{"id":2387,"date":"2026-04-22T00:25:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/?p=2387"},"modified":"2026-05-18T17:41:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:41:47","slug":"may-14-the-transformation-of-higher-education-in-twentieth-century-china-oberlin-shansi-in-china-and-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/may-14-the-transformation-of-higher-education-in-twentieth-century-china-oberlin-shansi-in-china-and-taiwan\/","title":{"rendered":"MAY 14 &#8211; The Transformation of Higher Education in Twentieth-Century China: Oberlin Shansi in China and Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"firstp\">Please join the China Studies Program for a special colloquium with <strong>Yidi Wu,<\/strong>\u00a0O\u2019Briant Developing Professor and Associate Professor of History at Elon University.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thursday, May 14, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Noon &#8211; 1:30 PM<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"middlep\">Why do liberal arts colleges no longer exist in China today? The answer to this question lies in the Communist reform of\u00a0higher\u00a0education\u00a0in 1952. In\u00a0Chinese, this reform is characterized by an understated name: \u201creorganization of departments and colleges.\u201d What occurred was a fundamental shift from American-style liberal arts\u00a0education\u00a0to Soviet-style technocratic training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"middlep\">This talk provides a peek into the transformation through a case study of Oberlin College\u2019s connections in China and Taiwan. Professor Wu argues that while the reform of Chinese\u00a0universities reflected anti-US and pro-Soviet ideologies of the early 1950s, the transformation followed global patterns in high\u00a0education\u00a0that predated the regime change.<\/p>\n<p><em>Refreshments provided. Please register for this event.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please join the China Studies Program for a special colloquium with Yidi Wu,\u00a0O\u2019Briant Developing Professor and Associate Professor of History at Elon University. Thursday, May 14, 2026 Noon &#8211; 1:30 PM Why do liberal arts colleges no longer exist in China today? The answer to this question lies in the Communist reform of\u00a0higher\u00a0education\u00a0in 1952. In\u00a0Chinese,<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/may-14-the-transformation-of-higher-education-in-twentieth-century-china-oberlin-shansi-in-china-and-taiwan\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":2389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,9],"tags":[62,59,96,95],"class_list":["post-2387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china-colloquium","category-news","tag-china","tag-china-colloquium","tag-jsis","tag-uw-china","region-china","region-east-asia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MAY 14 - The Transformation of Higher Education in Twentieth-Century China: Oberlin Shansi in China and Taiwan - China Studies Program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/may-14-the-transformation-of-higher-education-in-twentieth-century-china-oberlin-shansi-in-china-and-taiwan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MAY 14 - The Transformation of Higher Education in Twentieth-Century China: Oberlin Shansi in China and Taiwan - China Studies Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Please join the China Studies Program for a special colloquium with Yidi Wu,\u00a0O\u2019Briant Developing Professor and Associate Professor of History at Elon University. Thursday, May 14, 2026 Noon &#8211; 1:30 PM Why do liberal arts colleges no longer exist in China today? The answer to this question lies in the Communist reform of\u00a0higher\u00a0education\u00a0in 1952. In\u00a0Chinese,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/may-14-the-transformation-of-higher-education-in-twentieth-century-china-oberlin-shansi-in-china-and-taiwan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Studies Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-22T00:25:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-18T17:41:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/Spotlight_WU.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"612\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"288\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ellen E. 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