China Revolutionized - John Stuart Thomson

The splendid military company of St. John’s University, Shanghai.

Shangtung University, at Wei, leading Presbyterian University. Located in Confucius’ province, and influential in the new intellectual China.

The largest foreign University in China, St. John’s American Episcopal, at Shanghai. Very influential in the New China.

The Shangtung Union University, now located at Wei, will probably be moved to Tsinan, the capital of the province in which Confucius and Mencius were born. It is a union of the American Presbyterian and the British Baptists, and later the Anglicans, the American Baptists, Congregationalists and Methodists will join. The total endowment of this effective university is only $35,000. There are five hundred students. There are collegiate, science, pedagogical, medical, Chinese, athletic and women’s departments. There is an attractive, towered, large main building, science hall, dormitories, museum and a unique observatory. The chief members of the faculty are the well-known Messrs. Bergen, Hayes, Bruce, Burt, Luce and Whitcher, and the college is able to draw upon the many foreign notables at Peking and Tientsin for popular lectures. China urgently needed advanced education. The individual missions, brilliant in parts, were in general endowed so poorly that they could not furnish it. Therefore they united all over China, and better results are being obtained in specialization by this intelligent method, which has established an example for the western world to follow. Subscriptions should as usual be sent to the mission favored by one’s early training or allegiance, and when they reach China they are applied in some needy department of the union work. In union, there is no lapping over or duplication, and the result is efficiency. When any member of the union lags, a united appeal is addressed to the home board. The high aim of this extensive University of Shangtung is to have an income of $150,000 a year. In all these universities the preparatory and pedagogical departments are not neglected. The need is urged of a large assembly hall, library, science hall, dormitories, scientific equipment, Y. M. C. A., etc., at Tsinan for this university, which stands where four great roads of influence meet and its opportunity is therefore inspiring. China, Britain, Germany and Japan come together closely in Shangtung province, and the university’s sphere is so wide a one that the present constricted income is insufficient. The students contribute nearly $2,000 in fees, though many students must necessarily be taught free. Shangtung University has always stood high for its special work in translating and printing important books into Mandarin Chinese. It is interesting that the students have developed choral work perhaps more than most of the colleges. China has neglected music in the recent centuries, but St. John’s, Nanking and Shangtung Universities are teaching it to her again.

The Pei Yang University, of Tientsin, is the leading engineering and technical institute of China. Its teachers are Americans, British and Germans. English is taught. It aims to be the Stevens Institute, or Boston Tech. of China. The Chinese board has been sometimes obstructive, depending on the intelligence of the directors. However, the school does wonderful and will do better work when affairs become settled in China. Its hope, as in every other institute, is in its graduates even more than in its professors, and certainly more than its native directors of the old type! It will soon have the fine German technical schools of Tsingtau to emulate. The Pei Yang University has sent out many notable graduates who have at once advanced to leadership in China. One is now vice-president of China.