1930년대 光華大學의 中國近現代史敎育과 ‘敎育의 中國化’

Abstract

This article explains how the "Sinicization of education," which emerged as a hot issue in the educational community in the 1930s, was implemented in regular university curriculums. To do so, I analyze the modern parts from two history volumes by Lu Simian, a professor of history at Guanghua University. The first history book was published in 1923 and since the second volume, consisting of two volumes, was published in 1940 and 1944, I judged that analyzing the two volumes would reveal how the "Sinicization of education" issue was reflected in the history curriculum. The analysis results are as follows. First, the history department of Guanghua University grew with the active support by President Zhang Souyong from the mid-1930s when it began to implement the goal of "Sinicization of education." The number of professors and students increased and the educational environment improved. Under the leadership of Professor Lu Simian, the history department strengthened research and educational activities. Second, a remarkable achievement in educational activity was initiating the teaching of modern history in earnest. He aimed to promote national consciousness and patriotism through modern history education and systematically educate students about the nation's future. When Professor Lu Simian began teaching modern history in earnest, his perspective on history changed. Until the 1920s, he thought the purpose of historical research was to explain the causal relationship of historical facts, but in the 1930s, he thought that the purpose of historical research was to present the meaning of historical events, explain the current society through this and even look out into the future. Third, he wrote modern history anew based on a changed view of history. The most significant change was to combine political history with cultural history. By doing so, he wanted to discover why China failed to accommodate Western culture and find cultural resources that could have transformed Chinese society, albeit belatedly. Another change in his writing of modern history was that his criticisms of Japan had become stronger. By doing so, he tried to reflect anti-Japanese nationalism, which emerged socially since the 1930s, to history writing and education. The last change is that he constructed the history after the 1911 Revolution focusing on the Guomindang. By excluding descriptions of the Chinese United Front or solidarity with the Soviet Union, he wanted to present the Guomindang as the player in solving China's current nationalist challenges.