Professor Cong Xiaoping Wins Book Award
Posted: January 24, 2008

The Chinese Historians in the United States (CHUS) organization announced that Dr. Cong Xiaoping of the University of Houston History Department is the recipient of this year's Academix Excellence Award goes to Dr. Cong Xiaoping for her book, Teachers' Schools and the Making of the Modern Chiense Nation-State (University of British Columbia Press, 2007). The History Department congratulates her on this honor.

The board invited three outstanding scholars in the field of modern China to evaluate the nominees. Dr. Cong's selection was unanimous. The committee members wrote:

"In recent decades, nation-state building has been one of the scholarly foci in China field. Based upon solid original research, Cong's Teacher's Schools and the Making of the Modern Chinese Nation-State provides us a unique account of how teachers' schools played a crucial role in educational and social transformation in early twentieth century China. From change of women's status to rural reconstruction, from national salvation to Communist revolution, as Cong suggests, all relate to the educational reform effort and impact. From an innovative angle, this book furthers our understanding of the complex changes in the twentieth century China.

"Based on solid materials, including archives, newspapers, journals, personal records, and other documents, Cong Xiaoping has successfully restructured the development of modern Chinese teachers' schools and their social impact. By focusing on the unique nature of Chinese teachers' schools, this book discusses the transformation of both institutions and society when China experiences political turmoil in the early 20th century.

"In this book, Cong analyzes the role of teachers' schools and evaluates teachers as a social group and of their activities in both school and society. Cong reviews the imperial school system and educational reforms launched by the Qing court and analyzes the efforts made by Chinese educational reformers to modernize China's educational system. Cong also examines how the Nationalist government built up a network of various types of local teachers' schools across the nation and explores the sociopolitical consequences of the expansion of rural education when the economy was declining and nationalism was rising before the War of Resistance.

"The transformation of the educational system in modern China is an important topic, which has been studied extensively. Cong Xiaoping, in revisiting the subject from her particular angle, has made new contributions to the field."

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