Liberal Arts and the Legacy of China’s Christian Universities

Professor Peter Tze Ming Ng has been doing research on the history of China’s Christian universities in the past three decades, working closely with many Western and Chinese scholars in the field including Jessie Lutz, Daniel Bays, Jean Paul Wiest, Gary Tiedeman, Zhang Kaiyuan, Ma Min, Edward Xu, Cha Shijie, Wang Chenmain, Leung Yuensang, Lee Kamkeung, and others. He has published more than one hundred articles in academic journals, plus being the author or the editor of the following books: Christianity and University Education in China (Chinese) (Beijing: CASS, 2003/2006), Changing Paradigms of Christian Higher Education in China (Edwin Mellen, 2002), Christian Higher Education in China – as seen from the Perspective of Glocalization (Chinese) (Taiwan, 2006), Christian Responses to Asian Challenges: A Glocalization View on Christian Higher Education in East Asia (CUHK, 2007), Chinese Christianity : An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives (Brill, 2012) Reflections on the Study of the History of Christian Higher Education in China, 1986-2015 (Chinese) (CUHK, 2017), and Sinification of Christianity: The Case of Christian Higher Education in China (Chinese & English) (IIHSDP, 2021).Leping Mou is a Ph.D. candidate at OISE, University of Toronto. His doctoral research examines liberal arts education for whole person cultivation in Chinese contexts. He has published journal articles and book chapters on global liberal arts education and liberal arts education models in the Greater China area.Ruth Hayhoe is a professor at the University of Toronto. Her Asian engagements have included the first secretary for Education, Science and Culture in the Canadian Embassy in Beijing (1989-1991), the visiting professor at Nagoya University (1996), and the director of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, now the Education University of Hong Kong (1997-2002), where she holds the title of President Emerita. She was honoredto be the first author in the World Library of Educationalists to publish a book relating to education in China. Entitled China Through the Lens of Comparative Education, it was published in 2015. Other recent books include Canadian Universities in China’s Transformation: An Untold Story (2016) and Religion and Education: Comparative and International Perspectives (2018). She received the Silver Bauhinia Star from the Hong Kong SAR Government and the title of Commandeur dans l’ordre des Palmes Académiques from the Government of France in 2002. She also holds honorary doctorates from the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2002), the Open University of Hong Kong (2015), and Victoria University in Toronto (2019).

• Part 1. From Missionaries to Chinese Professors.- Chapter 1. The Historical Destiny of China’s Christian Universities: Evidence from the Writings of Miner Searle Bates.- Chapter 2. T.T. Lew, T.C. Chao and the School of Religion at Yenching University.- Chapter 3. Chen Yuan and the Modern Transformation of Chinese Research on Religion in the first half of the 20th century.- Chapter 4. Reflections on the Case of Wu Yifang’s Upbringing and Religious Faith.- Part 2. Distinctive Characteristics of the Study of Christian Higher Education in China.- Chapter 5. The Rocks from Other Mountains may Become Jade for us: Retrospective and Outlook on Research into China’s Christian universities.- Chapter 6. The Department of Chinese Literature and Chinese Studies at Hangchow Christian University during the Republican era.- Chapter 7. The Liberal Arts at Yenching University, As We Know Them.- Chapter 8. Fukien Christian University and South China Women’s University as Examples of the Theory-based Exploration and Field Work Practice of Christian universities in rural villages during the Nationalist period.- Part 3. The Interplay between Globalization and Localization.- Chapter 9. Glocalization: A New Perspective in the Study of China’s Christian universities.- Chapter 10. Buildings in Christian Universities and the Renaissance of Chinese Traditional Architecture.- Chapter 11. Gender, Family and Nation: Cohesion and Conflict among Christian women intellectuals at the Christian Universities.- Chapter 12. The Relationship between the Christian Universities and the Nationalist Government in the War-time Period.- Chapter 13. The Evolution of Policy for Cooperation with China in the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia since the 1980s.