ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of Chinese economics education, from 1978 to 2000. During the Cultural Revolution, higher education was among the most severely affected sectors. Intellectuals were harassed, Chinese universities closed for extended periods of time, and research basically suspended in the social sciences. Neoclassical histories of Chinese economic thought and education characterize the subsequent economic reforms and reorganization of university economics curriculums as a triumph of reason over ideology. The initial reshaping of Chinese economics education was very much a top down affair. Deng Xiaoping, Zhao Ziyang, Zhu Rongji, and Jiang Zemin all welcomed the return of Western economics to China, especially Zhao. Qian Yingyi and Wu Jinglian, two leading Western oriented economists in China, argue that by the early 1990s Western economics had replaced Soviet-style economics and greased the wheels for a transition to a market economy. The doctoral programs "intellectually socialized" Chinese students and initiated them into the neoclassical scientific community.
