Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Radicalism and Education Reform in 20th-Century China
  • Cited by 152
      • Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      04 August 2010
      13 July 1996
      ISBN:
      9780511584725
      9780521778602
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584725
      Dimensions:
      Weight & Pages:
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.82kg, 626 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Area Studies, Asian Studies, History, Twentieth Century Regional History
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    Area Studies, Asian Studies, History, Twentieth Century Regional History
    Information

    Book description

    In 1976, China's 'education revolution' was being hailed by foreign observers as an inspiration for all low-income countries. By 1980, the Chinese themselves had disavowed the experience, declaring it devoid of even a single redeeming virtue. This is the first comprehensive book to cover the whole sweep of twentieth-century Chinese education, and to provide a detailed study of what occurred in the countryside under the radical Maoist education experiments during the Cultural Revolution. The study of both pre- and post-1949 China provided the crucial historical perspective to distinguish continuities from innovations. Rather than the epitome of good or evil, China's educational experiences of the 1970s instead emerged as the most tumultuous episode in a long and contentious struggle to adapt Western ways for use in a non-Western society.

    Reviews

    "This volume constitutes a breathtaking achievement, in terms of the wide range of sources drawn upon and the remarkable grasp Pepper has of the whole sweep of modern Chinese educational history." The China Quarterly

    "...boldly conceptualized, copiously researched, and enormously detailed in its understanding. A major highlight is the author's heavy reliance on interview data to reconstruct the Cultural Revolution period...A masterly synthesis of years of scholarly research, it is destined to become the standard reference work on the subject for years to come." The Journal of Asian Studies

    "An excellent book, rich in data and sophisticated analysis. It proves again that Hong Kong interviews in the 1970s and early 1980s were a more abundant source of information on Chinese society than any of the available alternatives. It also establishes a paradigm for the study of 20th-century Chinese education which all future work in the field will have to relate to and which has implications also for the more general issues of development and modernization in China." The China Journal

    "...what Pepper has given us is a book that should be required reading not just for sinologists but for anyone doing serious work on comparative or international education." Stanley Rosen, Comparative Education Review

    "The relevant political context for each educational reform explored is presented with scholarly care making Pepper's book valuable to researchers in several periods of twentieth-century history." American Historical Review

    "The most important book of its genre that has been writen in the past twenty-five years...This work speaks eloquently of the importance of the historical perspective in understanding the origins and resonances that mark contemporary policy...In this case, an appreciation for historical context reminds us that ideas involving the nature of social justice as related to the promotion or restriction of equality of opportunity in educational terms, have been of crucial importance to the Chinese people throughout this century." East/West Education

    "With this volume, Suzanne Pepper establishes herself as the pre-eminent historian of China's efforts to adapt Western educational models to Chinese realities." Pacific Affairs

    "A masterly synthesis of years of scholarly research, it is destined to become the standard reference work on the subject for years to come." Journal of Asian Studies

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents

    Metrics

    Altmetric attention score

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: Unknown

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.