ABSTRACT
The traditional Chinese scholar was clearly outmoded by the time of the Opium War, after which modern Western-style public universities took root in China in an attempt to modernize the country. In 1905 the traditional examinations were officially abolished. The nobility countered such progressiveness by subsidizing their own schools, which taught fashionable modern European languages and lessons in fencing, dancing, and etiquette. Russian students at both public universities and private schools, however, were soon also schooled in European liberalism and modern intellectual trends, and were given doses of European political history. The ancient Chinese educational system was geared to produce altruistic leaders who would strive to improve society, and the tradition would later combine with Western discourses romanticizing student leaders to play a key role in modern Chinese student resistance actions. The student revolutionaries were effective at leading an uprising in Vienna, and for a brief time they assumed power over the capital.
