Setting the Context: China Before 1895

This chapter aims to synthesise scattered works in both Chinese and English literature in order to provide an overview of the factors and forces that underlie China’s borrowing of vocational education from Japan. The chapter will first introduce the cultural setting and its impact on China’s modern society and vocational education. China’s political and economic crisis in the nineteenth century will then be explored, followed by an analysis of early reformers’ pursuit of technology in these particular contexts. Finally, an overview of early reformers’ efforts to develop vocational education is presented.