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In China, Protestant institutions were often viewed as symbols of Western cultural aggression, as they were introduced by Protestant missionaries. However, in the 1980s, some renowned Chinese scholars, especially those who had received a Christian education at a Protestant university or college, began to reevaluate the impact of these institutions on contemporary China. As a result, research on Protestant institutions was revived in China, with many scholars speaking highly of their significance. Some credited Protestant missionaries with pioneering the modernization of Chinese higher education (An & Liu, 2018; Huang, 1994; King, 1985), while Liu & Wang believed that Chinese Protestant institutions were patriotic rather than invasive (Liu & Wang, 2021). Ma argued that Protestant institutions played a crucial role not only in the cultural exchange between China and the West but also in the modernization process of China (Ma, 2021). Pei & Tu noted that Protestant institutions were world-class universities exhibiting Chinese characteristics. Others paid special attention to their localization (Pei & Tu, 2020). Gao claimed that Chinese Protestant institutions highlighted the essential requirement of the localization of education (Gao, 2018). In response to Gao, some authors (Zeng, 2018; Zhang, 2021; Li & Shangguan, 2022) concluded that Chinese Protestant institutions showed increasingly localized characteristics. However, considerable attention has been directed toward why they were localized rather than how. Therefore, how the curricula of Chinese Protestant institutions were localized remains an enigma. In this context, it is important to understand how the curricula of Chinese Protestant institutions were localized. To address this gap, we have marshaled original historical materials published on the official website of the Yale University Divinity School Library to analyze how Protestant universities were localized. These materials were offered by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA), which was founded in 1922 to support and coordinate the activities of Protestant colleges and universities in China, and raising funds and coordinating their use are its primary tasks. Record Group 11 is the initial accession of materials received in 1982. The collection provides extensive, detailed, and substantive information about Protestant colleges and universities in China, with a concentration on the period from 1922 to 1957. We focused on the period from 1920 to 1949, and found that Chinese Protestant universities and colleges adopted two approaches to localizing their curricula: resolving educational problems in China, and implanting traditional Chinese culture in the minds of the students.

Resolving this problem is not only academically important but also practically helpful. It will help us understand how Western culture compromised with Chinese culture, dominated by Confucianism for thousands of years. And it is probably the earliest known example in China of dealing with cultural conflict with mutual respect rather than outright rejection or acceptance. To our knowledge, our findings provide the first evidence for the curriculum localization of Chinese Protestant institutions and demonstrate a shining example of how to deal with cultural conflict with mutual respect rather than outright rejection or acceptance.

The following section provides some historical background on the Protestant institutions in China during the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Section 3 describes how the Protestant universities and colleges resolved the educational problems in China. Section 4 describes the culture they implanted. The last section discusses the findings and their implications.

1 Historical Background

1.1 Emergence of Chinese Protestant Institutions

The genesis of Chinese Protestant institutions can be traced back over several centuries, with their beginnings intimately intertwined with Christian faith. This historical reality emphasizes the importance of Christianity in China and the continuing impact of its influence. Christianity began to spread in China, a Confucianism-dominated country, in the 17th century. Initially, Christianity and Confucianism coexisted peacefully. However, Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722), a renowned emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), banned all Christian practices in 1720. This ban remained in effect until the 1840s, when the Opium War occurred. After the First Opium War (1840-1842), missionaries were permitted to enter China. Following the conclusion of the Second Opium War (1856-1860), the legal rights afforded to missionaries in China were significantly broadened. This included the acquisition of land and the construction of religious establishments, leading to a rapid expansion of Protestantism throughout China. However, the Chinese were hostile towards foreign-related people and objects, including missionaries, due to the unequal treaties imposed upon China. These treaties resulted from several wars launched by Western countries, such as the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance (1900-1901). The Qing government was defeated and obliged to sign unequal treaties, which included clauses such as cession of land, indemnities, and permission for missionaries to preach in China. These clauses were considered a great humiliation for the Chinese people, who felt that their sovereignty had been violated. Therefore, the journey of the missionaries in China was not smooth, as the Chinese believed that they had entered the country under the guise of unequal treaties. Nevertheless, Christianity managed to spread in China, marking a significant cultural exchange between East and the West.

The missionaries who arrived in China earlier faced significant difficulties in spreading the Gospel and had a limited effect, so they turned their attention to opening schools and various charitable causes. They soon discovered that schools were the best place to spread the Word, so they invested heavily in building boarding schools to provide instruction equivalent to primary school, with dual aims of education and evangelism. Some of these schools were upgraded to secondary institutions in the 1870s. They were known collectively as parochial schools. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, enrolments reached a pinnacle, with 76,752 students in 1909 (Gregg, 1946). The notable increase in enrollment rate for parochial schools led the missionaries to embark on an effort to elevate secondary schools to the status of universities. Some secondary schools underwent a transformation and began to offer higher education programs. In the early 1920s, these schools collaborated to establish 13 prestigious Protestant colleges and universities in China, such as Yenching University, Shantung Christian University, West China Union University, Huachung Christian University, Soochow University, Hangchow Christian University, University of Nanking, Ginling College, University of Shanghai, St. John’s University, Fukien Christian University, Hwa Nan College, and Lingnan University. These institutions were collectively referred to as Protestant institutions in China.

1.2 Evolution of Chinese Protestant Institutions

The growth of Chinese Protestant institutions can be categorized into two phases: pre-registration and post-registration. Prior to registering with the Chinese government, these institutions functioned independently from the Chinese education system and were not under government control during the late Qing Dynasty. This granted them complete academic freedom in course design. However, after registering as private colleges or universities in China during the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China (1925-1949), the government began to restrict their academic freedom, leading to a localization of their curricula. This localization process continued until 1952, three years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, when Protestant institutions were nationalized, and their names vanished from mainland China. Despite the political change, Lingnan University in Hong Kong and Soochow University in the Taiwan region persevered and survived.

The localization of the curriculum began even before the registration process. Before the early 1920s, Protestant institutions were seen as agents of cultural aggression, and as a result, students who attended these universities and colleges, along with some members of the social elite, protested against them. They requested that these schools adapt their Westernized curriculum to Chinese standards. Due to strong nationalist sentiments, the Protestant institutions began to adjust their curricula to meet the national requirements. Until that point, their academic curriculum was quite similar to that of American universities, with the exception of the Chinese language program. By the 1920s, almost all Protestant institutions had an Education Faculty, and competed to offer pedagogical courses to train teachers for China.

2 Resolving Educational Problems in China

Trying to satisfy the great demand for teachers and resolve the problems that hindered the development of China was the aim of the Education Faculties of Protestant Institutions (Hereafter, it is abbreviated as EFPIs).

2.1 Satisfying the Great Demand for Teachers

Pedagogy was a traditional method of training missionaries in the Western Church. In the Middle Ages, monks held the vast majority of knowledge. They were not only missionaries but also teachers, even after the Reformation. For example, the Jesuits, founded in 1534, established a training program for teachers. It stated that it was its mission to engage in education. To ensure that the clergy possessed the qualities to be teachers, the Church also provided special training in pedagogy and teaching methods. At the Second General Council in 1565, the Jesuits demanded that colleges of education or similar institutions be built everywhere to train their members as teachers.

After the First Opium War, missionaries poured into Chinese territory. The difficulty of directly spreading Protestantism made them turn to building schools to evangelize. Long before the Qing Court completely abolished the imperial examination system, the missionaries had offered Pedagogy and Psychology in their schools to prepare eligible teachers for a future China. Later on, more subjects such as Education, Psychology, Teaching Methods, and School Management Methods were offered to inform students about teaching methods, which were the fundamental skills to be a teacher. After the founding of the Republic of China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen (the founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party and the first president of the Republic of China), pointed out that if China were to educate its 400 million people, it would have to rely on teacher training (Research Office of the History of the Republic of China, Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1981). As a result, teacher training received unprecedented attention, and Protestant Institutions were more interested in training teachers. Given that Chinese schools were too inefficient at preparing teachers, almost all Protestant institutions established Education Faculties. Missionaries harbored the belief that if the church did what China had failed to do, it could take control of the entire Chinese educational system by preparing a pool of teachers. To achieve the above purpose, the EFPIs passionately engaged in the cause. For example, the Teacher Training Department of the Nanjing University provided both two-year and four-year courses to prepare teachers for primary and middle schools. In the early 1920s, although nationalist sentiment rose throughout the country, the shortage of teachers was still a problem in China. What made the situation worse was that in 1927, the Chinese government reorganized some of the higher teacher training colleges established in 1913. That led to a general decline in the number of graduates and the quality of teachers (Song & Fan, 1998). With pressure and opportunity, the Protestant institutions incorporated more Chinese elements into their curricula. An important detail of this was to highlight CHINA, such as “to address many educational issues that have arisen in CHINA”, “to prepare educational publications for CHINA”, and “to provide research and other services to public and private schools in CHINA”. When it approached the 1930s, most Protestant institutions realized that the key to Chinese problems lay in the transformation of rural society, which depended heavily on the literacy level of rural people. Therefore, they offered rural courses to train teachers for rural schools distinct from urban ones. Yenching University even established a department dedicated to the advancement of rural education.

In summary, meeting the urgent demand for teachers in China was always the goal of EFPIs. Although the ultimate purpose of the Protestant institutions included the spread of Christianity in China, it cannot be denied that the rural education program represented the most profound localization of EFPIs, as it reached the areas where China needed teachers the most.

2.2 Focusing on Resolving Chinese Educational Problems

Almost all the courses offered by the EFPIs preferred discussing universal teaching and management methods until the early 1920s. For example, only seven courses, as follows, Education and the National Needs of China, Problems of Popular Education in China, Theory and Practice of Teaching and Administration in Chinese Higher Elementary School, Theory and Practice of Teaching and Administration in Chinese Middle School, Subjects and Teaching Methods of Middle School, Development of Chinese School, and the History of Chinese Education, discussed problems in China. Since 1922, issues typical of China have drawn close attention in the EFPIs. By 1937, the number of such courses had increased to nineteen. And the contents of these courses covered almost all aspects of Chinese education. The most striking feature is that rural education accounted for a large portion. Besides the rural education program at Yenching University, other EFPIs also increased local flavor in their curricula (see Table 1). The economic, living, religious and psychological conditions of the peasants in rural China are on the list. Discussing problems of rural education in China was the top priority, such as the organization, curriculum, management, and health of rural schools; the training of rural teachers; rural literacy and Christian education, and so on.

Table 1 EFPIs Courses on Rural Education and Their Contents

Note: Data in Table 1 were taken from the course announcements concerning the EFPIs of 13 Protestant universities and colleges (Yale University Divinity School Library: UBCHEA Archives).

3 Implanting Traditional Chinese Culture

3.1 Political Culture: Highlighting Confucianism’s Loyalty and Filial Piety

According to American political scientist Gabriel A. Almond (Xu, 1998), political culture has at least three characteristics: ethnicity, periodicity, and inheritance, with ethnicity serving as the decisive factor in distinguishing different political cultures. Therefore, political culture is a form of national culture, which includes at least the design of the political system on the surface and the psychology of political culture with a certain inertia. Chinese traditional political culture is a feudal authoritarian political culture with Confucianism’s loyalty and filial piety as its core ethics. It originated in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties, spanning over 2000 years. In the modern era, it transformed into a new political system (Jin, 2000), functioning under various designations, such as party rule, authoritarian rule, and individual dictatorship. Regardless of the changes, the cultural psychology of the subjects, with Confucianism’s loyalty and filial piety at its core and its emphasis on psychological attachment, remained unchanged. The EFPIs had been influenced by the traditional Chinese political and cultural mentality in shaping their curriculum. This can be seen through the teaching of the “Three Principles of the People” (including nationalism, civil rights, and people’s livelihood) advocated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (the leading party in China from 1927 to 1949).

“Three Principles of the People”, a political legacy of Sun Yat-sen, was a combination of Chinese Confucianism, Minshengism (socialism), and Western democracy. After the establishment of the Nationalist Government in Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek (the real leader of the Nanjing National Government) Confucianised the “Three Principles of the People”, centering it on loyalty and filial piety. He referred to Sun Yat-sen as the master of Chinese Confucian morality and integrated Confucian ethics with the “Three Principles of the People”, making Confucian ethics and morality the essence of the “Three Principles of the People”. Besides, Chiang Kai-shek intensified propagandizing it in schools. In July 1928, the Nanjing Government required all schools to incorporate the spirit of the “Three Principles of the People” in their curricula as a compulsory course. Besides the general requirements for all schools, it also imposed more stringent requirements on Protestant institutions. For example, in 1929, the Draft of the Regulations for Private Schools stipulated that private universities and colleges that had registered with the government should submit the implementation of the teaching of the “Three Principles of the People” to the administrative organ in charge of education (Chen, 1936). The local education authorities more stringently made the teaching of the “Three Principles of the People” necessary for Protestant institutions to register. Some local governments even required them to follow the procedures for implementing it. In Hubei province, Protestant institutions were required to build a hall for holding memorial ceremonies in honor of Sun Yat-sen. In addition, it stipulated explicitly that instructors and directors of the “Three Principles of the People” be designated by the Party Principle Inspection Committee (Education Quarterly, 1936).  

Sun Yat-sen was utilized by the Chinese Nationalist Party as a political symbol to instill their beliefs in students and promote their authoritarian rule. Their education system emphasized one leader, one party, and one doctrine with the sole purpose of proving the Nationalist Party’s doctrine as the only correct one. This discipline was implemented to shape the knowledge and behavior of students under the party’s rule and to instill the ultimate value of the “Three Principles of the People”. Through this education system, young students were encouraged to look up to the Chinese Nationalist Party and develop a politically dependent personality, making it an extension and development of the political psychology of subjects under feudal autocracy and a concentrated expression of traditional Chinese political culture of imperial supremacy (Wu, 2013).

During an era when the government’s policies were oppressive, Protestant institutions faced a difficult decision. They were mandated to incorporate the “Three Principles of the People” as a compulsory subject and conduct commemorative activities. However, the approach to implementation varied among institutions. Lingnan University made it mandatory without granting credits towards the degree program (see Table 2), while Fukien Union University took it seriously and required students to not only study the “Three Principles of the People” but also undergo regular exams and submit a term paper at the end of the semester.

Table 2 The Teaching of the “Three Principles of the People” in Lingnan University

Note: Data in Table 2 were taken from Index of /UnitedBoard/Lingnan_University/Box 181 [EB-OL].[2014-07-15][2022-08-10]. https://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Lingnan_University/Box181/RG011-181-3250/3251.pdf.

Nonetheless, the fact that the “Three Principles of the People” were accepted as a mandatory part of general education and that political ceremonies were held in compliance with the National Government’s regulations is a clear indication of the localization of Protestant institutions (see Table 3). This signified the restoration of China’s sovereignty over its education system.

Table 3 The Teaching of the “Three Principles of the People” in Fukien Union University

Note: Data in Table 3 were taken from Private Fukien Union University. Private Fukien Union University 15th Anniversary Book (1932). https://img-sslibrary-com-s.libvpn.scnu.edu.cn:20080/n/slib/book/slib/13402506/1b9cf05dadb84c528b3932c9d7810043/1ab84016e6384b3101fe99de69616862.shtml?dxbaoku=false&moocbaoku=false&deptid=884&fav=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sslibrary.com%2Freader%2Fpdg%2Fpdgreader%3Fd%3Da44bcac4b3947f45c234912aa732b3da%26ssid%3D13402506&fenlei=070519100205&spage=1&srh=1&t=5&username=121.8.171.46&view=-1.

3.2 Core Traditional Culture Pursuing Truth, Beauty, and Goodness

In the pre-1920s era, Protestant institutions primarily focused on delivering courses that revolved around British and American history, culture, language, political system, and philosophy. Chinese rhetoric and writing were also taught to facilitate missionary work. However, Chinese history and philosophy courses were uncommon. As the decade progressed, the number of courses that focused on Chinese subjects saw a gradual increase, but each institution’s course offerings reflected unique biases. University of Shanghai, for instance, prioritized traditional Chinese literature and philosophy while neglecting Chinese history (see Table 4).

Table 4 General Course of the Education Faculty of the University of Shanghai

Note: Data in Table 4 were taken from https://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/University_of_Shanghai/Box 240/RG011-240-3951.pdf[2012-05-17][2023-01-25].

Students pursuing graduation at this university were required to allocate almost 20% of the 162 credits to Chinese literature and philosophy. In contrast, Shantung Christian University offered comparatively more modern courses such as petitions, proclamations, orders, and official letters, in addition to Chinese poetry, drama, Laozi, and Mozi. Literature courses were broad, encompassing literary genres, history, rhetoric, prose, and poetry. Philosophy courses mainly covered Daoism, Confucianism, Mohism, and Cheng-Zhu philosophy. With regard to history, Shantung Christian University only covered the Qing Dynasty and the Republican period, while Lingnan University seemed to focus more on the history of East-West exchanges (see Table 5).

Table 5 General Course of the Education Department of Lingnan University

Note: Data in Table 5 were collected from Index of /UnitedBoard/Lingnan_University/Box 181 [EB-OL]. https://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/Lingnan_University/Box181/RG011-181-3251.pdf.

Chinese culture is steeped in traditional philosophy, literature, and history that have been passed down through generations. These disciplines play a crucial role in elevating humanity and refining the human heart. Literature imparts morality by conveying humanistic values, while history guides morality through its historical judgments, and philosophy enhances morality by evaluating it. Whether it is the humanistic edification of literature, the moral guidance of history, or the virtue connotation of philosophy, all aim at improving the human heart and promoting the betterment of society. The convergence of literature, history, and philosophy seeks to pursue the anthropological connotation of genuine goodness in humanity. In a broader sense, history pursues truth in what has happened, philosophy pursues goodness in what is meaningful, and literature pursues beauty in what is rich in aesthetics. Therefore, studying ancient Chinese literature, history, and philosophy is a quest to pursue “truth, goodness, and beauty” from the perspective of human nature, social justice, and common sense.

3 Conclusion and Discussion

It is easy to conclude that there were two ways of localizing the curricula of the EFPIs. One is the professional one, and the other is the cultural path. The former, we call the adaptation-solution path, entailed serving Chinese society, which is the social service function of higher education pioneered in the United States. Its American characteristics are self-evident. In this sense, the localization of the curricula of DEPIs seemed to have used an American recipe to solve the Chinese problem. The latter, which we call cultural education, aimed to instill Christian and traditional Chinese values within the minds of young Chinese students. Therefore, it’s reasonable for us to conclude that the localization of the curricula of EFPIs was also an integration of Chinese culture with Western culture.

3.1 Integration of Cosmopolitan Education and Nationalist Education

Behind the two paths are two educational trends with different values of cosmopolitanism and nationalism, two “isms” that were quite popular in China after the New Culture Movement (around 1919). Cosmopolitan education aimed to develop global citizens, while nationalistic education emphasized Chinese nationals. Li and Zhong argued that citizenship is not only a political and cultural concept, but also a historical one, and the meaning of it varies from country to country and from time to time (Li & Zhong, 2002). For the duration of Protestant institutions in China, “citizenship” accentuated social service and had cosmopolitan overtones, while “national” highlighted close ties with the sovereign state and had statist overtones. The adaptation-solution path, which focused on guiding students to take civic pride in social service, was a concrete application of the third function of higher education pioneered in the United States. It needed citizens, or at least civic-minded people. Chinese people, long controlled by authoritarian politics (Song, 2008), had a weak sense of community. They were not very keen on social welfare. They cared only about their own families, not about society. So Lin noted that civic consciousness and social service were rare terms in China (Lin, 1994). The lack of civic and social consciousness in Chinese society made the adaptation-solution path characterized by American democratic culture. As for cultural education, the “Three Principles of the People” that the national government strongly promoted tried to cultivate obedient people. Conservative and authoritarian, its Chinese temperament shouldn’t be underestimated on the campuses full of a Christian atmosphere, not to mention the core traditional culture that focuses on developing students’ Chinese qualities. Therefore, in terms of cultural identity, the localization path of Protestant institutions integrated a civic attribute that advocated pride from service and a national one that intended to cultivate students’ Chinese qualities.

3.2 Integration of the Pursuit of Truth, Goodness and Beauty

The inclusion of traditional Chinese philosophy, literature, and history as compulsory subjects in general education allowed Protestant institutions to combine the betterment of individual moral quality with the pursuit of social justice. This fusion linked the truth, goodness, and beauty inherent in Chinese culture with that represented by God, a symbol of Christian culture. Consequently, the curriculum localization of the EFPIs facilitated the assimilation of the essence of both cultures, leading to a profound dialogue between Confucius and Christ. However, the spread of Christianity in China was not a straightforward process (Chen et al., 2022). It took more than two centuries for the two civilizations to find common ground, and the journey involved distrust and hostility, including violent clashes. It wasn’t until the 1920s that the missionaries realized that the animosity stemmed from the mutual disrespect for each other’s culture, leading to dialogue between the two cultures. This positive outcome highlighted the importance of communication between civilizations, the need to understand, appreciate, and learn from each other, build friendships, and live in harmony.

This conclusion has important implications for why many Chinese scholars habitually use Western theories to solve Chinese problems. It suggests that Chinese scholars have not made substantial progress in promoting more Chinese pedagogy and originating theories to address educational issues. Their approach is a rehash of an outdated story from a century ago. Furthermore, it implies that Protestant missionaries pioneered the modernization of higher education in China by disseminating Western knowledge in Protestant institutions along with Christianity. Therefore, it is natural to question whether the current modernization of higher education in China is built on the foundation laid by the Protestant missionaries.

Lastly, the missionaries primarily focused on the welfare of ordinary people, giving little attention to commercial benefits. They made painstaking efforts to help Chinese peasants improve their literacy and living conditions. In contrast, the current Sino-foreign Cooperative Running Programs (SFCRP), also known as branch campuses outside of China, prioritize commercial profits over the welfare of the masses. This highlights a significant gap between the former and the latter and raises the question of how to bridge that gap.

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