Faculty Introduction for “Modernization in Late Qing: Never a Success?”

Yukun Jiang’s essay “Modernization in Late Qing: Never a Success?” was written for my Fall 2018 Perspectives on the Humanities course. By re-evaluating a much-maligned institution—the education system of the Late Qing era—Yukun articulates a surprising and counter-intuitive argument. I have to admit I was slightly taken aback when Yukun told me he was undertaking such an ambitious project for his final paper. But through thorough research and careful writing, Yukun crafts a compelling case for the gradualist, hybrid approach of some Late Qing educational and scientific reformers. The essay shows equal adeptness at engaging with scholarly interpretations and analyzing primary sources, which range from nineteenth-century texts to Yukun’s high school textbook. Using carefully structured paragraphs, the essay discusses Late Qing scientific education in light of recent scholarship about the global circulation of scientific knowledge. Ultimately, Yukun’s essay invites us to re-examine not just a specific period in China’s past, but also the very notion of scientific “modernity.”

Read “Modernization in Late Qing: Never a Success?” here.

Joseph Giacomelli, Lecturer in the Writing Program