ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the contribution made to Chinese higher education by two distinguished Catholic thinkers during that period of political and economic turmoil that saw the collapse of the Qing dynasty and China's first steps toward establishing a modern political state. Zhendan was to become a Catholic University more French in style than Chinese, and Fudan. Fu Jen's history as a Chinese Catholic university of some distinction deserves more than the cursory assessment offered here. A student began by building a solid foundation in classical Chinese and Latin; he then moved on to the study of modern Chinese and western literature, finishing off with studies in philosophy, mathematics and the natural sciences. During that period of hope and chaos which followed in the wake of the revolution's sudden success, both men continued to maintain that the best prospect for the fulfillment of republican ambitions for a new society lay in the reform of China's educational structures.
