Origins of university coeducation in China : beyond the May Fourth movement

Abstract

University coeducation developed rapidly from the beginning of modern tertiary education in China and spread nationwide in the decade of 1920s. Most scholars attribute the early commitment to coeducation among Chinese universities to the May Fourth advocacy of women’s emancipation. However, this study, focusing on one of the earliest coed tertiary educational institutions in China, Utopia University (coed since 1916), situates the origins of early university coeducation in China at the wider confluence of three critical factors: the agency of university leadership, a conceptualized conjunction between the private and the public spheres, and exposure to new liberal Western and Japanese women’s education and/or ideologies. I conclude by showing how the history of Utopia University allows us to understand better the indigenous historical, social and cultural context of China that facilitated women’s entry to the public sphere in modern China.

Date of Award	2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology