Congratulations to Associate Research Fellow Shiuon Chu, whose book Reinventing Examination and the State in Twentieth-Century China and Taiwan has been awarded the 2026 ISCHE First Book Award.

Time：2026/07/21

Department：Secretariat

Dr Shiuon Chu’s book, Reinventing Examination and the State in Twentieth-Century China and Taiwan (Harvard University Asia Center, 2025), has been awarded the 2026 First Book Award by the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE). ISCHE is an international academic association dedicated to the history of education; founded in 1978 as a standing conference and registered in the German register of associations under the same name since 2015, it brings together individual and institutional members from around the world. The award recognises a single-authored academic monograph by a historian of education that represents innovative and exemplary scholarship in the field of the history of education, broadly conceived.

Tracing the ideological evolution of civil service and state-organised educational examinations in twentieth-century China and Taiwan, Dr Chu argues that the authority of examination was by no means a natural inheritance from imperial China's long examination tradition, but was contingent on specific political manoeuvrings over the course of the twentieth century. The concept of examination as a basic power of government was institutionalised as the Examination Yuan in the 1930s and written into the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China, which remains in effect in Taiwan today, while two models of educational examination that emerged during the Second World War shaped policies on both sides of the 1949 divide. The award committee praised the book as a highly original contribution to the history of education, state formation, and modern governance, noting its skilful integration of institutional, intellectual, and political history, its impressive range of Chinese- and English-language sources, and its nuanced account of how examinations were used to construct legitimacy, define merit, and regulate social participation. In recognition of its originality, scholarly excellence, and profound contribution to understanding the dynamics of education and state power, ISCHE has honoured the book with this year's First Book Award.

For more information: https://www.ische.org/ecr/ische-first-book-award/