A Study On The Business Education In North China During The Republic Of China Period(1912--1937)

Business education is a kind of education form rising in modern times, whichcombines business and learning to cultivate a large number of specialized personnelwith modern business knowledge, and mastering the new business enterprisemanagement method. In China, the traditional business education is mainlyapprentice education, and apprenticeship, under the traditional economy passingdown for thousands of years, plays an important role in the history of humaneducation. Since the19th century, especially after the decades of Opium War,China’s economy has changed sharply, and invasions of the powers makes Chinafacing unprecedented national crisis. Along with the economic modernization, thedemand for new commercial talents are concerned. Modern commercial educationoriginated in the late Qing dynasty, when the Qing government introduced the NewDeal and carried on the preliminary design of the modern commercial educationsystem which took guimao educational system as the focus of education reform.Entering the Republic of China, capitalist economy further developed in North China,where the urban modernization process has been accelerated and successivegovernments enacted various laws and regulations, improved the system of businesseducation, and encouraged and guided on social business education actively. For amoment, the chamber of commerce, businessmen, government, churches, privatesectors, and many other forces in North China gathering together, actively promotedthe development of commercial education in North China. But due to a variety ofreasons such as the strife-torn social environment and the lack of funds, businesseducation in North China failed to be implemented and disseminated in all socialstrata. As the basic form of traditional business education with its strong vitality,apprentice education still existed in parallel along with modern commercial education.Taking the North China business education in the Republic of China as theresearch object, the paper investigated the new commercial education and itsdevelopment in North China area appeared in the new social situation. In the firstpart, the author first briefly reviews the previous business education before theRepublic of China, which can be divided into traditional commercial education,background of modern commercial education, and the preliminary establishment ofmodern commercial education. The second starts with aspect of the chamber ofcommerce, introduces chamber of commerce and businessmen and businessactivities, and evaluates on the business education running by the chamber ofcommerce. The third analyses the business education in the industrial educationsystem. From aspects of regular school education and social remediation education,through the case analysis carried out on part of the schools of business in NorthChina, the paper points out the characteristics and deficiency of the businesseducation under the industrial education system. The fourth mainly discusses higherbusiness education and business education in primary and secondary school in thegeneral education system, and emphasizes on the research of the higher businesseducation. The fifth part analyzes business schools built by foreign religion missionsand other groups in North China, and points out and their uniqueness. The sixth partis divided into three parts, one is the continuation of traditional commercialeducation in North China, the second is reflection on the business education of therepublic of China in North China, indicating irreplaceable role of business educationand its enlightenment in the process of Chinese modernization, and the third makes acomparison between North China and other parts of China, points out that due to theunbalanced development of regional economy, the scale and speed businesseducation development differs.Starting with the original archives and historical materials, applying regionalresearch and case study method, the paper takes a macro and refined analyze andstudy on business education in North China from landscape orientation tolongitudinal orientation. The author has striven to clearly outline the development history of business education in the North China from1912to1937, wishing toprovide some enlightenment for the development of contemporary businesseducation in China.