education Research in the Twenty-First Century: Three Concepts Facing Crisis or Opportunity?” Journal of Peace Education 13, no. 1 (2016): 7. 4. Maiken Umbach and Mathew Humphrey, Authenticity: The Cultural History of Political Concept (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018), 69. 5. Suzanne Pepper, Radicalism and Education Reform in 20th-Century China: The Search for an Ideal Development Model (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 37. 6. Euan Auld, Jeremy Rappleye, and Paul Morris, “PISA for Development: How the OECD and World Bank Shaped Education Governance Post-2015,” Comparative Education 55, no. 2 (2019): 17.

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Index1

A Amaranatha Jha, 42 B Bagleg, William C., 69 Barr, John S., 95, 96, 113n44 Becker, Carl Heinrich, 121–124, 127–130, 132–147, 156–158, 161n31, 161n48, 162n57, 162n58, 163n69, 163n71, 185, 186, 189, 214, 216 Beijing government, 10, 17, 34, 35, 47n4 Bergson, Henri, 38, 39 Birt, Eduard, 140 Bishop Bell, 122 Bolger, R. E. O., 93, 113n44 Bonnet, Henri, 85, 86, 125, 182, 184, 185

C Cai Yuanpei, 11, 12, 28–29n39, 169–171 Cao Chu, 10 Carlo Bos, 92 Casares, Julio, 50n35, 58, 59 Castillejo, Jose, 42, 121, 157 Chatterjee, Atul Chandra, 59 Chen Bulei, 12, 36 Chen Guofu, 98 Chen Hexian, 140, 164n86 Chen Lifu, 98 Chen Qitian, 16 Cheng Lijiang, 137 Chiang Kai-shek, 10–12, 35, 130, 136, 141, 160n31, 171–173, 200, 203n18, 203n21, 212 Child Welfare Committee (CWC), 7, 23, 43–45 Chinese Education Improvement Association, 8

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. Li, Transnational Education between The League of Nations and China, Global Histories of Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82442-6

235

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INDEX

Chinese National Economic Council (CNEC), 37, 144, 164n88 Chu Minyi, 98, 106–109 Cleeve, Margaret, 124 Curie, Marie Skłodowska, 39 D Dai Jitao, 130, 149 Dai Shusen, 96 De Feo, Luciano, 44, 45, 86, 87, 93, 94 De Montenach, Jean-Daniel, 123, 124, 182–184 De Reynold, Gonzague, 38, 39, 51n42, 157 Destrée, Jules, 38, 39, 57, 58 Dewey, John, 7, 8, 127, 151, 174, 180, 204n29 Dopsch, Alfons, 185 Dreyfus-Barney, Laura, 59, 60, 78n13 Drummond, Eric, 182 Dufour-Feronce, Albert, 63, 86, 122–124 E Educational Cinematography Society of China (ECSC), 84, 85, 94–103, 108–110, 212 F Falski, Marian, 121–123, 140, 142, 186, 209 Fan Yitian, 150 Foster Kemp, 93, 113n44 G Gallavresi, Giuseppe, 42, 78n13 Gao Jiansi, 137

Greene, Roger S., 143 Gu Shusen, 144, 164n86 Guo Bingwen, 169 Guo Youshou, 94, 95, 171, 172 H Harris, Wilson, 37 Health Organisations (HO), 7, 23, 47n4 Heiser, Victor, 35 Hu Hanmin, 36, 160n31 Huang Yanpei, 16, 132 I Instituto Luce, 87, 91, 98, 99, 115n72 International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC), 7, 21, 24, 33, 34, 37–44, 47, 49–50n26, 50n35, 50–51n37, 51n42, 52n45, 55, 56, 58–60, 63, 64, 72, 75, 76, 77n10, 78n13, 78n14, 79n21, 80n27, 80n28, 85, 86, 88, 94, 100, 114n62, 115n86, 120–125, 143, 149, 156–158, 164n86, 182–185, 201, 205n64, 212, 213, 215, 216 International Congress on Moral Education, 38 International Council of Women, 44, 55, 59, 78n13, 103, 116n97 International Educational Cinematographic Institute (IECI), 21, 22, 24, 25, 34, 37, 43–47, 62, 80n28, 84–87, 92–101, 109–111, 123, 201, 210–212, 215 International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC), 24, 34, 39, 40, 42, 44, 47, 49–50n26, 78n13,

 INDEX 

79n21, 85, 120–122, 124, 125, 158, 182–185, 201, 205n64, 211 International Labour Organisations (ILO), 7, 43–45 International Museums Office, 44 J Jiang Menglin, 9, 12, 29n39, 69, 144, 151, 153, 164n86, 164n88, 169–172 Jiangsu Education Association, 68 Johnston, Reginald, 125, 126 K Kao Kyuin San, 103 Kuomintang (KMT), 10–12, 17, 28n39, 35, 36, 47–48n4, 72, 91, 98, 102, 115n76, 127, 128, 134–136, 140, 145, 160–161n31, 171, 172, 194, 200, 211, 212 L Lan Ying, 102 Langevin, Paul, 121, 123, 129, 136, 141, 142, 144, 156, 157 Lapie, Paul, 58, 78n13 Lei Binnan, 137 Li Erkang, 170 Li Jianxun, 70, 149 Li Jiaxiang, 170, 172 Li Runzhang, 10 Li Shizeng, 11, 12, 28–29n39, 143, 144, 171, 172 Li Shuhua, 10, 12, 29n39, 139, 144, 164n86, 172 Li Suizhi, 170 Li Ximou, 171, 172, 191 Li Ying, 102

237

Li Zheng, 140, 144, 164n86 Liang Shuming, 102 Liao Shicheng, 152 Lin Yutang, 128 Lu Feikui, 16 Ludwig Thorwald de Krabbe, 184 Luo Jialun, 98 Luo Yanguang, 149, 151 Lyttelton, Edith, 57 M Mei Yiqi, 137 Meng Xiancheng, 13 Monroe, Paul, 8, 73, 128, 151, 178 Mukden (Manchurian) Incident, 66, 75, 76, 81n57, 130, 141, 202n2 Murray, Gilbert, 42, 58, 86, 123, 124, 182 Mussolini, Benito, 91, 186, 187 N National Union of Educational Associations (NUEA), 16, 70 Newsholme, Arthur, 35 Nitobe, Inazō, 38, 41, 78n13 Northern expedition, 17, 81n57, 91, 171 O Oprescu, George, 41, 157, 158 Oskar Trautmann, 140 P Pan Chenghou, 102 Pi Zuoqiong, 106 Piaget, Jean, 42 Picht, Werner, 125 Pilotti, Massimo, 157

238 

INDEX

Q Qi Zhi, 35 Qian Changzhao, 98, 173

U University Council, 11–13, 28–29n39 University of Nanking, vi, 17, 99

R Rajchman, Ludwik, 33, 35, 36, 47n4, 183, 184 Recovery of Educational Rights Movement, 17 Ren Shuyong, 151, 152 Rocco, Alfredo, 86, 123 Rosset, M., 58

W Wang Chonghui, 36 Wang Jingwei, 11, 98, 160n31 Wang Shenming, 140 Washington conference, 34, 73, 217 Wei Li, 102 Wei Xueren, 102 Wei Zhuomin, 18 World Federation of Education Associations, 57 Wu Kaisheng, 36 Wu Zhihui, 12, 29n39, 115n86

S St. John’s University, 17 Sardi, Baron Alexander, 25, 45, 84–92, 97, 99, 109, 110, 111n5, 113n38, 210, 214–217 Shang Zhongyi, 150, 154 Shao Zhongxiang, 102 Shotwell, James T., 42 Shu Xincheng, 174 Sokolsky, George, 128 Soong Tse-ven, 36, 37, 92, 139 Sun Ke, 36, 160–161n31 Sun Yat-sen, 35, 81n57, 91, 140, 175 T Tan Tiankai, 150, 153 Tang Wenzhi, 137 Tawney, Richard Henry, 121–125, 128–130, 134, 140–143, 162n57, 162n58, 186 Thorndike, Edward, 174 Three Principles of the People, 11, 194 Twiss, G. R., 178

X Xie Zhongsun, 9 Xu Keshi, 149, 154 Y Yan Huiqing, 128 Yang Lian, 71, 169, 170, 172, 173, 175, 176, 178–180, 185, 187–192, 195, 199, 201, 214 Yang Xianjiang, 70 Yang Xingfo, 164n86 Yen, Y. C. James, 102, 105, 116n104, 137, 143 Yu Jiaju, 16, 70 Z Zeng Linfu, 95 Zhang Boling, 128, 137 Zhang Daofan, 98, 164n86, 171 Zhang Guangtao, 152

 INDEX 

Zhang Jingjiang, 29n39, 35, 36, 171, 172 Zhang Pengchun, 128 Zhang Zhidong, 152–153, 165–166n122

Zhu Jiahua, 12, 98, 137, 149, 164n86, 169, 170, 172, 202n2 Zilliacus, Konni, 124 Zimmern, Alfred, 121, 122

239