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Reinventing Examination and the State in Twentieth-Century China and Taiwan
Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs
Brief Description
After the abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905, what made examinations a trusted method of selection in China and Taiwan? Reinventing Examination and the State traces the ideological evolution of civil service and state-organized educational examinations in twentieth-century China and Taiwan. In the making...
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Reinventing Examination and the State in Twentieth-Century China an...
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Reinventing Examination and the State traces the ideological evolution of civil service and state-organized educational examinations in the twentieth-century China and Taiwan, showing how modern examination shaped new concepts of individual responsibility and contributed to the resilience of the state.
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Description
After the abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905, what made examinations a trusted method of selection in China and Taiwan?
Reinventing Examination and the State traces the ideological evolution of civil service and state-organized educational examinations in twentieth-century China and Taiwan. In the making of the modern Chinese civil service, the concept of examination as a basic power of government was institutionalized as the Examination Yuan in the 1930s and was written into the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China, which remains in effect in Taiwan today.
Meanwhile, two models of educational examination, one of gatekeeping school graduates and the other of mobilizing human resources, emerged during WWII and constituted a repertoire of educational policies shared by the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China after the 1949 divide.
The authority of examination, Shiuon Chu argues, was by no means a natural development from the long history of imperial China but was in fact contingent on specific political manoeuvrings over the course of the twentieth century. Unlike the imperial examinations, which heavily rewarded participants with titles and fame, modern examinations shaped new concepts about the responsibility of the individual vis-à-vis the state, and this shift contributed to the resilience of the state during times of significant political and social change.
Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780674302570
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 30 December 2025
Country: United States
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Illustration: 7 photos, 1 color photo, 3 tables
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 152.0mm
Height: 229.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 300
About the Author
Shiuon Chu is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
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