Chinese Education between Tradition and Modernization: An Example of Chan Chi-bao

Chinese Education between Tradition and Modernization: An Example of Chan Chi-bao

Chee-kong LEE

Chan Chi-bao is a Cantonese educator who is unknown to most people. He was born on 11 March 1862 and died on 4 July 1922. At an early age, he received a traditional Chinese Confucian education and obtained a provincial graduate status (Chu-yan) in 1893. In 1898, Chan traveled to Japan to observe the local education system. In the following year, he returned to Macau and started his educational career.

In 1893, Chan took the same provincial graduate examination with Kang Yu-wei, and ranked higher than the latter. Noticing Kang's scholarship, he studied in Kang's school and became Kang's student. There he participated in Kang's “Kung-che shang-shu". After the Reform Movement of 1898 (Wu-hsu pien-fa), he escaped to Japan to study the local education system. Upon returning to Macau, he did not join the Emperor Protection Society (Pao-huang tang). Instead he supported the revolutionary movements of Sun Yat-sen. This reflected a change from reformatory to revolutionary in his ideology. The schools which he established in Macau focused on the education of children and women, ranging from kindergarten to primary levels. He wrote about fifty books for his students' use. He also set up the Education Society in 1900. Chan was the first Chinese to advocate the Plain Language Movement and equality between the sexes. For these he was called a “Teacher of Women and Children. "

In 1889, Chan believed in Jesus and was baptized in Tao Chai Church in Hong Kong. He moved to Hong Kong in 1918 and established two schools at Caine Road and Bonham Road respectively. He participated actively at church. He spoke at the charity school of Hong Kong Christian Mutual Improvement Society and wrote essays witnessing the teachings of Jesus. His works focused mainly on the establishment of primary schools. Thus he fulfilled his educational ideology of promoting popular education and to serve God in his career.