Local Evolutlion And Dilemma Of Political Modernity In The First Half Of The Twentieth Century

The dissertation focuses on Wenzhou students in the first half of the twentieth century,aiming at exploring their self-cognition,role pursuing and action practice,furthermore revealing its inseparable relations to the local evolution of political modernity.The abolition of imperial examination and establishment of new education system in the early twentieth century pushed forward the transition and transformation of local scholars in Wenzhou.The transformation process between the new and the old,the young and the elder,was accomplished by means of educational changes and the New Culture Movement,which shaped a new political and cultural framework in local society.Local secondary education elaborated progressively and the number of students increased continuously,given by the fact that the schooling reform conducted in the 1920s.A new"status group" was generated by the articulation of their role definitions in the texts and courses by virtue of widespread applications of new media and sprouting up of students'journals,in combination with the collective political practice exemplified by the student activism and campus unrest.Whereas,there was external disciplining of the government and political parties aside from the internal role shaping.During the Anti-Japanese War,Wenzhou students inspired by the nationalism devoted themselves to patriotic actions illustrated by joining the army to serve the country and propagating anti-war activities via various art forms.However,there were heroic sacrifice and retraction resulted from fear of enemy,as well as separate choices between those political parties,all of which more veritably presented the complicated students' political activism.After the war,local educational circles made an attempt to reestablish and rejuvenate the autonomy of education in the disordered society,while usually nothing could be done in the face of students' movement caused by intricate factors such as the increasing discontent with the government and manipulation of political parties.Nevertheless,students' movement could not be regarded as an absolute partisan opposition,because they covered multiple problems of national,local and campus,and what's more,sometimes it originated from the preservation of self-interest,and showed the disappointment to the government.The pursuing and fulfillment of political modernity of Wenzhou students in the first half of the twentieth century,illustrated their political participation passion and nationalism emotion.However,they could not give deeper theoretical thinking and make wider practical impacts in their adolescence,which perhaps was the dilemma of political modernity evolution.