Tianjin Nankai High School

Tianjin Nankai High School

Coordinates: 39°07′50″N 117°09′53″E / 39.13056°N 117.16472°E / 39.13056; 117.16472

Tianjin Nankai High School
天津南开中学
Location
Nankai District
Tianjin, China China
Coordinates Coordinates: 39°07′50″N 117°09′53″E / 39.13056°N 117.16472°E / 39.13056; 117.16472
Information
Type Public
Motto 允公允能,日新月异
Established 1904
Website
Nankai High School, Tianjin

Tianjin Nankai High School (simplified Chinese: 天津南开中学; traditional Chinese: 天津南開中學; pinyin: Tiānjīn Nánkāi Zhōngxúe) is an elite college-preparatory high school in Tianjin, China. This is the original Nankai High School, and it is often referred to as Nankai High School in Tianjin to differentiate it from Chongqing Nankai Middle School, its sister school in Chongqing. Nankai is notable as one of the first modern secondary schools in China, and boasts several of the most notable men in modern Chinese history as its alumni.

Contents

History

Nankai High School was founded in 1904 by Yan Xiu (also known as Yan Fansun). Nankai was originally a private school, featuring a western-style college-preparatory curricula instead of a traditional Confucian curriculum. It was the first school in the Nankai Family of Schools. This system would latter be expanded to include Nankai University in 1919. Nankai University would become one of China's most prestigious universities.[1]

Establishment

Before his work at Nankai, Yan Xiu was an intellectual with a strong understanding of traditional Chinese culture who had held positions at the prestigious Hanlin Academy earlier in his career, and in both China's provincial and central governments. The difficulties that confronted China in the late nineteenth century led Yan to become interested in Western and Japanese models of education, to which he attributed the contemporary strength of the West and Japan. Yan's experiences working within the Chinese bureaucracy led him to believe that only the most progressive reforms could save China from further decline.[2]

Yan Xiu belonged to a group of reform-minded intellectuals who, in 1905, presented a memorial that suggested abolishing the traditional examination system, focused on knowledge of the Confucian classics, to a system of education focused on practical knowledge. Yan's memorial was well-received by the Qing government, which was by then interested in reform as a way to preventing the dynasty from destruction. After he had received a mandate for reform, Yan took part in a large-scale educational reform aimed at modernizing the educational institutions throughout China. After the Qing dynasty was abolished in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, Yan was offered several high-level government positions, but refused them all in preference to devoting his time and energy to the establishment of Nankai.[2]

After 1911 Yan Xiu appointed Zhang Boling as Nankai's principle. Zhang had been a well-known advocate for reform and moral renewal during the Qing. By the time of his appointment, Zhang had already gained a reputation as a progressive modernist, advocating the inclusion of Western sciences and physical exercise into the Chinese curriculum. After his appointment as Nankai's principle, Zhang gained a reputation for pioneering educational methods that would be widely emulated throughout China within his lifetime.[2]

During the Second Sino-Japanese War

By 1936, war between China and Japan seemed inevitable. The city of Tianjin was located near the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and was vulnerable to a Japanese attack in the event of war. In anticipation of this war, the administration of the Nankai Schools established another high school in Chongqing, far to the southwest in the interior of China. This school would become known as Nankai High School in Chongqing.[1]

When the War of Resistance against Japan began in September 1937, all of the faculty and students at Nankai High School were evacuated to the sister school in Chongqing, where the school would remain for the duration of the war. Nankai University and other Chinese universities were also evacuated to the city of Changsha and latter Kunming. After the war ended in 1945, Nankai High School was relocated back to its original campus in Tianjin. However, the Nankai High School in Chongqing remained in operation and still exists to this day.[1]

Education

After 1911

After his appointment as principle, Zhang Bolin implemented a synthesis of Japanese and American methods that were grounded in traditional Chinese concepts of self-cultivation. Zhang devised Nankai's curriculum in the attempt to produce students who could overcome the five illnesses that Zhang believed afflicted China in his time: illness; ignorance; weakness; poverty; disunity; and selfishness. Zhang believed that only an education that combined physical education, group activities, scientific education, and moral cultivation could possibly produce leaders who would later contribute to rebuilding China. Zhang created a school motto composed of the characters gong (public spirit) and neng (ability), expressing his hope that his students would develop into leaders with a spirit of integrity, dedication, and civic responsibility who would also have the practical abilities necessary to confront China's difficulties.[3]

Nankai was a boarding school with strict schedules, discipline, and moral codes, and promoted a strict daily schedule of student activities, similar to contemporary British schools. Zhang placed great importance on physical activity, and worked hard to break down traditional Chinese attitudes of contempt for physical exercise and manual labour. Zhang considered himself as both a teacher and a role model to his students, attempting to personally instruct them in basic principles of hygiene, eating with students, and participating in their exercises. Zhang's close association with his students was unusual in China (and elsewhere), but contributed to the admiration that most of his students reportedly felt for him throughout their lives.[4]

Today

Today, Nankai High School is a public school best known for its success in preparing students for the National College Entrance Examination 高考 (Gāokǎo). The graduates of the school are typically admitted to the best universities in China and around the world. Its college-preparatory curricula covers a wide range of subjects in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The school also encourages its students to take part in various academic extracurricular activities, including the International Science Olympiad. Between 1998 and 2005, four Nankai students became IPhO gold medal winners. Nankai students also received gold medals in IMO, IChO, IBO, and IOI.[1]

Admission to Nankai High School is usually selective and is based on an applicant's primary school grades and performance on an entrance exam. In 2005, 4,000 students were admitted to Nankai.[1] The school is supported by 300 faculty and staff. The current school principal is Yang Jingwu.

In the early 2000s the school set up a twinning with a School in the United Kingdom, Manningtree Highschool. Both the Chinese School and the English School have been on exchange visits most recently in 2008 where Nankai hosted Manningtree during the Beijing Olympics

Famous alumni

Zhou Enlai

The most famous graduate of Nankai High School was Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People's Republic of China. Zhou's skill in literature and composition won him several awards and scholarships, and caught the attention of Yan Xiu. Yan once proposed that Zhou marry his daughter, but Zhou declined. Zhou later explained (to a classmate, Zhang Honghao) that his decision not to marry Yan's daughter was due to fears that Zhou could not financially support a family, and that Yan, as his father-in-law, would dominate Zhou's future.[4]

Zhou's accomplishments and personal qualities led him to be selected as the speaker at his graduating class, in June 1917. Zhou's experience at Nankai has been cited as a foundation of Zhou's emotional resilience and intellectual growth. Zhang's teachings of gong and neng had been so deeply ingrained in Zhou that he left the school with a great desire to pursue public service, and to acquire the skills necessary to do so. Zhou's participation in debates and stage performances at Nankai contributed to the eloquence and persuasiveness that Zhou would later display throughout his political career.[5]

Others

Several other national leaders were also graduates from the school, including another Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, several university presidents, and more than sixty academicians. Since 2001, six recipients of the annual Top National Scientist Award were Nankai High School graduates, including Liu Dongsheng (2003) and Ye Duzheng (2005). Famous Nankai alumni include:

In addition to its alumni, several famous writers were once members of the faculty at Nankai High School, including:

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e "Introduction" Nankai Middle School
  2. ^ a b c Barnoun and Yu 15
  3. ^ Barnoun and Yu 15-16
  4. ^ a b Barnoun and Yu 16
  5. ^ Barnoun and Yu 18

References

See also

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Chongqing Nankai Secondary School — (simplified Chinese: 重庆南开中学; traditional Chinese: 重慶南開中學; pinyin: Chóngqìng Nánkāi Zhōngxúe) is one of the best secondary schools in Chongqing, China. It is located in Chenjiawan, Shapingba District. Chongqing Nankai Secondary School 重庆南开中学… …   Wikipedia

  • Chongqing Nankai Middle School — (zh stp|s=重庆南开中学|t=重慶南開中學|p=Chóngqìng Nánkāi Zhōngxúe) is one of the best secondary schools in Chongqing, China. It is located in the Chenjiawan are of Shapingba district.Infobox School name = Chongqing Nankai Middle School native name = 重庆南开中学… …   Wikipedia

  • Yaohua High School — (Traditional Chinese: 耀華中學; Simplified Chinese: 耀华中学; pinyin: yào huá zhōng xué) is a key school directly under the Tianjin Municipal Committee of Education, in the People s Republic of China. Introduction The school is located on 106, Nanjing… …   Wikipedia

  • Nankai — For other uses, see Nankai (disambiguation). Nankai (Chinese: 南开; pinyin: Nánkāi) is a famous family of schools in China founded by Zhang Boling (张伯苓) (1876–1951) and Yan Fansun (严范孙) (1860–1920). The schools include: Nankai High School in… …   Wikipedia

  • Tianjin — 天津   Municipality   Municipality of Tianjin • 天津市 …   Wikipedia

  • Nankai University — Coordinates: 39°06′04″N 117°09′53″E / 39.10111°N 117.16472°E / 39.10111; 117.16472 …   Wikipedia

  • Chang Tao-fan — Born 12 July 1897 Guizhou …   Wikipedia

  • Duanmu Hongliang — This is a Chinese name; the family name is Cao. Duanmu Hongliang Born Cao Jingping 25 September 1912(1912 09 25) Died 5 October 1996(1996 10 05) (aged 84) Alm …   Wikipedia

  • Chien Shih-Liang — aka S. L. Chien (Traditional Chinese: 錢思亮) 1908 1983, was a notable Chinese chemist and educator. Biography Chien was from Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Chien graduated from the prestigious Tianjin Nankai High School. Chien matriculated at Tsinghua… …   Wikipedia

  • Zhang Boling — (traditional Chinese: 張伯苓; simplified Chinese: 张伯苓; pinyin: Zhāng Bólíng; Wade–Giles: Chang Po ling) (April 5, 1876 in Tianjin – February 23, 1951 in Tianjin) was the founder of Nankai University and the Nankai system of schools. Biography Zhang… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”