Book Description

This volume is a collection of historical essays, describing and analyzing the link between Christian mission and education in modern China, Japan, and Korea. The authors come from China, Japan, Korea, Canada, the United States of America, and the Netherlands. The twelve essays are a selection from the papers given at the Sixth International Conference of the North East Asia Council of Studies of History of Christianity (NEACSHC), held in Seoul in 2007. The nine appendices of the volume offer basic information on both the previous conferences of this council and its constitution. After three Western essays, mainly dealing with the impact of Western educational mission on Asia and the secularization of Christian higher education, the volume offers four essays on China, two essays on Japan, and three essays on Korea. These Asian contributions do not only deal with pre-World War Two developments, but also with current affairs: they discuss the moral superiority feelings in mission schools before the war, the link between Christian and nationalistic education during the war, and the new crises, new challenges, new relations, and new perspectives after the war. In modern Japan and Korea women play a key role. In modern China there is a move from 'cultural imperialism' to 'cultural exchange', which opens up entirely new horizons and prospects for Christian higher education.