Re-reforming School System in Early Republican China: Re-inquiring the Promulgation of New School System 1922

When the Republic of China was established in 1912, the new Ministry of Education partially reformed the Gui-Mao school system in 1904. Borrowed from Japan, the Ch'ing's system had shown its problems in the subsequent years. Therefore, the National Federation of Education Associations had promoted a reforming proposal since 1921. After the subsequent conferences organized by the Ministry of Education and the National Federation, the New School System was promulgated by the President in 1922. This new system was primarily based on US 6-3-3 model. Using the historical method with first-hand sources, the aim of this article is to explore the ignored issues: how American education influenced this reform and how it was implemented. The main findings are as follows: two reasons for this reform were to address the disadvantages and problems of the old system, and to follow circles trends. While P. Monroe, a key figure, had a direct influence on the drafting, J. Dewey's impact was relatively limited. The significant contribution of Hsi-Tao Yuan and Yen-Pei Huang, leaders of the Kiangsu Education Association are often overlooked. Before it enacted, few provinces experimented with it. After it was promulgated, sixteen provinces and cities put it into practice. Finally, there were five strategic characteristics: bottom-up approach, diverse participation, democratic procedure, flexibility, and no wholesome duplication and transplantation.