348 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SOME PHASES OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS IN 



CHINA. 



By WALTER NGON FONG, 



PRESIDENT OF LI SHING COLLEGE IN HONG KONG; FIRST CHINESE GRADUATE OF 



STANFORD UNIVERSITY. 



|~N dealing with any part of the educational problem, it is necessary 

 -*- for us first to define our field. In this paper we shall consider 

 the subject from the standpoint of one endeavoring to introduce 

 ' western ' learning among the Chinese. The fact that the Chinese do 

 want to adopt western ideas and learning does not facilitate the task 

 of regenerating the Chinese mind to as great a degree as the casual 

 observer might suppose. While the present conditions are, of course, 

 much more favorable for the introduction of new things into the 

 Chinese life than they were a few years ago, still innumerable obstacles 

 and difficulties remain in the path of one who wishes to be of some 

 real assistance to the ' Coming New China.' 



The ignorance of the students' parents and relatives or guardians 

 is one of the most formidable enemies of modern education in southern 

 China. As soon as the student reaches the age of sixteen or seven- 

 teen his parents get him a wife. We might think that a student who 

 can get a wife without bothering his head over the affair has the ad- 

 vantage of saving the time which would be spent by a European or an 

 American in courting. Still, to assume the responsibilities of mar- 

 ried life at the age when he is just able to begin higher studies will 

 prove an almost insurmountable barrier to the advance of the average 

 student. Perhaps he is furnished with enough money to go to school, 

 yet his wife must have some ' pin money,' and as she does not like to 

 ask her father-in-law for every cent she needs, she soon begins to make 

 demands upon her husband's slender purse. 



As the Chinese ' gentleman youth ' is not trained to do anything, 

 he can not earn any money by doing ' odd jobs ' while in school. 

 Therefore, he embraces the first opportunity to obtain a position of 

 some sort and leaves school. His school career is now ended forever 

 and his desire for higher learning gradually becomes extinguished. 



Very few Chinese realize that a useful education must be thorough 

 and that to obtain a thorough education requires time. While they 

 are willing to permit their boys to be crammed with obsolete classics 

 for fifteen or twenty years with the hope of becoming Mandarins, yet 

 they are not willing to let them study six or eight years in a modern 



