The Liberal Arts Curriculum in China's Former Christian Universities

Abstract

In the first half of the 20th century, the Christian universities in China founded by North American missionaries made a great contribution to China's higher education development and set models for other universities. These universities adapted the American liberal arts education into Chinese contexts with a completely different social and cultural tradition. The paper explores the concept and essence of liberal arts education as reflected in the curriculum of the Christian universities through a qualitative methodology employing archival document analysis. The study brings insights for today's trend towards reviving liberal arts education in China's elite universities as a way of countering the influence of utilitarianism and neo-liberalism in an era of economic globalization.