Date of Award

1982

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Program

Religious Education, PhD

First Advisor

Gary G. Land

Second Advisor

George H. Akers

Third Advisor

Douglas K. Brown

Abstract

After the Opium War, ending in 1842, western trade, religion, and education began entering China. Seventh-day Adventists entered China in 1888 but made few converts until they established schools.

China Training Institute was founded in 1910 by Dr. Harry W. Miller, who introduced a work-study program according to the Adventist philosophy of education advocated by Ellen White, a founder of the Church. When D. E. Rebok became president of the school in 1922, he further promoted this work-study program, moving the institution to a rural area at Chiao Tou Tseng in 1925. The Sino-Japanese Conflict in 1937-45 and the Civil War which followed forced the Institute to move several times. In 1951 it was taken over by the Communist government for an industrial training school.

With the fall of China to Communism Seventh-day Adventist in 1950 voted to establish atraining school in Taiwan. Opened in 1952, this institution also established a vocational program. In 1954 the school was upgraded to a junior college and in 1964 to a senior college. In 1972 the college moved to a rural location in Yu Chi county. Ninety-five percent of denominational workers in Taiwan are graduates of the college.

South China Union College developed from two mission schools in Canton which merged in 1922 to become the Sam Yuk Middle School, the name indicating work study program. The institution trained denominational workers for South China and provided students for ChinaTraining Institute. The Sino-Japanese War forced it to move to Hong Kong in 1937 where it established a permanent campus in 1939. The school became a junior college in 1953 and a senior college in 1969. Its work-study program declined after the 1950s because of social-economic change, management problems, and high technology demand.

Through these institutions Seventh-day Adventist, have implemented their philosophy of intellectual, vocational, and spiritual training within Chinese culture. But political changes in China affected these institutions causing them to move frequently, change their names, and combine campuses. There is now interest in orientalizing the western system of education.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventists--Education--China

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/534/

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