Journal of East China Normal University(Educationa ›› 2016, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (2): 104-110.doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2016.02.014

• History of Chinese and foreign education (中外教育史) • Previous Articles    

A Historical Study of Achievement Exhibitions of Vocational Schools in China (1918-1944)

WANG Jiang-Tao,YU Qi-Ding   

  1. Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875
  • Online:2016-05-20 Published:2016-07-05
  • Contact: WANG Jiang-Tao,YU Qi-Ding
  • About author:WANG Jiang-Tao,YU Qi-Ding

Abstract: Similar to the industrial education implemented in the late Qing Dynasty, the vocational education emerging in the Republic of China aimed to cultivate techinical talents in the field of agriculture, industry and commerce. However, with the long-term profound impact of the imperial education, the vocational education was not widely accepted. Therefore, vocational schools used to hold exhibitions which originated from World Expo to display the achievements of skill development, trying to attract social attention and change people’s views of vocational education. As early as 1851 when the first World Expo was held, educational achievements were part of the exhibits, and since then educational achievement exhibition has expanded worldwide. Influenced by international expositions, more and more domestic educational exhibitions were held, which also involved industrial education achievements. During the early twentieth century, it was an educational association named ZHONGHUA Vocational Education Association rather than the government that promoted vocational education achievement exhibition in China. The Association aimed to promote and improve vocational education. In 1918, the Association set up ZHONGHUA Vocational School, delivering experimental vocational education. The school sought to promote practical skills education and organized the vocational schools all over the country to participate in achievement exhibitions, thus contributing to the development of vocational education in China. From 1918 to the end of the Anti-Japanese War, ZHONGHUA Vocational Education Association and ZHONGHUA Vocational School managed to expand the impact of the exhibitions both at the local and national level. The historical process can be divided into five stages: exploration, rising, maintenance, climax and recession. Initiated by ZHONGHUA Vocational Education Association, the achievement exhibition of vocational education focused on the developed region of eastern China (exploration period, 1918-1921). Following that, three consecutive national exhibitions were held in the city of Shanghai, Peking and Wuhan, expanding its impact to the whole country (rising period, 1922—1924). Because of the warlords involved in the civil war and the Japanese invasion in 1931, the exhibition was greatly affected and forced to retreat to local areas again, mainly in the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai (maintenance period, 1925—1933). Driven by the movement, the Nanjing National Government became so interested in vocational education that it sponsored an exhibition of school students' achievements in handiwork courses, which meant that the organization of such exhibitions changed from nongovernment level to government level (climax period, 1934—1937). Soon exhibitions were suspended again due to the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War and practically disappeared (recession period, 1938—1944). The exhibitions built a bridge between vocational schools and the community, strengthening the public propaganda, mass education and social identity. It also had a positive historical impact on the rapid development of modern vocational education in China.