| This is a study of political change in the People's Republic of China (PRC) from the frame of reference of revolutionary higher education in China. The political turbulence of modern China is viewed through the "window" of Beijing University where the author served as a faculty member in its international politics department between 1973 and 1979.;Political struggles, and hence conflicts in educational philosophy, in the PRC are analyzed in terms of a fundamental conflict between two kinds of equality--arithmetical equality and proportional equality--two modes of human consciousness evolved and traced here, through the history of political philosophy, from Plato to Marx. Modern liberal (Western) society gives priority to arithmetical or numerical equality (viz., "one man, one vote"), whereas socialist (Marxist) society gives priority to proportional equality or value equivalency (viz., "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs").;Higher education in the PRC since 1949 has been marked by the dominance of one or the other kind of equality at different times as the political struggles and movements unfolded. These developments represent a major thrust of this study, particularly as they have been reflected in higher education where adherence to arithmetical equality has been manifested by achievement-oriented criteria, curricula, teaching and learning, while dominance of proportional equality has been manifested by Mao-dominated ideological, revolutionary criteria, curricula, teaching, and learning.;In the post-Mao era, the leadership of Deng Xiaoping has wrought a return to the academic model with its rewards for academic achievement commensurate with, and supportive of, national goals of economic development. The influence of proportional equality and the revolutionary model, however, has not been completely abandoned; rather a compatibility of sorts of the two educational models and of the two kinds of equality is sought. A communist, classless, society remains China's revolutionary goal, but it is to be realized in major part through the dominance of achievement-oriented higher education with the emphasis on academic learning, the competitive entrance examination systems, a reward system and a relative degree of academic freedom and autonomy--all features that are critically analyzed in this study. |
