Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2017

 

Some Thoughts on the Quantitative Study of Student Backgrounds in Republican Shanghai

(Abstract)

 

Liang Chen, Ren Yunzhu, Wang Yuqian and Li Zhongqing

 

As the most important window on to China’s early modernization, Republican Shanghai had not only a commercial economy and a diversity of cultures, but also the highest number of colleges and universities out of all Chinese provinces and cities. The many students reared in these institutions constituted an indispensable talent base for China’s modernization, so their group characteristics are crucial to understanding the social organization and structure of this era. Our quantitative analysis of background data on college students in university records assesses their place of origin, family background and the system they came from. Our findings show that they were relatively homogeneous in terms of family background and were geographically concentrated. Theoretically, these public and private colleges and universities were open to all of society across the country, but in fact their students tended to be from local families with cultural or financial advantages and to have come through local secondary schools with a myriad ties to these colleges and universities. Republican Shanghai throws a sidelight on the real situation of Republican higher education.