From Dynasty World To Nation-state

During the 50 years' transformation of modern society since the late QingDynasty, China was facing an overall threat from nation disruption, ethnicdifferentiation and social separation. To safeguard national independence, an unifiednational ideology must be reconstructed and strengthened, promoting the society totransfer from the "dynastic world" to a "nation-state". And among various ways,which are able to integrate people and form unified national consciousness, nationaleducation indeed is one of the extremely important ones. Based on this, related ideasand policies on national education came to the forefront in minority areas since thelate Qing Dynasty . However, in the northwest border area, because of its immenseland with a sparse population, coupled with the coerce eastern and westernimperialism, as well as the endless chaos and wars within China, this area hasbecome the lifeline of the whole country. Therefore, the national education there hasbeen not only an educational issue, but the key factor to reconstruct Chinese nationas the unified national ideology and to maintain a cohesive, stable and sustainablesociety under national policies. For this reason, to look at and think about thecharacteristics of that time of education policies in modern China from theperspective of minority ethnic groups, has opened up a new way for doing a deeperresearch on the unity and integrity of Chinese nation during the transformation ofsociety, and at the same time, are able to widen the existing research field of nationaleducation policy.This thesis, mainly from three parts, analyses the national education policies tonorthwestern minority ethnic groups during the process of modern China's transfer toa new society.The first part recalls the social background of this area during the transferringprocess, by introducing issues from the situation of national unrest, the importance ofthe whole region of northwest to the necessity of national education, which makes apreparation for the profounder analysis of the whole thesis.The second part introduces the five stages of related policies in this region,namely, initial establishment, hesitation, improvement, irregular period, and resumption. Also does this part describes and analyses the formulation,implementation, results and characteristics of policies in every stage under theevolution of this national education.The third part has an assessment on the overall feature and the performance ofeducational policies in this area during the social transformation process.With theabove as base, this part then explains the enlightenment it has to the currentpolicy-making to the minority ethnic groups.In conclusion, during the social transformation in modern China, it has greathistorical significance that national education policy to the minority ethnic groups innorthwest China improves the overall quality of population there, enhances nationalunity and promotes national identity. But there still is much insufficient. The purposeof this thesis, therefore, is to summarize experiences and lessons, based on thecomprehensive study of the formulation and implementation of the nationaleducation policies and time characteristics, in response to the actual challenges ofeducation reform of minority ethnic groups in China's current social transition.