Research On Yantai's Church Education In Modern Times (1861-1949)

After the Opium War, thousands of missionaries, influenced by The Evangelical Revival, came to China. With the aid of unequal treaties, these missionaries established many churches in the coastal treaty ports as their preaching bases. Yantai, as one of the earliest treaty ports, has a superior geographical position and climatic environment, which made Yantai attract more missionaries scattering in a wide range. Owning to the difficulties in preaching, these missionaries turned to education to promote the preaching situation, thus they established various church schools to admit Chinese students. And this is also a good opportunity for them to propagate the culture of Christianity. In fact, the development of this kind of church education objectively promoted the process of Yantai's modernization, accelerated the cultural exchange between China and the West and cultivated qualified people for the society.This paper mainly focuses on depicting the education activities of missionaries in Yantai. Basing on the collection of massive historical materials, the author analyzes church education's background, development and features at different historical stages from 1861 to 1949 and its effects on the process of Yantai's modern education. Then it is a comprehensive comment on its influences to Yantai as well as the whole China.In 1861, Yantai became a treaty port. Since then, 17 countries have set up their consulates in succession, followed by the coming of a large number of missionaries. Schools were set up by Christian and Catholic churches, of which the Christian church is in the majority. Especially the North Presbyterian Church made the greatest contribution to the development of Yantai's modern school, such as Wenhui Guan, Yiwen School, Qi'an school and so on. Until the 1830s, Yantai already had had more than 20 schools including kindergartens, primary schools, junior high schools, senior high schools, vocational schools and so on. All these schools were well equipped and in large scale with numerous students.From the mid-19th century to 1949, the church education experienced 4 stages: the start and early development period (from the mid-19th century to 1900), the completing period (1900-1921), the reform period (1921-1937) and the declining and termination period (1937-1949). These church schools contribute greatly to liberate people's mind, spread scientific and technological culture and transform the educational pattern of traditional China, thus it promoted the process of Yantai's modernization. However these missionaries came to China mainly for the purpose of spreading Christianity in order to transform Chinese culture and society. These schools were only used as a tool for their cultural invasion, which was responsible for its limitation. In short, the destiny of church schools changed with Yantai's situation, making itself an essential part of the modern education in Yantai.Church schools have the function of both preaching and teaching from its first beginning and hence a systematic and scientific research is needed. These schools affected Yantai's economy, technology and people's life in many aspects. It also brought modern western technology to China, which challenged Chinese culture and inspired Chinese people's consciousness of reforming. And this in return promoted Yantai's modernization. The church school in Yantai is, to some extent, a representative of the whole research of church education. Therefore, it serves as an important complement and illustration to the research of the church education in Yantai and modern Chinese education as a whole. Also it plays a certain role in researching the history of church education in China.